Privacy Policy

Effective 18 October 2026

Tabby Tangle (“the game”) is made by Gladlight (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what information the game collects, why, and the choices you have.

In short

There is no sign-up. We never ask for your name, email address or contacts.
Your progress is saved on your phone.
When you solve the day’s puzzle, your time and bumps are sent without your name, so the game can tell you how you did compared with the day’s other players. The game never shows your result to anyone else.
We use Google’s Firebase for that daily ranking, to see how the game is played and to learn when it runs into an error or crashes.
Ads play only when you choose to watch one: for one more heart when you run out, to skip a level you have lost twice, or, once a day during a seasonal event, for a few extra points of that event. They come from Google AdMob.
Sharing a result happens only when you tap Share. It goes through your phone’s share sheet to the app you choose; we don’t receive the picture or the text, or learn where it goes or to whom. We only see that a share happened and which kind it was.
Now and then the game may ask the App Store or Google Play to show its rating prompt. A rating or review goes to the store, not to us.
Apart from Google, as described below, we share your information with no one.

Information stored on your phone

Your levels, stars, the cats you have met, your settings, your daily results, streaks, monthly calendar and progress in seasonal events are stored on your phone so you can pick up where you left off. Your ad privacy choices are stored there too, as are whether reminders are on, a daily result waiting to be sent and the rank that came back for it, crash reports waiting to be sent, the game’s remote settings (see below), the number of days you have played and when the game last asked for a rating. Deleting the game deletes them from your phone.

If backup is turned on for your phone (Google backup on Android; iCloud or a computer backup on iPhone), your phone may keep a copy of this saved data in that backup. It can bring the data back when you set up a phone from the backup or, on Android, when you install the game again. That backup is kept under your Google or Apple account, or on your own computer: we can’t see it, and you manage it in your phone’s backup settings.

Daily ranking

To send a daily result, the game signs in anonymously with Firebase Authentication. This gives your copy of the game a random identifier; no email address or phone number is involved.

The first time you solve each day’s puzzle, the game sends that result, linked to this identifier: how long you took, how many times a cat bumped into another, the score made from these two, the game’s version and when the result arrived. Nothing is sent for a puzzle you play again or for a missed day you play from the calendar. If your phone is offline, the result waits on your phone and is sent once it reconnects, as long as that day’s ranking is still open.

Results carry no name and are never shown to other players. The game only counts them: how many players solved the day’s puzzle and how many did less well, so it can tell you, for example, that you were faster than 85% of today’s players.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the game is played, for example which levels and daily puzzles are started, finished or failed, how hard they are, how long they take and how many bumps and hints they take, and during a seasonal event how many of its points each brought; when a heart is lost, a hint is offered or used, a big yard is zoomed (and whether you zoomed it or the game did) or a level is skipped; when an ad is offered, whether you chose to watch it and whether it played; when a new cat arrives and when the garden, the calendar or your profile is opened; when you turn the music or the vibration on or off; how you ranked in the day’s puzzle; roughly how long your daily streak is (as a range, such as 3 to 6 days), when it reaches a milestone (such as 7 days), when a streak freeze is earned or used, and when a run of levels won in a row reaches a milestone or ends; when you win a monthly trophy; when you open the page of a seasonal event or reach one of its rewards (such as the Winter Garden badge); whether reminders are turned on, and whether you open the game by tapping one; when you share something from the game (and which kind: a daily result or a Nightmare level); and when the game asks the store for its rating prompt (and after which moment). Firebase also collects standard technical information: an app-instance identifier, device model, operating system and app version, language, and your approximate location (country or region) derived from your IP address. On Android it may also collect your device’s advertising ID, which you can reset or delete in your phone’s settings.

We use this information only to fix problems and make the game better.

Crash reports

If the game runs into an error it didn’t expect, or crashes, it sends a crash report to Google’s Firebase Crashlytics, usually the next time you open it. A report contains the technical details of the error (where in the game’s code it happened), your device model, operating system and app version, a random installation identifier that Crashlytics creates for your copy of the game, the level or daily puzzle you were playing and the game’s most recent analytics events (the kinds listed above). It contains nothing that identifies you: no name, no email address and nothing you typed.

We use crash reports only to find and fix errors.

When you run out of hearts, the game offers a short ad from Google AdMob in exchange for one more heart, and when you have lost the same level twice, it offers one to skip that level. During a seasonal event, its page offers one a day for a few extra points of the event (mittens, in Winter Garden). An ad plays only if you choose to watch it; if no ad is available, you get the reward anyway. Ads are limited to content suitable for all ages.

