Hunchboard — Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 23, 2026

Overview

Hunchboard ("the app") is a puzzle-solving and collaboration tool. It does not require user accounts, logins, email addresses, or any form of personal identification. This policy describes what data the app collects, how it is used, and how it is stored.

1. No Personal Information Collected

Hunchboard does not collect, store, or transmit any personally identifiable information (PII). Specifically, the app does not collect:

• Names, email addresses, or phone numbers

• Photos, contacts, or location data

• Login credentials or social media profiles

• IP addresses for identification purposes

No user accounts exist. You use the app anonymously.

2. On-Device Data

Puzzle data

All puzzle content — tile labels, tile images, hypothesis states, and puzzle metadata — is stored on your device only. Puzzle data is never uploaded to any server except when you explicitly create a group collaboration session (see Section 4 below).

Puzzle images and OCR

When you import a puzzle screenshot, the image is processed entirely on your device using Apple's on-device text recognition (Vision framework). No images or OCR results are sent to any external server during puzzle input. (If you later share your puzzle via a group session, tile labels and images are uploaded to Firestore as described in Section 4.)

Tile-word lookups (Wiktionary and Wikipedia)

When you drag a tile onto the Wiktionary or Wikipedia drop-target in the solving view, the app sends the tile's text to Wikimedia Foundation servers (en.wiktionary.org for Wiktionary, en.wikipedia.org for Wikipedia) to fetch a definition or article summary. Lookups happen only when you explicitly drag a tile to a lookup target; the app does not pre-fetch or batch-lookup tile words without your action. Lookup results are cached on your device. The request includes a User-Agent string identifying "Hunchboard" along with the developer contact URL and email (per Wikimedia's public User-Agent policy). No personal information, device identifier, or analytics ID is transmitted with these requests.

External browser links

Tapping "Today's daily puzzle" on the home screen, or dragging a tile onto the "Search the web" drop-target, opens an external website in your device's default browser (typically Safari). Hunchboard hands the URL to the system and does not see what happens after that. Daily-puzzle taps open nytimes.com/games/connections (the public NYT Connections page); "Search the web" taps open a web search URL containing the tile's text. These outbound links are subject to the destination site's own privacy practices, which we do not control.

Credit balance and purchases

The app tracks how many puzzle credits remain on your device using a local counter, supplemented by a server-side credit balance tied to an anonymous device identifier (see Section 5) and managed by Apple's StoreKit (see Section 6). The server-side counter persists across app reinstalls so that purchased credits are not lost if you delete and reinstall the app.

3. Anonymous Analytics

Hunchboard uses Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics (provided by Google) to understand how the app is used and to diagnose crashes.

Firebase Analytics

Firebase Analytics collects anonymous usage events such as:

• Puzzle creation, resumption, sharing, and time-on-puzzle

• View switches between Row view and Group view, and time spent in each

• Feature usage (auto-group, tile merge, recolor, snapshot share)

• Tile-word lookups (Wiktionary, Wikipedia, web search) — the looked-up tile word is sent as an event parameter so we can see which words prompt lookups; no other context is sent

• Paywall interactions (shown, tier revealed, purchased, blocked, cancelled) and consumable puzzle-pack purchases

• "Today's daily puzzle" taps (event ping only, no payload)

• Session creation, joining, leaving, and report-abuse entry points

Firebase assigns an anonymous app instance ID per installation for analytics purposes only. This ID is not tied to any personal information, cannot identify you as an individual, and is never combined with data from other apps. It is separate from the device identifier described in Section 5.

The app also sets anonymous user properties (e.g., total puzzles created, whether you currently have unlocked puzzle credits, days since install). These properties contain no personal information.

The app does NOT set a Firebase user ID. All analytics are fully anonymous.

Firebase Crashlytics

Crashlytics collects crash reports to help us fix bugs. Crash reports include:

• Stack traces and error messages

• Device model and iOS version

• App version and build number

Crash reports do not include any personal information, puzzle content, or tile data.

How analytics data is used

Analytics data is used solely to:

• Understand which features are used and which need improvement

• Diagnose and fix crashes and bugs

• Monitor app stability

Analytics data is never sold, shared with advertisers, or used for tracking across apps or websites.

4. Group Collaboration Sessions

When you create a group session to collaborate with friends, the following data is temporarily stored on Google Cloud Firestore (a cloud database):

• Tile labels (the 16 words in your puzzle)

• Tile images (cropped tile images, if your puzzle uses image tiles)

• Hypothesis state (which tiles are assigned to which groups)

• Participant nicknames (free-text names chosen by each participant — these are not verified or tied to any identity)

• Invite code (a 6-character code used to join the session)

Session data is ephemeral

Group session documents are automatically deleted 14 days after creation. Firestore's Time-to-Live (TTL) policy enforces this deletion. Session data is not backed up or archived.

