Privacy Policy for Crossword Solver by TWF

1. Who we are

Crossword Solver by TWF is published by MPL Ventures LLC, 330 N Wabash Ave, Floor 23, Chicago, IL 60611-7619, United States.

For anything relating to this policy or to your personal information, contact us at [email protected].

Under the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulation, MPL Ventures LLC is the data controller for the processing described below.

2. The short version

There is no account in Crossword Solver, no sign-in and no profile. We do not ask for your name or your location, we do not build a record of who you are, and there is no advertising in the app. The only time we would have your email address is if you choose to give it to us when sending feedback, and that is always optional.

One thing leaves your device. When you look up a clue, that lookup goes to our own server so it can find matching answers, and it appears in our server log for 14 days. Nothing identifying goes with it, and we cannot connect a lookup to you.

Everything else, including your favorites and your settings, stays on your phone.

The detail is below, and the detail governs.

3. What we do not collect

Crossword Solver does not collect:

• Your name, phone number or postal address
• Your email address, unless you choose to give it to us when you send us feedback. See Section 6.
• Your location, precise or approximate
• Your contacts, calendar, photos, or anything else from elsewhere on your device
• An advertising identifier

There is no advertising in the app and no advertising software inside it. There is no analytics software and no crash reporting software. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for advertising.

4. Requests to our server

Crossword Solver is not an entirely offline app. When you look up a clue, the app sends that lookup to a server we operate, over an encrypted HTTPS connection. The server searches our clue and answer database and sends matches back.

We run that server ourselves, on a machine rented from DigitalOcean in New York, United States. No advertising network, analytics provider or other third party sees or handles these requests.

Like almost every web server, ours keeps a routine access log. Each entry records the time of the request, the address requested, the type of device and browser that made it, and the size of the response. The address requested includes the clue you searched for, so your searches do appear in that log.

IP addresses are truncated as the log is written, so an entry cannot be traced back to a particular device or person. There is no account, no session identifier and no device identifier attached to these requests. We cannot connect a search to you, and we do not attempt to. Logs are kept for 14 days and then automatically deleted.

We keep these logs so we can see that the service is working, diagnose faults and identify abusive traffic. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping the service running and secure. We do not use the logs to build a profile of anyone, and we do not share them.

5. What stays on your phone

Your puzzle progress, saved grids, recent searches and settings are stored on your device. We do not receive them, and we cannot see them. Deleting the app removes them.

6. Sending us feedback

There is a feedback link in the app. Tapping it opens your browser and takes you to a Google Form, which sits outside the app.

The form asks which of our apps you are writing about, whether you are on Apple or Android, and what you would like to tell us. There is also a field for your email address. That field is optional. You only need it if you want a reply, and the form says so.

If you give us your email address, we use it to reply to you and for nothing else. We do not sell it, we do not share it, we do not add you to any mailing list, and we do not use it for marketing. Our legal basis is your consent, given when you choose to fill the field in.

Responses go to a spreadsheet in our Google Workspace account, where Google acts as our processor. Five people at MPL Ventures LLC can see it. Nobody else has access.

We delete email addresses from that spreadsheet after 12 months. We keep the feedback itself, along with the device type and which app it was about, for longer, because it helps us improve the apps. Once the email address is gone, what remains cannot be connected to you.

If you would like your feedback removed sooner, email [email protected] and we will delete it.

7. Advertising

Crossword Solver does not show advertising, and it contains no advertising software.

We expect to introduce advertising in future. When we do, we will update this policy and our app store declarations before the version containing advertising is released, and we will ask for your consent where the law requires it. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, that means a consent prompt before any personalised advertising, with the ability to refuse and to change your mind later from within the app.

8. Who else is involved

DigitalOcean. Our server runs on a machine we rent from DigitalOcean, who act as our processor. They provide the infrastructure and do not handle the content of your requests.

Google Workspace. If you send us feedback, the form and the spreadsheet holding the responses run on our Google Workspace account. Google acts as our processor there under its data processing terms.

Apple and Google as app stores. They distribute the app and collect their own information about downloads and, if you have opted in at the operating system level, app usage and crash diagnostics. Apple shows us aggregate reports built from that in App Store Connect. We do not receive anything that identifies you and we cannot see what any individual did. That processing is theirs rather than ours, and is governed by Apple's privacy policy and Google's privacy policy. You can turn it off in your device settings under Privacy and Security.

That is the complete list. We do not work with advertising networks, analytics providers or data brokers. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising as those terms are used in United States state privacy laws.

9. Children

Crossword Solver is not directed at children under 13. The app collects no personal information from anyone through ordinary use: there is no account, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. The only route by which we could receive personal information is the optional email field on our feedback form, described in Section 6.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact [email protected] and we will look into it.

10. Your rights

We hold almost nothing about you. There is no account, no identifier we control, and nothing in our logs that points to a person. That limits what most of these rights can practically reach, but they exist and you can exercise them.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent where processing relies on it. You also have the right to complain to your national supervisory authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office.

If you are in California, you have the right to know what personal information is collected, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

Residents of other US states with comprehensive privacy laws, including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Texas, have comparable rights and can exercise them the same way.

To make a request, email [email protected]. We will respond within one month. Because there is no account, we often cannot verify that particular data relates to you, and where that is the case we will explain why rather than simply refusing. If you sent us feedback and included your email address, we can find that record and delete it on request.

11. Where information is processed

MPL Ventures LLC is based in the United States, and our server runs in DigitalOcean's New York datacentre. When you use the app, your device sends its request there directly, wherever in the world you happen to be.

Feedback sent through our form is held in our Google Workspace account.

12. How long we keep things

Server access logs are kept for 14 days and then deleted automatically. We keep nothing else from your ordinary use of the app.

Email addresses given through our feedback form are deleted after 12 months. The feedback itself, without the email address attached, is kept for longer so it can inform improvements to the apps.

Emails you send to [email protected] are kept for as long as needed to answer you and for up to 24 months afterwards, so we can follow up on related questions. After that they are deleted.

13. Security

Traffic between the app and our server is encrypted in transit using HTTPS. Because the app holds no account and stores no personal information about you, there is no stored personal data of yours for us to protect.

Puzzle progress and settings are saved on your own device and are protected by your device's own security. Deleting the app removes them.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when the app changes. The date at the top always reflects the current version.

Where a change is material, particularly the introduction of advertising, we will publish the updated policy and update our app store declarations before the new version of the app is released. Where the law requires consent, we will ask for it rather than relying on you having read this page.

15. Contact

[email protected]