Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 20, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Woodle (the “app”) handles your information. Woodle is a word ladder puzzle game where you change one letter at a time to reach a target word. Your puzzle progress, stats, hint balance, and any unused earned play stay on your device. Versions that offer optional rewarded ads use Google services for advertising and privacy choices. Earlier ad-free versions do not include these advertising services.

No account required

Woodle does not require an account, login, sign-up, or profile. We do not ask for your name, email address, phone number, or any other personal identifier to play.

Information stored on your device

Woodle stores your game data locally on your device only, using your device’s standard local storage. This data is not transmitted to us or to any third party. It includes:

• Game progress and any round in progress
• Hint and Backtrack balances, including the most recent local reward receipt
• One unused earned play and its local reward receipt, in version 1.7 and later
• Performance statistics (such as games played and solve efficiency)
• Daily puzzle completion state
• Free puzzle usage counts (used to apply the daily ad-free allowance)
• App settings and preferences
• Recently played custom words (for quick replay)
• Your premium unlock status, as reflected on your device

Because this information lives only on your device, deleting the app removes it.

Purchases

Woodle offers a single optional one-time purchase, Woodle Premium (not a subscription). Purchases are processed entirely by Apple through In-App Purchase / StoreKit. Woodle does not receive or store your payment card details or other billing information. Whether you own the premium unlock is determined by Apple and reflected on your device so the app can enable premium features. Apple’s handling of purchase information is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.

Custom puzzles and sharing

In Custom mode, you can choose your own target word from an approved built-in dictionary of 4- and 5-letter words. You can choose to share a custom puzzle with friends. When you do, the share text or share link contains only the puzzle words (the start and target word) so a friend can play the same puzzle — it is created only when you tap share and is sent using your device’s standard share sheet to the app or contact you pick.

Woodle has no chat, messaging, usernames, profiles, public feeds, or comments. If you tap “Paste puzzle” to open a puzzle a friend sent you, the app reads text from your clipboard only at that moment, only to import the puzzle, and does not transmit your clipboard anywhere.

Optional rewarded ads

In ad-enabled versions, you can choose to watch a full-screen rewarded video to earn one hint. In version 1.7 and later, free players can also choose to watch one rewarded video to unlock each additional Standard game, new Hard game, or Custom game they create. Gameplay and hint rewards are separate: an ad for one play does not also grant a hint or Premium features.

In version 1.7 and later, Premium removes all ads before gameplay, but earning hints through ads remains the same for free and Premium players. The Standard daily puzzle plus one random Standard puzzle per day, shared Custom puzzles, and resuming unfinished games remain ad-free. If a play is earned but not yet used, it is saved locally for one future ad-supported game; only one unused play can be saved at a time.

Ad-free allowances, shared puzzles, saved games, Premium gameplay, stored hints, and an already-earned play work offline. Loading ads and updating privacy choices require an internet connection.

Woodle uses the Google Mobile Ads SDK (AdMob) and Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP). These services may process your IP address and approximate location, device or app identifiers where available, advertising and interaction data, and crash, performance, or other diagnostic information. They use this data to provide ads, manage consent, measure advertising performance, prevent fraud, and operate their services. Woodle does not send your played words, puzzle history, hint balance, or local earned-play status to an advertising server.

We configure non-personalized ads, disable Google's publisher first-party ID, and do not request Apple's tracking permission. Non-personalized ads still involve data processing; this is not a promise that ad services collect no data. Woodle does not add a separate analytics service. Read Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from apps that use its services for more detail.

Privacy choices and retention

UMP updates privacy information when an ad-enabled version starts and presents any required message before an ad is loaded. Where applicable, you can revisit Ad privacy choices in Settings. Declining a privacy choice may affect ad availability and therefore the ability to earn new plays or hints. It does not remove saved rewards or prevent access to your ad-free allowances, shared puzzles, saved games, or Premium gameplay. Rewards depend on the ad's earned-reward event, not on granting consent or clicking an ad.

Game data remains on your device until you remove it or delete the app; we do not provide an account or cloud backup. Google and its service or advertising partners process and retain advertising/consent data under their policies and your applicable choices. Deleting Woodle does not necessarily delete data already held by those providers. Depending on where you live, additional privacy rights may apply; use the in-app choices, Google's privacy controls, or contact us for assistance.

Children’s privacy

Woodle is a general-audience word puzzle, not specifically designed or marketed to children and not offered in Apple's Kids Category. We do not ask players for their age or date of birth. Ads are configured for General/G content. A content rating does not establish a player's age. If you are a parent or guardian with a privacy concern, please contact us.

Data sharing and sale

We do not sell your local puzzle history, hint balance, or earned-play status. Ad-enabled versions communicate with Google and relevant advertising/service partners as described above. Their data processing and any applicable opt-out choices are described in the privacy messages and linked policies.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when features or data handling change. This update adds rewarded gameplay access and locally saved play rewards for version 1.7 and later, alongside rewarded hints. It does not change the behavior of older installed versions or add advertising to ad-free versions.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email woodle.support@gmail.com, or open an issue in the public support repository at github.com/johnpreed/woodle-support/issues.