Block Arena Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 31, 2026 · Last updated: November 1, 2026

Block Arena is a free puzzle game for Android phones, available on Google Play. This policy explains what information the Block Arena app and the playblockarena.com website collect, how we use it, who else receives it, how long it's kept and the choices you have. It describes what the game does today.

1. Who we are

Block Arena is an independently developed game run by Christopher DeMois, an individual in Denver, Colorado, United States, who publishes it on Google Play under the name “Block Arena”. Block Arena is the name of the game, not a company. In this policy, “Block Arena”, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the game's operator, Christopher DeMois.

For any privacy question, request or complaint, email privacy@playblockarena.com. The operator reads and answers these emails personally.

This policy covers the Block Arena app for Android and the playblockarena.com website. Google Play and other services have their own privacy policies.

2. Where Block Arena is offered

Block Arena is offered on Google Play for players aged 13 and over (section 14). Its public release is in the United States, and we may also invite testers in other countries to try test versions before release. It is run from the United States, and our game servers are in the United States; some of the companies that help us, such as Google, also process information in other countries.

The same rights wherever you are. Wherever you live or use the app, it works the same way, this policy applies in full, and you have the same privacy rights (section 12.2). Google may show you the ad privacy choices that apply where you are.

3. Information we collect to run the game

This is what the app sends to our servers so the game and its online features work. None of it depends on your answer about optional statistics.

3.1 Your player account

• When you first open the app while online, it creates an anonymous account for you with our backend provider, Supabase. The account is identified by a random ID, your Privacy ID, which you can see in Settings → PRIVACY → PRIVACY & DATA. It isn't based on your device or on anything about you.
• A sign-in token keeps the account signed in. It is kept in the app's private storage, encrypted with an Android Keystore key where the device supports it, and it's never included in device backups.
• The account record holds technical details such as when the account was created and last signed in. Its sign-in sessions also record the IP address of the connection and the user agent (a short technical description of the app's network software). The record and its sessions are deleted with the account; Supabase's own sign-in logs, which can also contain IP addresses, follow Supabase's schedule (section 3.7).

3.2 Player name and leaderboards

• The game gives you a generated player name, shown like “GUEST-Cube48213”. You can change it in Settings → PLAYER NAME; a name you choose is shown exactly as you chose it. Our servers record whether your current name was generated by the game or chosen by you, and names pass through a basic offensive-word filter.
• When score posting is on and you finish an Endless or Blitz run, the app sends the score to our servers so it can be ranked on the global leaderboards. We store the run's ID, the mode, the score, how long the run lasted, how many pieces were placed, when it was accepted, the game-rules and balance versions, the app version, platform and build channel, and whether the run qualified. Our servers check the runs they accept to keep the leaderboards fair, and may exclude scores that look implausible.
• Other players can see your player name, your scores and your rank. They never see your Privacy ID or anything about your device. Player names are public, so please don't use your real name or other personal details in yours; we may change or remove names that are offensive or that impersonate someone.
• Score posting is on by default. You can turn it off in Settings → GLOBAL LEADERBOARDS. Turning it off stops future posts (a run you finished just before may still be posted); scores already posted stay on the leaderboards until you delete your data.

3.3 Cloud save of your progress

So you can get your progress back on a new phone or after reinstalling, and keep your devices in step, the app keeps a copy of your game progress on our servers: Adventure level completions and season progress (including which season messages you've already seen); when you played and solved Daily puzzles (the date on your device, the time and which puzzle); Endless and Blitz run IDs and personal bests; Arena match results (match type and outcome); collectible credits; a one-time summary of totals from before cloud save existed; and which cosmetic items you have equipped. It doesn't include anything you type or any information about your device.

