Legal · Zerb Squad
Zerb Squad Privacy Policy
What the game collects, who collects it, and how to delete it.
Zerb Squad has no accounts, no chat and no way to contact other players, 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 two optional reward videos, 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 optional reward videos, each offered at most once per run: when your squad is caught, you can watch a short video to continue; and at the end of a run, you can watch one to double the scrap you earned. Ads never interrupt a game, there are no banners or pop-up ads, and you never have to watch one. A level finished after a continue earns no stars.
The ad service is Google AdMob. It starts when the app opens so that an ad is ready if you ask for one, and 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 main menu, 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 (Frost, Hazard, Midnight, Rivet and Squeak) can be bought to join your squad. Buying anything is optional and the whole game is playable without spending anything. Squeak can also be earned free by beating the Power Cut chapter. Nothing for sale is random. 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, can restore it if you change phone, and can unlock the same character in our other Zerb games. 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 your progress and settings, it saves the following in your device’s local app storage:
- The stars you have won on each level and which chapters you have beaten, including whether you have earned Squeak in Power Cut;
- Each alien’s crew rank and experience;
- Your banked scrap and the power-up cards it has unlocked;
- Which alien leads your squad, and what the store last told the game you own;
- Whether sound and vibration are 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, precise location, contacts or files, and it asks you to grant nothing. The Android version declares these permissions, all granted automatically at install:
- Network access and network state: to load the optional ad and to talk to Google Play for purchases;
- Vibration: the buzz on hits, combos and cleared waves (you can turn it off in the pause menu);
- 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.
We list them because Google Play shows them, and we would rather explain them than have you find them unexplained.
5. Children
Zerb Squad is made 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.
- Scores and settings are on your own device and entirely under your control. We hold none of them.
- 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.
- Ads: use the choices in section 1. Google holds ad data as its own controller, so for that use Google’s privacy controls on your Google account.
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 Squad.
- 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 main menu: 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 Squad 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 Squad data
Zerb Squad 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 stars, crew ranks, scrap and settings: uninstall Zerb Squad, or go to your phone’s Settings → Apps → Zerb Squad → 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 Squad 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. Because a character bought in one Zerb game unlocks it in all of them, this deletes the record for every Zerb game; we will tell you which purchases that covers before we do it.
- 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, such as leaderboards, a daily challenge, 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: 30 October 2026 (first version, before the game’s release).
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