Privacy Policy

Deep Dark Abyss Productions ("we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use any of our apps or visit our website. It is published by James Nerlinger, doing business as Deep Dark Abyss Productions, who is responsible for the data described here (see section 14 for details).

Delete your DDAP Sigil — how to delete your Sigil and all of its data, in the app or by email (section 12).

1. How This Policy Is Organized

Every Deep Dark Abyss app falls into one of two kinds. On-device apps keep everything on your device and send us nothing. Games with DDAP Sigil add optional online features — leaderboards, Daily Challenges, friends, cross-device progress — through a single pseudonymous player identity that needs no name, email address or password, described in section 11. The rules in this policy are written for those two kinds, not for individual apps, so they apply to every app we release. The one place apps are named is the table in section 13, which says which kind each app is and what, if anything, it stores with us. Adding a row for a new app does not change what this policy promises; we revise the effective date when the rules themselves change.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

We do not receive your name, email address, phone number, contacts, precise location or passwords from our apps. Some apps keep information like this on your device for your own use (for example a list of your care team in a health app, or your WordPress application passwords in your keychain in Post Friendly); it stays there and never comes to us. We do not track you across other apps or websites. Games with DDAP Sigil store only the player identity and game data described in section 11. Our health apps never send your health data to us.

None of our apps contains analytics, crash-reporting, diagnostics or advertising code from us or anyone else. Separately, Apple and Google give app makers crash reports from people who have chosen on their devices to share them with developers; these can include the device model, system version and the state of the app when it crashed, and we use them only to fix problems. Testers in our beta program share more; see section 15.

3. Local Data Storage

App data — scores, settings and progress in our games; health readings, reports and medication schedules in our health apps — is stored on your device. For on-device apps that is the only copy we know of, apart from readings a health app saves to your device's health store, your own iCloud where an app offers it, your device's keychain, and any backup, export or post you make. Deleting the app removes what it keeps on the device; those other copies stay where they are until you delete them. Games with DDAP Sigil also send the results their online features need to our servers, as described in section 11; your local copy remains yours to delete at any time.

4. Contact Information

If you email us for support, feedback or any other reason, we use your email address and message to answer you and, for feedback, to improve our apps. Our email is handled by our email hosting provider on our behalf. We never sell your address or use it for marketing, and we delete messages two years after our last exchange unless we need them longer to handle a legal claim. Contact us at info@deepdarkabyss.com.

5. Website Usage

Like any website, our web host keeps standard server logs (such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested) for security and to keep the site running. Our website uses no analytics, no tracking or advertising cookies, and no third-party scripts.

6. Children's Privacy

Our products are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. Online features require players to be at least 13, or older where the law where they live requires it (see the DDAP Sigil Rules). If we learn that a Sigil belongs to a child under 13, or that we hold anything else from a child under 13 that we should not, we delete it promptly.

7. Third-Party Services

Some apps can read from, and with your separate permission write to, the health store on your device — Apple Health on iOS, Health Connect on Android — when you grant access in your device settings. That access is optional and controlled by you, and the data stays on your device: it is used only to show you your own readings and to build the reports you choose to export or share; it is never sent to us, it goes to anyone else only when you export or share a report yourself, and it is never used for advertising, analytics or any other purpose. You can revoke access at any time in your device's health settings; an app will then show only what you enter into it yourself. Games with DDAP Sigil use Google Cloud as our hosting provider (section 11); Google may use its own authorized subprocessors to provide that hosting, under its contract with us; no other company receives Sigil data, and what other players can see is listed in section 11. Apps that work with services you choose, such as your own WordPress site or your own iCloud, send data only to those services, at your direction.

Links to other websites: Paahu’s PROTECT CORAL REEFS card links to the websites of conservation organizations. They open in your device’s browser; Paahu sends them nothing about you, and each site’s own privacy policy applies.

