PIP'S PAIRS
PRIVACY POLICY
Last Updated: August 1, 2026
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR PARENTS: Pip's Pairs (published in Spanish as "Las Parejas de Pip") is a matching game designed for children ages 2–6. This policy explains, in plain language, exactly what information the app handles, what leaves your device, and how we protect your child's privacy under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), including its 2025 amendments, Google Play's Families policies, and the EU/UK GDPR.
Scope: This Privacy Policy covers the Pip's Pairs mobile application (Android package com.gizmotronsoftware.matchgame) downloaded from Google Play. It does not cover our websites or our other apps, which have their own policies.
1. OVERVIEW & COMMITMENT TO PRIVACY
Pip's Pairs was built so that gameplay works entirely offline. There are no accounts, no registration, no sign-in of any kind, and no analytics or tracking libraries in the app — the only usage statistics involved anywhere are the ad-delivery statistics described in Section 3.
Core Privacy Principles:
- No accounts, ever: the app has no registration, login, or profile of any kind.
- Offline gameplay: all game content ships inside the app; playing does not require the internet.
- Minimal data: the app adds no Android permissions of its own — no camera, no microphone, no location, no contacts, no storage. The only permissions in the finished app are the standard internet-access permissions required by the ad and crash-reporting services described below, and Google Play's billing permission. The app also actively removes the Android advertising-ID permission, so that no bundled software can ever request it.
- Child-appropriate ads only: advertising is contextual (based on the app, never on your child) and served by a COPPA-certified kids ad network.
- No selling of data: we do NOT sell, rent, or share personal information for marketing — ever.
The app sends data off your device to only four services, and each is explained in this policy: (1) ad serving by Kidoz (Section 3), (2) crash reporting by Sentry, scrubbed of identifying details before it is sent (Section 4), (3) Google Play, which the app contacts to check and restore purchases and to process a parent's purchase (Section 5), and (4) your device's web browser, which opens when an adult follows the link to this privacy policy. Separately, Android's own system backup may copy the app's data to your Google account backup — that path is controlled entirely by your device settings and is described in Section 2.
2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Information the App Itself Collects
None that identifies your child. The app never asks for, and never collects, a name, email address, phone number, photos, contacts, precise location, or voice recordings. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to type in during play.
Settings Stored on Your Device
The app saves a small set of preferences on the device itself, so the game remembers how you like it set up:
- The last grid size and content pack your child played
- Sound-effects, voice, and speak-on-reveal on/off switches, and the language choice (English/Spanish)
- A record of which content packs have been unlocked
- A simple count of completed games (used only to limit how often an ad can appear — see Section 3)
These settings contain no identifiers, no timestamps, and no gameplay history. They stay on the device, with one standard Android caveat: if you have Android's system backup turned on, your device may include the app's data — these settings, and the crash-reporting installation identifier described in Section 4 — in your own Google account backup, exactly like it does for other apps. That backup belongs to you and is controlled entirely by your device's backup settings — we never see it.
We Do NOT Collect
- Names, email addresses, or any account information
- Photos, contacts, or precise location
- Advertising identifiers — the app strips the Android advertising-ID permission at build time so it can never be requested
- Voice or audio recordings
- Gameplay history, browsing history, or behavioral profiles
Network Connections & IP Addresses
Like every internet connection made by any app, when the app contacts an ad or crash-reporting server, that server can technically see the connecting device's IP address for the duration of the connection. The app itself never sends an IP address as data. Sections 3 and 4 describe how our two service providers handle this, and Section 6 explains how COPPA treats it.
3. ADVERTISING (KIDOZ)
Pip's Pairs shows ads through Kidoz, an advertising network built specifically for children's apps. A one-time "Remove Ads" purchase (Section 5) turns advertising off completely.
Why We Trust Kidoz
- Kidoz is certified under PRIVO's FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor program and holds PRIVO's GDPRkids Privacy Assured certification.
- Kidoz participates in Google Play's Families Self-Certified Ads SDK program for child-directed apps.
- Kidoz serves contextual ads only — ads chosen based on the kind of app being used, NOT based on your child. Kidoz states that it does not profile children, does not use behavioral advertising, and does not track children across apps or devices.
- Kidoz does not collect advertising identifiers; it states that any identifiers it receives from outside parties are immediately deleted.
What Kidoz Collects (per its privacy policy)
- Approximate, country-level location (derived from the connection; deleted after at most two months)
- A random session identifier — a persistent identifier in COPPA terms, but deliberately short-lived and re-randomized periodically — used solely to deliver ads and limit how often they appear (a "support for internal operations" use under COPPA); it is NEVER used to contact anyone, for behavioral advertising, or to build a profile of your child
- Device technical information (operating system type, hardware details)
- Usage statistics about ad delivery
These specifics are drawn from Kidoz's own privacy policy (as of [VERIFY DATE — fill at publish]), which you can read at: https://www.kidoz.net/privacy-policy
How Ads Appear in Pip's Pairs
- Interstitial ads (full-screen, between games): at most one for every three completed games, shown only when leaving the results screen, and never before the first game.
- Rewarded videos (optional): some free content packs can be unlocked for a limited period (10 minutes) by choosing to watch a video. This is always opt-in, and the app shows a clear disclosure first — including the plain statement "The video is an ad." — before anything plays. If no video is available at the time of the request, the pack is unlocked for the same limited period without an advertisement being shown.
- No banner ads: the app never shows banner advertising during play.
- After "Remove Ads" is purchased, no ads of any kind are shown, and content packs that used rewarded videos are simply unlocked.
4. CRASH REPORTING & DIAGNOSTICS (SENTRY)
To find and fix bugs, the app uses Sentry (operated by Functional Software, Inc.) for crash and error reporting that is scrubbed of identifying details before it leaves the device. This is the "support for internal operations" that COPPA permits, and fixing crashes is its only purpose.
What a Crash Report Contains
- The technical details of the error itself
- Device model, operating-system version, and memory information
- Limited app state, such as content-pack or product identifiers (e.g., "the animals pack failed to load") — never anything your child did or typed
- A random installation identifier generated by Sentry. This is NOT the advertising ID, is not connected to your child or your Google account in any way, and resets when the app's data is cleared or when the app is reinstalled without restoring a device backup (see the backup note in Section 2). Its sole purpose is crash reporting — for example, telling us whether one device hit a bug ten times or ten devices hit it once. It is never used or disclosed to contact anyone, for advertising of any kind, or to build a profile.
What Is NEVER Sent
- Names, email addresses, or any account information (none exist in the app)
- Screenshots or recordings of the screen — this capability is explicitly disabled
- Advertising identifiers or precise location
- Anything your child typed or said
As a second layer of protection, every outgoing report passes through a scrubber in the app that strips IP address fields, user details, the device's network name, and web-request data before anything is transmitted. This scrubbing is covered by automated tests.
IP Addresses and Location
Connection details are not used and are not kept. In addition to the on-device scrubbing described above, our Sentry organization is configured to prevent the storage of IP addresses and to scrub server-derived location fields from incoming reports. We have verified this end-to-end: a test report submitted with an IP address and location attached is stored with both removed.
Where and How Long
Crash data is processed on Sentry's servers in the United States. We have executed Sentry's Data Processing Addendum, which incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and, for UK users, the UK Addendum to those clauses (see Section 10). Crash and error data is automatically deleted by Sentry within at most 90 days.
5. IN-APP PURCHASES & PARENTAL GATE
The "Remove Ads" Purchase
Pip's Pairs offers a single optional purchase: Remove Ads — a one-time purchase that permanently disables all advertising. It is processed entirely by Google Play; the app never sees or stores payment information.
The Parental Gate
Purchases, purchase restoration, and this policy's external link live behind the app's settings screen, which is protected by an adult-verification gate: a random multiplication question that changes on every attempt and locks for 60 seconds after three wrong answers. Children cannot reach purchase screens or leave the app for the web without an adult solving the gate.
