Sort-a-Bean Privacy Policy

Effective 5 September 2026, updated 21 October 2026. Published by Tracy Arcade.

Sort-a-Bean is a small bean-sorting game. It has no sign-up and no chat. This page says what little the game keeps, what it measures about how the game is played, what the two app stores and our ad provider handle on our behalf, and how to reach us.

What the game stores

Your progress, coins, boosters, settings and purchases are saved on your device only. Deleting the app deletes the save. The save itself is never sent anywhere; what the game does send is described under Analytics and under Boards and the league.

Analytics

To learn which levels are too hard and where the game is unclear, Sort-a-Bean uses Google Analytics for Firebase. It records how the game is played: a level started or finished (its number, how many moves and seconds it took, and whether a booster or a rescue was used), a tutorial step shown, a daily reward claimed, an ad watched, a purchase made (which product, never your payment details), a board opened or a name changed (never the name itself), and a few settings such as colorblind mode, sound, vibration and reminders. Firebase also records standard information such as the device model, operating system, app version and an approximate region worked out from your IP address.

These records are tied to a random identifier that Firebase creates for this installation of the app. They are not tied to your name, email or any account, and analytics does not collect your device's advertising identifier. We do not use analytics data for advertising. Google processes it on our behalf under its policy at policies.google.com/privacy. Uninstalling the app ends the collection and resets the identifier.

Boards and the league

Each install gets an anonymous account from Firebase Authentication: a random account id, with no email, password or sign-in screen. It exists so other players can see a name next to a score. The name starts as a made-up one like “Bean #0193”; you can change it to any nickname, or go back to the starter name, by tapping the pencil on your own row in the Pod Pals League. Please don't use your real name.

The Pod Pals League. Each week you are put in a room of up to 30 players, in the order you all first score that week. What the game sends to our Firebase project for this is your account id, your name, your points for the week and which room you are in. Other players in your room see your name and points. The game also adds one to a count of how many players joined from your chapter that week, which is a number with no name or id attached, used to group players of similar progress.

The daily puzzle. When you solve a daily puzzle the game also sends your account id, your name, your days in a row and puzzles solved, and the last day you solved one, for a daily puzzle board.

This is stored in Google's Firebase in the United States, and only signed-in copies of the game can read it. Deleting the app ends the account on that device, but the rows already sent stay in our database. Write to us and we will delete them.

Purchases

Coins, boosters and the No Ads options are sold through the Apple App Store or Google Play. The store takes the payment and keeps your payment details; the game never sees a card number and has no way to ask for one. The store tells the game only that a purchase succeeded so it can be granted, and restores permanent purchases on a new device when you ask. Apple's and Google's own privacy policies govern that part.

Ads

The game shows ads from Google AdMob: an optional rewarded ad you can choose to watch for a seat in the pod, and an occasional interstitial between levels. To show and measure ads, AdMob collects your device's advertising identifier and standard device information such as model, operating system and approximate location from your IP address. Google uses this under its own policy, at policies.google.com/privacy, and its advertising terms at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

You can limit this. On Android, Settings → Google → Ads lets you reset or delete your advertising ID and opt out of ad personalisation. On iOS, the game asks once whether it may track; saying no only makes the ads less tailored, and nothing in the game changes. Buying either No Ads product removes ads entirely.

Children

Sort-a-Bean is a general-audience game and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and the only thing the game asks for is an optional nickname for the league. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the ad provider, contact us and we will help remove it.

What we do not do

Your choices

Your progress is on your device, so you control it: clear the app's data or uninstall it to remove the save. Uninstalling also stops analytics. Your league and board rows are in our database; you can change the name on them at any time, and we will delete them if you ask. Ad personalisation is controlled in your device settings as described above. For anything else, write to us.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new effective date.

Contact

Tracy Arcade — tracyarcade@gmail.com