Privacy Policy
Ascent is a word game. This describes exactly what it stores, where, and why. It is short because the app collects very little.
Last updated 24 September 2026
What we collect
When you play, these stay on your device:
- Your round-by-round history — each past game, its words and its time — is stored on your phone only. What does leave it (your Daily Challenge entries, and your lifetime totals for the other modes) is described below.
- The app also keeps a short-lived copy of the leaderboard on your phone — the top rows' names and scores, and your own past placings — so the board appears instantly instead of making you wait for it. This is a copy of what the board already shows you; it is cleared when you delete your account.
- Players you have blocked, and boards you have already been given, are remembered on your phone — so a blocked player's name stays hidden from you, and a board is not repeated.
When you report another player, we store your account ID, the reported player's account ID and the name they were using, and the time — so the report can be reviewed. Report records are kept after an account is deleted.
Reported names are checked automatically. If a reported name fails our name filter, or several different players report it, the name is removed from the leaderboard and its owner is asked to choose a new one. We record that the account was asked to rename and when. Nothing else about the account changes — scores, history and achievements are kept.
When you choose a username, the following is stored on our servers:
- An anonymous account ID, generated by Google Firebase. It is not linked to your name, email or phone number — and not to your Apple ID unless you choose to sign in with Apple (below).
- The username you choose.
If you choose Sign in with Apple (optional — the game is fully playable without it), Apple gives us a per-app identifier for your Apple ID and we attach it to your account, so that a reinstall or a new phone can bring back your username, your Daily Challenge history and your achievements. We request neither your name nor your email address from Apple, and Apple does not share them. The identifier is stored by Firebase Authentication and is removed when you delete your account; it is never shown to other players.
When you complete a Daily Challenge, your entry is stored on our servers:
- Your username and anonymous account ID
- Your height, time and whether you reached the summit
- The words you played and when you played them. These are kept so the server can verify that a leaderboard score came from a real game rather than being fabricated.
When you play Endless, Casual or Clash, we store your lifetime totals for each mode — how many climbs, how many summits, your fastest summit time and the highest rung you reached — linked to your anonymous account ID, so they come back if you reinstall or move to a new phone (with Sign in with Apple). Only you can read them. The individual rounds are not sent; they stay on your device.
Automatically, by our providers:
- Google Firebase records the IP address and timestamp of requests it handles — signing in, submitting a score, and reading the leaderboard — as part of operating the service.
- Expo (Expo/650 Industries) delivers app updates. When the app checks for one, Expo receives your IP address, basic device and app-version information, and a random installation identifier the update system generates. It is not linked to your account and is reset if you reinstall.
- Firebase Crashlytics (Google) receives a report if the app crashes: what the app was doing at the moment it crashed, your device model and iOS version, the app version, and a random installation identifier that Crashlytics generates and that is reset if you reinstall. A crash report contains no username, no scores and no words, and it is not linked to your account. We use these reports only to find and fix bugs.
What we do NOT collect
We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, location, contacts, photos, or any advertising identifier. There is no analytics SDK, no advertising, and no third-party tracking. Crash reports (above) are diagnostics, not analytics: they tell us the app broke, not who you are or how you play. Your data is never used to track you across other apps or websites, and is never sold.
Why we collect it
To run the daily leaderboard: to show your name next to your score, to keep usernames unique, to enforce one attempt per day, and to verify that scores are genuine. And to restore your own totals when you reinstall or change phones.
Public information
Your username, height and time appear publicly on the daily leaderboard to anyone using the app. Do not choose a username you would not want seen. The words you played are not displayed to other players, though they are part of the leaderboard entry your app sends and other players' apps can read.
Deleting your account
Settings → Delete account, inside the app. This immediately and permanently deletes your profile, your saved Endless, Casual and Clash totals, and all data stored on your device — including the leaderboard copy described above — and releases your username. A released username holds nothing about you; it simply cannot be claimed by anyone, including you, for 24 hours. If you signed in with Apple, the Apple sign-in link is revoked and the Apple identifier is deleted with the account.
Past leaderboard entries are kept but stop showing your name — they display as "Climber" everywhere the board is read. A snapshot of the name you used is still stored inside those entries, because an attempt is final and cannot be rewritten; it is no longer displayed anywhere and is no longer connected to an account that exists. They are retained because other players' rankings were calculated against them, and removing them would retroactively change results that other people already saw.
Deletion cannot be undone. An anonymous account cannot be recovered at all; an account that was signed in with Apple can be recovered only until it is deleted — after that, signing in with Apple again starts a new, empty account.
Children
Ascent is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Where data is stored
Google Firebase (Firestore and Firebase Authentication), operated by Google LLC, on servers in the United States.
Changes
Material changes will be reflected here with an updated date.