Privacy Policy — HoboEvolution

What we do NOT do

• No accounts, no sign-up. We never ask for your email, your name or any personal data to play.
• No third-party analytics. Your progress stays on your device. We have a single server of our own, hosted on Supabase: it holds the leaderboard and the usage statistics, both explained below.
• We never sell data to anyone.

Advertising

HoboEvolution shows ads through Google AdMob. There are two kinds:

• Opt-in rewarded videos you choose to watch for in-game prizes (double your earnings, open another chest, activate a boost). They never play on their own.
• Ads that appear on their own: full-screen ads between parts of the game, an ad break you can always decline, and one when you return to the app. The "No Ads" purchase removes them; rewarded videos stay, since they are optional and pay out.

Who processes your data for ads

To serve them, Google AdMob processes device data — including your advertising identifier (IDFA), IP address and technical/usage data — under its own privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

AdMob also has other ad networks bid for each ad (mediation). In this version there are two, and each processes the same kind of device data — advertising identifier, IP address and technical/usage data — under its own policy:

• Unity Ads (Unity Technologies): https://unity.com/legal/privacy-policy
• Meta Audience Network (Meta Platforms): https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/

We work with no other networks, and none of these companies receives your leaderboard name, install identifier or run times from us.

Ads configuration

The app downloads an ads configuration file from our website (/config/ads.json). It sends none of your data, but like any web request the site's host (Vercel) sees the IP address it comes from.

You control whether ads are personalized

On first launch, iOS shows you the App Tracking Transparency prompt asking whether you allow tracking.

• If you accept, ads are personalized using your advertising identifier.
• If you decline, you still get ads, just non-personalized. You lose nothing in the game.

You can change this any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

In the EU, the UK and Switzerland we also show Google's consent form (UMP) before serving any ad, and you can review your choice in Settings → Privacy options.

The reach-God leaderboard

If you reach God you may enter the leaderboard with a name. It is optional: if you don't, your run is not published. For it to work we store on our server:

• A random anonymous install identifier, not tied to your identity, your Apple account or your advertising identifier. It tells us which runs are yours and limits abuse.
• The name you chose and your run times, which other players can see.

We don't use them to track you, don't link them to your identity and don't share them with advertisers. Names go through rules, a word list and an automated AI check before being shown; don't put personal data in your name.

Who does the AI check

The automated check is done by Anthropic with its Claude model, at our server's request. We send only the name you chose (the text, up to 15 characters): never your install identifier, run times, advertising identifier or any device data. Anthropic processes it under its own privacy policy: https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy. Any player can report a name, and a reported name is hidden. If you block a name ("Hide this name"), that choice is stored only on your device and never leaves it. To have your name or runs removed from the leaderboard, email us at the contact below with your name and we will do it.

The leaderboard data lives on our server, hosted on Supabase, which stores it on our behalf, and it leaves your device only if you enter the leaderboard. The only other thing that reaches us is the usage statistics in the next section.

Usage statistics

To understand how the game is played and what each ad earns, the game sends our server short messages about what happens in play. Each one carries:

• What happened: a play session started or ended (how long it lasted and how many sessions you've played); an ad was shown (its format, the place in the game, the network that served it and what it paid for that view, in its currency); what happened to a rewarded-video offer (shown, tapped, rewarded, no video available, or passed); which product you bought (only which one: never the price or payment details); and how many times you reincarnated.
• Technical data: the app and iOS version, your iPhone or iPad model (e.g. "iPhone16,2") and your App Store country.
• A random identifier of their own. It is not the leaderboard's and is not shared with it, and it is not tied to your name, your Apple account or your advertising identifier. It stays the same if you reinstall on the same device and never moves to your other devices (not through iCloud, and not by restoring a backup to another phone). Plus a new session identifier each time you open the game, and your phone's time.

What they do not carry: your advertising identifier (IDFA), the iOS vendor identifier (IDFV), your leaderboard name, anything you typed, or your Apple account or payment data. We don't combine them with your leaderboard name or anything that identifies you, don't use them to show you ads or to track you across other apps or websites, don't share them with ad networks and never sell them.

Like any web request, the server's host (Supabase) sees the IP address each request comes from — leaderboard or statistics — and keeps it in its technical logs for a few days. We don't store it with the statistics, don't use it to identify you and don't combine it with them.

The statistics are stored on Supabase on our behalf and deleted automatically after 400 days (a year and a month, to compare each month with the same one a year earlier). While you are offline they wait on your device — at most the latest 1,000, for up to a month — until there is a connection.

How to turn them off. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland they are sent only if, in Google's consent form, you agreed to storing information on your device and to using it for measurement, statistics and improving the service. You can change your choice any time in Settings → Privacy options: withdraw it and they stop, and whatever was waiting on your device is deleted without leaving it. Outside the EU, the UK and Switzerland the game has no switch for this; Privacy options, where they appear, control the ads. They don't depend on iOS App Tracking Transparency because they are not tracking: they are never combined with other companies' data.

In-app purchases

Handled by Apple. We never see or store your card or payment details — Apple only tells us what you bought, so we can deliver it. Which product you bought (without the price) is also part of the usage statistics.

Your game progress

It stays on your device. If a future version enables iCloud saving, it would go to your private iCloud database, which we cannot access, and we would say so here before doing it.

Minors

The game is rated 12+ and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under that age.

Contact

Any privacy question: adermanu@gmail.com