3.4 Player recovery

• So you can get your player back after reinstalling or on a new phone, the app creates a random recovery key on your device. Our servers store only a one-way fingerprint (a hash) of the key, never the key itself.
• If you use Android backup, the key can travel in your device's encrypted backup or in a device-to-device transfer. On Android versions that can't encrypt backups, it isn't backed up.
• You can also create a recovery code yourself in Settings → PLAYER RECOVERY. Keep it private: anyone with the code can restore your player. We store only its fingerprint.
• When you restore a player with a recovery key or code, we move that player's name, progress, items and scores to your current install and keep a record of the transfer (which account IDs were involved, when, and how many records moved). We also record failed restore attempts, without the code, to block guessing.
• After a restore, the earlier account stays on our servers in a locked state, with any optional statistics it had, until you delete your data; deleting covers it too. If you choose to start as a new player, or switch this device to a different player, the player you leave stays on our servers, as the app warns: it can come back only with its own recovery code, and you can ask us to delete it by emailing us its Privacy ID.

3.5 Lives, rewards, items and collectibles

• Daily and Adventure modes use lives (hearts) and offer extras such as an extra life, a retry or a skip. Some extras are unlocked by watching an optional rewarded ad, some by using an item and some from a free allowance. The app records these on our servers as receipts: what was used or unlocked, when, and how. Receipts keep rewards fair, stop them being claimed twice and keep your allowances consistent if you reinstall.
• Collectibles you earn (such as emblems) and items you hold are stored with your account, together with a history of when items were added or used.
• Block Arena doesn't sell anything. If we add purchases, Google Play will handle the payments and we'll update this policy before they launch.

3.6 Daily puzzle schedule

The app downloads the schedule of Daily puzzles from our server. That request doesn't include your Privacy ID or any information about you.

3.7 Connection information

Like any internet service, our providers receive your IP address and basic technical information, such as the user agent, when the app or the website connects to them, and keep it in their logs to run and secure their services. We don't copy your IP address into our game records.

4. Optional gameplay statistics (only if you choose “Allow”)

• The game asks “Help improve Block Arena?”. If you choose Allow, the app also sends:
  • a record of each finished Endless, Blitz and Arena game: the mode, scores, how the game ended, how long it took, which AI opponent and rules were used, the start and end times, the game's random seed, and timing statistics such as how quickly you made your first move and the typical time between moves;
  • for Arena duels, a compact record of each piece you placed: which piece, where it went, what it cleared and how long the move took;
  • a small number of app events, such as “a session started”, “a screen was opened” or tutorial progress.
  These records are linked to your Privacy ID and tagged with a random install ID, session IDs, the app version, platform and build channel.
• We use them to balance the game, tune its difficulty and, in the future, to build fair matchmaking.
• If you choose No thanks, or don't answer, none of this is collected. You can change your answer at any time in PRIVACY & DATA. Turning statistics off stops collection at once and discards anything not yet sent; statistics already sent stay on our servers for the periods in section 11 unless you delete your data.
• If you close the question without answering, it appears again the next time you open the game. After a No thanks, it starts appearing again once you've finished an Arena duel in five separate sessions, until you answer it once more; after that, it never appears on its own.
• This choice covers only these statistics. It doesn't change the player account and online features in section 3, crash reports, or what Google collects for ads.

5. Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics)

• Block Arena uses Firebase Crashlytics, a Google service, to learn when and why the app crashes or hits a serious error, so we can fix it. The app sends a report to Google when that happens, usually the next time you open it. Even without a crash, the Crashlytics software contacts Google when the app starts, to register its installation ID and fetch its settings.
• A report contains the error and where it happened in the app's code (a stack trace); the app's state at the time (for example free memory and storage, and whether the app was on screen); device and app details such as the device model, Android version, screen orientation, app version and whether it's a release or test build; and two random identifiers for this installation of the app (a Crashlytics installation ID and a Firebase installation ID). Google receives your IP address when a report is sent.
• Crash reports don't include your Privacy ID, your player name, your game progress or anything you type, and we don't link them to your player account.
• Crash reporting runs for every player because it keeps the game working; the optional-statistics choice doesn't control it. Uninstalling the app stops it.
• Google provides Crashlytics to us as a service provider and keeps crash reports and the identifiers attached to them for 90 days. Google's separate analytics product, Google Analytics for Firebase, is permanently switched off in Block Arena.

