Privacy Policy — NEARCOIL

Last updated: 2026-11-07
Applies to the Android app com.nikitapetrovapps.nearcoil (NEARCOIL: Snake Arcade).

Summary

• The only ad is optional: you can choose to watch a rewarded video for one extra Ranked run. Ads never open by themselves and never interrupt a run. The ads come from Google AdMob, whose SDK may collect and process device identifiers (such as the advertising ID), your IP address, device information, ad interactions and diagnostics, depending on your consent choices and device settings — see Advertising.
• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent form asks you before personalised ads are shown, and you can change your answer later.
• The game's own code does not read the advertising ID or any other device identifier, and the developer does not sell your data.
• No registration. The online features use an anonymous account the game creates by itself: a random number, not linked to your name, e-mail, phone or Google account.
• Optionally, you can tap CONTINUE WITH GOOGLE or CONTINUE WITH APPLE in Settings to save your progress to that account, so it is not lost when you change or reset your phone. Only then does the game's server keep your e-mail address and the sign-in ID from Google or Apple, plus a copy of your progress — see Saving progress with Google or Apple.
• Online, the game sends your scores and how each scored run was played (to run the leaderboards and catch cheating), plus gameplay statistics and phone performance data (to balance the game and fix problems). The statistics can be switched off in Settings.
• Your display name, country (if you pick one) and scores are public on the leaderboards.
• Settings → DELETE ONLINE DATA erases everything on the server immediately.
• Settings, replays and video clips stay on your phone. Campaign progress and records stay on your phone too, unless you save your progress with Google or Apple.

The game's own data and Google's ad data are separate: the game does not send its anonymous account id, display name or scores to Google, and Google's SDK does not send its identifiers to the game's server.

Who is responsible

NEARCOIL is made by Nikita Petrov, an independent developer, who is the controller of the data described here. Contact: nikitapetrovapps@gmail.com.

What stays on the device

Campaign progress, medals and fuses, best scores, settings (controls, theme, language, sound, refresh rate), which themes you own, saved replays and the video clips the game records for sharing. They live in the app's private storage, are not uploaded, and are removed when you uninstall the app. The one exception is the copy of your progress kept online if you choose to save it with Google or Apple (see below).

When you share a result card or a video clip, the game opens Android's share sheet and the file goes only to the app you pick there. That app's own privacy policy then applies.

What is sent for the online features

The leaderboards (Ranked, weekly boards and leagues, country boards) and the Daily Challenge need a connection. Campaign and practice play offline. When the game is online it sends:

• An anonymous account id, created on first launch, and the session tokens that keep it signed in.
• A display name. The game generates one (for example SilentCoil482). You may type your own instead; it is checked against a word filter and shown publicly, so please do not use your real name.
• A country, only if you choose one in Settings, for the country boards. It is never derived from your location or IP address.
• The platform (Android) and the game and rules version.
• For each Ranked run and Daily attempt: the score, duration, multiplier, counts of game events, and the run's input replay — the list of turns you made. The replay lets the score be checked by replaying the game, and lets other players watch runs that appear on a leaderboard.
• Name reports you file against another player's name, and reports filed against yours.

Saving progress with Google or Apple (optional, off until you use it)

Settings → PROFILE AND ONLINE offers CONTINUE WITH GOOGLE and CONTINUE WITH APPLE. Nothing happens until you tap one. Then:

• Sign-in. Google's sign-in sheet (on Android) or a browser page from Google or Apple asks you to choose an account and confirm. Your password goes only to Google or Apple, never to the game. Google or Apple then confirms to the game's server who signed in.
• What the server keeps: the account's sign-in ID from Google or Apple, your e-mail address (with Sign in with Apple you may choose a private relay address instead), and the profile details the provider includes with the sign-in (for Google this can be your name and profile picture). They are attached to your existing anonymous game account; your display name on the boards stays the one you chose in the game. They are used only to sign you in again, are never shown to other players, and the game sends you no e-mail.
• Your progress: a copy of your Campaign progress, medals and fuses, best scores, achievements and weekly goals, statistics counters, the themes you selected, own or bought, and whether the tutorial was done. It is synced with the server so the same Google or Apple account can carry it to another phone. Settings, replays and video clips are not included.
• Signing in on another phone (or with an account that already has progress) asks first, then loads that account's progress there and adds the progress already on the phone to it.

Signing in with Google or Apple is also governed by Google's privacy policy or Apple's privacy policy. The game never receives your Google or Apple password, contacts, payment details or other account data.

