GENISTOP Privacy Policy

You can play GENISTOP as a Guest or create a linked account using Google Sign-In or email & password. (Apple Sign-In may appear only when fully implemented.)

• Guest: we issue your device a server-verified session token (stored as a SHA-256 hash on our servers; the raw token never leaves your device). A coarse user-agent may be captured when the session is created. No email is required.
• Linked account: we receive the email address and a provider account id (e.g. Google subject) from your sign-in provider. Your password is handled by the platform auth system — we never see or store your password.
• The email is used only for account verification, sign-in, optional notifications, and as a private key to keep your progress tied to you. It is not shown to other players and is not made public.

You choose a public game name (3–16 characters) — a game identity, not your real name. We ask you to avoid putting personal contact details in your game name. You may also select a country for regional leaderboards. Country is voluntary, is chosen by you (never derived from GPS or your device language), and can be changed once every 30 days.

Avatars are stylised character selections. Your choice is stored as an avatar id. By default we do not collect any photo from you. If you explicitly opt in, you may use your Google profile photo as your avatar; that photo URL is then stored and shown publicly as your avatar only while that option stays on. You can switch back to a preset character at any time.

GENISTOP is local-first: your run progress, wallet, vault, owned themes, settings and records are saved on your device first, then mirrored to your linked account so they sync across devices when you sign in. This includes the boards you reach, tiles resolved, questions answered, correctness, streaks, continues and hints used, and run duration.

To keep competition fair, a copy of your validated run results is stored on our servers (with an audit trail for anti-cheat), linked to your internal player id. This server copy is admin-only — other players never see your raw audit trail.

The following are public and visible to other players: your game name, avatar, country, player level, and your submitted scores/ratings (Solo run scores, Challenge Rating, board mastery status). This is the data needed to show leaderboards and public profiles. We do not show your email, provider id, or device id on any leaderboard.

The Daily Challenge is a shared-grid community mode. When you play, a single public entry per day is stored showing your game name, avatar, country, best board, tiles survived, questions answered and your daily score, plus the date. This is visible on the daily leaderboard. One run per player per day is enforced. Daily results never affect Solo records or Challenge Rating.

GENISTOP uses a free in-game virtual currency (D₵) earned by playing. Your balance is stored locally and mirrored to your account for cross-device sync. D₵ has no real-world monetary value and cannot be cashed out.

Real-money purchases are not active in the current build. No payment card data passes through GENISTOP. If we later enable optional purchases (e.g. remove ads), they will be processed by the platform store (Google Play / Apple App Store), the store will handle your payment information, and we will only receive a purchase token and product id to grant the entitlement. We will update this policy before launching any paid feature.

We use AI models to help generate, validate and translate the trivia question bank used in gameplay. This is a content-production step that does not feed your personal data to AI models. We do not use AI to make automated decisions about you, and we do not use your data to train AI models. Free-text notes you submit when reporting a problem question may be reviewed by humans (and AI tools, where helpful) to fix that question.

We collect limited technical data needed to run and protect the game:

• A best-effort local device id used for coarse abuse detection (not a fingerprint of personal data, never shown publicly).
• App version, language, and whether you were online when a run completed.
• A coarse user-agent captured when a guest session is issued.
• A best-effort IP address, used only for rate-limiting and abuse logging — never enriched with geographic detail.

We do not access precise location, contacts, camera, microphone, photos, SMS or call logs. Country is always your voluntary choice.

We record anonymous, aggregate in-app analytics events (e.g. that a run started, a life was used) to improve the game. These events carry an event name and minimal non-identifying properties — no name, email or precise location. The app may also rely on the hosting platform's standard operational/error telemetry. We do not operate a dedicated third-party crash-reporting or cross-site tracking SDK in the current build; if that changes, we will update this policy before it ships.

We may send you in-game notifications (e.g. Challenge results, records, world events). If you enable push notifications, we may deliver device notifications through the platform/web push service; you can disable push at any time in your device settings. We may also email registered users for account verification and important account matters. You can manage notification choices in Settings.

