Apalim Studios
Privacy Policy
Effective 1 October 2026
This policy explains what TinyYears collects, what it does not, and what you can do about it. The short version: you are never asked to create an account or give us a name or an email. Your saved lives are kept on your device, with a private backup on our servers in London under an anonymous identifier, so that losing your phone does not lose your game. We send ourselves usage counts and crash reports, which you can turn off in the app. The game also shows ads, and the companies that supply them collect their own data, which is described below and is the part you have the most choice about.
1. Who we are
TinyYears is published by Apalim Studios, a trading name of Atkins & Partners Limited (company number 16089222), 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF, United Kingdom. We are the data controller for the information described here. For anything in this policy, contact support@apalim.com.
2. Your game, and where it is kept
Your saved lives, achievements, Stars, lifetime statistics, Treasury, daily reward streak and cosmetic unlocks are stored on your device, and a copy is backed up to your own private space on our servers so that losing or replacing your phone does not lose your game. The backup is held in Google Cloud Firestore, part of Firebase, in London (the europe-west2 region), and only the phone your game is on can read or change it. To make that possible the app creates an anonymous identifier the first time it needs one. You are never asked to create an account, and there is no email address, password or username involved, so none of it is linked to a name, an email address or a profile. (The one exception is a name you choose to show other players by buying Name in the Game, which is described in section 3.) Your settings and any creator code you enter stay on your device and are not backed up, although a creator code you have applied goes with any purchase you make, as section 10 explains, so that the creator can be paid. The daily reward keeps a list of the dates you claimed on, which is how the streak is worked out. You can move your game to another phone. Move to Another Phone shows a code that works once and expires 15 minutes after it is made. Save a Recovery Code makes a code for a lost or broken phone, which works once, does not expire, and is canceled when you make a new one. We store only a scrambled (hashed) form of each code, never the code itself. Whoever enters a code receives the game, so keep your codes private. A phone that has entered a code but could not finish, for example because it lost its connection, can finish within 7 days. When a code is used, the game moves to the new phone and the old phone lets go of it: it stops updating the backup and sets aside what it held, hidden on that phone and not uploaded, for 30 days, after which that copy is deleted. The game itself is in the backup and on the new phone; anything played on the old phone that had not been backed up yet is only in the set-aside copy. Any lives already on the new phone are kept. Using "Delete All Data" in Settings removes the game from your device and deletes the backup and the anonymous identifier with it.
3. What is sent to us
With analytics and crash reports switched on, the game uses Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics to send: counts of things that happen in play (for example a life starting, a job being taken, a purchase completing); a randomly generated app instance identifier that Firebase assigns to your installation; your device model, operating system version and app version; an approximate region derived from your IP address; and, if the app crashes, a technical report describing what it was doing at the time. During the beta the game also has a Report a Problem button. Nothing is sent unless you press Send. When you do, we receive what you wrote, the category you chose, and a short description of where you were in the game (which screen, your character’s age, whether they are working, and roughly how much cash they have), along with your app version, platform, operating system version and a random device identifier so that we can reproduce the fault and ask you a follow-up question. Your saved games, your characters and anything you have typed elsewhere in the game are not sent. If you redeem a promo code in Settings, we receive the code and your game’s anonymous identifier (or, if backups are off, a random identifier for your device), and keep a record that it was used so that each code works once per player. With backups on, an Ad-free upgrade from a code is recorded against your game so that it moves with it to another phone. If you buy Name in the Game, we receive the name, gender, age, job and look you choose for your cameo, and the anonymous purchase identifier your game already has with RevenueCat, which is how we check the purchase and let you edit your cameo later. A person reviews the name before it is shown. Once approved, the cameo itself (its name, gender, age, look and job, never the purchase identifier) is sent to every player’s game, which is the point of it. If you subscribe to VIP, we keep a record of the periods you were subscribed, which RevenueCat sends us against the same anonymous purchase identifier, so that we can give you the weekly Stars VIP includes. If you choose to get the VIP role in our Discord, we receive your Discord user ID when you enter your link code there, and keep it linked to that anonymous identifier so the role can be taken away automatically if VIP ends. If you allow notifications, we keep your phone’s notification token, from Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging, against the same anonymous purchase identifier, so we can tell you when something you are waiting on happens, such as your Name in the Game being approved. It is deleted when you use Delete All Data, or after a year in which the game is not opened, and you can turn notifications off at any time in your phone’s settings.
4. If you sign up for the beta
Signing up to test the game is the one place we ask for an email address, and it is separate from the game itself, which never asks you to create an account or log in. We use it to send you a TestFlight or Google Play invite and occasional notes about the beta, and for nothing else. Apple or Google receives the address in order to send that invite and to run the test build, and the list itself is held in Google Forms and Google Sheets. We rely on your consent, which you gave on the signup form and can withdraw at any time by emailing support@apalim.com; we delete the list once the beta ends. You must be 13 or over to sign up.
5. What we do not collect
In the game, we do not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos or precise location, and we do not ask you to create an account (the anonymous identifier in section 2 is made by the app, not by you). The beta signup form in section 4 is the exception, and it is a form on our website rather than anything the game does. A bug report is the other: it is free text, so whatever you choose to type into it is what we receive, and we ask you not to put personal details in one. We do not sell your information. Note that this section used to say we do not track you across other apps or websites; that is no longer true, because the game shows ads. What Google AdMob collects is set out in the next section, and it is separate from what we collect for ourselves.
