Privacy Policy

Effective 15 September 2026. This policy covers the Deep Trouble mobile game for Android and iOS.

Deep Trouble does not ask you to create an account, does not ask for your email, and does not collect your name, phone number, contacts, photos or location. You can play the entire game without giving us anything. This page explains the few things that are collected, why, and how to have them removed.

Who we are

Deep Trouble is made and published by BlackBear Mobile, an independent game studio based in Lebanon. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean BlackBear Mobile, and "the game" means the Deep Trouble mobile application for Android and iOS.

For anything in this policy, write to [email protected].

What the game collects

1. Nothing at all, unless you use the leaderboard

Your progress, settings and scores are stored only on your own device. If you never open the leaderboard and never create a username, no information about you leaves your phone, except as described under advertising below.

2. If you choose to join the leaderboard

Creating a username is entirely optional. If you do, we store on our server:

• The username you type. To show your place on the leaderboard. Pick anything you like. It does not have to be your real name, and we recommend it isn't.
• The country you pick from a list. To show a flag beside your name and to offer per-country boards. You choose it yourself; we do not look up your location.
• Your scores and progress. Best survival wave, deepest dive and best score. This is the leaderboard itself.
• A random device code. A random string generated on your phone the first time you play. It has no connection to your identity, your device's hardware IDs or your advertising ID. It exists so that only your device can update your own leaderboard entry, and so you can restore your profile after reinstalling.

We do not collect your email, your real name, your phone number, your contacts or your precise location at any point.

3. IP addresses

When the game contacts our leaderboard server, your device's IP address is visible to that server, as it is with any internet request. We use it for one purpose only, to count how many requests come from the same place so that nobody can flood the leaderboard, and we use it in a scrambled (hashed) form. We do not store your IP address, and we do not log it.

4. Advertising

The game is free and is funded by ads, served through Google AdMob. AdMob may access your device's advertising identifier and general information such as device type, operating system version and country, in order to choose which ads to show, to limit how often you see the same ad, and to detect fraud.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the game shows you a consent screen the first time you play, and you decide whether ads may be personalised. You can change that choice at any time from the game's Settings screen. Where personalised ads are not consented to, or are not permitted, AdMob serves non-personalised ads instead.

On iOS, the game will ask for permission before any tracking identifier is used, in line with Apple's App Tracking Transparency requirement. Declining does not affect the game in any way.

Google's handling of this data is governed by its own policy: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. You can control your advertising identifier in your device settings: on Android under Settings › Privacy › Ads, and on iOS under Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.

5. What we do not do

• We do not sell your data, and we never will.
• We do not share it with anyone except as needed to show ads, as described above.
• We do not use analytics or tracking software beyond what AdMob requires.
• We do not track you across other apps or websites ourselves.
• We do not access your camera, microphone, photos, contacts or files.

Where your data is kept, and for how long

Leaderboard entries are stored on a server rented by us and are kept for as long as the leaderboard exists, so that records stand over time. You can ask us to delete yours at any point (see below). Data handled by AdMob is retained according to Google's own policy, over which we have no control.

Your choices and your rights

• Play without giving anything. Simply never create a username. Nothing identifying leaves your device.
• Change your ad consent at any time in the game's Settings.
• Delete everything held on your device by uninstalling the game, which removes your local save.
• Have your leaderboard entry deleted. Email [email protected] with your in-game username and we will remove the entry, normally within 30 days.
• Ask what we hold about you, or ask us to correct it, using the same address.

Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under laws such as the GDPR or the CCPA, including access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability and objection. We honour these requests regardless of where you live. Where the GDPR applies, our legal basis is your consent for advertising identifiers, and our legitimate interest in running a fair, working leaderboard for the rest.

Children

Deep Trouble is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age where you live), and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has submitted a username to our leaderboard, contact us and we will delete it. Ads shown to users identified as children are limited to non-personalised ads, as required by Google Play's Families policy and by COPPA.

Security

Traffic between the game and our server is encrypted with HTTPS, and requests are cryptographically signed so that scores cannot be forged in transit. No system is perfectly secure, but the amount of information we hold is deliberately small: a nickname, a country you chose, some numbers, and a random code.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the "last updated" date above changes with it, and the new version appears at this address. Significant changes will also be noted in the game's update notes.