Privacy Policy for Comb
Last updated: 1 October 2026
Comb is a puzzle game made by Graydentech (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what happens to information when you play it. It covers the Comb app for Android, package com.graydentech.comb.
Comb has no accounts, no sign-in and no servers of our own. The only reason any information leaves your device is to show advertising and to count how the game is played.
1. The short version
- Your progress and settings never leave your phone.
- We do collect anonymous play statistics — which levels are started and finished, scores, and how many pieces were placed — through Google Analytics, so we can tell which levels are too hard. Nothing in it identifies you. Section 2 lists it in full.
- Our advertising partner, Google AdMob, does collect some information, listed in full in section 3.
- If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Comb asks for your choice about advertising the first time you open it, using Google's consent form. You can change it at any time in Settings. Elsewhere that form is not shown.
- We never sell your personal information.
- Comb is not directed at children (see section 8).
2. What Comb itself stores and collects
On your device
| What | Where | Contains |
|---|---|---|
| Game progress | local app storage (comb_progress) | levels completed, best scores, medals, and your accessibility and haptics settings |
| Your advertising choice | stored by Google's consent library in Comb's private app storage | what you chose on Google's form, where you were shown one |
These are never uploaded by us, never backed up to us, and are permanently deleted when you uninstall Comb or clear its data from Android Settings. We cannot read them and we cannot recover them.
Play statistics, through Google Analytics
Comb uses Google Analytics for Firebase to count how the game is played. It exists for one purpose: telling which levels people give up on.
| Event | Sent when | Contains |
|---|---|---|
level_start | a level begins | the level number, and whether it is a pack level or an encore level |
level_end | a level is won or lost | the level number, pack or encore, whether it was won, and how many pieces were placed |
post_score | a level is won or lost | the level number, pack or encore, and the score |
ad_impression | an advertisement is shown | which ad network filled it, the format, and what it earned. Logged by Google's own SDK, because Comb's AdMob account is linked to its Firebase project |
Google Analytics also records, automatically, the kind of information it records for every app that uses it: device model, operating system version, language, app version, and an app-instance identifier that is generated on your device and is reset if you clear Comb's data or uninstall it. It does not receive your name, your email address, or anything you type — Comb has no accounts and no text to type.
Where you are. Comb itself never asks for your location and has no location permission. Google derives approximate location from the IP address your device connects from. We have switched city-level collection off, so the finest location recorded is your continent, country and region — never your city, and never coordinates. If you are in the EU, the UK or Switzerland, Google states that it “does not log or store individual IP addresses” and that the address is “used solely for geo-location data derivation before being immediately discarded”, with the lookup performed on servers in those regions (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12017362).
Nothing is collected before the advertising choice has been settled. Analytics is switched off in the app until Google's consent flow has run and said advertising may be requested. Where a form is shown, a person who opens Comb once and closes it on the form produces no statistics at all. Where the form is not shown, the flow settles immediately. If you decline personalised advertising, statistics are still collected — being counted is not the same as being profiled — but Google is told it may not use any of it for advertising, ad measurement or ad personalisation.
Google's handling of this data is described in https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy and https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
3. What our advertising partner receives
Comb shows ads through Google AdMob, a service of Google LLC. Ads are shown on Comb's cards (never on the game board), and an ad is only played full-screen if you press a button asking for one.
When ads are requested, Google's mobile ads SDK collects and shares the following, which Google lists at https://developers.google.com/admob/android/next-gen/privacy/play-data-disclosure:
- Your IP address, which may be used to estimate the general location of your device
- How you interact with ads and the app: app launches, taps and video views
- Diagnostic information about the app and the SDK: app launch time, hang rate and energy use
- Device and account identifiers: your Android advertising ID, your app set ID, and, if applicable, other identifiers related to accounts signed in on the device
All of this travels over encrypted connections. The SDK also adds the device model, operating system version, country, language and connection type that any ad request carries.
If personalised ads are allowed, Google may use your advertising ID to select ads based on your interests. If they are not, your advertising ID is not used to build a profile of you; the details above are still sent, because they are needed to deliver any advertisement at all, and to prevent fraud and count views.
Comb tells Google its ads should suit general audiences, and Google's own blocking controls keep gambling and alcohol advertising out of Comb.
Google's handling of this information is governed by its own policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy. We have no access to the data Google collects through AdMob, and we cannot delete it on your behalf. Requests about that data go to Google.
4. Your choices
In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. The first time you open Comb, Google's consent form asks for your choice about advertising. Open Settings → Privacy options to reopen it at any time and change your answer. Declining is free and costs you nothing in the game: no feature is locked and no level is withheld.
Everywhere else, that form is not shown and the Settings row is not there; the controls below apply.
On your device. Android gives you controls that override anything an app does:
- Settings → Privacy → Ads → Delete advertising ID removes the identifier entirely. Apps then cannot use it, and only non-personalised ads can be shown.
- Settings → Privacy → Ads → Opt out of Ads Personalisation keeps the ID but signals that it must not be used for profiling.
The exact menu names vary between Android versions and phone makers.
5. Permissions Comb requests, and why
Read from the app's merged manifest, not from a template:
- Internet and network state — to fetch advertisements. The game itself plays fully offline.
- Advertising ID (
com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID), and Android's Ad Services ad ID and attribution permissions — used by Google's advertising and analytics libraries. - Basic phone state (
READ_BASIC_PHONE_STATE) — added by Google's advertising library, not requested by Comb's own code. - Keep the device awake and foreground service — added by libraries bundled inside the advertising and analytics SDKs so they can finish their own short tasks. Comb schedules no background work of its own, and no longer asks to start after the device reboots.
- Install referrer — used by Google Analytics to learn which store link installed the app.
Comb requests no access to location, camera, microphone, contacts, photos, files or your list of installed apps.
6. Retention and deletion
- On your device: progress, settings and your advertising choice remain until you uninstall Comb or clear its data. Both actions delete them immediately and permanently.
- With us: nothing. We hold no database and no copy of anything.
- With Google Analytics: event-level records are kept for 2 months and the app-instance identifier they are grouped under for 14 months, after which Google deletes them automatically. Aggregated reports — the counts we actually look at — are unaffected. Nothing here is tied to a name or an account; the identifier is created on your device and is destroyed when you uninstall Comb or clear its data.
- With Google AdMob: retention is set by Google's policy, linked in section 3.
Because there is no account, there is nothing for us to delete on request — uninstalling the app is complete deletion of everything we are involved with.
7. Security
Comb stores its files in Android's private per-app storage, which other apps cannot read. All advertising traffic uses encrypted connections provided by the advertising SDK. We do not transmit, receive or store any personal information ourselves, which is the strongest security measure available to us: there is nothing of yours for us to lose.
8. Children
Comb is for people aged 18 and over and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from children. The app is not enrolled in Google Play's Designed for Families programme and does not use child-directed advertising treatment.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, delete or object to the use of your personal information, and to withdraw consent at any time.
- Withdrawing advertising consent, where you were asked, is done in the game: Settings → Privacy options. It takes effect immediately and is as easy as giving it.
- For the information Google holds, use the request mechanisms in https://policies.google.com/privacy.
- For anything else, contact us at the address below.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising beyond the advertising described in section 3.
10. Changes to this policy
If we change how Comb handles information, we will update this policy and change the date at the top. If a change materially affects how your data is used for advertising, Google's consent form will ask for your choice again inside the game, where it applies, rather than you only being told here.
11. Contact
Questions or requests about this policy: