Information We Collect

Automatically, when you first open the App

The App creates an anonymous identity for you using Firebase Authentication as soon as you first open it. This happens silently and does not involve any personal information — no name, email, or phone number is collected at this stage. This identity is a randomly generated identifier used solely to let your progress, friend code, and leaderboard entry work correctly.

If you choose to sign in with Google

Signing in with Google is entirely optional. If you choose to do so, we use it to link your existing anonymous identity to your Google account, so your progress can be restored if you reinstall the App or switch devices. This uses Google's standard sign-in credential to verify your identity; we do not separately collect or store your Google profile name, photo, or email address in our own systems beyond what Firebase Authentication requires to complete the sign-in.

If you set a display name for the leaderboard

If you choose to participate in the leaderboard feature, you'll set a display name. This display name, together with your game score, your best achieved tile, your current rank and prestige level, your selected theme, and a randomly generated 6-character friend code, are stored and may be visible to other players — this is the leaderboard's intended purpose. Display names are checked against a moderation filter before being accepted.

Locally on your device

Your gameplay progress — XP, badges, prestige level, unlocked themes, settings preferences, and score history — is stored locally on your device using local storage (Room database). This local data is not transmitted to us except for the specific fields described above that power the optional leaderboard feature.

Advertising

The App uses Google AdMob to display ads, including interstitial ads (shown between games) and rewarded ads (optional, in exchange for an in-game bonus). AdMob may collect and use device identifiers (such as an advertising ID) and other technical information to serve and measure ads, and may use this information to personalize the ads you see, consistent with Google's own data practices. You can review Google's practices at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

Crash and diagnostic data

The App uses Firebase Crashlytics to help us identify and fix crashes and errors. This may include technical information such as device model, operating system version, and the circumstances of a crash, but does not include your gameplay data or leaderboard information.

How We Use Information

We use the information described above to:

• Let the App function (save your progress, generate a friend code, keep your identity consistent across sessions)
• Operate the leaderboard and friends features
• Diagnose and fix technical problems
• Display and measure advertising

We do not sell your information to third parties.

Third-Party Services

The App relies on the following third-party services, each of which processes data according to its own privacy policy:

• Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Crashlytics) — firebase.google.com/support/privacy
• Google AdMob — policies.google.com/technologies/ads

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account remains active. If you delete your account (see below), your associated leaderboard data and local progress are removed. We may retain limited technical data where required for security, fraud prevention, or legal compliance.

Your Rights and Choices

Deleting your account and data

You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from within the App: Settings → Danger Zone → Delete Account & Reset All Progress. This removes your local progress, your leaderboard entry, your reserved display name, and your underlying account identity.

If you're unable to access the App, you can also request deletion by emailing immerse.pda@gmail.com with your friend code if you have it, or a description of the device/timeframe you used the App.

Your rights under GDPR (if you're in the EU/EEA)

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise these rights, use the in-app deletion option above or contact us at the email listed at the top of this policy.

Children's Privacy

The App is not directed at children under 13 (or the relevant age of digital consent in your country), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can address it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be reflected by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at: immerse.pda@gmail.com

The Short Version

• Everything you monitor — the targets you add and their check history — is stored only on your device. We never receive it, and it is never uploaded anywhere.
• We do not require an account, and we do not ask for your name, email, or location.
• The app shows advertising supplied by Google AdMob, which does collect data. That is the main way data about you leaves your device.
• Uninstalling the app deletes all monitoring data with it.

Data Stored on Your Device Only

The following is written to local storage on your phone and is never transmitted to us or anyone else:

• Monitoring targets you create: the name, address (URL, hostname or IP), port, check type, and per-target settings such as alert preferences and any Wake-on-LAN MAC address you enter.
• Check history: the result of each check — success or failure, response time, packet loss, HTTP status, certificate expiry, and any values retrieved from a device's own API. This history is automatically deleted after 30 days.
• Network identity of your local devices: to avoid false alarms when you are away from home, the app remembers which network each local device was last reached on (the subnet, gateway, and an internal network identifier). This never leaves the device.
• Results of a network scan, if you use that feature: the addresses, open ports and names of devices that respond on the network you are connected to.
• App settings: notification preferences, check interval, quiet hours, and your chosen colour theme.

