What the app stores, and where

All of it is on the phone, in the app's own local settings storage (iOS UserDefaults). None of it is sent anywhere.

A name is whatever a grown-up types — a first name, a nickname, or nothing (the app then says "Player"). An age is a number from 4 to 12 used only to pick which words the child sees. A spelling list is whatever words are typed or read off a photo.

The camera and photos

• The app asks for the camera only when you tap "Take a picture" on a spelling list. It uses the phone's own camera screen to take one photo.
• "Photo" opens the phone's own photo picker. The app sees only the one picture you choose, and iOS does not ask it for permission to your whole library.
• The words are read off the picture on the phone, using Apple's built-in text recognition (Vision). Nothing is uploaded.
• The photo is not saved. The app keeps the words it found, in the list you are editing, and drops the picture. It does not write photos to your library or anywhere else.
• If you never use the picture button, the app never asks for the camera.

Reading words aloud

Spelling Test says each word with the phone's built-in voice (Apple's speech synthesizer). It runs on the phone and needs no internet. While a test is running the voice plays even if the silent switch is on, so the word can be heard; the app does not use the microphone and never asks for it.

What the app does NOT do

• No network. There is no networking code in the app. Nothing is uploaded, downloaded, synced or backed up by the app itself. (Your own iCloud device backup may include the app's local data, under Apple's terms, like any other app.)
• No third-party code. No advertising, analytics, crash-reporting or social SDKs.
• No other permissions. The app never asks for the microphone, location, contacts, notifications, or your whole photo library.
• No purchases, no links out, no web views. Nothing in the app opens a browser or a store. Coins are earned by playing, never bought.
• Sound effects are generated inside the app (no audio files, no streaming) and respect the phone's silent switch.

Children

Squishy Word Climb is made for children aged 4 to 12. Because no information is collected or transmitted, the app does not collect personal information from children (COPPA) or from anyone else. A parent or guardian can clear everything the app remembers by deleting the app.

Your choices

• Forget a spelling list: the red "Delete list" button when editing that list.
• Forget one player: the red "Delete player" button at the bottom of that player's screen removes the saved player, coins, unlocks and achievements. That player's spelling lists are no longer reachable and go with the app when it is deleted.
• Forget everything: delete the app. There is no server-side copy to ask us to delete, because there is none.
• Camera: iOS Settings › Squishy Words turns the permission off; the app can then no longer take a picture, and typing or picking a photo still works.
• Sound: the speaker button on the player screen.

Changes

If a future version ever adds something that sends data off the device, this policy will change first and the change will be described in the app's release notes.

Contact

Tom Brown
Support: appstoresupportwithasmile@icloud.com (the same address as the App Store support contact).