6. Advertising (Google AdMob)

6.1 Ads in Block Arena

Block Arena is free to play and is supported by ads from Google AdMob, Google's advertising service. Ads may not appear in every version of the app. Where ads are shown:

• Banner ads may appear on some screens.
• Full-screen (interstitial) ads may appear at natural breaks: after a match, round, level or Daily puzzle ends, or in Endless at a pause between trays after you reach certain score milestones.
• Rewarded ads are optional. You choose to watch one (or, for some rewards, a short series) in return for a reward, such as an extra life, a retry or a skip.

We ask Google to show only ads rated as suitable for teens and older.

6.2 What Google collects

Ads are delivered by Google's Mobile Ads SDK, which is built into the app. According to Google's disclosures for this SDK, when ads are requested and shown, Google collects:

• Device and account identifiers: your Android advertising ID, app set ID and, as Google describes it, other identifiers related to accounts signed in on the device, where available and permitted;
• Approximate location: estimated from your IP address (not GPS);
• App interactions: for example app launches, taps and ad views, including video views;
• Diagnostics: app performance information such as launch time, crash logs and hang rate;
• Device and app information: for example device model, Android version and app version.

Google uses this information to deliver and measure ads, to limit how often you see the same ad, for analytics, to prevent fraud and abuse and, only where you allow it, to personalize ads. Google handles this information under its own policies: the Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

We don't send Google your Privacy ID, your player name or your game progress. For rewarded ads, the app gives Google's ad software a random one-time code and the name of the reward offered, so that a completed view can be verified. The app also includes that code in the reward receipt it sends to our servers, which don't currently use or keep it. Google never receives your Privacy ID.

6.3 Personalized and non-personalized ads

Personalized ads are chosen using information about your interests and activity linked to identifiers such as your advertising ID. Non-personalized ads are chosen using context, such as the app you're using and your general location, instead of your past activity.

If Google Play tells the app that you're under 18, ads are never personalized, whatever else you choose (section 8.6).

Declining personalized ads doesn't remove ads. You will still see ads, but they will be non-personalized or limited. Even then, Google may use identifiers or your IP address for purposes such as limiting how often an ad is shown, aggregated ad reporting and fraud prevention, as its policies describe.

6.4 Your ad choices

• In the app: open Settings → PRIVACY → PRIVACY & DATA. Where Google's privacy options apply to you (for example, its opt-out message for U.S. states with privacy laws), they open first. If you opt out there, Google limits how it uses your information and doesn't use it to personalize the ads you see.
• On your device: you can delete or reset your Android advertising ID in your device settings (on most devices Settings → Privacy → Ads; the path varies by manufacturer). Without an advertising ID, apps can't use it to personalize ads.
• In your Google account: My Ad Center lets you control ad personalization for your Google account.

7. Google account linking

Google account linking is switched off in this version of Block Arena; the PLAYER RECOVERY screen says it isn't available. The app doesn't use Sign in with Google, and we receive no information from your Google account. If we switch linking on in a future version, we'll update this policy first. It would always be optional: you never need a Google account to play.

8. Other information

8.1 Information that stays on your device

Your settings (sound, volume and haptics), your answer to the statistics question, detailed Arena match statistics and various caches are stored only on your device and aren't sent to us, except as part of optional statistics if you choose Allow. If Android backup is turned on, Android may include your game files (and, encrypted, the recovery key described in section 3.4) in your device backup, which Google handles under your Google account settings. We can't access your device backups.

8.2 Information from Google Play

Google Play gives us aggregated statistics, such as installs and ratings, and crash and performance reports (“Android vitals”) from people who have chosen to share usage and diagnostics data with Google. These reports don't identify you to us.

