Privacy Policy

Gridle · Last updated 27 July 2026

The short version

  • Gridle has no accounts and asks for no profile information.
  • Your statistics, streaks and settings stay on your device.
  • Daily reminders are off until you turn them on, and we never learn which device asked for them.
  • Gridle shows non-personalized ads and provides privacy choices where required.
  • If the app crashes, an anonymous diagnostic report is sent so the fault can be fixed.

Who is responsible

Gridle is an independent app developed and published by Nicola Levorato. For anything in this policy, write to app.gridle@gmail.com.

Gridle is an independent, unofficial game and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Formula 1, the FIA, any team, circuit or driver. See the licenses and attributions page for source credits and the full notice.

What stays on your device

The game saves the things it needs to work in your device's own app storage:

  • the puzzles you have played today and their results,
  • per mode statistics: games played, wins, current and best streak, distribution of guesses,
  • your preferences: language, light or dark theme, whether reminders are on,
  • local counters used to limit how often an ad may appear,
  • a flag recording that you have already seen the introduction.

None of this is sent to us, and none of it identifies you. It is removed when you clear the app's data or uninstall Gridle.

Daily reminders

Reminders are optional and switched off by default. If you turn them on in Settings, your device asks the operating system for notification permission and then schedules the reminder itself, at 9 in the morning, local time.

It is a notification your phone shows on its own: no push, no server, no push token, no list of devices. Nothing about the reminder ever leaves your phone, and we cannot tell whether you have it on.

You can switch reminders off in Settings at any time, or withdraw the notification permission in your device settings.

What the app reads from our servers

Gridle downloads two public, read only documents from Google Firestore: the driver and circuit datasets, and the puzzle of the day. The app can never write to our database; the security rules deny it.

These requests carry the usual technical information any internet request carries, such as your IP address and basic device and app version data. Google processes it to deliver the response and to protect the service against abuse. We do not build profiles from it and we cannot connect it to a person.

The game ships with a bundled copy of its data, so it also works with no connection at all.

Service providers

The third-party provider is Google: Firebase supplies Cloud Firestore for the datasets, Crashlytics for crash reports and Hosting for this page; Google AdMob supplies advertising; the Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) manages applicable privacy choices. Their handling of data is described in the Firebase privacy documentation, the Google Mobile Ads privacy documentation and the Google Privacy Policy.

The app stores may also collect data when you download or update Gridle, under their own policies. We receive only anonymous, aggregated statistics from them.

Crash reports

When the app crashes or hits an error it cannot handle, Firebase Crashlytics sends Google a diagnostic report so the fault can be fixed. A report contains the error and its stack trace, the app version, information about the device and operating system such as model, language and available memory, and a randomly generated installation identifier.

Crash reports carry no name, no email address and nothing you type into the game, and they are never used for advertising or profiling. Collection is switched off in development builds. Uninstalling Gridle stops it, and your device and app store also offer their own controls for sharing diagnostics.

Remove-ads purchase

Gridle offers an optional one-time purchase that removes advertising permanently on the store platform where it was bought. Google Play or the App Store processes the payment under its own terms. Gridle never receives or stores your name, billing address or payment-card details.

To activate or restore the purchase, the app sends the store's purchase token or transaction identifier to a Firebase callable function for purchase verification with the relevant store. The function does not log or save that identifier and Gridle does not create an account or a remote entitlement database.

After successful verification, the entitlement and its store proof are stored locally in the app. Clearing app data or reinstalling removes that local copy, so you must use Restore purchases. Without an account, an Android purchase does not transfer to iOS and an iOS purchase does not transfer to Android.

Advertising and data

Gridle uses Google AdMob to show interstitial, non-personalized ads between completed games. They are not selected from your past behaviour. Google may nevertheless process your IP address (and infer an approximate location), app and ad interactions, diagnostic information, advertising data, and limited device, app or account identifiers for ad delivery, aggregated measurement, security and fraud prevention.

Gridle does not use Firebase Analytics, advertising mediation or its own advertising profile. On Android, the app explicitly removes the legacy Advertising ID permission and the Mobile Ads Privacy Sandbox permissions for Advertising ID, Topics and cross-app attribution. On iOS, it does not request App Tracking Transparency permission, does not request the IDFA and disables Google's same-app key.

Privacy choices

At launch, the Google User Messaging Platform checks whether a privacy message or consent choice is required before ads can be requested. Even if you consent, Gridle still requests only non-personalized ads. Non-personalized ads can still use limited data or local storage for delivery, measurement, security and fraud prevention.

Where Google requires an ongoing entry point, you can reopen the UMP form from Settings → Privacy options. You can also use the privacy and advertising controls provided by your device and app store.

Children

Gridle is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly ask children for account or profile information. If you believe a child has provided information through the app, contact us.

Your rights

Gridle does not create accounts or keep a database tied to your identity. To remove local game data, clear the app's storage or uninstall it. For requests about data handled directly by Google, use Google's privacy controls or contact us so we can help identify the appropriate channel.

If you believe something here is wrong or incomplete, write to app.gridle@gmail.com. You also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority.

Data sources

Driver, team and circuit information comes from the F1DB open database, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.

Changes to this policy

If the policy changes, the new text and a new date appear on this page. Material changes will also be announced in the app.