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Privacy

Dabble keeps puzzle moves private, offers optional purchases, and uses Google AdMob for ads between levels and for optional ads you can watch for free hints. Play analytics and account features are optional.

Effective 28 September 2026

The short version

Dabble may show ads between levels, and you can choose to watch an ad for free hints. The ad-free bundle removes all ads permanently, including that option. Ad personalization is disabled, and Dabble does not request access to Apple’s advertising identifier. Advertising providers still process data to deliver and measure ads. With your permission, Dabble separately collects pseudonymous play analytics. Accounts, cloud saves and the friends board are optional.

What Dabble handles

Play analytics

Sharing is off by default. You can enable it in Settings → Help and privacy → Share play analytics. Turning it off stops collection, cancels pending uploads and clears unsent events and the local analytics identifier. A request already received by the service cannot be recalled. Turning sharing back on starts with a new random identifier.

Dabble automatically assigns this installation a random identifier and records:

app opens, sessions, app version and build;
lessons and puzzles started, solved or skipped;
the game, way you reached it, mode, difficulty tier, current level, puzzle index and position in the daily run; and
time taken, stars, points, hints and slips for a completed puzzle, and whether a daily run was completed.

This tells us which puzzles are played, where players stop, whether the difficulty curve is working and whether a release made the app better. Analytics does not include your puzzle moves, board contents, answers, chosen name, friend code or email address. The analytics identifier is kept separate from Dabble accounts and the friends board, and is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking.

Progress and backups

Your puzzle progress, stars, streak, rewards, settings and purchase records are stored on the device. Dabble also keeps recovery copies in the iOS Keychain and your private iCloud key-value store so reinstalling the app or moving to another iPhone does not automatically lose the ladder.

If you choose Sign in with Apple or Google, Dabble stores an additional copy of your encoded save with your Dabble account at Supabase. This can include your progress, daily history, rewards, settings, purchase records and friends identity. It is used only to restore and sync your game.

Purchases

Apple processes optional purchases. Dabble receives verified product and transaction identifiers to deliver hints, skips and permanent ad-free ownership. It records supplies granted and spent to prevent duplicate delivery and recover paid benefits. Dabble does not receive your payment card details.

Ads and privacy choices

Dabble uses Google AdMob for ads between completed levels and for optional rewarded ads you start yourself to earn hints. Google may process IP addresses and approximate location, app or device identifiers, ads viewed, ad interactions and diagnostic or performance data to deliver, measure and protect the advertising service. Ad personalization and publisher first-party IDs are disabled.

Dabble uses Google’s consent tools to present required privacy messages before requesting ads. Where available, you can reopen Ad privacy choices in the shop. Refusing consent does not prevent you from playing; depending on your choices and location, ads may be limited or unavailable. The separate Share play analytics setting does not control Google’s advertising data.

The ad-free bundle removes all ads permanently — including the option to watch an ad for hints — and includes its advertised hints and skips once. Restoring ownership does not refill used supplies.

Optional account

Playing does not require an account. The friends board begins with a random Supabase account. If you later sign in with Apple or Google, Dabble receives the provider account identifier and the account label or email address the provider makes available. Dabble does not receive your Apple or Google password.

When you use Sign in with Apple, Dabble keeps encrypted Apple authorization credentials on its server so it can disconnect Apple when you delete your Dabble account. These credentials are removed with the account. Older accounts may need you to disconnect Dabble in your Apple Account settings; the app will show instructions after deletion.

Optional friends board

If you choose a name for the board, Dabble stores:

the name you picked, a random account identifier and an eight-character friend code such as DAB-K7M2-XQ4P;
the friend connections you make and the people you block; and
your daily date, chosen name, points, stars, boards completed, time, streak and whether the day is finished.

Someone with your friend code can find your chosen name and add you. A person who adds you can see the daily results you publish, even before you add them back. They cannot see your moves, puzzle answers, account email or other friends.

Notifications

Daily nudges are scheduled on your device. If you use the friends board and allow notifications, Dabble also stores an Apple Push Notification service device token so it can tell you when someone adds you. That notification can include their chosen Dabble name. Apple processes the delivery.