No identity required

Joining a session requires only the invite code and a self-chosen nickname. No account, login, or identity verification is needed.

5. Anonymous Device Identifier

On first launch, the app generates a random identifier (UUID) and stores it in your device's secure Keychain. Unlike app data, the iOS Keychain persists across app deletion and reinstallation — this identifier survives reinstalls so that the server-side credit balance remains accurate. This identifier is used to:

• Maintain a server-side puzzle credit balance and purchase ledger that persist across reinstalls (consumable puzzle-pack credits cannot be restored through Apple, so they are tied to this device identifier)

• Track referral attributions (if you invite friends who install the app)

Only a one-way hash (SHA-256) of this identifier is transmitted to the server. The original identifier never leaves your device. The hash cannot be reversed to identify your device or you as a person.

The server-side document associated with this hash contains only:

• Puzzle count (puzzles created on this device)

• Consumable puzzle-pack credit balance and purchase ledger

• Referral code and referral statistics

• Timestamps

No personal information is stored in this document.

6. In-App Purchases

Hunchboard offers a consumable in-app purchase called "Puzzle Packs" for $0.99 USD per pack. Each pack grants a number of puzzle credits — the specific credit count depends on the current launch-tier offering and is shown to you in the app before you confirm a purchase. Multiple packs can be purchased; credits accumulate.

Purchase transactions are handled entirely by Apple through StoreKit. Hunchboard does not process payments, store credit card information, or have access to your Apple ID or payment details. After a successful purchase, Apple notifies Hunchboard's server (via App Store Server Notifications) which credits your device's anonymous credit balance (see Section 5). The notification payload from Apple includes a per-purchase transaction identifier but does not include your Apple ID, name, or payment details.

Consumable in-app purchases are non-restorable by Apple's design — credits already on your device persist across reinstalls because they are tied to the anonymous device identifier described in Section 5, not your Apple ID.

7. Third-Party Services

• Firebase Analytics (Google) — Anonymous usage analytics: anonymous events and properties

• Firebase Crashlytics (Google) — Crash reporting: crash data, device model, OS version

• Cloud Firestore (Google) — Group session sync; anonymous credit-balance counter: session data (tiles, hypotheses, nicknames); device-hash credit balance

• Cloud Functions for Firebase (Google) — Server-side credit allocation and tier-reveal lookups, gated by Firebase App Check: anonymous device hash, credit-balance fields, App Check token

• Firebase App Check (Google / Apple DeviceCheck) — Anti-abuse for backend calls: Apple-issued anonymous device-attestation token (no PII)

• Wiktionary REST API (Wikimedia Foundation) — Tile-word definition lookups: tile text in the URL path; User-Agent string identifying the app

• Wikipedia REST API (Wikimedia Foundation) — Tile-word article summary lookups: tile text in the URL path; User-Agent string identifying the app

• StoreKit + App Store Server Notifications (Apple) — Consumable in-app purchases and server-side purchase delivery: managed by Apple; payload-bound transaction IDs only

Hunchboard does not use any advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or third-party analytics beyond Firebase.

For Google's privacy practices, see: https://policies.google.com/privacy

For Apple's privacy practices, see: https://www.apple.com/privacy/

For Wikimedia Foundation's privacy practices, see: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy

8. User-Generated Content

Group collaboration sessions contain user-provided content: tile labels (puzzle words) and participant nicknames. This content is entered by users and shared only with others who have the session's private invite code. Sessions are not publicly discoverable — only people with the invite code can access a session.

All session content is automatically deleted 14 days after creation. Hunchboard does not moderate, filter, or review user-generated content in private sessions.

9. Children's Privacy

Hunchboard does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. The app does not collect personal information from any user, regardless of age.

10. Data Retention

• Puzzle content — On-device only — Until you delete it

• Group session data — Firestore — Auto-deleted after 14 days

• Analytics events — Firebase Analytics — Google's default retention (14 months)

• Crash reports — Firebase Crashlytics — Google's default retention (90 days)

• Device hash document — Firestore — Indefinite (no PII)

11. Your Choices

• Delete puzzle data: delete individual puzzles from your puzzle list at any time. All associated data (tile images, hypothesis state) is removed from your device.

• Reset analytics: reinstalling the app resets your anonymous app instance ID and local data.

• Opt out of analytics: you can limit ad tracking and analytics collection through your device's iOS Settings > Privacy & Security settings.

• Leave a group session: your nickname remains in the session's participant list until the session expires (14 days), but no other data about you is retained.

12. App Tracking Transparency

Hunchboard does not track you across other companies' apps or websites. The app does not use Apple's IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) and does not trigger an App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted at this URL. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance.

14. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, contact us at:

Email: hunchboardapp@gmail.com

This privacy policy applies to version 1.0 and later of Hunchboard for iOS.