1. Who we are
The controller of your personal data is:
Kalmarium Services BV
The Netherlands
Email: kalmariumservices@gmail.com
This policy covers the Knowdrop app for Android (the app name may change; this policy applies to the
app published by Kalmarium Services BV with package name com.kalmarium.quizdrop).
2. What data we process and why
2.1 Data stored only on your phone
Your scores, Daily Drop history, streaks and streak freezes, coins, statistics, the nickname you type in, your reports and suggestions (before they are sent), reminder settings and other settings are stored on your phone. We cannot see this data. If Android backup is on, Android may copy it to your own Google account so it survives a phone change; Google handles this under your Google account settings.
Daily and streak reminders are created on your phone. They do not send data to us.
2.2 Ads (Google AdMob)
Free players see ads, but never during a game and not in the first 3 days. Ads are provided by Google AdMob. To show and measure ads and to prevent fraud, the Google Mobile Ads SDK processes your device's advertising ID, your IP address (used to estimate a general location, such as country), information about ad views and taps, and technical data about your device and the app.
In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland we ask for your consent first, using Google's consent tool (UMP). If you do not consent, you may still see non-personalised ads, which use limited data (for example for frequency capping, fraud prevention and general location). You can change your choice at any time under Settings > Privacy choices. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in your Android settings. Buying Plus or Remove ads forever stops ads.
For personalised advertising, Google acts as an independent controller. See how Google uses data from apps that use its services.
2.3 Purchases (Google Play)
Payments are handled by Google Play. We never see your card or bank details. To unlock and restore what you bought (for example Remove ads forever), the app asks Google Play which purchases your Google account owns. We do not receive your name, email or purchase history, and no third-party purchase service is used. Purchases can be restored on any device with the same Google account.
2.4 Online features (only when you use them)
You can play everything offline without an account. These features use our server on Microsoft Azure (West Europe) only when you use them:
- Online account (friends, game invites, leaderboards): created only when you tap Go online. We store your nickname, avatar emoji, a random player ID, a friend code, your friends and friend requests, your who can invite me and notification settings, and a secret sign-in token (we keep only a scrambled hash of it). No email address or password is needed.
- Sign in with Google (optional): lets you keep your friends and scores on a new phone. We receive a one-time Google sign-in token, check it, and keep only a scrambled (hashed) version of your Google account ID. We never receive or store your email address, name or photo from Google.
- Leaderboards: your Daily Drop answers (which option, how fast) are stored on your phone first and sent when you are online, so the server can calculate your score itself. We keep your daily score and the time you played. Your nickname, avatar and score are visible to other players on the daily and weekly leaderboards (global, and to your friends).
- Game invites: when you invite a friend, we pass your nickname and the room code (and its PIN for a password room) to them. Invites are kept in memory for at most 15 minutes. Who may invite you is your choice: everyone with your code, friends only, selected friends, or nobody.
- Push notifications (optional): if you turn on a notification type, your phone gets a push token from Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and we store it to send game invites, friend requests or "a friend beat your score" messages. Turning all of them off deletes the token.
- Live parties: your nickname, room code and answers (with timing) are sent to our match server and kept in memory only for the match. Like any internet server it sees your IP address to keep the connection; we do not store IP addresses or keep connection logs.
- Reports and suggestions: when you report a question or suggest a topic, we receive the text you wrote and the question involved. Please do not include personal details in this text.
2.5 Challenge codes and share cards
Challenge codes and emoji score cards are created on your phone. You decide where to share them (for example WhatsApp). They contain your score and, if you add it, your nickname. We do not receive them.
2.6 App analytics and crash reports
The current version keeps usage events on your phone only. If we add Google Firebase Analytics or Crashlytics later, we will update this policy first and ask for consent where required.
2.7 How questions are made (AI)
Questions are written with the help of AI (Anthropic's Claude) and checked by a separate fact-check step. This happens on our own systems, not in the app. We send Anthropic only topics and question text. No personal data about you is sent to Anthropic. Topic suggestions are only used as anonymous topic ideas, without your ID or nickname.
