Privacy policy — Crumbcade

Last updated 3 November 2026.

What Crumbcade collects

If you report a problem

The report screen has a text box and a switch. Everything that would be sent is listed on screen, in words, before you send it, and you can send the report without any of it.

When the switch is on, a report carries:

• the app's version and build number
• your iOS version
• your device model (for example “iPhone16,2” — this is the model, the same on every phone of that kind, and is not an identifier for you)
• whether VoiceOver was running
• the level you were on, whether you were playing on your own or against somebody, and how stale that information is
• the board's seed, when there is one, so the same board can be dealt again
• how many lives you had
• how long your moves have been taking — the middle time between one move and the next, and how many moves that was worked out from, kept separately for VoiceOver on and VoiceOver off
• the last thing that went wrong quietly inside the app, if anything did

About the move timing

Crumbcade decides how many moves a level gives you from an estimate of how long one move takes, and that estimate has never been measured on a real player. So the game notes the time between one move and the next, on your phone, and keeps the middle figure. Gaps of more than two minutes are thrown away, because that is you putting the phone down rather than you playing.

This never leaves your phone unless you send it. It is stored on your device only. Nothing uploads it, nothing reports it in the background, and it is not used for analytics of any kind — it goes nowhere at all except inside a bug report that you wrote and chose to send, and then only when the details switch is on, and it is listed on that screen with everything else before you send it. It is never shown or spoken while you are playing, and it never changes the game: not your score, not your lives, not what a level asks of you, not what anything costs. Turning the details switch off, or simply not sending a report, means it is never seen by anybody but you.

It does not carry your name, your email, your phone number, your Apple ID, your location, your contacts, anything from your clipboard, any advertising identifier, or any identifier that follows you between apps. The request is sent without any account credentials attached.

If you play against other people

Other players see a display name that you choose, roughly which third of the world you are in, and how you are doing in the game you are playing, and, beside your name, a Founding Baker or Supporter badge if you have one. Nothing else. The region is worked out from the time offset your phone already knows; Crumbcade does not use location services, and the offset itself is discarded — only the broad band is kept.

Messages in games with people you have not met are chosen from a fixed list. Free text is only for friends.

If you report another player, the last messages in that game are kept as evidence of what was reported.

When you post a board for Beat my board, the server keeps the board and each player’s result on it, as it does for any game. The sprinkles you win, and the thank-you sprinkles when somebody plays a board you posted, are worked out and kept on your phone only. A link to your board (crumbcade.com/b/…) opens a page that calls no server and is not logged; it only shows the code and how to open the board in Crumbcade.

Bake together is a game for two friends on one board as one team. The server keeps the shared board, the moves and the score exactly as it does for a duel, and deletes them on the same timetable.

The Founding Baker title, for people who tested Crumbcade before it launched, is kept on your game account: the server notes when your phone said it was a tester’s phone, and when the one-time thank-you gift was opened, so it is only ever opened once.

Usernames

A username is optional, and nothing changes if you never choose one. If you choose one, the Crumbcade server keeps it with your game account, and checks it first: a username is refused if it carries swearing, abuse or contact details.

Somebody can find you only by typing your exact username; there is no list of usernames, no suggestions and no partial search. Switch Let people find me off in Settings and nobody can find you by it at all. The server does not write down which usernames anybody looks up; it counts only how many lookups an account made in the last hour, so the limit can be kept, and forgets them after that hour. Your username is shown to people who type it, to your friends, and to anyone you send a friend request to.

You can change or remove your username at any time. Removing it, or deleting your account, frees it straight away.

Friends

Friends are optional. When you send a friend request, the server keeps who asked whom and when, until it is accepted, declined or runs out. When it is accepted, it keeps that you are friends, as two game accounts and the date, and nothing else: no names are copied and no contact details exist to keep. Your friends see your display name, your username and your badges, and can challenge you to a game.

Removing a friend, or blocking or reporting them, ends the friendship straight away. Somebody you have blocked cannot send you a friend request or a challenge. Answered and expired requests and challenges are deleted 30 days later. A declined request is remembered, so the same person cannot ask you again for seven days.