8.3 When you email us

• Block Arena has no in-app chat, support form or feedback form. If you email us, for example at privacy@playblockarena.com, we receive whatever you choose to send: your email address and the name shown with it, your message, any attachments such as screenshots, and details you add to help us find your data, such as your Privacy ID or player name. We keep the email conversation.
• We use it only to reply to you, to check that the game data you're asking about is yours, and to keep a record of how we handled your request. We don't add your email address to your player account, use it for marketing or share it with advertisers.
• Please don't include sensitive personal information, passwords or recovery codes in your message. We never need them to handle a request.
• Our email is hosted by Microsoft (section 10).

8.4 What we don't collect

Apart from what you choose to send when you email us, we don't collect your name or email address. We never collect your phone number, contacts, precise (GPS) location, photos, files, microphone or camera, or any text you type other than your player name and a recovery code you enter to restore your player. Block Arena's own servers never receive your advertising ID or your location; Google's ad technology processes those as described in section 6.

8.5 Sensitive information

The game never asks for sensitive information, such as government ID numbers, financial account details, precise location, health information, or details about your race, religion, sexuality or political views, and it has no place to enter it. The only security credentials involved are your sign-in token and your recovery key or code. We use them only to keep your account secure and to let you recover it, and our servers keep the recovery key and code only as one-way fingerprints.

8.6 Your age range from Google Play

Some U.S. state laws ask app stores to tell apps whether a user is a child or a teen. To follow them, each time you open the app, it asks Google Play for your age range through Google Play's Age Signals service. Google Play answers only where it provides this information, for example in states whose laws require it, and Google Play may first ask you whether to share it. The answer is an age range, such as 13 to 15, never your date of birth.

• Under 13: Block Arena is for ages 13 and up, so the game won't run. It starts no player account, ads, crash reports or other online features, and it deletes what our servers hold for that device, the same way DELETE MY DATA does (section 14).
• 13 to 17, or an account a parent supervises that is waiting for, or was refused, the parent's approval: ads are never personalized. Nothing else changes.
• 18 or over, or no answer: nothing changes.

We use the answer only for these protections and to follow these laws, never for advertising, marketing, profiling or analytics. The app keeps only the resulting setting on your device (no protection, non-personalized ads, or the under-13 block), never the age range itself, and a new answer replaces it. We don't send it to our servers, to advertisers or to anyone else. Google's ad software receives only Google's general setting to show non-personalized ads, which doesn't reveal your age.

9. How we use information

We don't use your information to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

10. How we share information

• With other players: your player name, scores and ranks on the leaderboards.
• With service providers that run parts of the service for us, listed below. They may use the information only to provide their services to us, except that Google's advertising services also use it for Google's own purposes, as described in section 6.
• With Google for advertising, as described in section 6.
• For legal reasons and protection: when we believe in good faith that it's reasonably necessary to comply with the law, a court order or other legal process, or an enforceable request from a government authority; to investigate or prevent fraud, cheating, abuse or security problems; or to protect the rights, safety or property of our players, other people or Block Arena. We share only what the situation requires.
• If the game changes hands: if Block Arena, or the business behind it, is sold, transferred, merged or reorganized, or goes through a bankruptcy or similar process, player information may be transferred to the new owner as part of that, subject to applicable law. We'll update this policy and tell you where the law requires it.

We don't sell personal information for money. Section 12.5 explains how some state laws treat personalized advertising.

Service providers

Google Play distributes the app and handles information under Google's own policies.

11. How long we keep information

Deleted information can remain for a short time in our hosting provider's backups until those backups are replaced.

