Privacy Policy

Cowsmic ("the app") is a mobile game that teaches French through play. It is published by Betterdays Studio, the trading name of Jonathan Lai, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom ("we", "us"). This policy explains what data the app and this website handle, and what they do not. We built Cowsmic to need as little of your data as possible, and this page describes that plainly.

1. Who we are, and how to reach us

Jonathan Lai, trading as Betterdays Studio, is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. You can contact us about anything on this page, including any request about your data, at contact@johnnybuildstech.com.

2. No accounts in the app

Cowsmic does not require or offer user accounts. There is no sign-up and no login inside the app, and the app does not ask you for your email address, your name, or any other registration information.

The one exception is an account you already have, not one we create: your device's own Google Play Games Services or Game Center, which keeps your achievements and leaderboard places. That is described in section 9, and the game is complete without it.

3. No ads, no trackers

Cowsmic contains no advertising, no ad networks, and no third-party analytics or tracking software development kits (SDKs). We do not build an advertising profile of you, and no advertising company receives data from this app.

4. Game progress stays on your device

Your progress (mastered words, mission history, settings, and similar game state) is stored locally on your device. It is included in your device's standard operating system backup where you have that turned on (for example, Android Auto Backup or an iCloud device backup on iOS). That backup is controlled entirely by your operating system and your Google or Apple account, not by us. We cannot see, access, or receive a copy of your game progress.

5. Microphone (optional speaking bonus)

Cowsmic includes an optional speaking bonus. If you choose to use it, you hold a push-to-talk button and repeat a French word aloud. That audio is processed by your device's built-in speech recognition service (Google's on Android, Apple's on iOS), which may send the audio to that platform's own servers to turn it into text, under that platform's own privacy policy. The Cowsmic app itself never records, stores, or transmits your audio. It only receives the text transcript back from the device's speech service, to check whether you said the word.

Cowsmic asks for microphone permission the first time you try the speaking bonus, not before. The game is fully playable, with no loss of core content, if you never grant microphone access or never use the feature.

6. Text-to-speech

The mothership's spoken orders are generated by your device's built-in text-to-speech engine, on-device. No text is sent anywhere for this purpose.

7. Purchases

Cowsmic offers an optional subscription and an optional one-time purchase. All payment is processed by the Apple App Store or Google Play, under their own privacy policies. We do not receive your name, email address, or payment details.

We use RevenueCat, a purchases infrastructure provider, to validate purchases and manage which features are unlocked. RevenueCat receives an anonymous, randomly generated app user identifier and purchase receipt data (such as which product was bought and when) so that it can confirm the purchase with the app store and tell the app what to unlock. This identifier is not your name, email, or payment information, and it cannot be used by us or RevenueCat to identify you personally.

8. Optional reminder notification

If you turn it on, Cowsmic can show a daily reminder notification. This notification is scheduled entirely on your device by the operating system. It does not involve a push notification server, and no data about you leaves your device to make it happen.

9. Achievements and leaderboards (optional)

Cowsmic can record the contracts you complete as achievements, and your total score, your longest streak and how many words you have mastered as leaderboard entries, using the gaming service built into your device: Google Play Games Services on Android, and Game Center on iOS.

These are Google's and Apple's services, running on your own account, and they decide when you are signed in. If you have already allowed games to sign you in on your device, that can happen without Cowsmic asking, which is a setting inside the Play Games app or your iOS Game Center settings rather than one of ours. If you are not signed in, Cowsmic shows a sign-in button on the achievements screen and does nothing until you press it.

While you are signed in, those services link your achievements and the three scores above to the player identifier they issue for your Google or Apple account, and they handle that under their own privacy policies. It is worth being precise about what reaches us: Cowsmic only ever learns whether you are signed in, and sends achievements and scores out. We do not receive your name, your email address, your password, or a list of who else plays. You can view and delete everything held there in your Play Games or Game Center settings.

You never have to be signed in. Every level, every word and every purchase works exactly the same if you are not, and your progress is kept on your device either way, as described in section 4.

10. Why we are allowed to handle this data (legal bases)

Under UK and EU data protection law we have to name a legal basis for each use of personal data. Ours are:

• Consent for anything you switch on yourself: the microphone and the speaking bonus, the daily reminder, and being signed in to Play Games Services or Game Center. You can withdraw consent at any time by turning the feature off, signing out of that service, or revoking the permission in your device settings.
• Performance of a contract for purchases and entitlements: if you buy a subscription or the lifetime unlock, we have to validate that purchase to give you what you paid for.
• Legitimate interests for keeping the service running and secure, including the server logs described in section 11.

11. This website

This website (cowsmic.com) is operated by Betterdays Studio and uses:

• Vercel for hosting. Vercel keeps standard server logs, which include IP addresses, for security and operational purposes. The site sets no analytics or advertising cookies and does no cross-site tracking.

The website asks you for nothing. There is no form on it, no sign-up, and no place to enter an email address.

12. Where your data goes, and how long we keep it

Some of the providers above are based outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where personal data is transferred internationally, it is protected by the safeguards those providers offer, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses, or the EU-US and UK-US Data Privacy Frameworks.

Purchase records are kept by RevenueCat and the app stores for as long as needed to support your purchase and to meet tax and accounting obligations. Game progress lives on your device and is deleted when you delete the app or reset your progress in Settings. Achievements and leaderboard entries, if you signed in for them, are kept by Google or Apple under their own policies, and are removed from your Play Games or Game Center settings rather than from us.

13. What we do not do

• We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• We do not share your data with anyone, except as described above (your device's own speech recognition service, RevenueCat for purchase validation, Google Play Games Services or Game Center if you sign in to them, and Vercel for this website).
• We do not build advertising or tracking profiles.

14. Your rights

Because the app keeps your game data on your device and has no accounts, most data-subject rights are satisfied directly on your device: you can see all your progress inside the app, reset it from Settings, and delete it entirely by uninstalling the app. Achievements and leaderboard entries are the one part that lives elsewhere, and they are yours to view and delete in your Play Games or Game Center settings, where they were stored.

For the small amount of data we do handle off your device (purchase records, and any support email you send us) you have the right, under UK and EU GDPR, to request access to it, correction of it, deletion of it, restriction of or objection to how we use it, and a portable copy of it. If you are a California resident, you have equivalent rights under the CCPA and CPRA, including the right to know, delete, and correct, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. Email contact@johnnybuildstech.com and we will respond within 30 days.

If you think we have mishandled your data, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or to the supervisory authority in your own country.

15. Children

Cowsmic is a general-audience app. It is not directed at children under 13, or under the minimum age of digital consent in your country (which is between 13 and 16 across the EEA). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

16. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above and post the new version at this same address. For material changes, such as adding a new third-party service, we will say so on the page. Since the app collects so little data to begin with, we expect changes here to be rare and small.

25 August 2026: Cowsmic launched on the App Store and Google Play, so the pre-launch waitlist closed. Section 11 no longer describes a form: this website now asks you for nothing, and Tally is no longer used for it. Nothing about what the app collects has changed.

13 August 2026: added section 9, covering the optional Google Play Games Services and Game Center sign-in that keeps your achievements and leaderboard places. Nothing else about what the app collects has changed.

17. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to contact@johnnybuildstech.com.