8. Data Security

Data on your device is protected by your device’s own security; keep it updated. DDAP Sigil data travels only over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Your Sigil’s sign-in credential is a random secret kept in your device’s secure storage, and our servers store only a one-way hash of it, so it cannot be read back even by us. Access to our servers is limited to the services that run the games and to us as their operator.

9. Policy Updates

We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices or for legal or regulatory reasons. Changes to the rules are shown on this page with a new effective date and apply only from that date. When a change is material, we say so on this page and, where we can, in our apps before it takes effect, and we ask for your consent where the law requires it. Adding an app to the table in section 13 is not a change to the rules. Previous versions are available on request.

10. Your Rights

For on-device apps there is no data with us to provide, correct or delete; removing the app removes what it keeps on your device (see section 3 for copies kept elsewhere). If you use a DDAP Sigil, you can see your gamertag and glyph in any of our games, change your gamertag at any time, see and manage your friends and blocked players, and delete your Sigil and everything attached to it — yourself, in any game, or by asking us — as described in section 12. You can also ask us by email to see, correct or delete what we hold about you, or to receive a copy (see section 14 for the full list of rights where they apply). We will ask for enough information to find the records and confirm they are yours; for a Sigil, section 12 explains how.

11. DDAP Sigil

A DDAP Sigil is a pseudonymous player identity shared by all of our games that have online features. It lets you appear on leaderboards, play Daily Challenges, keep your progress across devices, and add friends, without an account, a name, an email address or a password. Because a Sigil is a lasting identifier tied to your play, the law in some places treats it as personal data, and we handle it that way. A Sigil is created only when you ask for one: every game asks first, and every game can be played without one.

What a Sigil consists of:

• A randomly generated Sigil ID, never shown to other players.
• A one-way hash of the sign-in credential held by each of your devices. Linking another device (by entering a short code) gives that device its own credential for the same Sigil.
• Your gamertag — one we generate, or one you choose (3–20 characters; not unique) — and a symbol (“glyph”) derived from your Sigil ID.
• A public ID that identifies you to friends and in reports without revealing your Sigil ID.
• If you use friends: a friend code you can share and replace, your friendships, pending friend requests, and the players you have blocked.
• The day your Sigil was last used, recorded no more than once a day, so we can tell which Sigils are active.

What each game stores: the results its own online features need — leaderboard entries, Daily Challenge attempts, streaks, best scores, and similar — together with when they were played and, where relevant, the device type (phone or tablet) and app version. Each game keeps its own records, tied to your Sigil ID. The table in section 13 says what this is for each game. Games never store your gamertag; they look it up from your Sigil when they show a leaderboard, so a name change appears everywhere at once.

Achievements: a game that has achievements keeps which ones you have earned and when, under your Sigil ID, in that game’s own records. Each game’s achievements are separate; no other game or service sees them. They are deleted with your Sigil.

How we use it: only to run the games’ online features — verifying results, showing leaderboards and stats, restoring progress on a reinstall or a new device, and connecting friends — and to keep them fair and safe (moderation, reports and security). We do not sell it, use it for advertising, or combine it with any other data about you. It is processed by Google only as our hosting provider, and other players see only what is listed below.

What other players see: your gamertag, your glyph and your leaderboard results, in every game that has leaderboards. Some games hide the details of a Daily Challenge result until that day’s board is final. A player who has your friend code can see your gamertag and glyph before sending a request. Any player who can see your gamertag can report it, or your conduct, to us (see Reports below).

Friends: friendships are mutual and made only by exchanging friend codes (typed, shared as a link, or scanned) and accepting a request. There is no search by name, no messaging, and we never read your contacts. Your friends see you on the FRIENDS tab of each game’s leaderboards; nobody else can see your friend list, your requests, or whom you have blocked. Either friend can end a friendship at any time, silently; blocking a player also stops their requests. Your friend list belongs to your Sigil, so it is the same in every one of our games.

Reports: in every game you can report another player from a leaderboard or friends list, for an offensive gamertag, impersonation, cheating, or another reason, with an optional note of up to 200 characters, and block them at the same time. A report records your Sigil ID, the reported player’s Sigil ID, the reason, the note, the game it was made from, and when. Reports are read by a person, never acted on automatically. We keep a report for up to 90 days after we act on it, and we delete it sooner if either Sigil is deleted. The reported player is not told who reported them.

