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Privacy policy

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1. Overview

Palmo is a puzzle game made by Bardino Technology. This page says what the game keeps on your phone, what it sends away, who receives it and how to delete it.

It describes the game as it is built today, including the cloud save, the optional sign-in, the reminders, the analytics events and the crash reporting.

Some features arrive with an update: the nickname, Today's patch, gold cells and Bardino membership. The passages about them are marked in versions that have the feature and apply once your copy of the game has it; until then the game does not collect or send what they describe.

2. Your identity in the game

The first time you open Palmo it asks Firebase Authentication for an anonymous identity. This happens on its own. You are not asked for a name, an e-mail address or a phone number, and there is no login wall anywhere in the game. The identity is a random string, and its only job is to be the name of the folder your cloud save sits in.

Linking a Google or Apple account is optional. Its only purpose is to let you pick the game up on a second device, or on the same device after a reinstall. Linking converts the anonymous identity instead of making a new one, so the save you already have stays exactly where it is.

  • Google: signing in passes an ID token to Firebase, which is what proves the account is yours.
  • Apple: offered on iOS. The game requests the e-mail scope only. Apple may hand back a relay address, or no address at all, and only on the first authorisation.
  • If an address does come back, Firebase Authentication keeps it on the device and the Settings screen shows it so you can see which account you are on. Where no address is available, that row reads Linked instead.

Nickname (in versions that have it). On first launch the game makes up a nickname on the device from two words in your language and a number, for example Swift Thread 42. Under Nickname in Settings you can draw a new one or type your own (2 to 20 characters). It is shown on the map and in Settings, two of the reminder titles can start with it, and it goes into your cloud save (section 4). The name on your Google or Apple account is never read, and linking an account does not change the nickname. If you share a Today's patch result, the text, which includes your nickname, goes wherever you send it from your phone's share sheet; the game itself sends it nowhere.

3. What stays on your device

All of this is written with the operating system's own preference storage. It is the game's real memory: the cloud copy described in the next section is made from it, not the other way round.

  • Progress: which levels you cleared, how many stars each one holds, and the lifetime counts of regions settled, cells taken and nine-cell regions.
  • Settings: sound, music, haptics, path hints and the language you picked.
  • Lives and their timer, how many rewarded ads you watched today, and whether you bought the ad-free version.
  • Jokers, and a note of which chapter rewards have already been paid out.
  • Housekeeping: how long it has been since the last ad, whether you have seen the tutorial, your answer to the ad consent form, and a random identifier generated on the device that marks which install last wrote to the cloud. That identifier is made by the game, not read from the phone; reinstalling produces a new one.
  • Reminders: whether they are switched on, when the scheduled ones are due, when the last one was due, and how many times the game has invited you to turn them on.
  • In versions that have these features: your nickname and whether you picked it yourself; gold pieces and which gold cells have already paid out; your Today's patch record; and, if you use Bardino membership, which account it is linked to and any Today's patch wins or nickname change that could not be sent yet.

4. What is saved to the cloud

The game keeps one cloud save per player in Cloud Firestore, filed under your anonymous identity. It holds:

  • levels cleared and stars per level;
  • the lifetime counters (regions settled, cells taken, nine-cell regions);
  • joker counts and the chapter rewards already paid;
  • which lessons you have been taught and whether the tutorial has been seen;
  • your settings: music, sound, haptics, path hints and language;
  • in versions that have these features: your nickname and whether you picked it yourself, your gold pieces, which gold cells have already paid out, and your Today's patch record (the last day you solved it, your current and longest streak, and the stars and time of that day's first solve);
  • bookkeeping fields: a format version, the identifier of the install that wrote last, and a server timestamp of that write;
  • from version 1.1.1: the Analytics identifier of this install (Firebase Analytics' app instance ID). It lets our own player lists show your nickname next to the events of the same install, instead of a random number. It is not sent to the ad network, and it is deleted with your cloud save.

Three things are deliberately not sent: your lives and their timer, your daily rewarded-ad counts, and the ad-free flag. Lives are a timer rather than a possession, and the ad-free purchase belongs to the store, which is the only thing that can confirm it.

Access rules restrict every record to the account that owns it; the only other access is read-only access for Bardino's own administration account. Players have no query that lists the saves, so one save cannot be reached from another. Everything else in the database is refused by default. The rules are published as part of every deployment.

The cloud copy is a convenience. If Firebase cannot start, if the network is down or if a write is refused, the game carries on from the copy on your phone.

5. Reminders

The game can remind you where you left off. Reminders are local notifications: the game schedules them on your phone through the phone's own notification system. No push service and no server are involved, and nothing is sent to us to set them up.

  • Permission: on Android 13 and later and on iOS, after you finish your first level the game asks in its own window whether you want reminders. Only Remind me opens the phone's permission prompt; Not now costs nothing, and the game asks at most twice. On Android 12 and earlier the phone allows notifications without a prompt, so there is no invitation and reminders are on until you switch them off. Switching Notifications on in Settings opens the prompt if permission is missing. On Android the game also holds the permission that keeps scheduled reminders after the phone restarts; it does not ask for exact alarms.
  • What and when: reminders are set when you leave the game and all removed when you come back, so none arrives while you play. The text is put together on the phone from your progress: the level you are on, the chapter's name and how many of its levels are left, when your lives are full again, and how many levels you have cleared. In versions that have a nickname, two of the titles can start with it. At most one reminder a day, none between 22:00 and 09:00, and none after the eighth day.
  • What leaves the phone: two analytics events (section 7), and an error report if setting a reminder fails (section 8). One event says that you tapped a reminder, which kind it was and how many days after your session it was set for; the other says how you answered the invitation and whether the phone granted permission. The reminder text itself is never sent.
  • Switching them off: turn off Notifications in Settings, which also removes any reminder already scheduled, or block them in your phone's settings. On Android the two kinds, Lives refilled and Progress reminders, can be switched off separately.

