Website and Mobile Application Privacy Policy

This privacy policy governs your use of all software applications (“Application”) created by Boy Howdy Technology LLC that run on computers, websites, or mobile devices.

California-specific Policies

If you are located in California, this section will apply as of January 1, 2020.

Categories of information collected:
– Your network IP address is used to approximate your location in order to serve you ads of businesses that are nearby.  This data collection is handled by the ad network SDKs included in our apps.  Also note that we do not sell any of your information directly, as your information is used to serve ads on your device from ad networks which pay us.  For specifics on information collected by ad networks, please visit:
AdMob – https://support.google.com/ads/answer/1660762
Amazon – https://developer.amazon.com/support/legal/mobileads/terms-and-agreements
– We may also use your device type and configuration in order to adjust your experience such as showing larger pictures on iPads vs iPhones, or whether you are on wifi or cellular data to decide on data usage options.

Please see the EU policies section about email newsletters, helprequests, gamecenter for information on how we handle your personal information when you contact us, which again is not sold but only used in order to reply to your help requests, etc.

California would like us to inform you of the following rights you have:
The right to know which personal information is being collected
The right to know if personal data is being sold or shared, and to whom
The right to object to the sale of personal data
The right to access one’s own personal information
The right to equal service and price, even for consumers who exercise their privacy rights
To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing privacy@boyhowdytechnology.com.  We must be able to verify your identity in order to respond to such a request and make sure it’s a legally valid request.  As the most likely requests will be based on using your email address as an identifier, please use the email address you are asking about when sending in a request as this would most likely be sufficient to verify your authority over requests about that email address.  (Example, you could request to delete your email records from our help desk database)

EU-specific Policies

If you are located in the European Union, this section will apply as of May 25, 2018.

We use a web server to let our apps look up configuration/level/dictionary data and to load images for use in our games.  Our web server only logs accesses using truncated IP addresses which makes it impossible for us to identify individual users, but still allows us to make sure our web server is running properly.

Update as of July 2019 – we are updating our apps to ask EU users for cookie consent to enable non-personalized ads using anonymous cookie identifiers which are used for reporting and fraud prevention.
The ad networks we use to serve ads to EU users are as follows:
– AdMob (non-personalized ads if consent given)
– MoPub (non-personalized ads) disabled for EU users as of 3/29/2019
– AOL (non-personalized ads only) disabled for EU users as of 3/29/2019
Note that you can at any time withdraw consent from all personalized advertising by enabling the Limit Ad Tracking setting on iOS.

If you have signed up for our email newsletter, then we use your email address for mailing you newsletters.  If you wish to remove your email address, click the unsubscribe link in the newsletter, or email us at privacy@boyhowdytechnology.com.  MailChimp is the Data Processor for our newsletters, and their privacy policy is at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. MailChimp includes tracking in our emails so we know how successful our newsletters are and whether you open them or click any links in the email. This information is all stored in MailChimp and is not sold to any 3rd party.

If you submit a help request to us using the Contact Us form on this website then we use your email address in order to respond to your help request.  As of October 2022 we have migrated our help desk system to FreshDesk and their privacy policy is at https://www.freshworks.com/privacy/.  Previously we used salesforce.com as our help desk ticketing system to process these help requests.  If you would like us to remove your information, please email us at privacy@boyhowdytechnology.com.

If you have logged into GameCenter on your iOS device, then you are sharing your Apple ID account with Apple in order to submit and view leaderboard scores.  If you wish to remove your data from GameCenter, you can log out of GameCenter on your iOS device and then visit Apple at https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/gamecenter/ to view specific information for your country.

We have disabled our analytics provider, Google Crashlytics, for EU users.

What information does the Application obtain and how is it used?

While using the Application, you may provide us with personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”). Personal Information includes but is not limited to email address and name. We may use your Personal Information to respond to support requests, or to send email newsletters if you signed up for them.