Data from earlier versions. Before October 2026, earlier versions of the game (including the browser version on our website) that had sharing turned on sent statistics to an older, now-retired system keyed by a “Legacy Privacy ID”. That system no longer accepts data. Its records are kept read-only and will be deleted no later than August 2028. To ask about them, or to have them deleted sooner, email us with the Legacy Privacy ID shown under your Privacy ID in the in-game privacy panel (it appears only on devices that ran those versions).

12. Your choices and privacy rights

12.1 Choices in the app

Open Settings → PRIVACY → PRIVACY & DATA, or tap Privacy on the Home screen. If Google's privacy options apply to you, Google's form opens first. Then the Block Arena privacy panel opens, where you can turn optional gameplay statistics on or off, see your Privacy ID, delete your data from our servers (DELETE MY DATA) and open this policy.

• Leaderboards: Settings → GLOBAL LEADERBOARDS (on or off).
• Player name: Settings → PLAYER NAME.
• Advertising ID: your device settings (section 6.4).

Saying no to optional statistics or personalized ads doesn't change how the game plays, and neither choice changes the other.

12.2 Rights we give every player

Wherever you live, you can:

• know what we collect and why (this policy), and get a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
• correct your player name in Settings, or ask us to correct anything else;
• delete your data in the app or by email (section 13);
• opt out of optional statistics in the privacy panel, and of personalized ads (section 12.5);
• stop posting scores to the leaderboards in Settings;
• complain to us about how we handle your information, and get an answer.

12.3 Rights under state privacy laws

Depending on where you live, state law may give you more rights. These laws generally apply only to businesses that meet certain thresholds, and not all of them may apply to us; where one does, we follow it. Under U.S. state privacy laws they may include the rights to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to access it and get a portable copy; to correct it; to delete it; to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising; to appeal our decision about a request; and not to be treated differently for using these rights.

In the terms these laws use, over the past 12 months:

• Categories collected: identifiers (your Privacy ID, random installation IDs and IP address and, collected by Google's ad technology, your advertising ID); internet or other electronic network activity (gameplay records, receipts and, collected by Google, app interactions); approximate location (estimated by Google from your IP address, for ads); and, if you email us, your email address and whatever you include.
• Sources: you, the app on your device, and our service providers.
• Purposes: those in section 9.
• Disclosed for business purposes to: the service providers in section 10.
• May count as sold or shared: identifiers, network activity and approximate location, collected by Google when ads are personalized (section 12.5).
• Sensitive personal information: we don't use or disclose any for purposes that would give you a right to limit it (section 8.5).

The age range Google Play gives the app is used only on your device and never reaches us (section 8.6).

12.4 How to make a request

Use the in-app options where you can. For anything else, such as a copy of your data, a correction, a question, a complaint, or deletion when you no longer have the app, email privacy@playblockarena.com and include your Privacy ID. Because your account is anonymous, we may not be able to find your data without it.

• Checking it's you. Before acting, we confirm that the data belongs to the person asking, for example by matching your Privacy ID and asking about your game. We never ask for passwords or recovery codes.
• Timing. We aim to respond within 30 days. If a law that applies to you gives a shorter time, we'll meet it; if it allows more time and we need it, we'll tell you why.
• Appeals. If we decline a request, we'll explain why. You can appeal by replying to our answer; we'll review it and send you our decision and the reasons. Depending on where you live, if you're still not satisfied, you can contact your state attorney general.
• Someone acting for you. Where the law allows, you can use an authorized agent. We may ask the agent for proof that you authorized them and confirm the request with you directly.
• No discrimination. We won't treat you differently, for example by changing how the game works for you, because you used any of these rights.

12.5 Sale, sharing and targeted advertising

We don't sell personal information for money. When ads are personalized, Google uses identifiers such as your advertising ID, and information about your activity, to choose ads. Some state laws treat that as a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information, or as “targeted advertising”. You can opt out:

• in the app, with Google's U.S. privacy message: open Settings → PRIVACY → PRIVACY & DATA; where the message is offered in your state, Google's privacy options open first and you can opt out there;
• on your device, by deleting or resetting your advertising ID (section 6.4);
• in your Google account, through My Ad Center.