6. Advertising
Ads in TinyYears are supplied by Google AdMob. There are two kinds. Rewarded ads are ones you choose to watch in exchange for something in the game. Forced ads are shown to you now and then as part of playing, whether you asked or not, and buying the Ad-free upgrade removes them. Ad-free does not remove rewarded ads, because those are always your choice to watch and there would be nothing to remove. To serve and measure ads, Google AdMob receives your device’s advertising identifier, your approximate location derived from your IP address, your device and app details, and information about which ads you were shown and whether you interacted with them. That identifier can be used to build a profile of you and to show you ads based on it, including in other apps. On Apple devices we must ask your permission before the advertising identifier can be used, and you can refuse; on both platforms your device settings let you limit ad personalization or reset the identifier at any time. If you do not consent, you will still see ads, but they will be less relevant rather than fewer. In the UK and the EEA the game asks for your choice through Google’s consent form the first time it runs, and you can change that choice at any time from Settings.
7. Is it anonymous?
It is not linked to you by name, and we cannot look at our analytics and tell who you are. But the app instance identifier is tied to your installation, so under UK data-protection law this counts as pseudonymous rather than truly anonymous data, and we treat it as personal data accordingly. The same is true of the anonymous identifier your backup is kept under: it is not linked to your name, but it is tied to your game, so we treat it as personal data too. We would rather say that plainly than claim more than we can stand behind.
8. Why we collect it
Crash reports exist so we can find and fix the things that break the game. Usage counts tell us which parts of the game people actually play, which is how we decide what to build and improve next. Some aggregate totals are also used in our own marketing (for example "players have lived X million years"); those are counts, never anything about an individual. We rely on our legitimate interests in running and improving the game, and on your consent where the law in your country requires it.
9. Your choices
Settings has a switch called "Analytics and Crash Reports". Turning it off stops our own collection straight away, not at the next restart, and the game works exactly the same with it off. Note that this switch does not control advertising: ads are handled by a separate company, so the controls for those are the tracking permission prompt on Apple devices and the ad settings on your device on both platforms. Buying the Ad-free upgrade removes the forced ads. Settings also has "Delete All Data", which erases every saved life, achievement, Star and statistic from your device and deletes your backup and its anonymous identifier from our servers, though it cannot reach anything an advertising company already holds; your device settings can reset the advertising identifier they use. Uninstalling the app removes everything stored on the device too.
10. Who else is involved
Google processes analytics and crash data on our behalf as our processor, under Google’s own terms and security measures, hosts the backup of your game described in section 2, in London, and hosts the beta signup form and its responses. When the game contacts our servers, Apple or Google also confirms, through Firebase App Check, that the request comes from a genuine copy of the app. That check is about the app, not about you, and does not include your name, your email address or anything you have typed. If you signed up for the beta, Apple or Google also receives your email address to send the invite and run the test build. If you buy something, Apple or Google handles the payment under their terms and we never see your card details. Purchases are checked for us by RevenueCat, as our processor, which receives the purchase record from Apple or Google, the same anonymous identifier your backup is kept under, and basic device details such as its operating system and country, so that a purchase can be confirmed, later restored, and follow your game to a new phone. RevenueCat passes each purchase record to us, and we keep a record of the sale, its price and the anonymous identifier it was made under, so we can check purchases such as Name in the Game and handle refunds; records of sales are kept as financial records. If you have applied a creator code, RevenueCat also receives that code with the purchase, and we record it with the sale so we can work out what each creator is owed and reverse it if the purchase is refunded. None of this includes your name, your email address or your card details. If you buy Name in the Game, the details of your cameo are copied into ClickUp, the task tracker we use, so that a person can review the name. If you link Discord for the VIP role, Discord is told to give that role to your Discord account, or to take it away. We do not share your information with anyone else, other than where we are required to by law.
11. Where your data goes
The backup of your game is held in London, in the United Kingdom. Firebase analytics and crash reporting, Google AdMob, RevenueCat, ClickUp and Discord may process data on servers outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where that happens, safeguards approved for international transfers apply, such as standard contractual clauses.
12. How long we keep it
Data on your device stays until you delete it. The backup stays until you use "Delete All Data", and a backup that has not been opened for three years is deleted automatically. A code stops working once it is used, a move code 15 minutes after it is made, and a recovery code when you make a new one; a phone that entered a code can finish using it within 7 days. When a phone lets go of a game that moved, the copy it sets aside is deleted after 30 days. The note that you redeemed a promo code is deleted with your backup when you use "Delete All Data"; if backups were off, it is kept against a random id for your phone and deleted after three years. A cameo is kept while it is in the game, and deleted when you remove it, when you use "Delete All Data", or if the purchase is refunded. A Discord link code stops working after 15 minutes. The link between your Discord account and your game is kept until you unlink it or use "Delete All Data", and the record of when you subscribed to VIP until you use "Delete All Data" (if your subscription is still active, a new record starts at its next renewal). The beta list is deleted when the beta ends, or sooner if you ask. Analytics data is kept for Firebase’s configured retention period, after which it is deleted automatically. Crash reports are kept only as long as they are useful for diagnosing the problem.
13. Children
TinyYears is rated 12+ and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and the ads shown in the game are not targeted on the basis of a profile of anyone we believe to be a child. If you believe a child has provided us with information, contact support@apalim.com and we will delete it.
14. Your rights
Under UK and EU data-protection law you have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to receive a copy of it. The game holds no account in your name, only the anonymous identifier your backup is kept under, which we cannot trace back to a person, so the fastest way to exercise most of these is directly in the app, using the analytics switch and "Delete All Data". The beta list in section 4 is the one thing we hold that is tied to you by name: email support@apalim.com and we will show you what is on it, correct it, or take you off. For anything else, the same address. If you are unhappy with our response you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. If we make a material change we will give reasonable notice, in the app or on this website, and update the effective date above.
Published by Apalim Studios, a trading name of Atkins & Partners Limited (company number 16089222), a company registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF, United Kingdom. Contact: support@apalim.com