Gameplay statistics (on by default — Settings → SEND PLAY STATS turns them off)

• A summary of each run: mode, score, duration, multipliers, how it ended, control scheme and how turns were buffered, theme, counts of manoeuvres and events, modules, Campaign level, medal and fuse use.
• One line per app launch (control scheme, theme, language, graphics mode, number of runs played), control scheme changes, and actions in the theme store, replay viewer and video sharing (opened, previewed, export started / finished / cancelled, durations).
• Whether a rewarded ad you chose to watch was requested, watched to the end or failed (and why, for example no ad available or closed early). Nothing about the ad itself or its advertiser is recorded.
• When a run ends in a crash on a touch screen: the last 4 seconds of input before it (where your finger moved on the screen, the swipes the game recognised, the turns it queued and the snake's moves), so we can find and fix controls that turn the wrong way; and, if you tap CONTROLS MISFIRED? after it, that mark.
• Performance diagnostics: phone model and maker, Android version, chip, number of CPU cores, memory size (in whole GB), graphics chip, screen size and refresh rates, the graphics and refresh-rate settings, whether battery saver was on and the phone's heat level; per run the frame rate, the number of slow frames and the number of errors the game hit (with where in the game's code the first one happened); whether the previous launch ended unexpectedly (a marker only, no crash dump); for video clips the recording method, result, duration, file size and the name of the video encoder.

These describe the phone model, not your particular phone: the game's own code does not read the serial number, Android ID, IMEI, advertising ID or any other device identifier. (Google's ad SDK may read the advertising ID — see Advertising.) Statistics are stored under the same anonymous account id and are also added into anonymous global totals (for example "food eaten by all players") that contain no player.

What the game never collects

The game itself never collects your name (unless you type it as your display name), e-mail, phone number, contacts, photos, files, microphone or camera, precise location, advertising ID, device identifiers, or your Google account — except the sign-in details described above if you choose to save your progress with Google or Apple. This applies to the game's own code and server; what Google's ad SDK collects when ads are used is described under Advertising.

IP address

Like any internet service, the hosting provider sees your IP address when the game connects. Its sign-in service stores the IP address and the app's technical user-agent string with your session and in its security logs, which are used for security and abuse prevention only. The game does not store the IP address with your profile and does not use it to find out where you are. Google's ad SDK also receives your IP address when it requests an ad (see below).

Advertising (Google AdMob)

What the ad is. Ranked has a number of free runs each day. When you have used them, the Ranked runs screen offers WATCH AD: if you choose to watch a rewarded video to the end, you get +1 Ranked run. That is the only ad in NEARCOIL. There are no banners and no ads between screens; an ad never opens by itself and never appears during a run. Closing an ad early simply gives no reward. Daily Challenge and Campaign are not affected by ads.

Rollout. Rewarded ads are being introduced in stages. In app versions where they are not switched on, the WATCH AD button is greyed out, and the game neither shows Google's consent form nor asks Google's ad SDK for an ad (the SDK is already part of the app, which is why its permissions are listed under Permissions). Everything below applies from the first version in which the button is active.

Who provides the ads. Ads are served by Google AdMob through the Google Mobile Ads SDK (Google LLC, or Google Ireland Limited for users in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland). Google processes the data its SDK collects as an independent controller under its own policies. Learn more in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and Google's privacy policy.

What Google's SDK may collect and process. What is actually collected depends on the platform, the SDK version, your consent choices, your device's ad settings and the type of ad request. From the moment the game first gets an ad ready (when you open the Ranked runs screen), this may include:

• Device and advertising identifiers: the Android advertising ID (if you have not deleted or turned it off), the app set ID and similar identifiers, and cookies or similar technologies used by the SDK.
• IP address, from which Google may infer an approximate location (such as country or city).
• Device and app information: phone model, operating system and version, language, screen, network type, app name and version.
• Ad interactions: which ads were requested, shown, watched or tapped, and when.
• Diagnostics: SDK performance, errors and crash information.

Google may use this to serve and measure ads, to cap how often an ad is shown, to prevent fraud and abuse, for analytics and to improve its services, and — if allowed — to personalise ads. The data is sent encrypted (HTTPS).

Personalised, non-personalised and limited ads. Google distinguishes three kinds:

• Personalised ads are chosen using information such as your previous activity and interests.
• Non-personalised ads are not based on your past behaviour; they are chosen from context, such as the app and your approximate location. Google may still use cookies or identifiers for them, for frequency capping, aggregated reporting and fraud prevention.
• Limited ads may be served where consent is required but storing or reading information on your device has not been allowed. They are not personalised and Google does not use cookies or identifiers for them at all; fewer ads may be available, or none.

Which kind you get depends on your consent choice, your region and your device's ad settings.

Consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. The game uses Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP), a consent management platform certified by Google. Before the first ad is requested, it shows Google's consent form if your region requires it (the EEA, the UK, Switzerland, and other regions where Google's rules require one). If you decline, you may still be offered non-personalised or limited ads (see above), or no ad at all — you can always simply not watch one. Your choice is stored on your phone by Google's SDK.