The reminder setting and schedule stay on the device; they are not part of the cloud save.

6. Bardino membership

In versions that have it, Palmo offers Bardino membership: an optional, free membership shared by three Bardino games (Decimo, Colmo and Palmo) that gives one nickname across them, a shared daily streak and gifts. What Bardino's server keeps, for how long and on what legal basis is set out in the Bardino membership notice. This section covers only what Palmo itself sends and stores.

  • Before you join: the game asks Bardino's server whether membership is open. That request carries no identity. If membership is open and you have linked a Google or Apple account, the game also sends your sign-in token, which contains that account's e-mail address, so the server can tell whether you are already a member. A player who has not linked an account sends no token.
  • When you join: joining needs a Google or Apple sign-in, and you tick a box confirming the terms, the notice and that you are 13 or older. Along with your sign-in token, the game sends the version of the terms you accepted, that confirmation and, for a new membership, your current Palmo nickname.
  • While you are a member: every request carries your sign-in token. The game asks for your membership status from time to time, and sends the date of each Today's patch you solve (your local day), a nickname you change, and the gifts you claim. In return it receives your shared nickname, which replaces the Palmo one, your shared streak and your gifts; claimed gifts are added to your jokers.
  • On the phone: which Palmo account the membership is linked to, and any Today's patch wins or nickname change that could not be sent yet, for example while offline. None of this goes into the cloud save.
  • Leaving: Leave Bardino in Settings deletes your membership record for all three games. Your Palmo progress and the gifts you already claimed stay. Deleting your Palmo account (section 11) does not end the membership; if you want both gone, leave Bardino first.

7. Analytics

The game sends Firebase Analytics a short list of events about play rather than about you:

  • a level was opened, and a level was finished with its star count, its duration, how many settled regions you pulled apart, how many moves the board refused and how many hints appeared;
  • a level ended without being solved, split into the case where the board ran out of moves and the case where you left it;
  • a board reached a dead end, and how much budget was left;
  • a settled region was pulled apart, a hint appeared, or a life was handed back;
  • a joker was used, and which of the three it was;
  • an ad was shown, whether it paid out, and the revenue AdMob reports for it;
  • the ad-free version was bought;
  • an account was linked, and whether it was Google or Apple;
  • the store's rating prompt was requested, and whether a Google Play Games or Game Center step worked;
  • a reminder was tapped, and how you answered the reminder invitation (section 5);
  • in versions that have these features: Today's patch was opened, solved, left or shared, with the day, stars, duration and streak; a gold cell was broken; gold pieces became a joker; the Bardino card was shown, membership was joined, failed or left, a gift was claimed, or a sibling game's store page was opened.

Consent for analytics is narrowed in code before the first event is sent: ad storage, ad personalisation signals and ad user data are all set to denied, and only analytics storage is allowed. The anonymous identity is not passed to Analytics. From version 1.1.1 the link exists the other way round: the cloud save holds this install's Analytics identifier (section 4), so in our own tools the events of an install can be matched with its cloud save and nickname. Nothing from the cloud save is sent to Analytics. None of them carries your nickname, your e-mail address or anything else you typed.

8. Crash reports

Firebase Crashlytics records crashes and the handled errors that should not pass silently, such as a refused cloud write or a sign-in that failed. A report contains the stack trace and the device information the Crashlytics library collects itself: device model, operating system version and app version.

Two things are attached deliberately. The first is the number of the level you were on. The second is your anonymous identity, so that a crash can be matched with the cloud save it belongs to when we are working out what went wrong. That identity is a random string with no name, e-mail address or device identifier in it.

9. Ads

  • Between levels (Google AdMob): from level 11 onwards a full-screen ad can appear, at most one every four levels and not within three minutes of the last one. There is never an ad after a level that ended with zero stars, and there are no banner ads anywhere.
  • Ads you choose to watch: one earns a life, another earns a joker. Both are optional, both are capped per day, and skipping them takes nothing away from you.
  • What Google receives: to select and measure an ad, the device's advertising identifier and standard request data such as approximate region, device type and operating system version. You can reset or switch off that identifier in your device settings at any time.
  • Consent: in the EEA and the UK, and anywhere else Google's rules require it, Google's consent form is shown before the ad library is started, and your answer is stored on the device. You are not stuck with that first answer: where the form applies, Settings carries an Ad privacy row that reopens it. Where it does not apply, the row is not shown.
  • App Tracking Transparency (iOS only): before anything is requested from the ad network, iOS asks whether the app may track you across other companies' apps and websites. Saying no changes nothing about the game; it only means the ads you see are not personalised.

10. Purchases

There is one purchase, it removes the ads, and it is a one-off rather than a subscription. It is sold by Google Play and the App Store: payment happens inside the store, we are not the seller of record, and no card number or billing address reaches us. The game keeps a yes/no flag on the device and asks the store to confirm it again on a new one.

11. Deleting your data

You can delete the cloud save and the identity it is filed under from inside the game, and you can clear the copy on your phone separately. The steps for each, and what each one does not cover, are set out on the Account deletion page.

Bardino membership is separate: Leave Bardino in Settings deletes it (section 6).

12. Children

Palmo contains no chat and no content from other players. The only thing you can type is your nickname, in versions that have one, and it appears only on your own screens and in a Today's patch result you choose to share. The game is not directed at children, and Bardino membership is open only to people aged 13 or over. The game does show ads, so it is rated for a general audience rather than declared a children's app.

13. Changes

Material changes to this page are published here with a new date.

14. Contact

info@bardino.app · com.bardino.palmo