Privacy on Android

This policy covers Tinker for Android and tinkerpuzzles.com. Tinker uses play statistics and crash reports to improve the game. These records use a random installation ID, not your name, email or Google Account.

Tinker is operated by JOB CLERK LTD. For privacy questions or requests, email hello@tinkerpuzzles.com.

In the app

• Play statistics. Release versions of the app send events to PostHog’s EU cloud: rooms and puzzles opened, moves and their timing, solves, hints, skips, restarts, rewards, races, settings changes, answers to notification and update offers, and use of sharing. Events include the app version and build number, the phone’s manufacturer and model, Android version, screen size, language, time zone, how far you have got (rooms solved and stars) and settings such as sound, vibration, text size and accessibility options. They also say whether this copy of the app was installed from Google Play or in another way. We use them to understand where players get stuck and improve the app.
• Crash and exit reports. If Tinker crashes, it notes the error on your phone and sends it to PostHog the next time it opens: the error’s type and message and the code’s stack trace. On that launch it also reads Android’s record of how the app last closed and reports endings that point to a problem: the app not responding, a native crash, failing to start, or Android stopping it for low memory or excessive resource use, with Android’s description and the app’s memory use at the time. Reports do not include a screen recording or a recording of your microphone.
• The installation ID. A random ID connects events from the same installation over time. We do not connect it to your name, email, Google Account, advertising ID or activity in other companies’ apps. Because records remain connected to an installation, we describe them as pseudonymous rather than fully anonymous. The ID stays on your phone: Android backup does not copy it, so a new phone or a reinstall starts with a new one.
• Approximate location and network information. Our service providers receive an IP address when your device connects. While analytics is on, PostHog uses it to estimate approximate location, such as country, region, city and the approximate coordinates associated with that network. We use this information to compare how people play and return to Tinker across markets and inform our marketing decisions. PostHog discards the raw IP address before storing the event; the approximate location remains with the analytics record under the retention policy below. These estimates can be inaccurate, especially with mobile networks or VPNs. Tinker does not request GPS or device location access.
• Your progress. Saved on your phone. While Settings → Back up progress is on, Tinker also writes it to the one file it lets Android back up. If backup is on in your phone’s settings, Android saves that file to a private area of your Google Account and can copy it to a new phone set up from this one. We can’t see it.
• Google Play Games. If you use Google Play Games, Google signs you in automatically when Tinker opens. Tinker has no sign-in screen of its own, and you can play every puzzle without Play Games; if you have no Play Games profile, Tinker doesn’t ask you to make one. While you are signed in, the app sends your achievement progress, leaderboard scores and best chapter race times to Google. Tinker learns only whether you are signed in; it does not read your Play Games name, profile or Google Account. Google handles your profile, scores and its own service data under the Google Privacy Policy; you can manage or delete them from your Play Games profile.
• Sharing. Sharing a Rush result hands a picture of it to Android’s share sheet; the app you choose handles what you send under its own terms. Tinker does not ask for access to your photos or files.
• Notifications and app configuration. New-room notifications are optional: Android asks for permission only when you turn on Settings → New rooms, and notifications are scheduled on your phone. The app fetches update information and announcements from our Cloudflare-hosted API without sending your progress or analytics ID.
• Optional purchases. Google Play handles payments for gear and lightning packs. Tinker does not receive your payment card details. On your phone, the app checks Google Play’s signature on each purchase with Tinker’s licence key, then saves the purchase token, the pack and your remaining supplies so each purchase is delivered once. These records are kept in the file Android backs up, whatever the Back up progress switch says. Resetting game progress keeps purchased supplies.
• No advertising. There are no ads, no cross-app advertising tracking, no session recordings, and no access to your contacts or microphone.

Why we process this information

Where data-protection law applies, we rely on our legitimate interests in improving Tinker and keeping it reliable for play statistics and technical diagnostics. Analytics is on by default; you can object or stop new collection as explained below without losing access to the game. The launch email list is optional and based on your consent.

We use PostHog for analytics, Cloudflare for hosting and the launch list, and Google for Android backup, Google Play Games, Google Play payments and system features. Service providers must protect information under their applicable data-protection terms. PostHog analytics is hosted in the EU; providers may process other information in countries outside yours, with the safeguards required by applicable law. We do not sell analytics data or share it for advertising.

On this website

• The launch list. If you leave your email address, we keep it, the date you left it and which link brought you here (such as a particular video post), on Cloudflare, and use it only to tell you when Tinker is out or when the beta changes in a big way.
• Hosting. Cloudflare receives connection information such as your IP address and requested URL to deliver and protect the website. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party advertising trackers.

How long information is kept

Our current PostHog plan retains analytics and diagnostic events for up to seven years. We have not set a shorter automatic retention period. You can request earlier deletion of records associated with your installation ID. Turning analytics off or uninstalling Tinker does not itself delete records already received.

We keep launch-list details until you unsubscribe or the list is discontinued. If you contact support, we keep the correspondence as needed to answer your request and keep a record of how it was handled. Progress stays on your phone, and in its Android backup when that is on, until you reset or remove it. Google controls retention for Google Play Games and for Google Play purchase records.

Your choices

• Turn off Settings → Share analytics to stop new play-statistics, approximate-location and diagnostic collection. Events still waiting on your phone are discarded when you switch it off. The setting does not change access to the game.
• Use Settings → Privacy request to open an email containing your analytics ID. Send it to ask for access, deletion, correction, restriction, or to object to processing. Please send the request before uninstalling if you want us to find that installation’s records. We cannot look up installation records from your Google Account.
• Email hello@tinkerpuzzles.com to leave the launch list or make any other privacy request.
• Turn off Settings → Back up progress to stop writing progress to the backup, and manage Android backup itself in your phone’s settings. Reset progress clears game progress; it does not delete PostHog records or Play Games achievements and scores. You can manage notification permission in Android’s settings.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional data-protection rights and may complain to your local supervisory authority, including the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Children

Tinker does not ask players to create an account or provide their name or age. Parents can turn analytics off and contact us about a child’s information using the same controls and contact address above.

Changes

If this changes, the new version goes on this page with a new date.

Last updated 4 November 2026.