Support and website

If you write to support, we receive your email address, message and anything you attach. When the app or this website contacts a server, the hosting provider also processes the IP address and standard request information needed to deliver, secure and diagnose the service.

What Dabble does not collect

Dabble does not ask for your phone contacts, calendar, precise location, photos, camera, microphone, health data or advertising identifier. Ad personalization is disabled. Advertising-related data processing is described above and is separate from optional Dabble play analytics.

Why it is used

App functionality: verify purchases, deliver and restore purchased benefits, save and restore progress, connect friends, show their daily board, deliver requested notifications and answer support.
Analytics: measure use, retention, reliability and puzzle difficulty; compare builds; and decide what to fix, improve, add or remove.
Advertising: deliver non-personalized ads, measure their performance and prevent advertising fraud.
Safety and compliance: protect the service, prevent misuse and meet legal obligations.

Dabble does not use its optional play analytics to personalize advertising. Google’s advertising data processing is separate from that analytics choice.

Information is processed for Dabble by:

Supabase, for accounts, cloud saves, friends, notifications and analytics;
Apple, for App Store purchases, Sign in with Apple, iCloud recovery and push notifications;
Google, for AdMob ads and consent messages, and if you choose Google sign-in;
Vercel, for this website and invitation links; and
the email provider used to receive and answer support mail.

These providers may process information in the United States or other countries outside your own. Information may also be disclosed where required by law or needed to protect Dabble, its players or others.

Keeping and deleting

Raw analytics is kept for up to 180 days. Aggregate reports that no longer contain an installation identifier may be kept longer. You can stop future collection in Settings without deleting Dabble. Previously received events follow the retention period above.
Local progress and recovery copies stay until you use Start the puzzles again or delete them through the relevant device and iCloud controls. Starting again clears puzzle progress but deliberately keeps the current day, account, friends, preferences and purchase records. Paid balances and records of spent supplies remain so a reset does not remove ownership or refill already-used supplies.
Account and friends information stays until you delete your account. In Dabble, open Settings, tap Delete account, then confirm. That deletes the account, profile, code, connections, published days, device tokens and any account cloud save. Puzzle progress stored locally on this phone remains. If deletion fails, Dabble keeps the credential so you can try again.
Signing out is different: it forgets the credential on that phone but does not delete the account, board or account cloud save, so signing in again can restore them.
Purchase records stay in local recovery storage to preserve paid balances and permanent ad-free ownership. If you use account cloud saves, that copy is removed when the account is deleted. Apple retains its transaction records under its own policies.
Advertising data processed by Google follows Google’s retention policies and applicable privacy choices. Buying the ad-free bundle stops future ad requests; it does not delete information already processed by an advertising provider.
Support mail is kept only as long as reasonably needed to answer and handle the request.

To recover from a lost deletion response, Dabble keeps a minimal confirmation record until the app acknowledges it. This record contains a random operation reference, a hash of a separate recovery secret and whether manual Apple disconnection is needed. It contains no account ID, email, friend code, puzzle save or Apple token. If the app never acknowledges it, this minimal record may remain.

Anything you share through Messages, Mail or another app is then handled by that app and the person you sent it to.

Your choices and rights

You can play without creating a signed-in account or friends board, change the name friends see, turn the daily nudge off, sign out without deleting, or leave the board and delete the account from inside Dabble. You can also ask to access, correct or delete information connected with Dabble, or object to or restrict certain processing, by writing to support. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights and the right to complain to your privacy regulator. We may need your friend code or other details to confirm that a request concerns your information.

Security

Network requests use encrypted HTTPS. Credentials are kept in the iOS Keychain, and database access rules restrict account and friends rows. The private analytics dashboard returns aggregate reports rather than raw player events. No system is perfectly secure, so Dabble is designed to collect only what has a clear use.

Children

Dabble is a general-audience puzzle app and does not ask for age. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has provided personal information through Dabble, write to us so we can review and remove it where appropriate.

Changes

If Dabble’s data practices change, this page and its effective date will change too. A material change will be explained before it takes effect where required.

Contact

Dabble is made by Josh Law, who is responsible for its privacy practices. Email joshua-law@hotmail.com, or start from the support page.