If you choose to connect the Application with Facebook, other players/users of the Application may be able to see Personal Information from your Facebook Profile including but not limited to: your name, home town, game scores, etc. This information is governed by Facebook’s privacy policy and your privacy settings in Facebook.  (NOTE that as of 2019 none of our apps in the AppStore connect with Facebook anymore)

The Application may collect certain information automatically, such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile devices unique device ID (NOTE that this is actually the Advertiser ID provided to our applications by iOS, and which you can disable by enabling Limit Ad Tracking in Settings), the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browsers you use, and information about the way you use the Application.

This application may collect precise information about the location of your device, in order to present either location-based leaderboards, or to be able to show banner advertisements for businesses near your current location. (NOTE that we no longer use GPS-level location detection or location-based leaderboards, although we may use your IP address to determine at a very coarse level where you are located in terms of Country or State in order to enable or disable services, for example to disable analytics for EU users)

Do third parties see and/or have access to information obtained by the Application?

Yes. We will share your information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy statement.

We may disclose Personal Information and Automatically Collected Information:

• as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process;

• when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request;

• with our trusted services providers who work on our behalf, do not have an independent use of the information we disclose to them, and have agreed to adhere to the rules set forth in this privacy statement.

• if Boy Howdy Technology LLC is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any change in ownership or uses of this information, as well as any choices you may have regarding this information;

• to advertisers and third party advertising networks and analytics companies as described below under the Section entitled Automatic Data Collection and Advertising

Automatic Data Collection and Advertising

We may work with analytics companies to help us understand how the Application is being used, such as the frequency and duration of usage. We work with advertisers and third party advertising networks, who need to know how you interact with advertising provided in the Application which helps us keep the cost of the Application low [free]. Advertisers and advertising networks use some of the information collected by the Application, possibly including the unique identification ID of your mobile device. These third parties may also obtain anonymous information about other applications you’ve downloaded to your mobile device, the mobile websites you visit, your non-precise location information (e.g., your zip code), and other non-precise location information in order to help analyze and serve anonymous or targeted advertising on the Application and elsewhere.

If you’d like to opt-out from third party use of this type of information to help serve targeted advertising, please visit the section entitled “Opt-out” below.

What are my opt-out rights?

There are multiple opt-out options for users of this Application:

Opt-out of all information collection by uninstalling the Application – You can stop all collection of information by the Application easily by uninstalling the Application. You may use the standard uninstall processes as may be available as part of your mobile device or via the mobile application marketplace or network.

Opt-out from the use of information to serve targeted advertising by advertisers and/or third party network advertisers – visit the Limit Ad Tracking section of iOS Settings.

Children

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 except as permitted by U.S. law. For example, we may collect certain types of information (e.g., IDFAs) from apps for activities that fit within the “support for internal operations” exception from the notice and consent requirements in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule.

Security

We are concerned about safeguarding the confidentiality of your information. We provide physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect information we process and maintain. For example, we limit access to this information to authorized employees and contractors who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our Application. Please be aware that, although we endeavor to provide reasonable security for information we process and maintain, no security system can prevent all potential security breaches.

Changes

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason. We will notify you of any changes to our Privacy Policy by updating the new Privacy Policy on https://boyhowdytechnology.com. You are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes.

Your Consent

By using the Services, you are consenting to our processing of User Provided and Automatically Collection information as set forth in this Privacy Policy now and as amended by us. “Processing,” means using cookies on a computer/hand held device or using or touching information in any way, including, but not limited to, collecting, storing, deleting, using, combining and disclosing information, all of which activities will take place in the United States. If you reside outside the U.S. your information will be transferred to the U.S., and processed and stored there under U.S. privacy standards. By using the Application and providing information to us, you consent to such transfer to, and processing in, the US.

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding privacy while using the Application, or have questions about our practices, please contact us via email at privacy@boyhowdytechnology.com.

Initial Effective Date – December 4th, 2012
Latest Update – December 26th, 2023