Tilou · Puzzle Game

Tilou Privacy Policy

What the published version of Tilou handles — game progress, analytics and advertising — in plain language.

App: Tilou (Story Puzzle Game) Package: com.yfbmedia.tilou Publisher: YFB Media Last updated: November 4, 2026

Overview

Tilou ("Tilou", "the app") is a story puzzle game developed and published by YFB Media ("YFB Media", "we", "us"). This policy explains what information the app handles, why it is handled, which other parties may process it, and how to contact us about it.

It describes the version of Tilou that is currently published on Google Play. That version saves your game progress using anonymous Firebase sign-in and Cloud Firestore, it uses Google Analytics for Firebase, and it displays advertising through Google's Mobile Ads SDK (AdMob), with Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) handling privacy messages and privacy choices. It has no real-money in-app purchases and no subscriptions.

Scope of This Policy

  • This policy covers the Tilou Android application published by YFB Media under the package name com.yfbmedia.tilou. It does not cover the YFB Media website, which has its own separate privacy policy.
  • The version currently published on Google Play is Tilou 1.4.3 (version code 15), released on November 4, 2026. The rest of this policy describes what the published app does, rather than repeating version numbers section by section.
  • Advertising placements are controlled remotely through Firebase Remote Config, which means an individual placement can be switched on or off without releasing a new app binary. This policy therefore describes the advertising the app supports, even where a particular placement is temporarily turned off. Remote Config carries those on/off settings only; it is not itself an advertising service and it does not handle advertising data.
  • Where a release changes how information is handled, we intend to update this policy, and the app's Google Play Data Safety information, at or before the time that version is released.

What the App Handles

Tilou does not ask you to create an account, does not ask for your name or email address, and contains no chat, no free-text input and no social features. It handles the following:

  • A Firebase Anonymous Authentication identifier created for your installation when you first open the app, so that your progress can be saved and restored.
  • Game progress data — completed stories, chapters and puzzles, coins, hints, settings, in-progress puzzle state, and other gameplay progression required for cloud save.
  • Google Analytics for Firebase information — gameplay and app events, together with the information Google Analytics collects automatically.
  • App, installation and device identifiers — the identifiers the Google and Firebase components in the app use to tell one installation or device from another. Depending on the component and its configuration these can include a Firebase installation identifier, an app-instance identifier, the anonymous Firebase user identifier described below, and — where advertising is enabled — the advertising and device identifiers listed in Google's advertising disclosure further down this page.
  • Technical error diagnostics — short technical messages recorded when something fails in the app.
  • Advertising data processed by Google — where advertising is enabled, Google's Mobile Ads SDK processes the data categories Google documents for that SDK, and Google's User Messaging Platform records the applicable privacy choices. Both are described in detail below.

Game Progress, Anonymous Sign-In and Cloud Save

Tilou stores your game progress in the cloud so that it does not exist only in the app's local storage. Firebase Anonymous Authentication creates an anonymous Firebase user identifier for your installation, and Cloud Firestore uses that authenticated Firebase identity to associate your saved progress with it.

Cloud save is not a guaranteed recovery or cross-device synchronization feature. An anonymous Firebase sign-in belongs to the installation that created it. If you uninstall the app, clear the app's data or storage, reset the device, or move to a different device, the app may create a new anonymous identity rather than reconnecting you to progress saved under the previous one. Tilou has no login you could use to claim earlier progress elsewhere, so we do not promise that progress will be recovered after any of those events, and we do not promise that progress will follow you from one device to another.

We do not intentionally associate that identifier with your name, your email address or any traditional player account, and the app offers no way to attach such details to it. We do not, however, claim that such an identifier could never be linked to a person under any circumstances. "Anonymous" here has the meaning Google uses for anonymous sign-in — an account created without user-provided credentials — and not a guarantee of permanent non-identifiability. Google's Firebase Authentication service also processes technical information such as IP addresses for security and abuse prevention.

Analytics

Tilou uses Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the game is played and how the app performs. The custom events we record are gameplay and app events — for example: the app was opened, a story was opened, a chapter was started, a puzzle was completed, a daily challenge was started or completed, a hint was used, the player ran out of hints, the shop was opened, or a story was completed. These carry gameplay detail such as which story or chapter number was played and how many hints remain.

Google Analytics for Firebase also collects information automatically, in addition to those custom events. According to Google's documentation this can include an app-instance identifier, first launches, app opens and app updates, the number of users and sessions and their duration, operating system and device model information, and geography. More generally, Google Analytics for Firebase may process app-instance identifiers and other device or app identifiers according to the SDK configuration, the platform settings on your device and Google's documented service behaviour. Where an Android advertising ID is processed, Google states that it can be reset or deleted by users through the ad ID controls in the Android settings menu.

Analytics information is generally associated with an app installation or pseudonymous identifier rather than a named Tilou player account. It is not completely anonymous, and this policy does not describe it as such.

Error Diagnostics

If the app encounters a technical problem, a short technical message describing the failure may be recorded as a diagnostic event. These messages are intended to describe technical failures only, and the app does not deliberately place personal information or user-entered content in them. Because diagnostic text is produced by technical components rather than drawn from a fixed, reviewed list of fields, we do not guarantee that such a message could never contain an identifier.

