Privacy Policy — Sarah Killed Me!

Effective date: 24 September 2026 (replaces the policy dated 13 July 2026)

Sarah Killed Me! (“the app”) is published by Denella Ltd (contact: contactus@denellapublishing.com).

The short version

No accounts, no ads, no location, no advertising identifiers. Nothing is ever sold or shared with third parties for marketing.
The app records anonymous usage statistics — which modes are played and whether cases are solved — under a random installation identifier that identifies your copy of the app, not you.
Two things are sent only if you choose to: a display name for a leaderboard, and anything you type into the feedback form.
Premium is a one-time purchase handled by Apple or Google. We never see payment details.
If the app crashes it sends one small anonymous crash report.

What stays on your device

No accounts. The app has no sign-up, login or user profiles.
Local storage. Your game progress — scores, streaks, current level, settings, and your crossings-out in a case you are working on — is saved in the app’s local storage on your device (and, on iOS and Android, backed up by the system along with your other app data). It is deleted when you uninstall the app. We never see it.
Notifications. The app can show a daily local reminder that a new case is available. It is scheduled entirely on your device; no server is involved. You can decline or disable notification permission at any time in your device settings.
No ads. The app contains no advertising and no advertising SDKs.

Anonymous usage statistics

When the app is first installed it generates a random identifier (a UUID). This is not your name, email address, phone number, advertising ID, or any identifier provided by Apple or Google. It exists only inside the app’s local storage, changes if you reinstall, and cannot be linked back to you by us or by anyone else.

Against that identifier the app records:

the platform (iOS, Android or web) and the app version;
when the app is opened;
which mode you play — Today’s Case (ranked or unranked), the Case Ladder and its level, Premium cases, the Weekly Case — and whether a case was started, solved or went cold, and how many clues were showing;
when the Premium screen was shown, and whether a purchase was started, completed, restored, or failed (with the store’s error code — never any payment details);
when you tap Share (not what you share it to, or with whom);
anything you send through the feedback form (see below).

What is not recorded: no name (unless you enter one for a leaderboard), no location, no contacts, no advertising identifiers, and nothing about other apps on your device.

Why: to understand how the game is played, to find and fix problems, and to decide what to build next. Under UK data protection law our basis is our legitimate interest in improving the app; the data cannot identify you.

Where and how long: stored on our database provider Supabase, hosted in the European Union. Raw records are kept for up to 24 months, then deleted or reduced to totals. They are never sold, never shared with third parties, and never used for advertising.

Playing unranked: if you play Today’s Case unranked, no display name is sent and you never appear on any board. The app records only the same anonymous play count that it records for every other mode.

The daily leaderboard (optional)

Today’s Case can be played ranked on a worldwide daily leaderboard. This is entirely optional — you choose it by entering a display name and tapping “Begin”. If you prefer, tap “Play unranked”: the same puzzle, no display name, and you never appear on the board.

What is stored: the display name you choose; your result for that day’s case — solve time, clues used, score and date; the anonymous installation identifier (so a device can enter once per day and can resume its attempt); and the app version.
What is public: the display name and result appear on the in-app leaderboard, visible to other players. Choose a nickname, not your real name, if you prefer to stay anonymous — we have no way of knowing who a display name belongs to.
Moderation: display names are filtered for offensive content, and any name can be reported from the leaderboard screen (“Report a name”). Reported names are reviewed and removed if inappropriate.
Abuse prevention: to stop automated abuse, our server briefly counts requests per connection. The network address is irreversibly hashed before being counted and the counters are deleted after two days; no readable addresses are ever stored.
Where it is stored: Supabase, in the European Union.
How long: results are kept so past boards remain viewable. To have an entry removed, email contactus@denellapublishing.com with the display name and date, and we will delete it.
Not shared, not sold. Leaderboard data is used only to display the leaderboard.

The Weekly Case (Premium)

The Weekly Case is one case a week, the same for everyone, with clues released day by day. Because our server releases the clues and judges the accusation, a Weekly Case attempt is held on the server for the week rather than on your device: the anonymous installation identifier, which week, which clues you have revealed, your accusation and whether it was correct, and the day and time it was solved. Your crossings-out stay on your device.

Ranked: you enter a display name, and your name, the day you solved it, the clues used and the time appear on that week’s public board. The moderation and reporting rules above apply.
Play privately: no display name. The same progress is held on the server — that is what makes the case work — but it is never shown on any board.
How long: results are kept so past weekly boards remain viewable. To have an entry removed, email contactus@denellapublishing.com with the display name and the week.

Premium purchases

Premium is a one-time purchase made through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google process the payment; we never receive card details, billing addresses, or your Apple ID or Google account.

To confirm a purchase and to restore it if you reinstall or change device, the app uses RevenueCat, a purchase-management service acting as our processor. RevenueCat receives the store’s purchase receipt or transaction identifier, the product purchased, and an anonymous user identifier generated on your device — nothing that identifies you to us. RevenueCat’s privacy policy is at https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy. Our own records note only that a purchase was started, completed, restored, or failed (see “Anonymous usage statistics”). “Restore purchase” simply asks the store whether your store account already owns Premium.

The feedback form

The feedback form is optional. What you type — and your vote on the size of the Weekly Case — is sent with the anonymous installation identifier, platform and app version. It is anonymous, so we cannot reply to it: please do not include personal information, and if you would like an answer, email contactus@denellapublishing.com instead. Feedback is kept for as long as it is useful to us and is never published.

Rating prompt

After a few solved cases the app may show the standard App Store or Google Play rating prompt. That prompt is provided and handled entirely by Apple or Google; we receive nothing from it.

Crash reports

If the app crashes mid-game, the next launch sends one small diagnostic report so we can find and fix the bug:

What is sent: which screen the game was on when it died, the time, the app version, the device’s browser signature (user-agent string), its memory class and screen size, and the error message if one was recorded.
What is NOT sent: no display name, no location, no advertising identifiers — nothing that identifies you. Crash reports cannot be linked to a leaderboard entry.
Where it goes: the same Supabase database (European Union), readable only by us.
Purpose and retention: used solely to diagnose crashes; reports are deleted once the bug they describe is fixed.

Children

The app is a logic puzzle suitable for a general audience. It collects no personal data from anyone; the only optional data is a freely chosen display name and whatever a player types into the feedback form. We encourage all players, especially younger ones, to use a made-up nickname and to keep feedback impersonal.

Your rights

You can ask us to delete a leaderboard entry or a piece of feedback by emailing contactus@denellapublishing.com (with the display name and date, or the text you sent). Because usage statistics are not linked to your identity, we cannot look up “your” records from your name; uninstalling the app ends the link between your device and any records entirely. If you are in the UK and are unhappy with how we handle data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).

Changes

If a future update changes what data the app handles, this policy will be updated before that update is released. This revision adds the usage statistics, the feedback form, Premium purchases, and the Weekly Case, and changes the unranked-play wording accordingly.

Contact

Questions about this policy: contactus@denellapublishing.com

Privacy Policy – Sarah Killed Me!