Privacy Policy

StoryShards · Last updated: August 3, 2026 (2026-08-03)

Overview

StoryShards (the "App") is an iPhone jigsaw-and-story app that requires no account and no sign-up. Your reading progress is stored on your iPhone, and — if you are signed in to iCloud — synced to your own iCloud account. We operate no game server, and we never receive or store your progress.

Three things do involve other parties: the App shows optional Google AdMob ads, purchases are handled by Apple and RevenueCat, and the App fetches a small text-correction file from this website. Each is explained below.

1. Data Stored On Your Device (Not Sent to Our Servers)

The following is stored and processed on your iPhone and is never transmitted to us:

• Which chapters you have opened and which you have read
• The set of calendar days on which you advanced, and your current streak (recalculated from that set)
• Chapters opened through Early Access, and which of those you have read
• Your home time zone setting
• The in-progress jigsaw board (piece positions), which stays on the device it was played on
• Random identifiers the App generates for its own save file so that two devices can merge progress
• A trusted-time anchor used to decide which calendar day it is (see section 5)
• Whether a subscription or the one-time purchase is currently active

Because this data is not sent to us, we cannot view or collect it. There is no account and no login. Deleting the App removes the local copy; see section 2 for the iCloud copy.

2. iCloud Sync (Your Own iCloud Account)

The App syncs your progress through Apple's iCloud key-value store so that it carries across your own devices and survives reinstalling.

• It syncs only the progress record listed in section 1 — chapters opened and read, the days you advanced, Early Access chapters, and your home time zone. The jigsaw board in progress and the time anchor are device-specific and are not synced.
• It contains no name, email address, or contact information.
• It is stored in your iCloud account under Apple's terms and privacy policy. We have no access to it and cannot read, retrieve, or delete it.
• Progress is merged rather than overwritten: reading a chapter on one device never erases a chapter read on another.
• If you are not signed in to iCloud, or you have iCloud Drive off, every feature still works — the App simply keeps your progress locally. It will not nag you to sign in.
• You can remove the data at any time by signing out of iCloud or deleting the App's iCloud data in iOS Settings.

3. Data Collected For Ads (Google AdMob)

The App shows Google AdMob rewarded video ads only — there are no banners and no forced interstitials, and watching is always optional. The daily chapter never requires an ad. To deliver, measure and protect ads from fraud, Google (and partner ad providers) may obtain and use the data types below. This matches the App Store "App Privacy" label and the App's privacy manifest.

This data is processed under Google's privacy policy and ad practices. See How Google uses data on partner sites and the Google Privacy Policy.

The ad SDK is only started when an ad is actually needed, and never before the tracking permission below has been answered.

4. Tracking and ATT (App Tracking Transparency)

Of the above, only the Device ID is used for cross-app/site advertising tracking. In line with iOS App Tracking Transparency (ATT), the App shows a permission prompt shortly after first launch, before any tracking takes place. Every feature of the App works whether or not you allow tracking — including the free daily chapter. Declining simply makes ads less personalized.

You can change ATT permission at any time in iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.

5. Ad Consent (Google UMP)

Depending on your region's laws (such as GDPR in the EU/EEA and the UK), the App may present a consent form via Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP). When shown, you can choose whether to consent to ad-related data use, and your choice is applied to subsequent ad delivery. Where your region requires it, the App's Settings shows an "Ad privacy options" entry that reopens those choices.

6. Purchases (App Store / RevenueCat)

The App offers an auto-renewing subscription (monthly or annual) and a one-time, non-consumable purchase for the Season 1 archive. All billing is processed by Apple's App Store (StoreKit) under Apple's own terms and privacy policy. We never see or access your name, email address, billing address, credit card number, or any payment information.

We use RevenueCat to manage entitlement state (whether a subscription or the one-time purchase is active). To validate purchases, an anonymous identifier generated by RevenueCat and purchase/receipt information are sent to RevenueCat. We do not provide RevenueCat with your name, email address, or any other identity information, and we do not link this data to your game progress. In the App Store "App Privacy" label and the App's privacy manifest this is declared as Purchase History, linked to the user, used for app functionality, and not used for tracking.

Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; you can view, change, or cancel them in the App Store account settings, which the App links to directly from Settings.

7. The Text-Correction Request To This Website

The story text ships inside the App. So that a typo or a wording slip can be fixed without waiting for an App Store update, the App makes a single HTTPS GET request to this website for a correction file — once when it launches, and again when it returns to the foreground.

• The request carries no personal data: no account, no device identifier, no advertising identifier, no reading progress, no cookies. The App uses a non-persistent (ephemeral) connection, so nothing is stored in a cookie jar.
• Our host (Vercel) records the same standard access-log entries any web server records: IP address, timestamp, requested path, and user agent. These exist for delivery, availability, and abuse protection. We do not use them to identify individuals, and we cannot connect them to your progress or purchases — the App sends nothing that would make such a connection possible.
• The same response also tells the App what day it is. The App reads the standard HTTP Date header of that very response, so that "one chapter per day" is measured against a clock you cannot move by changing the device's date. No separate time-tracking service is used, and this is the only reason the App needs a network connection for progression.
• Most days there is no correction to serve and the file simply does not exist — the App handles that as the normal case and keeps using the text it shipped with.
• The App keeps working offline with the text it already has; if the request fails, nothing is lost and nothing changes. Opening a new chapter does need a reasonably recent check-in, because that is how the calendar day is verified.

8. What We Do Not Collect

• Contact information such as name, email address, phone number, or address
• Precise (GPS-level) location
• Photos — the App does not request access to your photo library at all, neither to read nor to write
• Contacts, calendars, microphone, camera, or other on-device content
• Health or financial information

There is no account system, and no login or sign-in is required. The App does not send push notifications and does not ask for notification permission.

9. Children's Privacy

The App has no age gate or parental controls. Because it shows ads, please use it under a guardian's supervision. We do not directly collect personal information such as a name from children.

10. Third-Party Services

• Google AdMob (ad delivery) — Privacy Policy
• Google User Messaging Platform (ad consent) — Privacy Policy
• RevenueCat (entitlement management) — Privacy Policy
• Apple App Store / StoreKit (payment) and iCloud (your own sync) — Privacy Policy
• Vercel (hosting of this website and of the correction file described in section 7) — Privacy Policy

11. Changes to This Policy

If we change this policy, we will update this page and revise the date above. For material changes affecting data handling, we will make it clear in the app or the App Store description before the change takes effect.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy? Email yuya1129t@gmail.com.