Where it is kept: Sigil data is stored on Google Cloud servers in the United States (a United States multi-region database, served from Iowa), operated for us by Google as our hosting provider under Google's Cloud Data Processing Addendum. Like any web service, our game servers keep request logs for security and troubleshooting: the time, the address requested and the result, never your IP address or your sign-in credential. Some entries can include your public ID or friend code; we use the logs only to keep the service running and delete them automatically after 30 days.

How long we keep it: for as long as your Sigil exists. You can delete it at any time (section 12). A Sigil that has not been used for 12 months is deleted automatically, in the same way as in section 12: its gamertag, credentials, friends, results, achievements and everything else listed above. A Sigil whose only use falls within 24 hours of its creation, that still has the gamertag we generated for it, and that has no friends, friend requests or blocks, is deleted in the same way 14 days after it was created. A Sigil counts as used whenever any of our games' servers accepts it, recorded at most once a day; creating it counts as its first use. After either kind of deletion, the Sigil's results disappear from every leaderboard. Anything a game keeps on your device stays there. Pending friend requests expire after 30 days.

Moderation: we may change a gamertag that breaks our rules, or suspend a Sigil that is used to cheat or to harass other players. Reports from other players are one of the ways we learn of this; we review every report ourselves before doing anything, and we may dismiss it, change the gamertag, or suspend the Sigil. A suspended Sigil cannot use online features in any of our games; its owner can still delete it. The rules themselves are on the DDAP Sigil Rules page.

12. Deleting Your DDAP Sigil and Data

To delete your DDAP Sigil, which is used by Deep Dark Abyss Productions games, use either of the two ways below.

In any game (immediate): open Settings → DDAP Sigil → Delete My Sigil and confirm. This permanently deletes, apart from the records listed below, your Sigil, gamertag, the credentials of every linked device, your friend code, friendships, requests and blocks, any reports you made or that were made about you, and every result and statistic held for you by every one of our games. The games then play offline. Progress stored on your device is not affected; delete the app to remove that. Copies in our backups expire within 14 days. Backups are used only to recover from a failure, and any deletion made in the meantime is applied again after a recovery.

Without the app on hand: email info@deepdarkabyss.com with the subject “Delete my DDAP Sigil” and your gamertag and a deletion code. To get one, open Settings → DDAP Sigil → Deletion code in any of our games and create it; it lasts 30 days, and making a new one cancels the old one. The deletion code only proves the Sigil is yours: it cannot sign in, link a device or change anything, and we store only a one-way hash of it. We delete it, and everything attached to it (apart from the records listed below), within 30 days. If no device has your Sigil any more, we cannot confirm it is yours; it is deleted automatically once unused for 12 months (section 11).

Deletion cannot be undone. After a deletion we keep, for 30 days, a record that it happened (the Sigil ID, its status and the date), so we can confirm every game has removed its part. Our internal log of moderation actions keeps only the kind of action and its date for a deleted Sigil, and every log entry is deleted after 12 months. Server request logs expire on their own (section 11).

13. Our Apps and What Each One Stores

This table is the only part of this policy that names apps. Every app follows the rules above; the table says which kind it is and, for games with DDAP Sigil, what that game keeps on our servers under your Sigil ID.

