Your folds stay yours.

fold (published on the App Store as "FOLD: Paper Puzzle") is a single-player puzzle game. It has no account, no sign-up and no login, and it shows you no advertising of any kind. It does contain two ad-measurement components, used only to find out which advert brought a player — and only if you say yes, first to the game and then to iOS. This page says exactly what the app does with data, in the order that matters.

The short version

• Your puzzle progress lives on your device, and — if you have iCloud on — in your own iCloud account. I cannot read it.
• Nothing is counted until you say so. On a fresh install the app sends nothing at all. Early on — after the three intro screens, before anything else — one page asks: "Let us improve fold.", with Share counts and ad events and No thanks. Only the first of those switches anything on.
• If you said yes, the app can send anonymous gameplay counts (which level started, how it ended, how long it took) to my analytics provider, PostHog. You can switch that off again in Settings at any time, and then nothing is sent at all.
• If this copy of fold was built to run adverts, it also sends a short list of app events to two ad-measurement partners, Meta and TikTok, so I can tell which advert works — including, only with your permission, your device's advertising identifier, and the price and currency of the unlock if you buy it. See Ad measurement.
• Your purchase is handled by Apple. I never see your name, email, card or Apple Account.
• Nothing is sold or rented to anybody, ever. No advert is ever shown inside the game.
• Two switches, and they are the same switch: the page that asks once when you first play, and the Analytics and ad measurement row in the game's Settings, which can be turned on or off for ever after. On top of that, iOS's own tracking question can always be answered Ask App Not to Track.

What is stored on your device

None of this contains your name, email address, phone number, contacts, location, photos, health data, or anything you typed. The app asks for no such permission, and it carries no usage-description string for camera, microphone, photos, location or contacts, because it touches none of them. Deleting the app deletes all of it, including the random install identifier.

iCloud

If you are signed into iCloud, the game mirrors solved levels, stars, the daily streak and hinted levels to your own iCloud key-value store, so a new iPhone picks up where the old one stopped. That data is stored under your Apple Account and is governed by Apple's privacy policy. I have no access to it and no server of my own holds a copy. The merge only moves forward: more progress wins, and nothing is deleted from it by the app except when you explicitly reset progress.

Anonymous analytics (optional, and switchable)

This is off until you turn it on. A fresh install sends nothing, and the page described above is the only thing that starts it. If you tap No thanks there, this whole section never happens on your phone, and you are not asked again.

If you do say yes, then — to learn which levels are too hard and where first sessions end — the game sends a small, fixed list of typed events: app launched; first fold; level started; level completed (level number, folds, par, stars, seconds, whether a hint was used); level stuck; undo; hint used; daily started; daily completed; unlock screen shown, tapped, purchased or restored; notification permission result; tracking permission result; rating prompt shown; session ended.

• It is attributed to a random UUID this install generates for itself, kept in app preferences. Nothing else identifies you on this path: no advertising identifier, no identifier-for-vendor, no account and no email — nothing that joins this player to a person or to another app.
• It carries no free text. Nothing you type is collected, because the game has nothing to type into.
• Processor: PostHog (PostHog Inc.), over ordinary HTTPS, through its official iOS library. Session replay, autocapture, screen recording, surveys, crash capture and any advertising integration are switched off in the app's code, and no profile is ever built.
• It is kept separate from ad measurement. The random install identifier above is never sent to the ad-measurement partners, and your advertising identifier is never sent to PostHog.
• Opt in, and out again: the page when you first play, and after that Settings → Analytics and ad measurement (the row reads under it: "Anonymous counts. Ad partners may get app and purchase events, the ad ID only if you allow tracking. Off stops all."). From that moment no analytics call is made, and the ad measurement below stops with it. Up to a handful of events already queued may still be delivered by the library before it stops; nothing new is recorded.
• Retention: event data is kept for 12 months and then deleted.
• Under Apple's App Privacy definitions this is Usage Data (Product Interaction) and Identifiers (User ID), collected for Analytics, not linked to your identity, and not used for tracking.

Ad measurement (Meta and TikTok)

fold shows no adverts. But if I advertise the game, I need to know which advert actually brought a player, and that is what this section is about.

