Word Gazette

Welcome to Word Gazette: Word Puzzle Game (hereinafter referred to as "Word Gazette", "the App", or "our game"), developed and published by Newgates ("we," "us," or "our"). Word Gazette is an English and multi-language editorial crossword puzzle game designed with a newspaper-inspired broadsheet aesthetic, featuring daily crossword tables, an archive of past editions, tactile letter ring mechanics, and an ink-based hint economy.

This Privacy Policy explains how Word Gazette handles, processes, and protects information when you install and play the application on your Android device. We are dedicated to transparent data practices that strictly adhere to the Google Play Developer Program Policies and global privacy standards.

By installing, accessing, or playing Word Gazette, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you have questions regarding our data practices, please reach out to us at newgates.developer@gmail.com.

Word Gazette collects only limited, non-sensitive diagnostic and gameplay telemetry data through established Google Firebase developer SDKs. We do not collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, or account credentials.

Word Gazette operates primarily offline and relies on Android's secure, sandboxed Jetpack DataStore Preferences system. The following gameplay data is stored strictly on your device storage and is never transmitted to external developer servers:

• Puzzle Progress: Completed stage numbers, claimed rewards, star ratings (0–3 stars), best solve times (seconds), first solve timestamps, and campaign completion flags across all supported languages.
• Word Discoveries & Hints: Discovered valid table words, unlocked clue definitions, purchased word reveals, and bonus extra words found.
• Ink Supply & Economy State: Current ink balance, Recharge Tank storage level, recharge cooldown timestamps, daily free hint claim timestamps, and comeback reward counters.
• Audio & Atmospheric Settings: Background music toggle/volume, sound effects toggle/volume.
• User Preferences: Active publication language (en, ar, de, es, fa), dark paper mode, and onboarding tutorial completion flags.
• Notification Toggles: User preferences for ink recharge alerts, daily edition dispatches, and comeback reminders.

To ensure complete transparency and user peace of mind, Word Gazette explicitly confirms that it does NOT collect, read, or process:

• ❌ Personal Contact Details: No real names, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, or social media identities.
• ❌ Accounts & Credentials: No account registration, passwords, Google Sign-In profiles, or biometrics.
• ❌ Precise or Approximate Geolocation: No GPS, Wi-Fi triangulation, or cellular location access.
• ❌ Hardware Sensors & Media: No camera, microphone, audio recordings, or sensor telemetry.
• ❌ Photos & Personal Storage: No access to your photo gallery, media libraries, documents, or external files.
• ❌ Contacts & Communication: No address book contacts, SMS text messages, call logs, or calendars.
• ❌ Financial & Payment Data: No credit card numbers, bank details, or in-app billing payment records.

The non-personal diagnostic and telemetry data collected automatically is used strictly for:

• Maintaining App Stability: Identifying software crashes, uncaught exceptions, and rendering anomalies across diverse Android device configurations.
• Game Design & Difficulty Balancing: Evaluating stage completion rates, solve times, and hint usage to ensure puzzles are fun, rewarding, and fair.
• Performance Optimization: Monitoring app cold startup times and memory footprints to prevent frame drops and battery drain.
• Delivering In-Game Notifications: Sending local alerts (e.g. when your Ink Recharge Tank is full) or remote notices regarding new puzzle editions, subject to your notification preferences.
• Remote Game Economy Tuning: Dynamically updating baseline ink reward amounts and update policy configurations via Firebase Remote Config without requiring full app reinstalls.

Word Gazette integrates industry-standard Google services to support game infrastructure. Each service operates in compliance with Google's robust privacy safeguards:

Word Gazette does not display any advertisements.

The project contains no advertising SDKs, ad networks, banner mediators, or interstitial ad handlers (such as Google AdMob, Unity Ads, ironSource, or AppLovin).

The Android Advertising ID permission (AD_ID) declared in the application manifest is included solely for Google Play Services / Firebase Analytics anonymous audience measurement and demographic reporting. It is never used to profile players for marketing or to serve targeted advertisements.

We log specific, non-identifying telemetry events through Firebase Analytics to ensure balanced puzzle design:

• Screen Navigation: Screen views (Front Page, Puzzle Desk, The Archive, Gameplay, Settings) to assess UI intuitiveness.
• Puzzle Progression: Events when a stage is started, completed, or retried, including duration in seconds, stars awarded, and difficulty tier.
• Ink Economy: Hint usage by type (word_clue, reveal_word, solve_stage), ink earned from solved puzzles, and ink spent on hints.
• Layout Transitions: When players toggle alternative crossword matrix layouts to solve overlapping intersections.
• Campaign Milestones: Aggregate completion status (has_completed_game) and completed language codes.

You may opt out of device-level analytics association at any time by resetting or deleting your Advertising ID in your device settings under Settings → Privacy → Ads.

