Privacy policy

Effective date: 4 October 2026. Honest Blocks is in early testing on Google Play. This policy describes what the game and its leaderboard server do today, and it will be updated here whenever that changes.

1. Who we are

Honest Blocks is made by one person, David Dillow. On Google Play the developer name is "Honest Blocks".

Email: support@honestblocks.app
Post: Honest Blocks, 110 Somerville Ave, Suite 154, Chattanooga, TN 37405, United States

2. The short version

• There is no account, and no personal details are collected. We never ask for your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos or precise location.
• There is no chat, no messaging, and nowhere to type text that other players can see.
• If you play online, the leaderboards store a generated name, your country, your score, and a random device code.
• The country is worked out from the connection when a score is sent. The IP address is not stored.
• Ads are provided by Google AdMob. We ask for non-personalised ads for everyone, and the game does not use the advertising ID.
• Purchases are handled by Google Play.
• You can delete your leaderboard data at any time, in the app or by email. It is gone within 30 days. How to delete it

3. What stays on your phone

The game works fully offline. These things are kept on your phone so it can do that:

• your settings, best scores, streak, statistics and unlocked themes;
• a game in progress, so you can pick it up again;
• your generated leaderboard name and your random device code;
• finished games waiting to be sent to the leaderboard when you are back online;
• whether Remove All Ads is owned;
• your coins and what you bought with them (block styles, backgrounds, sound packs and saved designs). We never receive these and they are never shown to anyone else. If Android's backup is on, Google keeps a copy so they return on a new phone.

The Daily Puzzle's pieces are worked out on your phone from the date. Nothing is downloaded to play it.

If backup is switched on in your phone's settings, Android's automatic backup may keep a copy of some of this, such as your random device code, your settings and your best score, in your own Google backup. That backup belongs to your Google account. We cannot see it. It means a reinstall or a new phone can bring the same device code back. You can switch backup off in your phone's settings.

4. What the leaderboard stores

Nothing is sent to our server until you start your first game. After that, when the phone is online, the game asks our server for Classic game seeds and sends finished games automatically, so that they can go on the leaderboards. It sends your random device code and your phone's region setting with those requests. When a finished game is sent, the server stores:

• A generated name, such as "Brave Otter 4821". It is built from word lists. You can reroll it, but you can never type one.
• Your country, as a two-letter code. How it is decided
• Your score.
• The game mode (Daily Puzzle or Classic), the game's seed (the number its pieces came from), and when the score arrived, to the second.
• For a Daily Puzzle score, the calendar date on your phone when you started it. The date only, not your clock time or time zone.
• A random device code, in scrambled form. The code is made on your phone when the game is installed. It is not an advertising ID and is not tied to your phone number, your Google account or the phone itself. The server keeps only a one-way hash of it, not the code.

The server keeps at most one Daily Puzzle score per date and one best Classic score for each device code.

To keep the boards fair, the server also keeps, against the same scrambled code:

• One-time seeds for Classic leaderboard games. The server issues the seed before the game. It keeps the seed, when it was issued, whether it has been used, and the checked score of the game that used it.
• Counts of requests (score submissions, country changes and deletion requests), kept for about two hours, to stop flooding.
• A country you chose yourself, and when you chose it, if you ever change your country.
• A yes-or-no flag on a score, saying whether it counts toward the Country Cup yet. It exists for the 7-day rule in section 5.
• A Founding Player marker. If your first verified game reaches the server in the first 30 days after launch, the server records when that was, so a small badge can be shown beside your name.
• A supporter marker. If you have bought Remove All Ads, the game says so when it sends a score, and the server keeps a yes or no so a small gold star can be shown beside your name. It holds nothing about the purchase itself, and it never changes a score or a rank.

The server also keeps a daily count of how many times it wrote to its database. That count contains nothing about any player.

Sent, checked, and thrown away

• Your list of moves and their timing. The server replays the game to check the score, then discards the moves. They are not stored.
• Your phone's region setting. It is used only if the connection does not reveal a country.

What other players can see

Leaderboards are public to everyone who plays. They show your generated name, your country's flag, your score and, if you have them, the Founding Player badge and the supporter's gold star. They never show the device code.

We also keep totals worked out from the scores, such as how many people played in each country and each week's Country Cup results. These totals contain no names and no device codes.

To be honest about the limits: a generated name and a country do not identify you, but in a country with very few players, someone who already knows you play might guess which entry is yours.

5. How the country is decided

• The country is worked out from the connection when a score is sent. Only the two-letter country code is kept.
• The IP address is not stored. Our code never reads it. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, necessarily handles your IP address to deliver the request and tells our server only the country. We keep no logs that contain it; request logging on the server is switched off.
• If the connection gives no country, the region setting on your phone is used instead.
• A VPN or travel can make the country wrong, so you can change it yourself. Returning to the country your connection shows is always allowed. Choosing a different country needs one counted score and a device code that is at least a day old. It then locks further changes for 7 days, and it counts toward the Country Cup only after 7 days.
• Cloudflare, our hosting provider, limits how many requests one IP address can make, at the edge of its network, to stop flooding. Cloudflare counts and discards. We do not receive or store IP addresses.

6. Ads

Ads are provided by Google AdMob. We use no other ad network. When ads appear, and when they never do

• We ask Google for non-personalised ads for every player, everywhere.
• The game does not use your phone's advertising ID, and does not ask for permission to read it.
• We ask Google to show only ads rated for general audiences.

To deliver ads, limit how often you see the same one, and stop fraud, Google's ads software in the game still collects some information itself. According to Google, this includes your IP address (from which it may work out your general location), an identifier that is limited to this developer's apps on your phone (the app set ID), where it applies other identifiers related to accounts signed in on the phone, how you interact with ads, and diagnostic information such as how long the app takes to start. That information goes to Google, not to us. Google explains its side here:

• How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services
• Google's privacy policy

The consent choice

• If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Google's consent message asks for your choice before any ad is requested.
• It appears between games, never when you first open the app and never during a game.
• "Do not consent" is as easy to choose as "Consent". Whichever you choose, we still ask Google for non-personalised ads. The choice is about whether Google may store and read information on your phone for ads. If you do not consent, Google may show fewer ads or none, and the game works just the same.
• You can change your choice later in the app: Settings, then Privacy, then Ad choices. That row is shown wherever a choice applies to you.

After Remove All Ads is bought, the ads software is not started at all.

7. Purchases

Purchases are handled entirely by Google Play. We never see or collect card details. The game learns only whether Remove All Ads is owned. That fact stays on your phone and is not sent to our server.

The rating prompt

The game may ask whether you would like to rate it, using Google Play's own in-app review prompt. It is shown at most once per app version and is handled by Google Play.

8. Sharing and challenge links

Share cards and challenge links are made on your phone and sent through whichever app you choose. A challenge link contains the game's seed, your score and the game mode. It does not contain your name, your country or your device code, and the page it opens stores nothing.

9. If you write to us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write. "Send feedback" in the app opens your own mail app with a blank message. If you want your leaderboard data deleted, the quickest way is in the app and needs no email: Settings, then Privacy, then "Delete my leaderboard data". If you do write, tell us your generated leaderboard name, your country and roughly when you played, to help us find your data. We keep emails only as long as it takes to answer them.

10. What we do not do

• We do not sell data.
• We do not use analytics software in the game.
• We do not track you across other apps or websites.
• We do not keep email lists or send marketing.

11. Children

Honest Blocks is intended for players aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The leaderboard holds no personal details for anyone: names are generated, and there is no chat or free text.

12. Deleting your data

There are two ways. Neither needs an account or proof of who you are. The first is the quickest and needs no email.

1. In the app: Settings, then Privacy, then "Delete my leaderboard data". Your entries are removed from our database at once; a leaderboard may show a cached copy for a few minutes.
2. By email: use Settings, then Send feedback (the message starts blank), or write to support@honestblocks.app from any mail app. To help us find your data, tell us your generated leaderboard name, your country and roughly when you played, and we will find the entry with you. We will not delete on a guess.

Either way, everything the server holds for your device code is deleted within 30 days, including copies in the database's own history.

Uninstalling the game removes what it kept on your phone. A copy may remain in your own Google backup, as described in section 3.

13. How long we keep it

14. Where it is processed

Leaderboard data is processed and stored on Cloudflare's network, which operates worldwide. Ads and purchases are processed by Google.

15. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask what the server holds for your device code, ask for it to be deleted, and change your generated name or your country in the app. Because we hold no name or email address for you, we need your generated leaderboard name, your country and roughly when you played to find your entries.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to complain to your data protection authority. If you are in California: we do not sell or share personal information.

16. This website

This website uses no cookies, no analytics, no trackers, and no fonts or scripts from other companies. Cloudflare hosts it and necessarily handles your IP address to deliver the pages. We see only totals, such as how many pages were served.

17. Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes and the change is listed below. Changes that matter are also mentioned in the app's release notes.

What changed

4 October 2026. Corrected before release: what is sent to the server and when; how to ask for deletion; the country-change rules; what the request counts cover; when the Founding Player marker is recorded. Added: Cloudflare's request limit, the Country Cup flag, the daily count of database writes, and the Google Play rating prompt.

4 October 2026, second change. Choosing a different leaderboard country now locks further changes for 7 days. It was 30 days.