3. Legal bases (GDPR article 6)
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Providing the game, online features, leaderboards, reports and suggestions | Performance of a contract with you (6(1)(b)) |
| Processing and restoring purchases | Contract (6(1)(b)); legal obligation for tax records (6(1)(c)) |
| Personalised ads, and storing or reading information on your device for ads where the law requires consent | Your consent (6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time |
| Non-personalised ads, ad fraud prevention, security, keeping the game fair, fixing errors | Our legitimate interests (6(1)(f)) in funding a free game and keeping it safe and fair |
4. Who receives data (processors and partners)
| Company | Role | Data | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Ireland Ltd (AdMob, UMP consent) | Ads and consent; independent controller for personalised ads | Advertising ID, IP address, ad interactions, device data | EU / USA |
| Google Ireland Ltd (Google Play) | Payments; independent controller | Payment and order data | EU / USA |
| Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd (Azure) | Processor: match server and online accounts (Azure Container Apps, Azure Table Storage) | Nickname, avatar, player ID, friend code, friends, settings, hashed tokens, Daily Drop answers and scores, push token, room code; IP address while connected (not stored) | EU (West Europe) |
| Google Ireland Ltd (Firebase Cloud Messaging) | Processor: delivering push notifications you turned on | Push token, notification text (for example a friend's nickname and room code) | EU / USA |
| Google Ireland Ltd (Sign in with Google) | Optional sign-in to keep your account on a new phone | Sign-in token; we keep only a hash of your Google account ID | EU / USA |
| GitHub, Inc. (GitHub Pages) | Processor: hosting of question and picture updates | IP address and device type in standard web server logs. The app sends no other data when it checks for new questions. | USA / worldwide edge network |
| Anthropic, PBC | AI provider for writing and checking questions | Topics and question text only. No personal data. | USA |
We do not sell your personal data. We share data with authorities only when the law requires it.
5. Transfers outside the EU
Some providers are in the USA. Transfers are protected by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, and otherwise by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
6. How long we keep data
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Data on your phone | Until you use Settings > Delete my data or uninstall the app |
| Online account, friends, settings and Daily Drop scores | Until you delete your online account (Profile > Online account > Delete online account); everything is then deleted immediately, including your leaderboard entries. You can also ask by email: see knowdrop-play.kalmarium.com/delete-account |
| Game invites | Max 15 minutes, in memory only |
| Push token | Until you turn off all push notifications or delete your online account |
| Reports and suggestions | Until handled, then max 12 months; accepted topics are kept without any link to you |
| Live party data | In memory only, deleted when the room closes; no IP addresses are stored |
| Purchase records | As long as needed to restore purchases, and 7 years for Dutch tax law |
| Ad data at Google | According to Google's own retention rules |
7. Your rights
You have the right to access, correct and delete your data, to restrict or object to processing, and to receive your data in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time (Settings > Privacy choices for ads).
- Delete in the app: Settings > Delete my data removes everything on your phone and, when online features are on, deletes your guest account (scores are anonymised).
- By email: write to kalmariumservices@gmail.com. Because there is no login with your name, we may ask for details that help us find your data (such as your nickname and when you played). The fastest route is always the delete option in the app. We answer within one month.
- Complaints: you can complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) or the authority in your own country.
8. Children
The app is meant for people aged 13 and older. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you are under 16 (or under the age of digital consent in your country), please ask a parent or guardian before you agree to personalised ads; if not, choose "Do not consent" and you will only see non-personalised ads. Parents who believe their child under 13 has used the online features can contact us and we will delete the data.
9. Security
All connections use encryption (HTTPS/TLS). Server access is limited by role, and secret keys are never stored in the app. No system is perfectly secure; we will inform you and the authority of a data breach when the law requires it.
10. Automated decisions
We do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects based only on automated processing. Fair-play checks (for example, answers that arrive impossibly fast) can hide a player from a weekly leaderboard; you can contact us if you think this is wrong.
11. Changes
We will update this policy when the app changes, for example when we switch on new online features or add analytics. The date at the top shows the latest version. For important changes we will also tell you in the app.
12. Contact
Kalmarium Services BV, the Netherlands
Email: kalmariumservices@gmail.com