To show ads, measure them and prevent fraud, Google’s ad software in the game collects your IP address (from which an approximate location is estimated), device identifiers, information about the ads you see and how you interact with them, and performance and diagnostic information. On Android the identifiers include your device’s advertising ID, which you can reset or delete in your phone’s settings. On iOS the game doesn’t ask to track you, so your device’s advertising identifier isn’t used.

Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland), the game shows Google’s consent form when you first open it, and you can change your choices at any time with Ad privacy choices at the bottom of the home screen. Without your consent to personalised ads you may still see ads that aren’t based on your activity.

Google uses this information as described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

Reminders

If you turn on daily reminders (with the bell on the home screen, or when the game offers them after a daily puzzle), your phone schedules and shows them by itself: a note in the morning when the new puzzle is ready, and one in the evening if you have a streak to keep. They are not sent from a server, and what they say stays on your phone. Through analytics, as described above, we do see whether reminders are turned on, whether setting them up worked, and when the game is opened by tapping a reminder, along with which one it was (the morning or the evening reminder).

Sharing

You can share a daily result, or a Nightmare level the first time you clear it. Nothing is shared until you tap Share: the game then makes a picture and a short text on your phone and hands them to your phone’s share sheet, where you choose the app and the people. We don’t receive what you share, where you share it or who you share it with. Through analytics, as described above, we see only that a share happened or that it failed (with a short technical error message), and which kind it was.

The shared text contains a link to the game’s page on Google Play. The link carries a campaign tag (“share” and the kind of share), so Google Play can tell us how many installs came from shared links. It doesn’t tell us who shared or who installed.

On iOS, if you choose Save Image in the share sheet, the picture is saved to your photo library. For this the system gives the game add-only access, which it asks you for at that moment. The game can’t see your photos.

Ratings

After a happy moment in the game (a new cat arrives, or your daily streak reaches 7 days), the game may ask the App Store or Google Play to show its rating prompt. It asks only after you have played on at least 3 days and won at least 15 levels, not after you ran out of hearts or watched an ad in the same session, and at most once every 30 days; the store decides whether the prompt really appears. The prompt belongs to the store: a rating or review you give there goes to Apple or Google under the account you use with them, and is handled under their privacy policies. The game isn’t told whether the prompt was shown, whether you rated, or what you wrote; we see ratings and reviews only as the store publishes them.

Through analytics, as described above, we see only that the game asked for the prompt and after which moment, or that asking failed (with a short technical error message). To space the requests out, the game keeps the number of days you have played and the time it last asked on your phone.

Who processes your information

Firebase and AdMob are provided by Google. For the daily ranking, analytics, crash reports and the game’s remote settings, Google processes information for us under Firebase’s data processing terms; see Privacy and Security in Firebase. For ads, Google also uses information under its own privacy policy, as described above. Information may be stored on servers outside your country.

The remote settings come from Firebase Remote Config: with them we can change a few of the game’s settings without an update, such as the number of hearts in a level or how soon the hint cat appears, or turn the daily ranking off. To fetch them, the game sends Firebase a random installation identifier and technical details such as the app’s version and your device’s language, country and time zone, along with the analytics information described above, so that a setting can be meant for some players only. The settings are kept on your phone and used from the next time you open the game.

Apart from Google, we share your information with no one unless the law requires it.

Why we use it

We process this information to give you the daily ranking you see when you solve the day’s puzzle, and because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the game working and improving it. Ads pay for the game; where the law requires consent for personalised ads or for storing information on your device, we ask for it through Google’s consent form.

How long we keep it

Daily results are kept while the daily ranking runs. Analytics data is kept for up to 14 months, crash reports for 90 days. Google keeps the information it collects for ads according to its own policies.

Your choices and rights

The game works offline. Nothing is sent while your phone is offline; a waiting daily result or crash report is sent once it reconnects.
Ads play only when you choose to watch one. Where the law requires it, you can change your ad privacy choices at any time with Ad privacy choices on the home screen.
Reminders are off until you turn them on, and you can turn them off again with the bell on the home screen or in your phone’s settings.
Sharing is up to you: nothing leaves the game through the share sheet unless you tap Share and pick where it goes.
Rating the game is up to you: you can close the store’s prompt without rating. On an iPhone you can turn such prompts off for every app in the App Store settings.
Deleting the game removes everything it stored on your phone. A copy in your phone’s own backup, if that is turned on, is managed in your phone’s backup settings.
Daily results carry no name or contact details, and the game doesn’t show you its random identifier, so we can’t tell which results are yours.
Depending on where you live (for example the EU, the UK or Turkey), you may have the right to access, correct or delete your information and to object to its use. Contact us and we’ll help as far as we can identify your information.

Children

The game is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, for example because the game gains new features, we’ll update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Gladlight · gladlightgames@gmail.com