Long Words Privacy Policy

1. Summary

Long Words is designed to collect as little personal information as practical while still supporting multiplayer games, chat, subscriptions, safety tools, and optional advertising.

You can play some parts of Long Words without signing in, including local games against Biblio, local Pass & Play games, and Daily Riddles. Human multiplayer games, friends, invite links, persistent human chat, reports, blocks, synced stats, and some account features require Sign in with Apple and a Long Words backend account.

Long Words does not sell personal information. Long Words does not knowingly show personalized ads to users under 13. Long Words currently shows occasional Google AdMob interstitial ads only to free users whose declared age range is 13 or higher and whose ad-consent status allows ad requests. Long Words uses Google User Messaging Platform to handle regional advertising consent where required. Advertising partners may process certain device, usage, consent, and advertising data as described below.

2. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Long Words may collect:

• Username
• Avatar selection
• Sign in with Apple account identifier
• Human game chat messages
• Biblio messages stored in human games
• Friend requests and friend relationships
• Game invites and invite-link activity
• Reports, blocks, moderation notes, and safety-related details
• Support or feedback messages you choose to send
• Game stats and Daily Riddle progress when you are signed in
• Free daily Biblio game count, paid entitlement status, and related limit-tracking information
• First-party analytics events for signed-in, age-eligible users, such as paywall views, plan selections, subscription-flow events, ad or house-ad impressions, and riddle start/finish events
• Ad consent status and privacy choices where required for advertising

If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple may provide Long Words with a stable account identifier. Depending on your Apple settings, Apple may also provide an email relay address. Long Words does not require your real name.

Gameplay Information

Long Words may collect gameplay content for backend human games, including:

• Game board state
• Tile racks and turns
• Scores
• Move history
• Game status, such as active, completed, resigned, canceled, or timed out
• Rematch, invite, and friend-related state
• Daily Biblio game counts and limit state used to apply free and paid feature limits
• Remote configuration values used to tune app behavior, such as ad cadence, free daily Biblio game starts, free active human game limits, and the chance that Biblio comments after a turn in a human game

Local games against Biblio and local Daily Riddles are stored primarily on your device. If you sign in, aggregate stats and Daily Riddle progress may sync to your account. Long Words may also store or process daily Biblio game counts and subscription entitlement status to enforce free daily play limits and paid access.

Long Words may fetch server-side configuration values to adjust gameplay limits, ad cadence, and similar app behavior without an app update. These configuration values are not personal information by themselves, but they may affect how often certain features, limits, ads, or Biblio messages appear for eligible users.

First-Party Analytics

Long Words may collect limited first-party analytics to understand whether subscriptions, ads, riddles, and related app flows are working properly. These analytics are sent only for signed-in users whose age range allows backend human/social features. Long Words does not send these backend analytics for signed-out, under-13, declined-age, unavailable-age, or limited-mode users.

Analytics events may be queued on your device and sent to Long Words in small batches. Event details are intended to be coarse, such as paywall source, selected plan or product ID, subscription flow result, ad or house-ad impression, game mode, riddle answer length, guess count, hint count, app version, and build number. Long Words does not use these first-party analytics to collect exact location, contacts, photos, microphone data, or unrelated activity outside the app.

Chat and User-Generated Content

Human game chat is stored so both players can see the conversation. Chat messages may be filtered for profanity and reviewed if reported.

Biblio may also add messages in human games. Those Biblio messages are stored with the game chat so both players can see the same conversation.

Age Range Information

Long Words uses age range checks to help keep human chat, social features, generated chat, and advertising age-appropriate.

On supported iOS versions, Long Words uses Apple's declared age range system. On older iOS versions, Long Words may ask you to choose a coarse age range in the app. Long Words does not ask for your exact birthdate.

Users under 13, users who decline age sharing, or users whose age range is unavailable may be placed in limited mode. Limited mode allows safer local features, such as Daily Riddles, local Pass & Play, and offline Biblio games, while blocking human games, human chat, friends, invite links, push notifications, and generated Biblio chat.

Purchase and Subscription Information

Long Words may offer in-app purchases or subscriptions, such as a paid version with no ads, unlimited Biblio game starts, unlimited active human games, past riddles, or extra stats.

Purchases are processed by Apple through the App Store. Long Words does not receive your credit card number, bank account, or full billing details. Long Words may receive or process StoreKit transaction information needed to unlock paid features, verify entitlement, restore purchases, prevent fraud, and provide support. This may include product ID, transaction ID, purchase date, expiration date, renewal status, and subscription entitlement status.

Advertising and Ad-Related Information

Long Words may show ads to free users. Long Words currently uses Google AdMob to show occasional interstitial ads only to users whose declared age range is 13 or higher and whose consent state allows ad requests. Long Words may also use other third-party ad partners such as AppLovin, Unity/LevelPlay, or similar advertising or mediation providers in the future.