App	DDAP Sigil	Stored with us
Sprenzy	Yes (asks first)	For each level you play: the level, score and stars, whether it was your first try, when it was played, phone or tablet (your sparks are checked by replaying them and not kept). For each Daily Challenge: where you placed your sparks, score and stars, how long you studied the board before your official attempt, and the app version. Achievements earned, with dates. Your game settings (sound, haptics, the skip question) and, for phone and tablet each, the levels you skipped and the level PLAY resumes, so another device you link plays the same.
Rokubo	Yes (asks first)	Your Daily guesses and hint use, wins, current and best streak, the dates you played, achievements earned with dates, your Play Game results and statistics, the Daily milestones you have seen, your difficulty and sound settings, and, only if you choose to import them, your statistics from Sextet.
Popsana	Yes (asks first)	Your highest level cleared and best level score for phone and for tablet, lifetime orbs popped, a count of results, and which achievements you have earned and when; your progress for phone and for tablet (the stats on the start screen, the level to play next, and how many times you have reset them); and, for each install whose earlier levels were added, a random install ID with how many were added, so none is added twice.
Abyss Sudoku	Yes (asks first)	Your game settings (sound, vibration, timer, mistakes, notes and highlighting); puzzles solved (in total, for each difficulty and for each of the last 60 days), Dailies solved, current and best Daily streak, current and best run of puzzles solved in a row, total play time, your best and fastest unhinted time for each difficulty, your time on each Daily of the last 60 days, which achievements you earned and when, the dates of your Daily entries and which of them were left unfinished, and which recent puzzles were counted (so each counts once); for each Daily you play: when you started and finished, your time, mistakes and hints, and a random ID for that app install (used only to tell whether a Daily was started and finished on the same device), deleted automatically about 45 days later.
Popocalypse	Yes (asks first)	For each campaign board: your best score, stars and percent popped, plus your campaign total and the achievements you've earned. For each Daily you play: the date, your score, where you tapped and when, and the app version; your first shot of the day is the one on record. The Daily entry is deleted about 45 days later; the date, score and tap stay in your player record so your other devices show the same history. The specimens and reactions you've seen, and your game settings (sound, vibration, screen shake). Taps are replayed to check the score. Everything here is deleted with your Sigil.
Gust	Yes (asks first)	For each level: your best stars and score, plus your campaign totals; for each Daily you play: your stars, score, the date and the app version; and the achievements you have earned. Your first attempt of the day is the one on record.
Shīwù	Yes (asks first)	Each finished run's replay (seed, board, moves and length) with your local date, which the server re-plays to check the score and then discards; your best Classic and Arena scores (with the board, phone or tablet, and when); your totals from those checked runs (games, time played, pellets eaten, rival crashes, rounds cleared, best level and round, longest trail) and an ID for each of your last 100 runs, so none counts twice; your control, sound, music and vibration settings, so every device you link plays the same; your best for each date while that date is still "today" somewhere on Earth (about two days, then deleted automatically); and the achievements you have earned.
TerriTrix	Yes (asks first)	Each verified run's score, level reached and play time, the number of games, Daily Sprint scores, and the achievements earned, under the Sigil ID. Run inputs are replayed to check the score and are not kept.
Saepta	Yes (asks first)	Dailies played and your current and best streak, games played and won against each computer opponent and your best margin against it, puzzles solved, achievements earned, and the dates of your Daily entries; for each Daily you play: when you started and finished, your time, margin and score, and a random ID for that app install (used only to tell whether a Daily was finished on the install it was started on, so it can be ranked for time); your in-game settings (the computer's pace and your last board setup), so a second device plays the same — sound and vibration settings stay on the device. The lines of every finished game are sent to the server, which re-plays them to check the result and does not keep them.
Paahu	Yes (asks first)	Your reef: the state of its coral and the creatures living in it, the seed its seafloor grows from, its living-coral count and rank, and when it was last saved; achievements earned, if any; the field guide pages you have found; your sound, music and haptics settings. Deleted with your Sigil.
Dumpster Talk	Yes (asks first)	Under the Sigil ID: best stars for each level, lifetime counts (throws, dunks, hits, levels played), which holidays you scored in, your best score in each weekly challenge and which weeks you played, how many times in a row you've failed each level (cleared when you pass it), whether hard mode is on, and achievements earned with their dates. Each level's throws are replayed to check the result and are not kept.
Abysstris	Yes (asks first)	Your best score, level and combo (and whether each was set on a phone or a tablet), lifetime totals for the leaderboards and the PERFORMANCE screen (games, lines, pieces, clears, perfect drops, power-ups, transformations), the dates of the Dailies you played with each one's score and time, the achievements you earned with the date of each, your game settings (sound, music, haptics and the display settings) so your other devices match, and a short record of your latest results so a result sent twice counts once. Each game's moves are replayed on our server to check the score and are not kept. Once on each device where the earlier version of Abysstris left records, those records (best score, level, combo and lifetime totals) are imported; nothing is read from Game Center.
Riγi	Yes (asks first)	Your highest level, best level score and lifetime orbs popped for the leaderboards; for your stats and other devices, the orbs you have faced, levels completed, your best chain, and the level you are on; the achievements you earned with the date of each; and a short record of your latest results so a result sent twice counts once. Once, if the earlier version of Riγi left records on your iPhone or iPad, those records (the same stats) are imported, with a random number made once by that device so its records count once; nothing is read from Game Center.
Aevora Reporter	No	Nothing. Your health readings (from Apple Health or Health Connect, and any you enter yourself), your medication schedule and your care-team list stay on your device. Reports, data exports and backups are created only when you ask for them and go only where you send them — a patient portal, an email, a file. We never receive them.
Sextet	No	Nothing. All data stays on your device (and in your own iCloud, if enabled).
Bhrama	No	Nothing. Bhrama makes no network connections; your settings and the last world you played stay on your device.
Post Friendly	No	Nothing. Post Friendly has no servers: it sends your posts only to your own WordPress sites, keeps its records in a folder you choose (such as your own iCloud Drive), and stores your WordPress application passwords in your keychain (or iCloud Keychain).
All other apps	No	Nothing. All data stays on your device.

