Echo Privacy Policy
Echo is a free arrow puzzle. It has no accounts, no analytics, and it never uploads your progress. It is funded by ads served by Google AdMob, with a consent dialog in the EU/EEA/UK. Ads never sit on the puzzle itself.
Key Points
No Account, No Tracking
No sign-up, no email, no analytics SDK, no crash reporter. We operate no Echo servers and receive no gameplay telemetry.
Progress Stays on Device
Level progress, sound and haptics live in the app's private storage. Uninstalling Echo deletes them.
Free, With Ads
Banners on home and the complete sheet, plus interstitial, rewarded and app-open ads. Never on the play canvas. EU users get a TCF consent dialog first.
Table of Contents
1. Data Controller & Scope
The data controller for the Echo mobile application (package com.observin.echo) is the individual developer who publishes the app on the Google Play Store under the Observin developer account. For any privacy enquiry, use the contact details in Section 11.
This policy applies only to the Echo Android application. Our other apps have their own policies: Trailium, Starro and Intervals.
2. What We Collect
We operate no servers and no accounts
Echo has no backend. We never receive your puzzles, progress or settings. There is no sign-up, no email address, no username and no password. The app contains no analytics SDK and no crash-reporting SDK, so we receive no usage statistics or telemetry from your device.
Advertising data (the only data leaving your device)
Ads are served by Google AdMob, which may process your device's advertising identifier, IP address and basic device/ad-interaction signals. In the EU/EEA/UK this happens only in line with the consent choices you make in the dialog described in Section 4. Full detail is in Sections 4 and 6.
Stored on your device only
- Current level, highest unlocked level, and whether you have cleared a puzzle once
- Sound and haptics on/off
- Local timestamps used only to pace interstitial and app-open ads
What Echo never collects
- Your identity — no name, email, phone number, contacts or calendar
- Your location — no location permission is requested or used
- Photos, camera or microphone recordings — Echo is a puzzle; it does not capture media
- Gameplay telemetry — we do not log which levels you play or how you solve them
3. Permissions Echo Uses & Why
Internet
Used only to fetch ads and the ad-consent form. Every puzzle is generated and solved on your device; nothing about your play is uploaded.
Vibrate
Optional haptic feedback on taps, whooshes and Echo turns. You can switch haptics off in Settings.
Audio
Whoosh sounds play through the device speaker. You can mute them in Settings. Echo does not record audio. A microphone permission may appear because it is declared by the bundled audio library; Echo never uses the microphone.
Legacy storage (Android 12 and older)
A legacy media-storage permission is declared by bundled Google libraries for compatibility on Android 12 and below (capped so it does not apply on newer Android). Echo itself does not read or write your photos or files with it.
Not used
Echo does not draw over other apps, does not run a camera, and does not use an accessibility service. Any leftover overlay or media-playback declarations come from Expo audio scaffolding and are not used for surveillance or overlays.
4. Advertising & Consent (incl. EU/EEA/UK)
How ads work in Echo
Echo is free and funded by ads served through Google AdMob:
- A banner on the home screen and on the level-complete sheet
- An interstitial after some wins (not during a puzzle, not in the first five tutorial levels)
- Optional rewarded ads for a hint, an extra heart, or to continue after a fail
- An app-open ad on cold start or resume, only after you have won at least once, and never while a puzzle is on screen
Ads never sit on the play canvas. Ad content is requested at a PG maximum rating.
EU/EEA/UK — consent management (GDPR & ePrivacy)
If you are in the European Union, European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the app presents a consent dialog built on the Google User Messaging Platform (UMP), which implements the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF v2.2), before any personal data is processed for advertising. It lets you review every ad vendor and purpose, and accept or decline personalized advertising.
If you decline, you still see ads, but they are non-personalized and no advertising identifier or behavioural data is used to target them.
Withdrawing or changing your choice
Open Echo → Settings → Privacy options to reopen the consent form. You can also opt out of ads personalization at the device level (Android Settings → Google → Ads → Delete advertising ID / Opt out of Ads Personalization). Clearing the app's data (Settings → Apps → Echo → Storage → Clear data) resets the stored consent record so the dialog is shown again on the next launch.
What AdMob may process
- Device advertising identifier (GAID)
- IP address (approximate geolocation and fraud prevention)
- Ad interaction and in-app ad-placement data
- Device type, OS version and language
Google's handling of that data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and the AdMob Privacy & Security guidelines. We do not sell your personal data and we build no user profiles ourselves.
5. Legal Basis (GDPR)
For users in the EU/EEA/UK, we rely on the following legal bases under Article 6 GDPR:
| Processing Activity | Legal Basis | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Running the puzzle (boards, progress, sound, haptics) | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) | Necessary to deliver the game you asked for; happens entirely on your device. |
| Personalized advertising | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) | Only after you grant consent in the in-app TCF dialog; withdrawable at any time. |
| Non-personalized advertising | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) | Contextual ads that fund the free app; no behavioural profiling. |
We carry out no analytics processing, so no legitimate-interest basis is claimed for it. International transfers arise only through Google's ad serving; Google relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers to the United States.
6. Third-Party Services
Google AdMob & Google UMP
Operated by Google LLC (Google Ireland Limited for EU/EEA users) to serve ads and to collect and store your ad-consent choice. Google acts as an independent controller for its own advertising purposes.
Google Play Store
Distribution platform. Google collects install, update and crash statistics for distribution purposes under its own policy; that happens in the Play platform, not inside Echo.
Nothing else
Beyond the above, Echo embeds no analytics providers, crash reporters, cloud processors or other ad networks, and we do not share, sell, rent or transfer data to any other third party.
7. Data Retention & Deletion
We retain nothing, because we hold nothing — there is no Echo server. Your progress, settings and consent record live in the app's private storage on your device.
- Delete app data: Android Settings → Apps → Echo → Storage → Clear data
- Uninstalling removes everything the app stored on your device
- Ad and consent data held by Google AdMob follows Google's own retention policy; use Google's ad-settings and data-deletion tools to manage it
8. Your Rights
Under the GDPR and comparable laws you have the rights of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), portability (Art. 20), objection (Art. 21) and withdrawal of consent (Art. 7(3)), plus the right not to be subject to automated decision-making with legal effect (Art. 22) — we perform no such decision-making.
In practice, because we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing on our side to access, export or erase: your device holds the only copy (Section 7), and advertising data sits with Google, whose tools let you delete your advertising ID and opt out of personalization.
Right to lodge a complaint: you may complain to your local supervisory authority — in the EU see edpb.europa.eu, in the UK the Information Commissioner's Office.
9. Children's Privacy
Echo is not directed at children under 13 (or the applicable age of digital consent in your country) and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child's data has been processed through the app, contact us (Section 11) and we will act promptly.
10. Changes to This Policy
If Echo's data practices change — in particular if analytics were added — this policy and the Google Play Data-safety declaration will be updated before that version ships, and the "Last updated" date above will change.
We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
11. Contact & Complaints
Questions about this policy or your data rights? Reach out — we answer all privacy requests within 30 days.
Contact Us