You can delete all of it at any time by deleting individual targets, clearing the app's storage in Android settings, or uninstalling the app.

What the App Connects To

The services you ask it to check

When a check runs, your device contacts the address you entered — a website, a device on your local network, a DNS server, and so on. Those connections come from your device directly. Any service you point the app at will see your device's IP address in the normal course of being contacted, exactly as if you had opened it in a browser. We are not involved in and do not observe those connections.

Your local network

When you use the network scan, or check a device marked as local, the app probes addresses on the network you are currently connected to in order to see which respond. This is done from your device, and the results stay on your device.

Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore)

On startup the app reads a single configuration value from our Firebase project to determine whether advertising should be shown. This is a read-only request that sends no personal information about you, but as with any internet request, Google receives your device's IP address and standard technical information in order to serve the response. Firebase is operated by Google — see Google's privacy policy, linked below.

Google AdMob

See the next section.

Advertising

Watchtower displays a banner advertisement supplied by Google AdMob. To do this, Google and its advertising partners may collect and process:

• Your device's advertising ID
• Your IP address and approximate location derived from it
• Device and app information such as device model, operating system version, and the app you are using
• Interaction data, such as whether an ad was shown, viewed or clicked

This data is used to serve and measure advertising, to limit how often you see the same ad, and to detect invalid or fraudulent ad traffic. Google acts as an independent controller of this data. Its handling is governed by Google's own policies:

• Google Privacy Policy — policies.google.com/privacy
• How Google uses information from partner sites and apps — policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

Your choice about advertising

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, or a US state with applicable privacy laws, the app shows you a consent form the first time it runs, provided by Google's User Messaging Platform. You choose there whether your data may be used for personalised advertising.

You can change your choice at any time in the app: open Options and select Ad privacy options.

If you decline personalised advertising, you will still see ads, but they will not be personalised using your data.

You can also reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in your device's Android settings, under Privacy → Ads.

Permissions the App Requests

• InternetTo perform the checks you configure and to load advertising
• View network connectionsTo detect whether you are on Wi-Fi, so local-device checks are only attempted on the right network
• NotificationsTo alert you when a monitored target goes down or recovers. Optional — the app works without it
• Advertising IDAdded by the Google AdMob SDK, for the advertising purposes described above

Watchtower does not request location permission, does not access your contacts, camera, microphone, files, or any other personal data on your device.

Analytics

The app contains no analytics or crash-reporting SDK. We do not track how you use the app, and we receive no usage statistics or crash reports from it.

Legal Basis for Processing (EEA/UK)

Where the GDPR applies:

• Operating the app's monitoring features relies on our legitimate interest in providing the functionality you requested. In practice this data does not leave your device.
• Personalised advertising relies on your consent, collected through the consent form described above, which you may withdraw at any time.
• Non-personalised advertising and fraud prevention rely on legitimate interests in funding and protecting the service.

Data Retention

• Check history is deleted automatically after 30 days.
• All other locally stored data remains until you delete the relevant item, clear the app's storage, or uninstall the app.
• We hold no personal data about you on our own servers, so there is nothing for us to retain or delete on your behalf.
• Data collected by Google through AdMob is retained according to Google's own policies.

Your Rights

Under the GDPR and similar laws you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing of your personal data, and to data portability.

Because Watchtower stores your monitoring data solely on your own device and we hold no personal data about you, you can exercise most of these rights directly: view your data in the app, delete it in the app, or uninstall to remove it entirely.

For data collected by Google through AdMob, please contact Google or use the ad settings linked above. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority — in Denmark, Datatilsynet (datatilsynet.dk).

Children

Watchtower is a network monitoring utility intended for general audiences. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Security

Monitoring data is stored in the app's private storage area, which other apps on your device cannot read. Because the app is designed to work with equipment on your own network, some checks may use unencrypted connections (for example plain HTTP to a device that does not support HTTPS) — those connections stay within your own network.

Changes to This Policy

If this policy changes materially, we will update the "Last updated" date above and publish the revised version at the same address. Continued use of the app after a change indicates acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: immerse.pda@gmail.com