When we release a new app, we add its row here. A game that later gains online features moves from “No” to “Yes” with a description of what it stores, and that game will ask you before creating a Sigil. If you already have one from another of our games on the same device, it uses that one and tells you so.

14. For Users in the European Union and the United Kingdom

Who is responsible. The controller of the data described in this policy is James Nerlinger, doing business as Deep Dark Abyss Productions, PO Box 58051, Cincinnati, OH 45258, United States; info@deepdarkabyss.com.

Why we use it (legal basis).

• Running the online features you ask for when you create a Sigil, add friends or play online (keeping your results, showing leaderboards, restoring progress, connecting friends and checking results by replay) is necessary to provide the service you requested.
• Moderation, reports, security and server logs protect players and keep the service running (our legitimate interests in a fair and safe service).
• Answering your email and handling beta feedback serve our legitimate interest in responding to you and improving our apps.

You can stop all Sigil processing at any time by deleting your Sigil, and you can object to processing based on legitimate interests.

How long we keep it. Sigil data: until you delete the Sigil, or 12 months after its last use (14 days after creation for the Sigils described in section 11). Reports: up to 90 days after we act on them. Game server request logs: 30 days. Backups: up to 14 days. Deletion records: 30 days. Moderation log entries: 12 months. Emails: see section 4. Beta testing information: see section 15. Website logs: kept by our web host for its standard period, for security.

Your rights. Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, you have the right to access your data, have it corrected or erased, restrict or object to its use, receive it in a portable form, and, where we rely on consent, withdraw it at any time without affecting what was done before. Email info@deepdarkabyss.com; for a Sigil, include the code described in section 12. We answer within one month, or tell you within that month if the law allows us more time and we need it. You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority where you live or work.

Transfers outside the EU and UK. Sigil data is stored in the United States by Google as our hosting provider. Google's Cloud Data Processing Addendum provides the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses for these transfers and covers transfers subject to the UK GDPR.

15. Beta Testing

When you join our beta test, Apple (TestFlight) or Google (Google Play testing) gives us the email address you joined with and, where you provide them, your name and the feedback, screenshots and crash reports you send through those programs, together with your device model and system version. We use this only to invite you, run the test and fix problems. Apple and Google handle their testing programs under their own privacy policies. We keep tester information while you remain a tester and delete it 12 months after you leave the program or it ends.