Fifteenly is the classic sliding-number puzzle: you slide numbered tiles around the board until they are back in order. It was built to collect as little data as possible. There are no accounts, no sign-ups, no analytics trackers, and we operate no servers — nothing you do in the app is sent to us. Every puzzle, including the daily puzzle and bonus levels, is stored in or generated on your device, and the game works fully offline.
Your progress (which puzzles you have solved, your best times and move counts, the board you are working on and its undo history, and how many hints you used), your settings (best-move hint, timer, sound and haptics, appearance) and whether you have purchased Remove Ads are stored locally on your device only. We cannot see them. Deleting the app — or “Reset progress” in Settings, for progress — deletes this data.
The free version of the app shows a banner ad served by Google AdMob, and offers optional short rewarded videos, also from Google AdMob, that you can choose to watch in exchange for a hint or a bonus level. A video only ever plays when you tap to start it. Ads run in Google’s limited ads mode: not personalised, and with no advertising identifier used to profile you. We do not request ads based on your interests or a profile of you, anywhere in the world. See Google’s Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
Because nothing is personalised and no advertising identifier is used to profile you, the app shows no advertising consent form and no tracking prompt. Two things do still happen, and we would rather state them plainly than leave them to be discovered: Google uses your device’s IP address to deliver the ad, and it may store a small amount of data on the device for the sole purpose of detecting invalid traffic and fraud. Neither is used to build a profile of you or to follow you across other apps or websites.
Purchasing Remove Ads removes advertising — and AdMob’s data collection with it — entirely: the advertising SDK is not started at all. You can also reset or limit the advertising identifier at any time in your device’s own settings (iOS: Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking / Apple Advertising; Android: Settings → Privacy → Ads). The app does not respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, because it is not a website and has no browser to receive them from.
The one-time Remove Ads purchase is processed entirely by Apple’s App Store or Google Play. We never see your name, payment details, or billing information.
| Data | Purpose | Who receives it | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device information for advertising (IP address, device identifiers, invalid-traffic signals, ad interactions, and diagnostic data such as crashes and app performance — none of it used to personalise ads or to profile you) | Serving the banner ad and the rewarded videos you choose to watch in the free version, in limited-ads mode, and Google’s measurement and fraud prevention for those ads | Google AdMob | Not held by us. Google: see its privacy policy |
| Puzzle progress, best times, hint counts and settings | Letting you carry on where you left off | Nobody — stays on your device | Until you reset progress or delete the app |
| Purchase status of Remove Ads | Hiding ads after purchase | Apple / Google process the purchase; the app stores only a yes/no flag | Until you delete the app; the store keeps its own record |
Google’s advertising services process data in the United States and other countries where Google operates. Google receives that data directly from your device, not from us, and handles it under its own privacy policy, linked above. Because we hold nothing, we make no onward transfer of our own.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use analytics, crash reporting, or advertising identifiers for our own purposes. There are no automated decisions about you.
The app is suitable for general audiences and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children.
We handle personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. Because we collect and hold no personal information about you, there is usually nothing for us to access, correct, or delete — but if you have any questions or concerns, we genuinely want to hear them. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).
European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland. Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, advertising in the free version relies on our legitimate interests in funding a free app (Article 6(1)(f)), which you may object to at any time, and which Remove Ads ends outright. You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection, and the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority (in the UK, the ICO). Because we hold no personal data, there is nothing for us to export, correct or delete — but write to us and we will confirm that.
United States. We do not sell personal information, and we receive no money for anyone’s personal information. The app is configured to request non-personalised ads, which is not cross-context behavioural advertising as California law describes it. Residents of California and other states with privacy laws may exercise their rights by contacting us; we do not discriminate for doing so.
Canada. We handle personal information in line with PIPEDA. Questions or complaints may also be directed to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
Brazil. Under the LGPD, the legal basis for advertising is legitimate interests (Article 7, IX). Our contact for data-protection matters is the address below. Complaints may be made to the ANPD. Under Article 18 of the LGPD you may ask us to confirm whether we process your personal data and to access, correct, anonymise, block, delete or port it, to learn who we have shared it with, and to withdraw consent. As the table above shows, we hold nothing about you — so in practice the answer to an access request will be that there is nothing to give you, and we will say so in writing.
India. Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, questions and grievances about personal data may be sent to the contact below, who will answer on behalf of Ostapenko Studio; we aim to respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
Japan and South Korea. The table above lists the items handled, their purpose, the recipients and the retention period. We appoint no overseas processor of our own; Google receives advertising data directly from your device, outside your country, under its own policy.
For users in South Korea, the details of data sent overseas are: items — IP address, device and advertising identifiers and ad interactions (to Google); when and how — when an ad is requested in the free version, over an encrypted HTTPS connection; recipient — Google LLC (United States, see policies.google.com); purpose and retention — serving and measuring ads, retained under Google’s own policy; your right to refuse — rewarded videos play only when you choose them, and you may remove advertising entirely by purchasing Remove Ads.
China (mainland). We hold no personal information of any user. Advertising data in the free version is sent by your device directly to Google, outside mainland China. Questions about personal information may be sent to the address below.
Russia. We store no personal data of any user, in Russia or elsewhere; the app runs no servers.
The date at the top of this page is its effective date. If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this address with a new effective date. If we make a material change, we will update that date, note it in the app’s release notes, and where the change affects what is collected we will say so in the app.
Ostapenko Studio
support@ostapenko.studio
The person responsible for the protection of personal information at Ostapenko Studio can be reached at that address — and, for the purposes of the laws that use these titles, is our privacy officer (South Korea), person in charge of the protection of personal information (Quebec), and the person who will answer questions or grievances about personal data (India). We aim to reply to any privacy question or complaint within 30 days, and will tell you what we have done about it.