Privacy policy

The short version

Snow Sleuth has no accounts, no ads and no tracking. Your progress stays on your phone (and on an iPhone, in your own iCloud, so it follows you to a new one). The app sends us anonymous daily counts (like how many tries a daily took) and crash reports, with nothing that identifies you. You can turn them off in Settings.

What stays on your device

Your progress (levels solved, attempts, times and hints used), your daily history, streak and streak shields, how many days you’ve shared a result, the hints you have left, your mascot’s name and what it wears, games in progress and your settings are stored on your device. They are also included in your phone’s own backups (such as iCloud or Google backups) if you have those turned on. We can’t see any of it.

On an iPhone with iCloud turned on, the app also keeps a copy of your progress, daily history, streak and shields, shares, hints, your mascot’s name, what it wears and your saved outfits in your own iCloud, with a random name for each install of the app (so hints used on two iPhones add up). That’s how they come back on a new iPhone or after you reinstall. Apple stores it in your Apple Account, not us: we can’t see it. Games in progress, your settings and purchases aren’t in it (Restore purchases brings purchases back).

What we receive

When you first solve a daily puzzle on its own day, the app sends us the puzzle’s date, how many attempts it took, how many hints you used and how long it took (in whole seconds). It sends no name, account, device ID or advertising ID. We only keep totals per day (times in 15-second steps), to show “how everyone did”. The Settings switch below turns this off too.

The app also downloads puzzles from our server. Like any website, the server sees your IP address while it answers; we use it only to stop too many requests coming from one address at once, and we don’t store it or use it to identify you. Our server runs on Cloudflare.

Usage counts and crash reports

To see whether people play, which levels are too hard and where the app breaks, the app tells our server when it’s opened (once a day, week and month, with whether it’s on iOS, Android or the web, the app’s version and how many days ago it was first opened on this phone), when a daily or a pack level is opened or solved (with the attempts and hints, the pack and level number, and roughly how long a pack level took, such as “3 to 5 minutes”), when a daily couldn’t be loaded, when a hint or a restart is used, a daily shared or the reminder switched on, when a shared link is opened in a browser (once a day, with whether it’s an iPhone, an Android phone or a computer) and when “Get the app” is tapped there, when a streak shield is earned or used (and how many), when the tutorial is finished, whether the welcome, “How to play” and the home screen’s tour were finished or skipped, whether you named your detective (never the name itself), which tabs you open and whether you tapped the detective (once a day each), which things to wear you’ve unlocked and put on, when you use My outfits, when your hints run out, when a setting is switched on or off, when something for sale (packs, hints or outfits) is shown (a pack’s price only the first time), and when a purchase is made (with how many days after you first opened the app), cancelled or restored.

If something goes wrong, it sends the error message and where in the app’s code it happened, with the app version, the phone’s system (such as iOS 18), which screen was open and the few screens before it, and whether the app had to close.

None of this comes with an account, name, device ID, advertising ID or anything else that identifies you or links one event to another. We keep only totals per day and a list of distinct errors, not the individual events. It goes only to our own server, never to an analytics company; we don’t sell or share it, and it isn’t used for ads.

To stop it, turn off Settings → “Share anonymous usage and crash reports”. The app then sends nothing more and deletes anything it hadn’t sent yet.

Send diagnostics

If you ask us for help, Settings → “Send diagnostics” sends, only when you tap it, a snapshot to help us find the problem: the app’s version and build, the phone’s system, its date, time and time zone, your settings, and the last few errors on the phone with when they happened (the phone keeps the last 10 for this).

With it goes a summary of your progress: how many levels and dailies you’ve solved, your streaks, the date of your last daily and when you started, each pack’s levels solved and gold stars, the packs you’ve unlocked, which pieces and tips you’ve been shown, the hints you have and have bought, how many things to wear you have, what your detective is wearing, how many outfits you’ve saved and whether it has a name (never the name itself), whether today’s puzzle is on the phone, and whether usage counts are switched on and how many are waiting to be sent.

It contains nothing that identifies you. You get a short code to put in your email; we keep the snapshot for 30 days, and only your email links it to you.

Reminders

The daily reminder (one a day at most, at the time you choose) is scheduled on your phone. We don’t send it from a server and don’t collect notification tokens.

Purchases

Packs are bought through the App Store or Google Play, which handle payment. We receive what was bought (so the pack unlocks), never your name or payment details.

The website

snowsleuth.com sets no cookies and loads nothing from other companies: its fonts and pictures come from our own server. Playing in your browser keeps your progress in that browser’s storage on your device, and the browser game sends the same anonymous counts as the app, with the same switch in its Settings.

Children

Snow Sleuth is for a general audience. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.

Deleting your data

Deleting the app deletes everything it stored on your device (in a browser, clearing the site’s data does the same). On an iPhone, the copy in your iCloud stays, so reinstalling brings your progress back. The totals and error reports we keep are anonymous, so there is nothing linked to you to delete.

Changes

If this policy changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Questions? Email support@snowsleuth.com.