Privacy policy

Effective October 14, 2026

The short version: Paintopia has no accounts and no analytics, and I run no servers. Your progress stays on your phone. The apps show ads from Google AdMob, and Google collects some device data to show them, as described below.

This policy covers Paintopia for iPhone and Android, and the Paintopia web game, made by Qiuchen Xie, an independent developer in Seattle, Washington, USA, who publishes games as PensiveFrog ("I", "me"). Questions: qxie13@gmail.com.

What the game keeps, on your device

Paintopia saves a small file on your device: your best score, the paints you've discovered, which tips you've already seen, your music and sound volumes, and whether numbers mode is on. It never leaves your device and is never sent to me. Deleting the app deletes it. Paintopia doesn't ask for your name, email, contacts, photos, camera, microphone or precise location, and it has no sign-in.

Ads (iPhone and Android apps)

The apps are free and show ads from Google AdMob, run by Google LLC: a short video when you choose to watch one for a second chance, and now and then an ad between games. To pick, show and measure those ads and to prevent ad fraud, Google's ad software in the app collects data from your device, such as:

• your IP address, which gives your approximate location (city or region, never your precise location);
• device identifiers: on Android, the advertising ID; on iPhone, an identifier limited to this developer's apps (Paintopia doesn't ask to track you, so the iPhone's advertising identifier, the IDFA, stays unavailable to it and to Google);
• information about your device and the app, such as the model, operating system, language and screen size;
• which ads you saw and how you interacted with them;
• diagnostic data, such as crash logs and performance information.

Google handles this data under its own privacy policy. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy. I don't receive this data myself. AdMob only gives me totals, such as how many ads were shown. Ads in Paintopia are limited to those Google rates as suitable for general audiences with parental guidance (PG) or milder.

Consent

Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland), the app first shows Google's consent form, and ads follow your choices there. To change your choices later, tap the pause mark, then privacy choices.

Your choices

• Remove ads: a one-time purchase in the app turns off the ads between games for good. The second-chance video stays, because you choose to watch it.
• iPhone: Paintopia never asks to track you. You can also turn off Personalized Ads in Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising (which covers Apple's own ads).
• Android: you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Settings → Privacy → Ads (or Settings → Google → Ads).
• Google: My Ad Center controls how Google personalises ads for you.

The remove-ads purchase

Purchases are handled entirely by Apple's App Store or Google Play. I never see your payment details, name or account. At each start the app asks the store whether you own "remove ads", so it can turn the ads off. That answer isn't saved anywhere else.

The web game

On a game website (such as Poki or CrazyGames), Paintopia runs inside that website's page. The website shows its own ads and keeps your save under its own privacy policy, which you'll find on that website. The game itself sends nothing to me.

Children

Paintopia is a game for a general audience and isn't directed at children under 13. I don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included. If you believe a child's information reached me, email me and I'll delete it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in Europe or state privacy laws in the US), you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data, or to object to how it is used. I hold no personal data about players, so there's nothing for me to hand over or delete. For data Google collects for ads, use Google's tools above or contact Google. I'm glad to help either way: qxie13@gmail.com.

Security and retention

Your save stays on your device until you delete the app. Google keeps ad data under its own retention policies. I keep emails you send me only as long as I need them to answer you.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with its new date.

Contact

Qiuchen Xie (PensiveFrog), Seattle, Washington, USA
qxie13@gmail.com