Word Gazette uses Firebase Remote Config exclusively to dynamically adjust technical and game economy balance constants. This mechanism:

• Controls values such as Recharge Tank maximum capacity, recharge hourly rates, initial ink grants, and tutorial feature toggles.
• Evaluates minimum and recommended version codes for in-app update prompts.
• Does NOT transmit personal information: Remote Config only downloads static JSON parameters from Google servers to the client device. It does not send your personal data, puzzle solutions, or user profiles to any remote server.
• Operates with Fail-Safe Defaults: If the device is offline or the network times out, the app immediately falls back to built-in local constant values.

The game includes a Share Stats feature on the Puzzle Desk screen that lets you share a summary of your solving achievements:

• Local Image Generation: When you tap "Share Stats", the game renders a customized broadsheet newspaper clipping (daily_table_stats.png) entirely locally on your device using Android Canvas graphics.
• No Server Uploads: The generated image and your statistics are never uploaded to our servers or third-party servers.
• Android FileProvider: The image is saved temporarily in the app's private internal cache directory (cacheDir/shared_images/) and shared securely via Android's native FileProvider with temporary read URI permissions.
• System Share Sheet: The image is handed over to the Android system share sheet, allowing you to choose which external application (e.g. messaging, email, social media) receives the image.
• Zero Storage Permissions: The app does not request or require broad photo gallery or external storage read permissions (READ_MEDIA_IMAGES).

Word Gazette requests only essential, non-sensitive Android permissions necessary for standard game functions:

Locally Stored Data

All gameplay progress, ink supplies, stars, and user settings stored in DataStore Preferences persist on your device as long as the application remains installed.

Firebase Telemetry & Crash Reports

Crash logs submitted to Firebase Crashlytics are retained for 90 days before automatic deletion. Aggregated analytics event data is retained by Google Firebase according to standard Firebase retention windows (up to 14 months for event-level data, with aggregated reports retained indefinitely).

Push Notification Tokens

FCM registration tokens are managed automatically by Google Play Services and are invalidated upon app uninstallation or token rotation.

Because Word Gazette does not require or support user accounts, there are no remote user accounts or personal profiles to delete.

How to Delete Local Game Data

You can permanently erase all local game data at any time through standard Android settings:

1. Open your device Settings.
2. Navigate to Apps (or App Management) → Word Gazette.
3. Select Storage & Cache → Tap Clear Storage (or Clear Data).
4. Alternatively, uninstalling the application immediately and permanently deletes all sandboxed DataStore files, cache images, and preferences from your device.

Requesting Deletion of Diagnostic Data

Because telemetry data in Firebase is aggregated under anonymous instance IDs and is not linked to personal identities, we cannot search for records by personal names. However, you can delete your device's Advertising ID via Settings → Privacy → Ads → Delete Advertising ID to prevent future associations.

We implement industry-standard safeguards to maintain the integrity and security of your data:

• Encryption in Transit: All communications between Word Gazette and Google Firebase services use HTTPS and TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption.
• Sandboxed Local Storage: Progress data is saved within Android's private app sandbox, preventing unauthorized cross-app data access.
• Principle of Least Privilege: The application declares zero sensitive permissions (no camera, microphone, GPS, storage, contacts, or phone state).
• Certified Cloud Infrastructure: Backend diagnostics are hosted on Google Cloud infrastructure adhering to ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 1/2/3, and GDPR compliance frameworks.

Word Gazette is a general-audience word puzzle game intended for players aged 13 and older (or 16 and older in the European Economic Area).

The App is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly solicit, collect, or maintain personal information from children under 13 years of age in accordance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Google Play Families Policy.

If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe your child under 13 has provided personal data to us, please contact us immediately at newgates.developer@gmail.com. We will promptly investigate and purge any such data from our diagnostic tools.

Regardless of your geographic location, you possess full control over your privacy settings in Word Gazette:

• Resetting / Deleting Advertising ID: On Android, navigate to Settings → Privacy → Ads to reset your advertising identifier or delete it entirely.
• Managing Push Notifications: You can toggle individual notification channels in the in-game Settings screen (Ink Recharge alerts, Daily Edition dispatches, Reminders) or disable system notifications under Settings → Apps → Word Gazette → Notifications.
• Erasing Local Data: You have the right to erase all progress by clearing app storage or uninstalling the game.
• Inquiries & Rights Requests: You may email us at newgates.developer@gmail.com with any data privacy inquiry. We respond to all legitimate requests in a timely manner.

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect enhancements in game features, technical infrastructure, or applicable regulatory requirements.

When modifications are made, the revised date at the top and bottom of this page will be updated. Significant changes will be announced within the game or through official update notes. We encourage players to review this page periodically to stay informed about our data protection practices.

For inquiries, feedback, or data privacy requests regarding Word Gazette: Word Puzzle Game or this Privacy Policy, please reach out to our team: