Thunder Buddy Games Privacy Policy
Boltaic does not collect personal data about you. There are no user accounts, no analytics of our own, and no servers of ours. The free versions of the games show ads served by Google AdMob, and Google may collect limited information to serve and measure those ads — described under Advertising below. Your game data stays on your devices and, if you use iCloud, in your own private iCloud storage — never with us. The one exception is feedback you choose to send from a game's Send Feedback form, described under Feedback you send us below.
Apps this policy covers
This policy applies to the following apps published by Boltaic LLC:
- Thunder Buddy Sudoku
- Minesweeper Buddy
- Thunder Buddy Nonogram
- Crossword Buddy
- Thunder Buddy Word Search
- Thunder Buddy Word Hunt
- Checkers Buddy
- Thunder Buddy Solitaire
- Thunder Buddy Mahjong Tiles
- Thunder Buddy Mahj
Slides & Ladders with Buddies has its own privacy policy. Thunder Buddy Weather is covered by the policy at thunder-buddy.com.
Your game data
Your puzzle progress, game history, statistics, streaks, and settings are saved in each app's private storage on your device. If you use iCloud, your game history, statistics, streaks, and games in progress are also kept in your own private iCloud storage so they follow you between your devices (see iCloud sync below). None of it is ever sent to us. If you delete an app, its data on that device is deleted with it; data in your iCloud account is removed through iOS Settings.
Game Center
Leaderboards, achievements, and live duels use Apple's Game Center. Game Center is operated by Apple, and your use of it is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy and your Game Center settings. We receive no personal data from Game Center and operate no server that stores Game Center information. You can sign out of Game Center at any time in iOS Settings, and the games remain fully playable without it.
Challenge links
You can challenge a friend by sharing a link. The link carries only a puzzle code that tells the other app which puzzle to open. It contains no personal data, and sharing it happens through the apps you choose — Messages, Mail, and so on — not through us.
Feedback you send us
Thunder Buddy Sudoku, Minesweeper Buddy, Crossword Buddy, Thunder Buddy Word Hunt, Thunder Buddy Solitaire, and Thunder Buddy Nonogram have an optional Send Feedback form. You can open it from Settings › Send Feedback, and it can also appear as a card after several wins. If you choose to send feedback, the app sends us the reason you picked and anything you typed, along with the app version, your iOS version, whether you are on an iPhone or iPad, and where in the app you opened the form. It contains no name, email address, or contact details, so we cannot reply to it.
Feedback is stored in Apple's iCloud under our developer account. Apple attaches an identifier to each entry that is specific to that app. It does not tell us who you are, but it does show us when several entries came from the same iCloud account. We use feedback only to improve the games. Please don't include personal information in the text box.
If you'd like feedback you sent to be deleted, email contact@boltaicllc.com and tell us roughly when you sent it and what it said.
Notifications
Each game can send an optional daily reminder. This is a local notification scheduled on your device by the app itself. No push server is involved, and nothing about the reminder leaves your device. You can turn it off in the app or in iOS Settings.
Purchases
The games offer a one-time Remove Ads purchase and the Thunder Buddy Pass. These are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never see or receive your payment details.
Each app stores a record of which purchases it has already unlocked, so a purchase is never applied twice. That record contains only Apple's transaction identifiers and stays on your device.
So that the Thunder Buddy Pass unlocks every Buddy game, the games also keep a single yes/no “pass owned” flag in your private iCloud key-value storage — shared by the Buddy games and accessible only to you — and in an App Group on your device. The flag contains no personal data. Purchases themselves are handled entirely by Apple.
Advertising
The free versions of the games show ads served by Google AdMob, a service of Google LLC. Google's handling of information is described in the Google Privacy Policy and in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
To serve and measure ads, Google may collect:
- Your device's advertising identifier (IDFA) — only if you allow tracking in Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. If you don't, ads are non-personalized.
- Coarse location derived from your IP address.
- Ad interactions and performance data, and diagnostics.
Boltaic receives no personal data from any of this. We see only aggregate ad reports.
Your choices. If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, Google's consent form (Consent, Do not consent, Manage options) appears before any ads are shown. If you are in a US state with a privacy law, you can opt out of the sale or sharing of personal data. Either choice can be changed later in the game under Settings › Purchases › Ad Privacy Choices.
Ads are limited to content suitable for general audiences (AdMob's “G” rating), since the games are rated 4+.
Removing ads. Buying Remove Ads or the Thunder Buddy Pass removes all ads. After that, the game makes no ad requests and no ad data is collected.
iCloud sync
The games sync your own game history, statistics, streaks, and games in progress between your own devices using iCloud. Each game uses a private iCloud (CloudKit) container in your own iCloud account — named iCloud.com.boltaic.<app> — that only you can access. Boltaic cannot read it, and no server of ours is involved. In-app settings are not synced.
Sync follows your iOS iCloud settings. With iCloud turned off for a game, or with no iCloud account signed in, everything stays on the device as before. To turn it off, open iOS Settings › [your name] › iCloud and switch the game off; to remove synced data from your account, use Manage Storage on the same screen.
Handoff. While a game is open, you can continue it on another of your own devices through Apple's Handoff. The game passes directly between your devices and never through us.
Children
The Thunder Buddy puzzle and logic games are rated 4+ on the App Store, but they are not directed at children under 13 and are not part of Apple's Kids Category. Ads shown in the games are limited to general-audience content. We do not collect personal data from anyone, including children.
Third parties
Google AdMob serves ads in the free versions of the games, as described under Advertising. Apart from that and Apple's own services described above — Game Center, iCloud, Handoff, the App Store, and local notifications — there are none. The games contain no analytics of our own, no crash-reporting service, and no social login. Apart from feedback you choose to send, nothing in the apps sends information to us.
Changes
Boltaic LLC will update this policy before any Thunder Buddy game changes what information is processed, and the effective date at the top of this page will identify the latest version.
Contact
Questions about privacy: contact@boltaicllc.com
Boltaic LLC
5900 Balcones Drive Ste 100
Austin, TX 78731, United States