Changing your choice. Where your region requires it, the game's Settings show a Privacy options entry that reopens Google's consent form, so you can change or withdraw your consent at any time. Elsewhere, and in addition, you can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of personalised ads, in your phone's settings (on most Android phones: Settings → Google → Ads, or Settings → Security & privacy → Privacy → Ads). If you never tap WATCH AD and never open the Ranked runs screen, no ad is shown.

Retention. How long Google keeps the data its SDK collects is set by Google's policies linked above; the developer cannot access or delete it. DELETE ONLINE DATA deletes the game's data on its own server, not data held by Google.

Why the data is used, and the legal basis

The game itself does no profiling for marketing and makes no automated decision with legal effect. A run that looks impossible may be held back from the boards for a manual look at its replay.

Where the data is stored, and who processes it

The online features run on Supabase (Supabase, Inc.), which acts as a processor under a data processing agreement. The database is in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany, on Amazon Web Services). Supabase is a US company and uses sub-processors; transfers outside the EU are covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. See Supabase's privacy policy.

The game's own data (account, names, scores, runs, statistics, and — if you use it — the Google or Apple sign-in details and the saved progress) is kept on Supabase and is not passed to anyone else, except where the law requires it. Separately, Google may receive the data described under Advertising directly from its ad SDK on your phone, and Google Play handles purchases (see Purchases).

The developer does not sell your data for money. Some laws (for example in California) may treat the use of device identifiers for personalised ads as "sharing" or "selling"; you can limit this with Google's consent form where it is shown, or by turning off ad personalisation or deleting your advertising ID in your phone's settings.

How long it is kept

Your rights and how to delete your data

Delete: Settings → DELETE ONLINE DATA removes your account and everything linked to it from the server at once: profile, name, scores, runs, replays, reports, league history, statistics, the Google or Apple sign-in details and the saved progress. The game then starts over as a new anonymous player. Your Google or Apple account itself is not affected; you can also remove NEARCOIL from the apps connected to it in your Google or Apple account settings. Uninstalling the app removes the local data, but not the online data — use the button first, or write to the address below.

Other rights: you can ask for a copy of your data (in a machine-readable format), for correction, for restriction, or object to processing, by writing to nikitapetrovapps@gmail.com. Because the account is anonymous, include the display name shown in Settings and your country so the account can be found (if you saved your progress with Google or Apple, the e-mail address of that account is enough). Requests are answered within one month. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Purchases

NEARCOIL PLUS (every premium theme and more free Ranked runs a day), single themes, the FULL RECHARGE for Campaign fuses and packs of extra Ranked runs are bought through Google Play. Payment is handled entirely by Google under Google's privacy policy: the developer never receives your card, billing address or Google account. The game only asks Google Play which items you own and remembers that on the device, so purchased themes also work offline. Nothing you can buy changes scores, and every player has the same daily maximum of Ranked runs, however the runs were obtained (free, PLUS, a rewarded ad or a pack).

Permissions

The app requests no runtime permissions — no camera, microphone, location, contacts or file access. It declares these install-time permissions: INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE (the online features, ads and Google Play purchases), VIBRATE (haptic feedback) and com.android.vending.BILLING (asking Google Play which items you own).

Because the app includes the Google Mobile Ads SDK, its manifest also declares the advertising ID permission (com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID) and Android's ad services permissions (Privacy Sandbox, on phones that have it), which the SDK may use when ads are on. Libraries bundled with the SDK also declare a few technical permissions of their own, for example for scheduling background work; a permission being declared does not mean the app uses that capability. None of these permissions gives access to your location, contacts, files, camera or microphone.

Google's sign-in library (Android Credential Manager), used for CONTINUE WITH GOOGLE, declares USE_BIOMETRIC and USE_FINGERPRINT so that the system's sign-in sheet can confirm a saved passkey or password with your screen lock. The game never reads fingerprints or other biometric data; Android handles that confirmation itself, and only when you sign in.

Children

NEARCOIL is a game for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. There is no chat and no messaging between players; the only content players create is display names, which are filtered, can be reported by tapping the name on a board (REPORT NAME), and are reset after several reports. If you believe a child under 13 (or under the age of digital consent in your country) has used the online features, write to the address below and the data will be deleted.

Security

All connections use HTTPS. Database access rules let each player read and write only their own data and the public leaderboards; moderation tools run only from the developer's computer with a key that is never shipped in the app.

Credits

The display-name filter uses word lists from the LDNOOBW project (CC BY 4.0).

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version is published at the same address with a new "Last updated" date; significant changes are also mentioned in the app's release notes. The repository's git history records every change.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: nikitapetrovapps@gmail.com.