If you turn on friend alerts, your device’s notification token is stored for them, separately from turn alerts, so the server can tell you when a friend challenges you or answers your request. Turning them off deletes it.

Stars with friends

If you have friends in Crumbcade, the game sends the Crumbcade server two numbers: how many stars you have and the highest level you have finished. They are sent after you win a level and when you open the Friends screen, and the server keeps only those two numbers and when they arrived. They are shown only to friends who have added you back, never to anyone you have blocked or who has blocked you, and never to strangers. You can turn off Show my stars to friends in Settings at any time; your numbers are deleted from the server straight away and nobody sees them. Deleting your account deletes them too.

Friend nudges

If you have friends in Crumbcade and you have Friend challenges switched on, a friend who beats your stars on a level, or your score on today’s Clear the Board, can send you one gentle notification. To make that possible the game sends the server your best stars for each level you have finished (only while Show my stars to friends is on; they are deleted straight away when you turn it off), and the time zone of your phone as an offset from UTC, so notes are never sent between 9 at night and 8 in the morning where you are. It also sends your phone’s time zone name (such as Australia/Adelaide), so those hours stay right when the clocks change for daylight saving; that is not your location. At most one such note is sent to you a day, only by a friend who has added you back, never by someone you have blocked. You can switch these notes off in Settings, under Notifications, with Tell me when a friend beats my score. Deleting your account deletes everything the server kept for this.

Voice chat with friends

Voice chat is off until you turn on Voice chat with friends in Settings, and it works only with friends who have added you back, during a game you are both playing. The game asks to use your microphone the first time you join a voice chat. Your voice goes directly from your phone to your friend’s, encrypted. When two phones cannot reach each other directly, it passes through Crumbcade’s own relay server, which forwards it without being able to listen to it. Your voice is never recorded or stored, by us or anyone else. To connect a call, the server passes short setup messages between the two phones and forgets each one within a minute; it does not keep who talked to whom or for how long. You can mute your microphone or your friend at any time, and you can block or report a friend from the voice chat panel, which ends the call straight away.

Messages between friends

You can send messages to your friends, and only to your friends: people who accepted your friend request, or whose request you accepted. Strangers you meet in a game can still only send each other the fixed phrases.

The server keeps each message so the conversation shows on both phones: the text, which game account sent it to which, when, and whether it has been read. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They are kept for 90 days after they were sent, then deleted. A message can be up to 500 characters, and there is a limit on how many you can send a minute and a day.

Every message is checked before it is sent. One that carries contact details, a link, or swearing or abuse is refused and is not kept. Messages are not read as a matter of course; the only time one is looked at is when somebody reports it. Reporting a message blocks the sender, and the message and the last twenty in that conversation are kept with the report as evidence, and deleted a year after it has been dealt with.

You can block a friend at any time. Blocking someone, or removing them as a friend, hides the conversation from both of you straight away and no more messages can be sent. The messages themselves are not deleted at that moment, because a report may still need them; they go with the 90 days above.

In Settings, Messages from friends is on until you switch it off. Off, nobody can message you and you cannot send messages; you can still read old ones. Nothing already sent is deleted by switching it off.

If you have friend alerts on, a new message sends a notification that says only who it is from, never what it says. It uses the same notification token as the other friend alerts and the same switch.

Deleting your account deletes every message you sent or were sent, apart from one that was reported, which stays only as evidence inside that report.

Inviting a friend to Crumbcade

Every player can have one invite code. When you choose Invite a friend, the game makes your code (once) and opens Apple’s share sheet with it and a link to crumbcade.com. You choose where it goes and who gets it. The share sheet does not tell Crumbcade where you sent it or who to, and Crumbcade never reads your contacts.

If a new player types your code in, the server keeps that they joined with your code, when, and later whether they finished their first level, which their phone tells the server once. That is what earns you the berry pie, and it is only ever earned that way, never for sharing. The server keeps when each pie was collected so the daily and lifetime limits can be kept. The link’s web page does not record who opens it.