Long Words uses Google User Messaging Platform to request and store advertising consent choices where required, including for users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. When required by your consent status, Long Words provides a Privacy Choices option in Settings so you can review or update those choices.

Depending on your settings, age range, region, and the ad provider used, ad partners may collect or receive:

• Device identifiers
• Advertising identifier, if permitted by iOS and App Tracking Transparency
• IP address
• Approximate location inferred from IP address
• App interactions
• Ad views, clicks, and performance data
• Device type, operating system, language, and general technical information
• Consent status and privacy preferences

Long Words does not currently request App Tracking Transparency permission or intentionally use the iOS advertising identifier for cross-app tracking. If Long Words enables tracking or IDFA-personalized advertising in the future, it will request any required Apple permission and update this policy before doing so.

Long Words does not knowingly show personalized ads to users under 13. For under-13, declined, unavailable-age, or limited-mode users, Long Words disables third-party ads.

Device and Technical Information

Long Words may collect technical information needed to operate the app, including:

• Push notification device token
• App version
• Bundle identifier
• Backend user ID
• Device notification environment, such as sandbox or production
• Basic server logs, which may include IP address, request time, request path, and error information
• Crash or diagnostic information provided by Apple or app infrastructure

3. How We Use Information

Long Words uses information to:

• Create and maintain your account
• Provide human multiplayer games
• Save and restore game state
• Deliver chat messages
• Send invite and turn notifications
• Display friends, invites, blocks, and reports
• Enforce safety rules and moderation decisions
• Filter profanity and harmful content
• Prevent spam, abuse, and excessive use
• Provide support
• Maintain app security and reliability
• Sync stats and Daily Riddle progress
• Unlock paid subscription features
• Restore purchases
• Enforce remotely configurable free limits for Biblio game starts, active human games, and paid access
• Show ads to free users
• Measure ad performance, consent status, subscription status, paywall conversion, and Daily Riddle engagement
• Tune remotely configurable app behavior, such as ad cadence, free limits, and Biblio human-game comment frequency
• Improve gameplay and troubleshoot bugs

4. Profanity Filtering and Moderation

Long Words filters profanity in chat and usernames. Filtering may happen locally in the app and on the backend.

Long Words may use a third-party profanity detection service to score and filter messages. Severe blocked terms may also be checked locally or on the backend using hashed matching. Reported messages, reported users, and related game/chat context may be stored for moderation review.

If a user violates community standards, Long Words may mute, block, suspend, or ban that user from human games, chat, friends, invites, or other social features.

5. Definitions and Dictionary Lookups

Long Words may use a dictionary API to show definitions when you request word information. When this happens, the word you requested may be sent to the dictionary provider. Long Words does not intentionally send your username, account ID, or game ID for dictionary lookups.

6. AI and Biblio Chat

Biblio may generate playful chat messages. When available and permitted by age settings, Long Words may use Apple on-device intelligence or Foundation Models for Biblio's generated chat. On-device generated chat is intended to run locally on your device.

If Biblio messages are created in a human game, those messages may be stored in the backend chat thread so both players can see them. If generated chat is unavailable, disabled, age-restricted, or fails, Long Words may use local templated fallback messages.

7. Push Notifications and Badges

If you allow notifications, Long Words uses Apple Push Notification service to send human game invites, turn reminders, and related game updates.

Long Words stores your push notification token so notifications can be delivered. The app icon badge may show the number of backend human games where it is your turn. When the app opens or returns to the foreground and receives a fresh game list, Long Words may update or clear the badge.

You can manage notification permissions in iOS Settings.

8. When We Share Information

Long Words may share information with service providers that help operate the app, including:

• Supabase, for authentication, backend database, Edge Functions, chat, invites, friends, reports, blocks, stats, and push token storage
• Apple, for Sign in with Apple, App Store purchases, subscriptions, StoreKit, App Store services, push notifications, crash reports, and age range support
• Google, for AdMob ads and User Messaging Platform consent where ads are enabled for free users
• Other advertising partners, if future ad mediation or ad providers are enabled
• Dictionary and profanity filtering providers, when those features are used
• Website hosting providers, for Long Words web pages and invite-link fallback pages

These providers process information to provide services to Long Words. Long Words does not sell personal information.

Long Words may also disclose information if required by law, to protect rights and safety, to investigate abuse, or in connection with a business transfer such as a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

9. Advertising Choices

If ads are enabled, you may have choices depending on your device, region, and the ad provider.

You can manage Apple's App Tracking Transparency permission in iOS Settings if Long Words ever requests it. Long Words does not currently request tracking permission for launch.

If Google User Messaging Platform requires a privacy-options entry point for your region or consent state, Long Words shows Privacy Choices in Settings. You may also be able to manage some ad settings through your device, Apple, or Google settings.

10. Purchases and Subscriptions

Paid features may be managed through Apple's App Store subscription system. You can manage or cancel subscriptions through your Apple ID subscription settings.

Long Words may use purchase status to:

• Remove ads for paid users
• Provide unlimited Biblio game starts for paid users
• Apply the current remotely configurable free daily Biblio game-start limit
• Provide unlimited active human games for paid users
• Unlock paid features
• Restore purchases
• Prevent fraud or abuse
• Provide customer support

Apple handles payment processing. Long Words does not receive your payment card details.

11. Retention

Long Words keeps information only as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described in this policy.

Current intended retention practices include:

• Active human games are stored while the game is active.
• Completed human game chats may be deleted after approximately 30 days.
• Chat volume may be limited per game to reduce spam and abuse.
• Completed game history may be retained for gameplay history, stats, safety, and abuse-prevention purposes.
• Reports, blocks, moderation records, and safety actions may be retained longer as needed to protect users and enforce rules.
• Purchase and subscription entitlement records may be retained as needed to provide paid features, restore purchases, prevent fraud, and comply with legal obligations.
• Daily free-play limit counters and related configuration-dependent limit state may be retained as needed to enforce current daily limits and prevent abuse.
• First-party analytics events may be retained in aggregate or account-linked form as needed to understand paywall, ad, and riddle performance, unless deletion is required by law or an account deletion flow.
• Push tokens may be removed or disabled when no longer valid.
• Local device data remains on your device until deleted by you, removed by the app, or the app is uninstalled.

Retention periods may change as the app evolves.

12. Account Deletion and Data Requests

You may request deletion of your Long Words account and associated backend data by contacting privacy@longwords.net or using the Long Words support page.

Some information may be retained if necessary for legal, security, fraud-prevention, purchase verification, moderation, dispute-resolution, or abuse-prevention purposes.

Deleting the app from your device removes local app data from that device, but it may not delete backend account data. To delete backend data, contact Long Words using the contact information above.

13. Your Choices

You can:

• Play local/offline features without signing in
• Choose whether to Sign in with Apple
• Edit your username and avatar
• Disable chat in settings
• Keep profanity filtering enabled, or disable it only where allowed by age and settings
• Mute chat
• Block players
• Report offensive content or users
• Manage notification permissions in iOS Settings
• Manage subscriptions through your Apple ID
• Review ad Privacy Choices in Settings where required
• Manage tracking permission in iOS Settings if ads ever request tracking
• Upgrade or restore purchases if you want paid limits and ad removal
• Request account deletion or data access by contacting Long Words

14. Children and Age-Restricted Users

Long Words is not directed to children under 13.

Because Long Words includes human chat, social features, generated chat, and may include advertising, users who are under 13, decline age sharing, or have an unavailable/unsupported age range may be placed in limited mode. Limited mode allows safer local features while blocking human games, human chat, friends, invite links, push notifications, generated Biblio chat, and third-party ads.

Long Words does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through backend/social features without appropriate consent. Long Words does not knowingly show personalized ads to users under 13.

If Long Words learns that it has collected personal information from a child under 13 through backend/social features without appropriate consent, Long Words will take reasonable steps to delete that information.

Parents or guardians may contact Long Words at privacy@longwords.net or the support URL above.

15. Security

Long Words uses reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information. However, no app, website, or internet transmission is completely secure. You use Long Words at your own risk.

You should not share sensitive personal information in chat. Human game chats may be visible to the other player and may be reviewed if reported.

16. International Users

Long Words is operated from the United States. If you use Long Words from outside the United States, your information may be processed in the United States or other countries where service providers operate.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or object to certain processing of your personal information. To make a request, contact Long Words using the contact information in this policy.

17. California and Other U.S. State Privacy Rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights under state privacy laws, including rights to know, access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of certain personal information.

Long Words does not sell personal information. If Long Words uses advertising partners, some laws may treat certain ad-related sharing as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising. If that applies, Long Words will provide required choices and honor applicable opt-out rights.

To submit a privacy request, contact privacy@longwords.net or use the support URL above.

18. Third-Party Links

Long Words may link to external websites, such as support pages, dictionary sources, App Store pages, Apple services, ad partner privacy pages, or subscription-management pages. Those third parties have their own privacy practices. Long Words is not responsible for third-party privacy practices.

19. Changes to This Policy

Long Words may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated policy will be posted at:

https://longwords.net/apps/long-words/privacy

The effective date will show when the policy was last updated. If changes are material, Long Words may provide additional notice in the app or on the website.

20. Contact

For privacy questions, account deletion, data requests, or safety concerns, contact:

Matthew McCarthy / Long Words
Email: privacy@longwords.net
Support: https://longwords.net/apps/long-words/support