Privacy Policy — Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row

Last updated: 12 October 2026

1. Scope

This policy covers Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row (Android package com.ticboom.tic_arena_rpg), published on Google Play by LudicCraft. It describes this app only. Our website and our other apps are covered by the LudicCraft privacy policy.

2. In short

Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row is free and funded by advertising. To show ads, Google AdMob processes data about your device and your interactions with the ads; the app also measures its audience with Google Analytics for Firebase; its online leaderboard receives the nickname you choose; its online features rely on an anonymous account, created the first time you open them. Section 3 lists exactly what is collected, as its Google Play “Data safety” section declares it. We do not sell your data, and the app asks for no real identity: its account is anonymous.

The app contains:

  • no crash-reporting service.

3. Data collected (“Data safety”)

Here is exactly what the Google Play “Data safety” section of Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row declares, category by category. Nothing else is collected.

  • App activity — App interactions: collected, and shared with Google AdMob. The ads shown, your clicks on them and how often they appear, reported to Google AdMob; how you use the app, measured by Google Analytics for Firebase (see “Audience measurement”). Purposes: advertising, analytics and fraud prevention.
  • Device or other IDs — Device or other IDs: collected, and shared with Google AdMob. The Android advertising ID and the App Set ID, used by Google AdMob; the Firebase installation ID. Purposes: advertising, analytics, fraud prevention and app functionality.
  • App info and performance — Diagnostics: collected, and shared with Google AdMob. Technical data on ad requests (latency, SDK errors, device state). Purposes: advertising, analytics and fraud prevention.
  • Personal info — User IDs: collected, not shared. The identifier of the anonymous Firebase account, created the first time you open an online feature, which links your profile, your online games and your leaderboard position to you. Purpose: app functionality.
  • Personal info — Name: collected, not shared. The nickname you choose for the online leaderboard, not linked to your real identity. Purpose: app functionality.
  • Location — Approximate location: collected, and shared with Google AdMob. Inferred from your IP address by Google AdMob to estimate your region (country, city), never an address. Purposes: advertising, analytics and fraud prevention.

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS). You can ask us to delete it on our data deletion page. We do not sell your personal data.

4. What stays on your device

The app keeps on your device your progress and your settings. None of it is sent to us, apart from what its online features send when you use them (see below).

On Android, your device's own backup service (Android Auto Backup) may include this local data in the backup of your device to your Google account, like your other apps' data. That backup is yours: it is encrypted in your Google account, controlled in your device settings (Settings › Google › Backup) and invisible to us. If it is off, uninstalling the app deletes everything.

5. Advertising

Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row shows ads provided by Google AdMob, our only advertising partner: no other ad network is built into it. To choose ads, limit how often they repeat, measure their display and prevent fraud, the Google AdMob SDK processes your device's advertising ID and the App Set ID, your IP address (from which Google infers an approximate region, never an address), technical information about your device (model, system version, language) and your interactions with the ads. Google processes this data under its Privacy Policy.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the app shows you a consent form (Google UMP) and sends no ad request until you have answered it. If you refuse that information be stored on or read from your device, it sends none either: refusing prevents advertising instead of merely depersonalising it. If you accept that storage but refuse personalisation, the ads are non-personalised.

You can change this choice at any time from the privacy option in the app's settings, offered wherever the choice applies.

Elsewhere, ads may be personalised. You can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in your device settings (Settings › Google › Ads).

6. Audience measurement

Gomoku XXL measures its audience with Google Analytics for Firebase only if you consent: since version 1.5.1, collection is off when the app starts and turns on only if the consent form allows it — the same decision as for advertising, and withdrawing it from the settings turns it off again. Outside the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, where no form is required, it is on. Besides the usage events the SDK records (first open, sessions and their length), the app records the end of each game: its result, the number of turns, the board size and the mode. It attaches neither your account identifier nor your nickname.

This measurement relies on a Firebase installation ID, which is not linked to your identity. This data is not shared: Google processes it on our behalf and keeps it for 14 months at most (Firebase privacy and security).

7. Online account and multiplayer

Gomoku XXL can be played offline without any account. The first time you open an online feature — the multiplayer lobby or the leaderboard —, the app creates an anonymous Firebase Authentication account: no email, no password, no real name, only an identifier drawn by Firebase, which your device keeps to recognise you afterwards. At the same time it creates your online profile, stored on our behalf by Google Cloud Firestore: that identifier, a nickname — “Joueur_” followed by six characters of the identifier, which you can change from your profile —, your online statistics (games, wins, losses, draws, streaks, points, league, level and experience) and the dates of creation and last activity. This profile can be read by other signed-in players, who see it on the leaderboard and when looking for an opponent. Signing out from your profile deletes neither the account nor the profile: ask us to delete them (see “Your rights”).

An online game is a Firestore document shared by both players: your identifiers and nicknames, the mode and board size, each move played with its time, the result, and a six-character code if you invite a friend. To find you an opponent, the app reads the games waiting for a player and the profile of those who opened them, to compare your points. At the end of an online game, it updates your profile. An abandoned search is erased; a game played stays recorded.

8. Online leaderboard

The online leaderboard of Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row is stored on our behalf by Google Cloud Firestore. The leaderboard shows the fifty players with the most points, with their nickname, points, league and statistics; you appear on it as soon as your profile exists. Nothing but that profile is sent to it. The nickname is not linked to your real identity. You can ask us at any time to delete a leaderboard entry from our data deletion page.

9. Third-party services

The third parties involved are:

No other third party receives data from the app.

10. Retention

  • Usage and crash data: kept by Google for 14 months at most.
  • Advertising data: processed and kept by Google under its own policies; we do not store the advertising ID.
  • Leaderboard entries: kept until you ask us to delete them.
  • Anonymous account, online profile and online games: kept until you ask us to delete them.
  • The app's data (your progress and your settings): stored on your device only, as long as the app is installed.
  • Messages to our support: kept 3 years after they are resolved.

11. International transfers

Your data may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own, in particular by Google. We make sure such transfers comply with applicable law, in particular through standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

12. Children

Gomoku XXL — 5 in a Row is not enrolled in Google Play's “Designed for Families” programme and is intended for players aged 13 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you are a parent and believe your child has sent us personal data, contact us at contact@ludiccraft.com and we will delete it.

13. Your rights

Under the GDPR and similar laws, you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, port and object to the processing of your personal data, and to withdraw your consent at any time — for advertising, from the privacy option in the app's settings. To exercise these rights, write to contact@ludiccraft.com or use our data deletion page; for a leaderboard entry, give us your nickname. You may also complain to your data protection authority (in France, the CNIL).

14. Changes

Any change to what this app does with data is made here and in its Google Play “Data safety” section at the same time, before the version concerned is published. The date at the top of this page shows the current version.

15. Contact

LudicCraft — contact@ludiccraft.com — www.ludiccraft.com