Brush Barons · Privacy Policy

Effective November 3, 2026 · applies to the Brush Barons app for iPhone and iPad

Brush Barons is a card game made by one person. The short version: the game has no accounts and no email sign-up. The free version shows an ad after local games, served by Google AdMob; ads are non-personalized and the app never asks to track you. If you join the leaderboard, the name and portrait you choose are shown publicly with your score. The one-time Supporter’s Palette purchase removes the ads.

What the game stores on your device

Your painter (name, portrait, level), game statistics, achievements, collectibles, settings, and your ad-free status if you buy the Supporter’s Palette. This lives in the app's local storage and never leaves the device unless you turn on the leaderboard.

What is stored online, and only if you join the leaderboard

The leaderboard is optional and off until you join it. When you do, the game creates an anonymous player ID (a random identifier from Firebase: no email, no phone number, no real name requested, ever) and stores:

• Publicly visible: your chosen painter name and portrait, your XP, level, games played and wins, on the all-time board and, week by week, on the weekly board.
• Private to you: a backup snapshot of your painter (stats, achievements, settings) so a linked device can restore it, and any device-link or recovery codes you generate. Only devices holding your codes can read this.

Online games

When you host or join an online table, your painter name and portrait are visible to the players at that table and, for public tables, on the open-tables list while the table is open. Room data is throwaway and removed when the table closes.

Reporting, and what other players can do

Anyone can report a painter's name or portrait from the leaderboard. Reports go only to the developer, are reviewed by a human, and a painter that breaks the rules is hidden from the board. Reports include the reporter's anonymous ID solely to prevent abuse of the report button itself.

Ads in the app

If you haven’t bought the Supporter’s Palette, the app may show a full-screen ad when a game played on this device ends (never during a game, and not after online games with other people). Ads come from Google AdMob.

• Non-personalized only. The app requests non-personalized ads, which are not based on your past activity or interests, and it never shows Apple’s “Allow tracking” prompt, so your device’s advertising identifier is not available to it.
• What Google’s ad software may still collect to deliver ads, limit how often they repeat, measure them and prevent fraud: your IP address (which can indicate your general location), device and app information, crash and performance data, app- or developer-specific device identifiers, and which ads were shown and whether they were tapped. See Google’s AdMob data disclosure and Google’s Privacy Policy.
• Europe, the UK and Switzerland: before the first ad you’re asked for consent through Google’s consent form. You can change your choice any time in the app under Support › Privacy choices.
• No ads at all after you buy the Supporter’s Palette. Purchases go through Apple; we never see your payment details.

What we do NOT collect

• No email addresses, phone numbers, contacts, photos, or precise location.
• No tracking: the app does not ask for permission to track you across other companies’ apps and websites, and does not use your advertising identifier.
• We never sell your data. The only third parties are the services listed below.

Usage statistics and crash reports

The iPhone app sends anonymous usage statistics and crash reports to Google Firebase (Analytics and Crashlytics), so we can see which parts of the game are played, how new players get on, and what crashed. This includes events such as a game starting or ending (with its mode, length and result), level-ups, a Supporter’s Palette unlock, an invite being shared, your language, device model and iOS version, and a random installation identifier. It does not include your painter’s name, your recovery code, or anything typed into the game, and it is not used for advertising or for tracking you across other apps or websites.

Infrastructure

• Google Firebase (Realtime Database and anonymous Authentication, hosted in the United States) stores leaderboard and online-play data; Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics receive the anonymous usage statistics and crash reports described above. Google acts as a data processor; its terms are at firebase.google.com/support/privacy.
• Google AdMob serves the ads in the free version, as described in Ads in the app above.
• Apple handles in-app purchases and app delivery under Apple’s privacy policy.

Support email

If you email brushbarons@gmail.com, we see your email address and whatever you send (the in-game Support button pre-fills a diagnostic block, and you can delete any of it before sending). Emails are used only to help you and are not added to any list.

Deleting your data

In the game: My Painter → Delete account. This removes your leaderboard rows (all-time and weekly), your cloud backup, your device registrations and your codes, immediately and permanently. Local data clears when you delete the app or your browser storage. You can also just Leave board, which hides your entry and stops syncing without deleting anything. Reports you filed are kept until reviewed, then deleted.

Children

Brush Barons is suitable for general audiences. We don’t ask anyone, children included, for personal information, and ads are non-personalized. There are no accounts and no chat beyond fixed game messages; player names pass a profanity filter and can be reported. If you believe a child has put personal information into a painter name, email us and we will remove it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date above changes with it, and anything material is announced in the game's changelog before it takes effect.

Contact

Brush Barons · brushbarons@gmail.com