Invite records are deleted two years after they were made. Deleting your account deletes your invite code; an invite you were part of keeps the other player’s side, with your account taken off it.

Today’s Clear the Board

Once a day there is a Clear the Board puzzle that is the same for everyone. When you clear it, the game sends the Crumbcade server the date and how many moves you used (nothing is timed). The server keeps your best score for each day for two weeks and uses it to work out the leaderboard. The leaderboard shows your place and the top scores; your name is shown only to you and to friends who have added you back, and everyone else appears as “A baker”. Deleting your account deletes your scores.

Weekly events

Every week there is a bakery event that everybody can join in, such as baking 10,000 doughnuts together. You are in it unless you switch Join weekly events off in Settings.

While you are in it, each time you finish a level, or run out of moves on one, the game sends the Crumbcade server one number: how many of that week's food you cleared on that level. If you are offline, the number waits on your phone and is sent next time. It goes with the same anonymous game account the game already uses for playing against other people, which is a random code and not your name, email or Apple ID. If you have never played against anybody, the game makes that account the first time it sends a count.

The server adds your number to the week's total for everybody, and keeps, for each week, how many you added and which of that week's rewards you have collected, so that each reward goes only to people who joined in and can only be collected once. It does not keep which levels you played, your score, when you played, or anything else. Other players never see what you added; everybody sees only the bakery's total.

Those weekly records are deleted five weeks after the week ends. The weekly totals, which have nobody's account in them, are kept.

If you switch Join weekly events off, nothing more is sent, any counts still waiting on your phone are thrown away, and the game asks the server to delete every weekly record linked to your account straight away. The totals you already added to stay, with nobody's account attached. You can still open the event screen to see how the bakery is doing; the game then asks without your account.

Bakery clubs

Bakery clubs are optional. Nothing about clubs is sent unless you create or join one.

You can be in up to three clubs at once. Everything this section says applies to each club you are in; a level you win for the first time is counted for each of your clubs.

A club has a name and a short description, chosen by whoever made it. Both are checked before they are saved and refused if they carry contact details, abuse or swearing. The other members of your club see your game name and badges, whether you lead the club, and how many levels you have won for the first time that week. People who are not in your club see only the club's name, description and how many members it has.

While you are in a club, each time you win a level for the first time the game sends the Crumbcade server one number: how many levels that was, normally one, so the club's weekly goal can be added up. It goes with the same anonymous game account used for weekly events and playing against other people. When you ask your club for a life, or send one, the server keeps who asked, who sent it and when, so that the daily limits can be kept and the life reaches the right person. The server does not keep which levels you won, your scores, or when you played.

Lives requests are deleted two days after they run out, lives sent are deleted a week after they were sent, and the weekly goal records are deleted five weeks after the week ends. If you leave a club, your membership goes straight away; the levels you already added stay in that club's total for the week. Deleting your account removes every club record linked to it, except that the stars you gave a club bakery stay with the club with your name and account taken off them.

Your club can build a club bakery together by giving stars. When you give, the game sends the Crumbcade server how many stars you gave and a random code for that gift, so the same gift is never counted twice. The server keeps, for each gift, which club it went to, how many stars it was, and the day and time it was given. It also keeps how many stars your account has given to clubs in all, so stars already given cannot be given again from a new phone. The other members of your club see the names of the people who have given the most stars that week, and how many stars each of them gave. Anyone who has left the club drops off that list. Nothing about your gifts is shown to people outside your club.

Gifts stay with the club for as long as the club exists, because they are what the club’s bakery is built from. When a club closes, its bakery and every gift record in it are deleted. If you delete your account, your name and account are taken off every gift you gave; the stars stay with the club, and your total given is deleted.

When you collect a club chest, the server keeps which chest it was, which club it came from and when, so each chest can only be collected once by your account; this is deleted when you delete your account.

You can report a club's name or description, or any member, from the club screen. Reporting also blocks the person reported. You never see or receive lives from somebody you have blocked, and you are never shown a club with somebody in it you have blocked.

The accessibility count

When the game opens, and again if VoiceOver is switched on or off while it is open, it sends the Crumbcade server three things: a random number this copy of the game made up for itself the first time it was opened, whether VoiceOver is on, and the game's build number. That is all. It carries no name, no account and no token, it is not linked to your game account or to anything else about you, and the server keeps one line per random number, so it can only ever answer “how many players use VoiceOver”. It is how Crumbcade knows how many blind and sighted players there are. There is no way to read it back from the game or the website.

To stop it, switch Share anonymous accessibility count off in Settings. Off, nothing about it is sent at all.

Anonymous game progress

To learn where new players get stuck, the game sends the Crumbcade server a few milestones as you get started — such as seeing and finishing the tutorial, your answer to the reminders question, starting, winning or running out of moves on each of the first ten levels, opening the shop, and whether you open the game again on each of the first seven days and after two weeks and a month — plus the highest level you have reached, whether VoiceOver is on, and the game’s build number. Each milestone is kept once, with the date and time it happened. They go with a random number this copy of the game made up for this alone: it is not your game account, not the accessibility count’s number, and not linked to anything else about you. No scores, no purchases, and nothing about how quickly you play. There is no way to read it back from the game or the website.

To stop it, switch Share anonymous game progress off in Settings. Off, nothing about it is sent at all.

Game Center

If you are signed in to Apple’s Game Center, the game tells Game Center about the achievements you earn and your scores for the daily challenge and your total stars. That goes to Apple, not to the Crumbcade server, and what other people can see of it, including your Game Center name on the leaderboards, is decided by your Game Center settings and Apple’s privacy policy. Crumbcade never asks you to sign in to Game Center, and the whole game works without it.

Notifications

If you turn on turn alerts, your device's notification token is stored so the server can tell you when it is your turn, when a game starts or ends, and when somebody takes or finishes a board you posted. Turning them off deletes it. Friend alerts have their own switch, and so do new message alerts. The daily reminder is scheduled on your own phone and sends nothing anywhere. So are the weekly event notes, one when a new week starts and one when the bakery is nearly there, never more than two a week; they come only while the daily reminder is on and you are in weekly events. The daily gift note (one evening note when your run of daily gifts would otherwise start again) is scheduled on your phone too, and sends nothing anywhere.

If you are in a club and have Friend challenges on, the server can send you one note when your club is close to its weekly goal and you have not added a level that week. To keep it out of the night, the game tells the server your phone’s offset from UTC; nothing is sent between 9 at night and 8 in the morning where you are, and at most one such note every three days. It also sends your phone’s time zone name (such as Australia/Adelaide), so those hours stay right when the clocks change for daylight saving; that is not your location. The server notes when it sent one, to keep to that, and deletes the note after 30 days. Switch Club nudges off in Settings to stop them.

Purchases

Purchases are handled entirely by Apple. Crumbcade never sees your payment details and never asks for them.

When something is bought, Apple sends the Crumbcade server a short note saying which item it was, its price and when it happened, so I know a sale was made. That note does not include your name, your Apple ID, your email or anything else that identifies you.

When you buy a gift for a friend or leave a tip, our server keeps a record of the purchase linked to your anonymous player account, so the gift can be collected once and your Supporter badge can be shown. We never receive your name or payment details.

For a gift, that record is which pack it was, its six-character code, when it was bought, and, once it is collected, which player account collected it and when. The friend collecting it is shown your display name, so they know who it is from. A gift that has been collected, or refunded, is deleted a year later; one nobody has collected yet is kept, because it was paid for. For a tip, the record is which tip it was and when, and it is kept while your account exists. If Apple refunds a gift or tip, the gift can no longer be collected and the tip no longer counts. Wrong gift codes are counted for a day so that codes cannot be guessed, and then forgotten.

