Gridlock Escape

Privacy policy

Last updated: 5 November 2026

This policy covers the website gridlockescape.com and the game Gridlock Escape: Rescue Run in all its forms: in your browser, and the apps for iPhone and iPad (App Store) and for Android (Google Play). They are made and run by Halfsky Publishing, who decide how the data described here is used.

In short

What the game keeps on your device

The game remembers which levels you have solved, your best number of moves and stars for each, how many hints you have, and your settings (sound, vibration, reduced motion and graphics quality). This stays on your device and never reaches us.

On the website

The website keeps it in your browser’s local storage. You can delete it at any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser’s settings (your progress goes with it). These are the keys:

Key What it holds
gl.progress Your progress: best moves and stars per level, and the hints you have left.
gl.settings Your settings: sound, vibration, reduced motion and graphics quality.
gl.stats.v1 Your play statistics choice, allowed or declined, once you have made one.
gl.stats.gpc A marker, 1, set when you chose Allow while your browser was sending Global Privacy Control.
gl.stats.notice A marker, 1, set once the small statistics bar has been shown, so it appears only once.
gl.auth Once you open Challenges: your game account’s identifier and the sign-in tokens that prove it is yours (see “Challenges and leaderboards”).
gl.google.request, gl.google.return Only while you sign in with Google, in the tab’s session storage: a random check value and Google’s answer. The game deletes both as soon as it has read them.

In the apps

The apps keep the same in the app’s own storage on your phone or tablet. If you use your device’s backup (iCloud or Google), your progress is included in it, so it can come back on a new device. Deleting the app deletes it from the device. Once you open Challenges, the apps also keep gl.auth (your game account, as on the website) and, once you have bought hints, gl.wallet: your bought hints and the ones you have used that our server has not heard of yet.

Challenges and leaderboards

Challenges are puzzles that change every day, week or month, the same for everyone, with leaderboards. They, the hint packs and saving your progress are the only parts of the game that use our server, and only once you use them.

This runs on Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore and Cloud Functions), which handles the data for us under Google’s data processing terms. Results and names are stored in Google’s data centre in Finland; Firebase Authentication may handle the account identifiers in the United States and other countries where Google operates. We use the data only to run the challenges and leaderboards and to keep them fair, which is the service you ask for when you play them.

We keep it until you delete it. In Challenges, Delete account removes your leaderboard name, your results and your game account at once; Sign out only forgets the account on this device and leaves your results on the leaderboards. You can also write to us to have it deleted.

Hint packs (the apps)

The iPhone, iPad and Android apps sell hint packs (10, 35 or 100 hints) and unlimited hints as in-app purchases. Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) handles the purchase and the payment under its own terms and privacy policy; your name, card and address never reach us. The store hands the app a signed record of the purchase (which pack, a transaction number, when, and whether it was a test), which our server checks before it adds the hints, so each purchase counts once. We keep that record and your balance of bought hints with your game account, so they come back on a new device signed in to the same Game Center or Play Games account. Unlimited hints also come back through Restore purchases in the game’s Settings: one purchase works on up to five game accounts, so we keep which game accounts use it. Deleting your account in Challenges deletes your balance, including any bought hints you have not used; we keep only the store's transaction number, with no link to you or your account, so the same purchase can never be granted twice (for unlimited hints, your account is taken off the purchase, which frees its place). Refunds go through the store. The website sells nothing.

Challenge reminders (the apps)

If you turn them on, the apps remind you once a day, at the time you choose, when new challenges are out. The reminders are scheduled on your device for the next two weeks; nothing about them is sent to us or anyone else. Turn them off in the game’s Settings or in your device’s notification settings.

Ads: rewarded videos from Google

When you run out of hints, the game offers a short video: watch it to the end and you get more hints. That is the only advertising, and a video only plays when you tap to watch one. There are no banners and no ads between levels. The videos come from Google: Google Ireland Limited if you are in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, and Google LLC elsewhere.

To show and measure ads and to prevent fraud, Google receives information such as your IP address, your browser or device type, an advertising identifier or cookie where allowed, and how you interact with the ad. Whether ads may be personalised (chosen from your interests) depends on your choices below; without consent Google shows non-personalised or limited ads, which use no cookies or identifiers for advertising. Google describes this in how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and its privacy policy, and you can change Google’s ad personalisation at My Ad Center.

On the website

The videos are Google’s H5 Games Ads, served through Google AdSense. Google’s ad code loads only on the game page (never on these pages), and only as the rules in “Your choice, by region” allow. Google’s consent message is the one from Google’s own consent tool, which is certified under the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. With your consent, Google may set its own cookies on this site (for example __gads and __gpi) and keeps your consent answer in cookies such as FCCDCF and FCNEC. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, the game asks Google for non-personalised ads.

To change your answer, open the game’s Settings (the gear) and choose Privacy choices; it appears wherever Google’s consent message applies to you.

In the apps

The apps use Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK) for the same rewarded videos, and Google’s consent form (the User Messaging Platform). Where the law asks for consent, the form opens before any ad is requested, and no ad is requested until you have answered. Settings › Privacy choices in the app reopens the form.

The SDK collects the data Google lists for it: device and app information, the advertising identifier where allowed, IP address (from which an approximate location can be told), ad interactions and diagnostics, for advertising, measurement and fraud prevention. The game itself adds nothing about you to the ad requests.

Your choice, by region

When a page is sent, the website looks up which country your connection comes from and uses that only to choose which rule applies. It is not stored.

In the apps, Google’s consent form decides where it is needed, from your device and connection.

Play statistics (website only)

Play statistics are on for this website: Google Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics, under the rules below.

The website can count visits and a few game moments (a level started or solved with its stars, a hint used, a video watched to the end or not, a challenge started or solved, a sign-in), to see which levels are too hard. The values are level numbers, tier names, star counts and yes or no, never names or anything you type. The apps send no statistics of their own.

When statistics are on, they follow the rules above: where the law asks first, a banner asks you (Allow or Decline) and nothing loads before Allow; elsewhere a small bar tells you they are on. Two services count:

Decline stops the statistics at once and deletes Google Analytics’ cookies. Cloudflare’s counter cannot be unloaded from a page that has already started it, so a Decline stops it from the next page you open. A choice made in one tab applies in your other tabs. Where statistics run, “Privacy choices” in the footer of these pages and in the game’s Settings opens the choice again.

What Cloudflare handles

The website is served by Cloudflare. Like any web server, Cloudflare receives your IP address and standard request details (such as the page asked for and your browser’s user agent) to deliver the pages and protect the site, and may keep them in short-lived logs. We use them for nothing else. Cloudflare’s privacy policy

Children

The game is made for players aged 13 and over. It asks nobody for personal information, has no chat and no way to contact other players; leaderboards show only the names players choose, through a word filter. If you believe a child has given us personal information, write to us and we will delete it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in Europe or state laws in the US), you can ask to see, correct or delete personal data about you, object to or restrict its use, take it elsewhere, and withdraw consent at any time with the Privacy choices above. The only personal data we hold is what Challenges and the hint packs keep (above), which you can delete in the game or by writing to us; level progress lives on your device, and ad data is held by Google, which you can manage at My Ad Center. Personalised ads and statistics rely on your consent where the law requires it; Challenges rely on providing the service you ask for; serving the site securely and non-personalised ads rely on our legitimate interest in running a free game. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

Changes

If the website or the apps start handling data differently, this page is updated before the change takes effect, with a new date at the top.

Contact

Questions about privacy: Halfsky Publishing, privacy@halfskypublishing.com. Help with the game: support@halfskypublishing.com.

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