You'll still see ads, but Google won't use your information to personalize them. We don't knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. If Google Play tells the app that you're under 18, ads are never personalized, so there is nothing to opt out of (section 8.6).

Do Not Track and similar signals. Our website doesn't sell or share information or track you across other sites, so browser signals such as “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control don't change how it works. In the app, use the opt-outs above.

13. Deleting your data

In the app, go to Settings → PRIVACY → PRIVACY & DATA, tap DELETE MY DATA, then tap again to confirm. This deletes what our servers hold for your Privacy ID, including information moved to it by player recovery: your anonymous account, player name, leaderboard scores, cloud save, collectibles, items, lives and reward receipts, recovery records, and any optional statistics. We keep only a short record that the deletion was carried out (section 11). If the app's message says an internal account record needs an operator step, we'll remove that remaining record; email us if you'd like confirmation.

Your game progress stays on your device, but things that belonged to the deleted account, such as collectibles and items you owned, item balances and your recovery key, are reset there, and progress from before the deletion is never uploaded again. The next time you open the app while online, it starts a new anonymous account with a new Privacy ID and player name. If you don't want that, uninstall the app after deleting your data. If we delete your data because you emailed us, the app on your phone also starts a new account the next time it connects, so uninstall it if you've stopped playing.

Crash reports aren't linked to your Privacy ID, so we can't find them with it; Google deletes them after 90 days. Deleting your Block Arena data doesn't delete information Google holds for advertising; use your device's advertising ID settings and Google's tools for that.

Full instructions, including what to do if you no longer have the app: playblockarena.com/delete-account.

14. Children

• Block Arena is a general-audience game for people aged 13 and over. It isn't directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The app doesn't ask your age.
• Each time it opens, the app asks Google Play for the player's age range where Google Play provides one (section 8.6). If Google Play says the player is under 13, the game won't run, nothing online starts, and the app deletes what our servers hold for that device. If it can't reach our servers, it tries again the next time it's opened.
• If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we'll delete it.
• If you're a parent or guardian and think your child under 13 has used Block Arena, you can delete their data in the app (section 13) or email us with the child's Privacy ID. Please also uninstall the app from the child's device, or it will start a new player account the next time it goes online.
• Ads in Block Arena are limited to content Google rates as suitable for teens and older.

15. Security

• Information travels between the app and our servers encrypted (HTTPS).
• Each player can read only their own server records, apart from public leaderboard entries, and changes go through checked server functions.
• The sign-in token is encrypted with Android's protected key storage where the device supports it and is never included in backups. Recovery keys and codes are stored on our servers only as one-way fingerprints.
• We collect as little as we need, and access to the production database is limited to the operator.

No system is completely secure, and we can't guarantee that information will never be accessed without permission. If a security incident affects your personal information, we'll notify you, and the authorities, as the law requires.

16. The playblockarena.com website

• The website has no accounts and uses no cookies for tracking, analytics or advertising.
• Netlify, our website host, logs technical information such as IP addresses, browser type and the pages requested, to deliver and secure the site.
• The browser version of the game on the homepage saves its progress, and may store copies of the game's files, in your browser's storage. It doesn't connect to our game servers, leaderboards, crash reporting or ads; it may show the “Help improve Block Arena?” question, but whatever you answer, it can't send statistics. To remove its data, clear this site's data in your browser.

17. Changes to this policy

We may change this policy, for example when the game gets new features or the law changes. When we do, we'll publish the new version on this page and update the “Last updated” date above. If a change is significant, such as collecting new kinds of information or using it in new ways, we'll point it out at the top of this page, and where the law requires your consent we'll ask for it in the app before the new use starts.

18. Contact us

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: privacy@playblockarena.com.
Operator: Christopher DeMois, publishing as Block Arena, Denver, Colorado, United States.