Legal · Zerb: Lab Escape
Zerb: Lab Escape Privacy Policy
What the game collects, who collects it, and what stays on your phone.
Zerb: Lab Escape has no accounts, and the game itself never asks for your name, email or any other personal information. Your progress stays on your device. Two outside services are built in: Google AdMob, which shows the game’s ads, and Google Play with RevenueCat, which handle in-app purchases. This page explains exactly what each of them collects. We process personal data in line with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Ads (Google AdMob)
The game has two kinds of ad. Optional videos you can choose to watch for a hint, or for one more try when the alarm goes off. And a short break between cells, after every third cell you clear, never in the middle of a puzzle. Buying Remove ads ends the breaks for good; the optional videos stay, because you only see one if you ask for it.
The ad service is Google AdMob. Google collects the following, sent encrypted, for advertising, measurement and fraud prevention:
- Your device’s advertising ID (and Google’s app set ID);
- Your IP address, which can be used to estimate your general location (roughly your town or region, never your precise location);
- How you interact with ads and the app, such as ad views and taps, and app launches;
- Diagnostic information about how the app and the ad component are performing.
Google acts as an independent controller of this data. Their policy is at policies.google.com/privacy, and how Google uses data from apps that use its services is explained at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Your choices about ads
- In the UK and EEA, the game asks for your consent using Google’s consent form the first time it opens. If you do not consent, Google shows only limited, non-personalised ads, or none.
- Change your mind any time with Privacy settings on the game’s title screen, where it is shown.
- Reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone’s settings: on most Android phones, Settings → Privacy (or Google) → Ads.
2. In-app purchases (Google Play and RevenueCat)
Some characters can be bought, so you can pick them as your lead. A lead only changes who makes the final escape and takes the bow; it never changes a puzzle. Remove ads can be bought too. Buying anything is optional, and the whole game is playable without spending anything. If you do buy something:
- Google Play takes the payment. We never see your card details, your address or your name. Google tells us only that a purchase succeeded;
- RevenueCat records the purchase on our behalf, so the app knows what you own and can restore it if you change phone, and so a character bought in another Zerb game is yours here too. It stores your purchase history, your country and currency, and a random identifier it generates for your device. It is not given your name or email address, because the game never asks for either.
RevenueCat is a purchase-management service acting as our data processor. Their privacy policy is at revenuecat.com/privacy.
3. What the game stores on your device
So the game remembers where you got to, it saves the following in your device’s local app storage:
- Your stars on each cell, and how far you have reached;
- How each cell went: tries, bumps, hints used and time taken, so the game can show them to you on its notes screen;
- Your lead, whether you have removed ads, and what the store last told the game you own;
- Which story scenes you have already seen, and whether sound is on.
This never leaves your device. It is not sent to us, and we have no copy of it. Deleting the app, or clearing its storage, deletes it permanently, and we cannot restore it for you. Purchases are the exception: they can be restored from Google Play.
4. Permissions
The game does not use your camera, microphone, location, contacts or files, and it asks you to grant nothing. The Android version declares only these permissions, all granted automatically at install:
- Network access and network state: to load ads and to talk to Google Play for purchases;
- Vibration: the buzz when two aliens bump;
- Billing: lets the app offer in-app purchases through Google Play;
- Advertising ID, and Android’s ad services permissions: used by Google AdMob as described in section 1;
- Foreground service and wake lock: added by Google’s own ad and Play components so they can finish short background tasks. The game itself does not run in the background.
5. Children
Zerb: Lab Escape is for players aged 13 and over and is not designed for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has made a purchase, contact us and we will help with a refund and delete the record.
6. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have rights to access, correct, erase and restrict the use of your personal data.
- Game progress is on your own device and entirely under your control. We hold none of it.
- Purchases: we can give you a copy of the purchase record held for us by RevenueCat, or delete it. Email us and we will do it. Deleting it means the app can no longer restore those purchases to a new phone, so we will tell you before we do.
You also have the right to complain to the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk.
7. If you live in the United States
Some US states, including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut and Utah, give you extra rights over your personal information. Here is how they apply to Zerb: Lab Escape.
- We do not sell your personal information for money. Google AdMob uses your device’s advertising ID to show personalised ads, which some state laws call “sharing” or “targeted advertising”.
- Opt out of that sharing with Privacy settings on the game’s title screen: choose not to allow the sale or sharing of your personal information. You can also stop personalised ads on your whole phone: Settings → Privacy (or Google) → Ads → Delete advertising ID.
- Know, correct or delete: we hold only your purchase record (section 2). Email support@hackneylanegroup.com with the subject “Zerb: Lab Escape privacy request” and your Google Play order number, and we will reply within 45 days.
- No penalty: the game plays exactly the same whichever choices you make.
- Appeal: if we turn down a request, reply to our answer to appeal. If you are still unhappy, you can contact your state’s Attorney General.
Delete your Zerb: Lab Escape data
Zerb: Lab Escape has no accounts, so there is no account to close. Here is how to delete each kind of data, what is deleted, and what is kept.
- Your game progress (stars, cells reached, your lead, settings): uninstall Zerb: Lab Escape, or go to your phone’s Settings → Apps → Zerb: Lab Escape → Storage → Clear storage. It is deleted from your phone immediately. We never had a copy.
- Your purchase record (held for us by RevenueCat): email support@hackneylanegroup.com with the subject “Delete my Zerb: Lab Escape data” and your Google Play order number (it starts GPA., and is in your purchase receipt email or at play.google.com → Payments & subscriptions → Budget & history). We delete the record within 30 days and email you when it is done. After that, those purchases can no longer be restored on a new phone.
- Kept: Google keeps its own record of the payment as the seller, under Google’s retention rules; manage it in your Google account. We keep nothing else.
- Ad data (Google AdMob): reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone’s settings (Settings → Privacy or Google → Ads), and use Google’s privacy controls for data Google holds as its own controller.
8. Changes to this policy
If a future version of the game adds online features, analytics, or anything else that sends data, we will update this policy and the app’s store listing before that version is released, and say plainly what changed and what is then collected.
9. Contact us
For any questions about this policy or about the game, contact:
Hackney Lane Group Ltd
Email: support@hackneylanegroup.com
Registered office: 7 Victoria Gardens, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG40 5YJ.
Last updated: 15 October 2026 (added a section for US states).
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