What We Receive From a Purchase
- Product identifiers and purchase state (so the app knows Remove Ads is owned)
- Google's purchase token and signature (used only to confirm the purchase and restore it after a reinstall)
We never receive payment card details, billing names or addresses, or Google account information — Google handles the entire payment process under its own privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
The app contacts Google Play each time it starts to check and restore existing purchases — this is how Remove Ads survives a reinstall without any account of ours.
Note: unlocking a free content pack by watching a rewarded video (Section 3) is not a purchase and does not use the parental gate, but it always shows its own "The video is an ad." disclosure first.
6. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY & COPPA COMPLIANCE
Our COPPA Compliance Statement
- The app itself collects no personal information from children — no names, no contact information, no photos, no voice, no precise location.
- Running the app involves the following identifiers, all handled solely under COPPA's support for internal operations exception (16 CFR 312.5(c)(7)):
- The connection IP address, momentarily visible to our two service providers while the device is connected to them (Section 2) — COPPA treats an IP address as a persistent identifier, so we count it here even though the app never sends it as data
- Sentry's random installation identifier — used only for crash reporting (Section 4)
- Kidoz's random session identifier — a persistent identifier in COPPA terms, though deliberately short-lived and re-randomized — used only for contextual ad delivery and frequency capping (Section 3)
- None of these identifiers is ever used or disclosed to contact a specific person, for behavioral advertising, or to amass a profile of your child. This is enforced technically, not just contractually: the app removes the advertising-ID permission entirely, the ad network is contextual-only and COPPA Safe Harbor certified, and crash reports are scrubbed of identifying details before leaving the device.
- Because collection is limited to these internal operations, COPPA does not require verifiable parental consent for them — but you keep every parental right described below.
Your Rights as a Parent
You have the right to review the personal information collected from your child, to have it deleted, and to refuse any further collection or use.
Because we collect so little, here is what those rights mean in practice:
- We cannot look up data about your specific child, because nothing we receive is linked to a person — this is by design.
- To stop all data leaving the device: uninstall the app.
- To stop advertising connections only: purchase Remove Ads. This ends all ad-related connections; crash reporting continues (Section 4).
- To delete all on-device data: Android Settings → Apps → Pip's Pairs → Storage → Clear storage (this also deletes unlock records).
- To request deletion of crash records, or to ask us anything: email our Privacy Officer (Section 12) with the app name and your request. Because crash records are not linked to identities, we usually cannot isolate the records of one specific child; we can delete records by time window or device description, and we will tell you exactly what is and is not possible. We will verify that you are the parent or guardian before acting on a request.
Response times: we aim to respond to urgent privacy requests within 24–48 hours and to standard requests within 10 business days.
7. INFORMATION SHARING & DISCLOSURE
We do NOT sell, rent, trade, or share personal information for marketing purposes. We do not use data brokers. The only parties that process any data in connection with Pip's Pairs are:
Gizmotron LLC is the designated contact for inquiries about the information practices of every party listed above (16 CFR 312.4(d)(1)); our contact details are in Section 12.
We may disclose information if required to do so by law. Since we hold essentially no personal information, there is very little that could ever be disclosed.
8. DATA RETENTION
This is our written data retention policy, as required by COPPA (16 CFR 312.4(d)(2), as amended 2025). Data is kept only as long as reasonably necessary for the specific purpose it was collected for, and is never retained for any secondary purpose:
- On-device settings and unlock records: remain on your device until you clear the app's storage or uninstall the app. (If your device's own Google backup is enabled, your backup copy is governed by your device settings — see Section 2.)
- Crash and error reports (Sentry): automatically deleted within at most 90 days.
- Kidoz country-level location data: deleted by Kidoz after at most two months, per Kidoz's privacy policy (Section 3); Kidoz session identifiers are short-lived and re-randomized periodically.