Some things are kept on your phone only and never sent anywhere: your progress through the levels (apart from the anonymous game progress above, while that switch is on) and the levels you replay, your lives, items, sprinkles and stars, the piggy bank and what is in it, and any unlimited lives pass and how long is left on it. To stop a pass being stretched by changing the phone’s clock, the game reads the time from the Crumbcade server’s answers; nothing about the pass is sent. Cracking the piggy bank open is an ordinary purchase like any other.

What is never done

• Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared with advertisers.
• There is no tracking across other apps or websites.
• There are no third-party analytics.

Children

Crumbcade is for everyone and does not ask anybody’s age. It is made so that nobody, of any age, has to give their name, email, phone number or location to play, and it does not knowingly collect personal information from children. Usernames, friends, clubs and games with other people are all optional. Players who have not met can only send each other messages from a fixed list, and games with people you have not met can be turned off. A parent or carer can delete a child’s game account and data from Settings, or ask us to, at support@crumbcade.com.

Deleting your account

You can delete your game account, and everything the Crumbcade server holds about it, from inside the game: open Settings, go to Your account, and choose Delete my account and data. The game tells you exactly what will go before you confirm. It needs a connection; if there is none, the game says so and nothing is deleted until you try again.

This deletes, straight away and for good: your display name, your username, your game account and its code, your Founding Baker record, your friends list and friend requests, your invite code, your tips and Supporter badge, your notification tokens, your weekly event records, the messages you sent in games, every message between you and your friends, your blocks, any game or shared board nobody else had joined, and your place in any queue or lobby. The game also asks the server to delete this copy of the game's anonymous accessibility count and its anonymous game progress, in separate requests that are not linked to your account.

Where another player was in a game or shared board with you, their record of it is kept, because it is theirs too, but your name in it is replaced with “a deleted player” and your account code with a random one, so it can no longer be linked to you. The same is done to gifts you bought or collected, because your friend has a claim on them too: a gift you bought that has not been collected can still be collected by the friend you sent it to. Your friends lose you from their lists. A game still being played ends as if you had resigned. Reports made by you or about you, including any messages they quote (a reported friend message and the conversation around it, too), are kept as moderation records with your account code removed, and deleted on the schedule below.

Deleting your account does not touch your purchases, which belong to your Apple ID: anything you own for good, such as Keep Halloween, comes back with Restore purchases. Your game progress on the phone stays unless you also choose to reset it. Bug reports are never linked to an account, so they cannot be found from it; email us if you want one removed.

How long things are kept

• A game account that has not been used for two years is deleted, in the same way as above.
• Finished games, and the messages in them, are deleted two weeks after they end.
• Messages between friends are deleted 90 days after they were sent. The count of how many you tried to send is kept for a day.
• Weekly event records are deleted five weeks after their week ends, or straight away if you leave weekly events.
• Club bakery gifts are kept while the club exists and deleted when it closes; if you delete your account they stay, with your name and account removed.
• Friend requests and challenges are deleted 30 days after they were answered or ran out; a declined request stops the same person asking again for seven days. Friends stay friends until one of you removes the other or deletes their account.
• Gifts are deleted a year after they were collected or refunded; a gift nobody has collected is kept. Tips are kept while your account exists.
• Invite records are deleted two years after they were made.
• Counts of username lookups are kept for an hour, and of wrong codes and tries to send a message for a day.
• Bug reports are deleted after six months.
• Reports about other players are deleted a year after they have been dealt with.
• An accessibility count is deleted a year after that copy of the game last sent it, and so is anonymous game progress.
• Apple’s notes about purchases contain nothing about you and are kept as sales records. For a gift or tip, the note can be matched to the gift or tip record above by Apple’s transaction number.

To have anything removed, or to ask what is held, email support@crumbcade.com, or use the Report a problem form in the game.

Who runs Crumbcade, and where things are kept

Crumbcade is made and run by one person, Tori Herbener-Bemold, in Australia. The Crumbcade server, and everything on this page that it keeps, is on a server rented from Linode (Akamai) in Sydney, Australia. Only Tori can sign in to it. Questions about your data go to support@crumbcade.com.

Changes

Any change to what is collected will be reflected here before the version that makes the change is released.