The current build does not show advertising. When advertising is enabled in a future release, GENISTOP will use Google AdMob, served natively by the app — never web banners around gameplay.

Rewarded video ads are always voluntary and clearly described before you watch (for example: watching to revive a Solo run, gain +1 life, or boost your D₵ winnings). You are never punished for declining a rewarded ad, and your original winnings never depend on watching one. Interstitial full-screen ads may appear only at natural breaks (after a completed Solo run) and never during a question, the timer, or a competitive decision. We do not use banner advertising.

When advertising is active, AdMob may process an advertising identifier and limited device/app data, subject to your consent choices. For users in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, we use Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) to request consent before personalised advertising; you can update your choices via Privacy Options in Settings. Rewarded completions are verified server-side by Google AdMob Server-Side Verification before any reward is granted — we store only an opaque reward id, the coarse provider, and the reward context, never ad content.

A one-time “Remove Ads” purchase (Google Play) disables forced interstitial advertising forever; voluntary rewarded ads remain available to players who want the reward. Solo runs that use a gameplay-affecting rewarded reward are marked ASSISTED and excluded from the official Solo leaderboard, but keep your D₵, XP and Personal Best.

The only free text you can submit is your game name and optional notes when reporting a problem question. Game names are public; report notes are reviewed by us to fix questions and are not shown publicly. You are responsible for not including personal or sensitive information in your game name or reports. We may remove names or content that are unlawful, abusive, or that impersonate others.

Local progress is stored on your device. Server data is stored through the GENISTOP platform with row-level access controls: you can read and update your own account; sensitive ledgers (runs, lives, purchases, legal acceptances, abuse logs, rate-limit counters) may only be written by the server acting on your behalf, and are readable only by admins. Guest session tokens are stored as one-way hashes (SHA-256); the raw token is never kept on our servers. We restrict access to production data to authorised personnel. No method of transmission or storage is fully secure, but we work to protect your data using reasonable technical and organisational measures.

GENISTOP relies on the following categories of third parties:

• Authentication: Google Sign-In (and Apple Sign-In when enabled). These providers process your sign-in and may collect data under their own policies.
• Email delivery: a provider that sends verification and account emails to your address.
• AI question tooling: an external AI model provider used to generate/translate question content.
• Hosting & app stores: the platform that hosts the app/database and the app stores that distribute it.
• Future payments/ads: not active in this build; we will name the provider here before any such feature launches.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for cross-context advertising.

GENISTOP is intended for a general audience. You must meet the minimum age required to use the app in your country and to hold a Google/Apple account where applicable. On first play you confirm you meet this age requirement. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children who do not meet the applicable minimum age. If you believe a minor has provided us with data, contact us and we will delete it.

You can see and update your game name, avatar and country in the Player Profile. You can export a copy of your local data from Settings → Account & Data. You can request a copy of, or correction to, the personal data we hold about you by contacting us.

Linked players can delete their cloud account from Profile → Account → Delete account. This removes the cloud account and stops cross-device sync. Guests have no cloud account; deleting the app or clearing app/browser data removes their local progress. Some competitive records (such as leaderboard entries, ratings and run-validation ledgers needed to keep the leaderboards fair) may be retained in anonymised/aggregated form after deletion, as described under Data retention.

Local data is kept until you clear it or uninstall the app. Server account data is kept while your account is active and is removed or anonymised when you delete your account. We retain limited, server-side, non-personal records (aggregate analytics, validated run ledgers, ratings, abuse logs and rate-limit counters) only as long as needed for security, anti-cheat and leaderboard integrity, after which they are deleted or aggregated.

Questions or requests about this policy or your data? Contact us:

We may update this policy as GENISTOP evolves. Material changes are tracked by a version number and an effective date shown at the top of this page, and the in-app legal gate will ask you to accept the new version before continued play. Where required, we will also notify you in-app or by email. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated policy.