When this applies. The two measurement components are switched on by configuration values set when the app is built. A build without them never starts either component and sends them nothing at all. Either way, nothing starts until you accept the page described at the top.

Who receives it. Two companies, each acting for itself and not as my processor:

What is shared, exactly. A short, fixed list — no free text, no name, no email address and no contact information anywhere in it:

• the app was opened, and whether this is a new visit;
• the intro was finished;
• a level was solved — the level number, its sheet, and how many stars;
• the unlock screen was seen, and which door opened it; the buy button was tapped;
• the unlock was bought — with the price and currency code exactly as Apple's StoreKit reports them, plus Apple's transaction identifier, because the point of measuring is to know whether an advert paid for itself;
• a daily puzzle was solved, and the streak;
• your advertising identifier (IDFA), only if you allowed tracking. It is read by those components from iOS, never by the game itself.

You are asked twice, and the first one is mine. The page "Let us improve fold." is where this is consented to, and it says on it that Apple's question is next. If you tap Share counts and ad events there, iOS's own tracking request comes up immediately, over that same page: "FOLD uses this to measure which ads bring players, nothing else. You can say no." If you tap No thanks, nothing starts and iOS is never asked. Either way it happens once per install: never at launch, never before that page, and never on the purchase screen.

Saying no changes nothing about the game. Every level, the daily, the purchase and every feature behave identically. What changes is that no advertising identifier is shared, and iOS itself blocks the app from reaching either company's measurement address. Measurement then falls back to Apple's SKAdNetwork, which is run by Apple, carries no identifier and cannot be tied to you. You can change your mind at any time in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

Turning Analytics off stops this too. Settings → Analytics and ad measurement → off inside the game switches off the anonymous counts and both measurement components, including their own automatic logging. If it is off when you open the game, neither component is ever started.

Under Apple's App Privacy definitions, a build configured this way collects Identifiers (Device ID) and Purchases, both linked to you and used for tracking, for third-party advertising — and that is what the App Store product page will say.

Purchases

The one-time unlock is sold by Apple through the App Store. Apple tells the app one thing: whether this Apple Account owns the unlock. I receive aggregate sales reports from Apple that contain no personal data. I never see your payment details. Refunds are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Game Center

Game Center is optional. If you are signed in, the game submits your total stars and your best daily streak to two leaderboards, and reports seven achievements. That data is held by Apple under your Game Center profile and is governed by Apple's privacy policy. If you are not signed in, nothing is submitted and the game plays exactly the same.

Notifications

If you allow it, the app schedules one local reminder per day at 18:00 on your device. It is asked once, only after you have solved a daily puzzle, and in two steps: a page inside the game shows you what the reminder looks like and offers Send me a daily sheet or No thanks; only the first of those reaches iOS's own permission request. It is a local notification: no server is involved, no push token is created, no message is sent to me. Turn it off in iPhone Settings → Notifications → fold. The app never sends marketing notifications.

Children

fold is rated 4+ and is safe for children, but it is not directed at children under 13 and is not part of Apple's Kids Category. It collects no personal information from anyone, of any age, and it asks no one to sign in. Nothing is counted unless the consent page is accepted, and where iOS reports that tracking is not permitted — which is the case on a child's device — the tracking request is never shown and no advertising identifier is ever read.

Your rights

Because the app holds no personal data on any server of mine, there is no account to export or delete. For data held by Meta or TikTok as a result of ad measurement, their own policies linked above carry their access and deletion routes; the fastest way to stop any of it from this side is the Settings switch or the tracking answer — and if you answered No thanks when the game asked, neither company ever received anything from your install in the first place.

If you want the anonymous analytics from your install removed, email support@fold.devera.app with the approximate date and device and I will delete the matching events; if you would rather not be counted at all, the Settings toggle does that instantly and with no email. Depending on where you live (for example the EEA, the UK, or California) you may have rights of access, correction, deletion, and objection; the contact address is the way to use them. The legal basis for the anonymous counts and for the ad measurement is your consent, given on the page described above and withdrawable at any time with the Settings toggle.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it and the new version is published at this address before the version of the app it describes is released.