Privacy policy
What Àlọ́ keeps, and why
Effective 16 October 2026. Applies to the Àlọ́ app and this website.
Àlọ́: African Mahjong Tales is made by Techbeaver IT Systems Ltd ("we"). We are the data controller for the data described here. You can reach us at [email protected].
The short version
- You can play without giving a name or an email address. The app creates an anonymous player id the first time it opens.
- We keep your board results and a display name so that your progress follows you to a new phone and the leaderboards work.
- We do not sell your data. The app shows ads from Google AdMob. In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland you choose whether those ads may use your data, and on iPhone you choose whether apps may track you.
- You can delete your account from inside the app at any time, and everything we hold about you goes with it.
What we collect
| Data | What it is | Why we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Player id | An anonymous Firebase Authentication user id, created when you first open the app. | To keep your progress and put your times on the leaderboards. |
| Sign-in | If you choose to sign in with Apple, Google, or an email address and password, Firebase Authentication links that sign-in to your player id. Firebase keeps the email address the sign-in shares (Apple lets you hide yours) and, for email sign-in, a hashed password we never see. Our own database records only which kinds of sign-in are linked and when. | To bring your progress back on a new phone. Optional. |
| Display name | A name the app makes up for you (such as "Quiet Amber Weaver"), or one you choose. Names are unique. | Shown on leaderboards. Public. |
| Play data | A record of each board you clear: which board, the tiles you matched and when, how many times the board was reshuffled, and how many undos and hints you used. From these we keep your best time and how often you cleared each board. | To check each result on the server before it counts, to save your progress, and to rank the leaderboards. |
| Activity | When you were last seen, how many days you have played, and when you first linked a sign-in. | To understand how many players come back. Never shown to other players. |
| Notifications | Your device's push token, whether it is Android or iOS, and which reminders you turned on. | Only if you allow notifications, to send the reminders you asked for. |
| Support | Your name (optional), email address and message when you write to us. | To reply. |
| Server logs | Our hosting provider keeps short-lived request logs (IP address, time, address requested). | Security and keeping the service running. |
| Ads | Google AdMob, which shows the ads, collects your device's advertising ID (on iPhone only if you allow tracking), your IP address and the rough location it suggests, details of your device and app version, which ads you saw and tapped, and crash and performance data from the ad code. | To show ads, count and pay for them, limit how often you see the same one, and stop ad fraud. Personalised ads only with your consent where the law asks for it. |
We do not ask for your contacts, photos, precise location or anything else on your phone.
Ads
Àlọ́ is free to play and paid for by ads from Google AdMob. On the journey boards you get some hints, undos and shuffles free each day, and you can choose to watch a short ad for more. Now and then, when you move on to the next board, a full-screen ad may show, a limited number each day and never in your first session. Ads never appear in the middle of a board, and the daily, weekend and time attack boards have no ads during play. The ads shown are limited to content suitable for a general audience.
- Your choice. In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland the app asks, before any ad is shown, whether Google and its partners may use your data for personalised ads and ad measurement. If you say no, you still see ads, but they are not based on your data. You can change your answer at any time from the app's settings.
- iPhone. The app asks whether it may track you across other companies' apps and websites. If you say no, your advertising identifier is not shared and Google shows ads without it.
- Android. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings, under Privacy, then Ads.
Google uses the data it collects for ads under its own privacy policy; see how Google uses information from apps that use its services. We never send Google your name, email address or game account.
Stories and narration
Where a folktale has narration, it is read by an AI-generated voice. We make the narration before a story is published and it comes to your phone as a sound file. Nothing you say or type is sent to a voice service, and no real person's voice is copied.
Where the data lives
Progress, results and account records are stored in Google Cloud Firestore in the European multi-region (eur3, Belgium and the Netherlands). Sign-in is Firebase Authentication (Google). Notifications go through Firebase Cloud Messaging. Our server runs on TechBeaver. These companies process data on our behalf under their data-processing terms and may not use it for themselves. Google AdMob is the exception described under Ads: for ads it also decides some uses itself, under its own policy. Transfers outside the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom rely on standard contractual clauses.
How long
- Account, display name, progress, board records and notification tokens: until you delete your account.
- Support messages: twelve months after we last reply.
- Server logs: a few weeks.
- Ad data held by Google: as set out in Google's own policy. We do not receive or keep it.
Your choices and rights
- Delete everything. In the app: Settings, then Delete account. See how deletion works.
- Notifications. Turn them off in the app's settings or your phone's settings.
- Ads. Change your ad consent in the app's settings, under Privacy choices. On iPhone, turn tracking off in Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Tracking.
- Name. Change it in the app at any time.
- If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or another place with similar rules, you can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to move it. Write to [email protected]. You can also complain to your data protection authority.
Our legal grounds under the GDPR and UK GDPR: performing our contract with you (running the game you asked to play), our legitimate interests (keeping results honest, keeping the service secure, understanding how many players return, and showing ads that are not personalised) and your consent (notifications, and personalised ads where the law asks for it).
Age
Àlọ́ is made for players aged 13 and up. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us data, write to us and we will delete it.
Security
Every request to our server is encrypted and carries a signed Firebase token. The server replays each board you clear before it counts, so a tampered result is refused rather than stored.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the app will tell you the next time you open it, and the date at the top will move.