- Everything else: we operate no servers of our own and retain nothing else. There are no accounts or profiles to retain.
9. DATA SECURITY
- Minimal data is our first defense: information that is never collected cannot be lost, breached, or misused.
- All network transmissions (ad requests, crash reports, purchases) are encrypted in transit.
- Crash reports are scrubbed of identifying fields on the device, before transmission, and this scrubbing is covered by automated tests.
- Purchases are cryptographically signature-verified.
- On-device settings contain no personal information to protect.
10. USERS IN THE EU & UK (GDPR)
Who Is Responsible
Gizmotron LLC is the data controller for the processing we ourselves carry out, as described in this policy. Kidoz (ad serving, Section 3) and Google (payment processing, Section 5) act as independent controllers of their own processing, under their own linked policies.
Our Lawful Basis
We rely on legitimate interests (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)) for serving contextual ads and for crash diagnostics, and on contract (Article 6(1)(b)) for processing the purchase token and entitlement state that make a parent's purchase work (Section 5). In relying on legitimate interests, we give particular weight to the fact that our users are children, who merit specific protection (Recital 38). The processing passes that balance precisely because of how this app is built: ads are contextual only with no profiling and no behavioral advertising, crash data is not linked to any identity we can resolve, and data collection overall is minimal. We do not, and will not, engage in behavioral advertising or profiling of children.
Your Rights
You (or a parent/guardian acting for a child) may exercise the following rights by contacting us (Section 12):
- Access to your data (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), and objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21)
- Data portability (Art. 20) — largely inapplicable here, as the app has no accounts
- The right to lodge a complaint with your data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77); UK users may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
How objection (Art. 21) works in practice: the app has no in-app data toggles, so objection to ad processing is exercised by purchasing Remove Ads (which ends all advertising connections), and objection to crash diagnostics is exercised by uninstalling the app. You can also raise either by email (Section 12).
Please note that our processing does not require us to identify anyone (GDPR Art. 11): the data we handle is not linked to any identity we can resolve, so we may be unable to connect a request to any specific data. Where that is the case, Articles 15–20 may not apply, and we will tell you so in our response — in most cases the practical answer is that there is simply nothing held about you or your child.
International Transfers
Crash diagnostics are processed by Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) on servers in the United States. We have executed Sentry's Data Processing Addendum, which incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (GDPR Art. 46(2)(c)) and, for UK users, the UK Addendum to those clauses: https://sentry.io/legal/dpa/
Ad serving is provided by Kidoz Ltd., which processes data in Israel — a country covered by a European Commission adequacy decision (GDPR Art. 45). Kidoz's practices for children in the EU are additionally certified under PRIVO's GDPRkids program.
11. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
How We Handle Updates
Notice of Changes:
- We post policy updates on our website and update the link inside the app
- Material changes are highlighted so they are easy to find
- Changes affecting how children's information is handled take effect only after appropriate parental notice
- Where COPPA requires it, material changes may require renewed parental consent
Your Choices After Changes:
- Continued use of the app after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance
- You may stop using the app and uninstall it at any time
- Deletion and refusal rights (Section 6) always remain available
Changes take effect on the date posted, except for material changes affecting children's privacy, which take effect only after appropriate parental notice.
12. CONTACT INFORMATION
Company: Gizmotron LLC
- Mailing Address: Gizmotron LLC, 429 Norbury Drive, Rockwall, TX 75032, USA
- Telephone: +1 (916) 218-5939
- Privacy Officer: privacy@gizmotronsoftware.com — parental rights requests, COPPA questions, EU/UK rights requests
- General Support: support@gizmotronsoftware.com
- Legal Questions: legal@gizmotronsoftware.com
We're happy to explain our practices. When emailing about a parental rights request, please include the app name (Pip's Pairs), the type of request (review / delete / refuse further collection), and enough information for us to verify you are the child's parent or guardian.
Questions about this Privacy Policy? Contact us at privacy@gizmotronsoftware.com.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on August 1, 2026 and is effective as of that date.