Picparo Privacy Policy

Updated: October 8, 2026

Controller

Christian Hermann & Martina Hermann GbR, An Rainen 3, 72525 Münsingen, Germany. Contact: apps@bitbeans.de.

What the app processes

Picparo stores game progress, settings and downloaded puzzles locally on your device. The app has no user account and no sign-in; your game progress is not uploaded to our servers.

For puzzle packs and daily puzzles, the app loads public catalog and image data from our server. This processes technical connection data such as IP address, time, requested resource and status code in order to deliver the content, analyze errors and fend off attacks. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Depending on use, we also process the data of the anonymous purchase session, voluntary feedback, limited purchase diagnostics and anonymous usage statistics, as described in the following sections.

Anonymous purchase session

So that purchases can be verified and restored without an account, Picparo creates an anonymous purchase session with AppCore on its first launch with an internet connection. AppCore is our own service at api.bitbeans.de, which runs on Cloudflare. To do so, the app generates a random guest identifier for which AppCore issues a protected session key. The identifier and key are stored on your device. They contain neither your name nor your email address, nor any device or advertising identifiers.

AppCore links this session to the product ID, store platform, transaction ID and technical receipt data from Apple or Google, as well as the time of verification and the status of the unlock, including refunds. When you buy, the app passes a pseudonymous purchase reference to the store so that AppCore can verify that the purchase belongs to this session. We do not receive payment data such as credit card numbers.

The purchase session only applies on the platform on which it was created. After reinstalling or on a new device, restore your purchases with “Restore purchases” and the same store account; a new purchase session may be created in the process. Purchases cannot be transferred between Android and iOS.

The purposes are verifying, unlocking and restoring your purchases, loading unlocked content and reconciling refunds. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; protection against abuse and manipulated receipts is based on our legitimate interest under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. We delete a purchase session without a purchase automatically once it has not been used for twelve months; the app creates a new one on its next request. We keep a purchase session with a purchase, together with the associated purchase data, for as long as Picparo unlocks and restores the purchase and checks refunds, or until you request deletion. We retain proof of purchase beyond that only where statutory retention duties require it (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

Purchases

Purchases are handled through the Apple App Store or Google Play. To unlock a purchase, AppCore verifies the store receipt on the server.

Voluntary feedback

When you send feedback from the settings, we transmit your message, an optional contact email address and the app version, platform and app language to AppCore. We store the message in AppCore for at most 180 days and forward it internally by email to our support inbox. To limit abuse, the IP address is used only briefly and only as a hash. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is handling your feedback.

Purchase diagnostics

To detect problems with purchases, the app reports individual steps of the purchase flow – for example whether the purchase screen was opened, a price was loaded, or a purchase was canceled or failed – together with the platform, app version and a fixed error reason to our server. Current app versions also send the coarse origin of the installation (store, test or developer installation) so that test traffic is counted separately; it is determined on the device without any device or installation identifier. If a report comes from the networks Google publishes for its automated pre-launch tests (Google Test Lab), our server also counts it as test traffic; the IP address is only compared for this and not stored. Our server stores only daily totals and deletes them after 14 days; daily counters without identifiers that are copied into our internal operations overview are kept without a fixed deletion date. No account, device, order or transaction identifiers are transmitted. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is a working purchase flow.

Anonymous usage statistics

From version 1.6.1, Picparo reports a few fixed events without any identifier to AppCore, our own service operated on Cloudflare, so that we can see where getting started or a purchase fails and whether the app starts quickly: once per installation, whether the introduction was shown, left with “Start” or skipped, whether the first, second or third search picture was opened and solved (the daily puzzle is counted separately), and whether the app was opened again at least seven days after its first start. In addition, each at most once a day: whether the app was opened on a later day than the first one, whether the offer for Picparo Complete was shown at the end of the introduction, where the purchase page was opened from (a fixed category: introduction, home screen, settings or “unknown” when a purchase was only completed after a later store approval), whether Buy was tapped there and whether a purchase was made from it, the start time until the app is usable in coarse steps (such as “1 to 2 seconds”), and whether a review prompt was possible, requested, suppressed or unavailable. To recognize a later day, the app only keeps the day of its first start on the device. Each event contains only the event name, fixed categories, platform, app version and app language, plus the coarse origin of the installation (store, test or developer installation) so that test traffic is counted separately; the origin is determined on the device without any device or installation identifier. If an event comes from the networks Google publishes for its automated pre-launch tests (Google Test Lab), AppCore also counts it as test traffic; the IP address is only compared for this and not stored. To limit abuse, AppCore briefly uses the IP address as a hash value. No guest identifier, no account, device or advertising identifier, no names of search pictures or packs, no saved progress and no purchase receipts are transmitted. Only the report of a purchase is sent with the anonymous purchase session, so that AppCore can match it with a purchase it verified itself; the session is not stored with the report, and so that a purchase counts only once, a check value (hash) of the purchase stays with the report for up to eight days. With a purchase, the app also sends with the purchase verification which purchase page it came from; AppCore stores this fixed category with the purchase data and deletes it with them. Individual events are deleted after seven days. Daily aggregate counts, including the daily counters of purchase steps, are deleted after at most 120 days. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is finding errors and purchase problems and improving the app. Because the events contain no identifier, we cannot relate them to any person (Art. 11 GDPR). You can object under Art. 21 GDPR at any time by email to apps@bitbeans.de. If an event fails, this has no effect on playing or purchasing.

Ads and tracking

The app does not show third-party advertising and does not build advertising profiles.

Service providers

We use service providers for app distribution, purchases, hosting, storage and support, in particular Apple, Google Play and Cloudflare (servers, database, content delivery and internal email delivery). Where providers act on our behalf, data processing agreements under Art. 28 GDPR are in place. Store purchases are regularly processed by Apple or Google as independent controllers.

International transfers

Some service providers may process personal data outside the EU/EEA. Where there is no adequacy decision, transfers rely on appropriate safeguards, in particular EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or on applicable statutory exceptions.

Security

Personal data is transmitted only over encrypted connections. Local app data is stored in the protected app storage of your device.

Older app versions: accounts and cloud backups

Picparo versions before 1.6.0 offered optional sign-in with Google or Apple through Firebase Authentication (Google) and an end-to-end encrypted cloud backup of game progress; purchases could be linked there through an anonymous Firebase session. From version 1.6.0 there is neither sign-in nor cloud backup, and the app no longer uses Firebase.

If you used these features, the following data may remain stored until deletion: at Google (Firebase Authentication, on our behalf) the sign-in account with user ID, sign-in provider, email address and, where Google or Apple provided it, name – for anonymous sessions only the user ID; at AppCore an internal user ID linked to that account, associated purchase data, the encrypted game progress with technical synchronization data such as schema version, version tag and timestamps and, after signing in with Apple, an encrypted Apple token that we use to revoke the sign-in upon deletion. We cannot read the content of the cloud backup because its key was not sent to our servers.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because you can continue to use these features in an older version. We keep the data until you delete it or request its deletion: in an older app version via “Delete account”, or by email to apps@bitbeans.de. We then delete the sign-in account, the encrypted game progress and the associated server data. Verified store purchases are not affected and can be restored. Details are available at Delete data.

Retention and deletion

Local data remains on your device until you delete the app data or remove the app. We keep the anonymous purchase session as described above (without a purchase, at most twelve months after its last use), and feedback in AppCore for at most 180 days after it arrives; purchase diagnostics and the anonymous usage statistics are deleted as described in their sections. Purchase and billing records are kept where statutory retention duties apply.

Information about deleting app data, the purchase session and accounts from older versions is available at Delete data.

Your rights

Subject to the statutory requirements, you have the rights under Art. 15–21 GDPR, including access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability and objection. You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority; the authority responsible for our registered office is the LfDI Baden-Württemberg. For privacy requests, contact us at: apps@bitbeans.de.