What the App Does Not Do

  • It contains no real-money in-app purchases and no subscriptions. Hints are obtained inside the game — by spending Coins earned through play, or by choosing to watch a rewarded advertisement — and neither of those costs money.
  • It does not require a personal or named player account.
  • We do not intentionally request or require your player name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, precise GPS location, payment information, or user-created social content.

The app does display advertising, which the sections below describe, and this policy is kept in line with what the published app actually does.

Advertising in Tilou

Tilou displays advertising, and advertising is enabled worldwide — in every region where Tilou is distributed. The app does not apply a country-level advertising exclusion.

  • The Google Mobile Ads SDK (AdMob) and Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) SDK are integrated into the app.
  • Rewarded advertising is optional. A player who wants an extra Hint may choose to watch a rewarded advertisement. An advertisement that is watched through and qualifies for a reward grants exactly one Hint, and no other reward is given for watching one. Advertisements that are interrupted, closed early or otherwise do not complete do not automatically qualify for a reward.
  • Rewarded advertising is never the only way to continue playing. Hints can also be obtained by spending Coins earned through normal play, and you can carry on playing Tilou without watching any advertisement at all. Rewarded advertisements are not guaranteed to be available at a given moment: whether one can be offered depends on advertising availability, your connection, the privacy choices that apply to you and Google's systems.
  • Banner advertising is eligible on the screens listed in the next section, and is not shown on the screens excluded there.
  • Each of these advertising features can be enabled or disabled remotely through Firebase Remote Config, so a placement described here may be switched off at a given moment.

Advertising being enabled does not mean that an advertisement is always shown. Whether an advertisement is delivered for a given request depends on advertising availability and inventory, your network connection, the privacy choices that apply to you, Google's own requirements and technical behaviour, other technical conditions on the device, and the legal requirements that apply in your region. We do not state that every player will always see an advertisement, or that any particular advertisement will be shown.

Where Advertising Appears

Banner advertising is eligible to appear on the following screens:

  • the All Stories screen;
  • the Chapter Selection screen;
  • the Shop screen;
  • the Daily Challenge Selection screen;
  • regular chapter gameplay;
  • Daily Challenge gameplay;
  • and Final Puzzle gameplay.

Banner advertising is not shown on the following screens:

  • the Home screen;
  • the Settings screen;
  • the puzzle completion, chapter clear and daily clear screens;
  • and the Final Reveal screen, where the completed image of a story is presented.

Banner advertising may also be hidden temporarily while a dialog, a tutorial step, a privacy or consent message, or another interface state is on screen where a banner would not be appropriate. Rewarded advertising is offered only where a Hint can be awarded, as described above, and is never played without the player choosing it.

Advertising Data Google May Process

Where advertising is enabled, the advertising itself is delivered by Google. According to Google's current data disclosure for the Google Mobile Ads SDK, the SDK collects and shares the following data automatically, for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention purposes. Google Mobile Ads may therefore process:

  • the device's IP address, which Google states may be used to estimate the general location of a device;
  • user product interactions and interaction information, including app launch, taps and video views;
  • diagnostic information related to the performance of the app and the SDK, including app launch time, hang rate and energy usage;
  • device and account identifiers — the Android advertising ID, the app set ID and, if applicable, other identifiers related to signed-in accounts on the device.

These are the categories Google documents for its own SDK. We do not add technical fields of our own, and Google's disclosure is the authoritative description. Google states that this data is encrypted in transit.

Tilou is configured not to request the Android advertising ID permission (com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID): the release audit reports that the permission is not declared in the merged release manifest. Google states that collection of the ad ID is optional and that an app developer can prevent the collection of ad IDs by updating the app's manifest file.

This should not be read as meaning that no identifiers are processed. Google's disclosure lists the app set ID and, where applicable, identifiers related to signed-in accounts among the data its advertising SDK collects, and documents no equivalent manifest control for those. Other identifiers and technical information supported by Google's SDK may therefore still be processed, according to Google's current SDK behaviour and the app's configuration. Nor does the absence of that permission make advertising data anonymous.

Teen Treatment, Ad Content Rating and Non-Personalized Advertising

Advertising requests are configured conservatively:

  • Teen age treatment. Tilou configures supported Google ad requests with teen age treatment, so that Google can apply the applicable ad-serving protections for teens. Google documents this setting as the way an app indicates whether its Mobile Ads SDK should apply specific ad-serving protections for children, teens or an unspecified age.
  • Non-personalized advertising. Separately from that age setting, Tilou's advertising configuration is intended to use non-personalized advertising. Personalized advertising and remarketing are therefore not intended to be used in the app's advertising configuration.
  • A maximum ad content rating of PG. Advertising is configured with Google's PG maximum ad content rating. Google states that ads returned when a maximum rating is configured have a content rating at or below that level, based on digital content label classifications. YFB Media does not review individual advertisements and does not guarantee the content of any particular ad; the rating is a filter applied by Google's systems.

Four different things are worth keeping apart here. The app's configuration is what Tilou asks Google's SDKs to do. SDK behaviour is what Google's own systems then do with a request, which Google documents and may change. Your privacy choices are what you decide when a privacy message is presented to you. Legal compliance is a separate question that depends on the law applying to you. The settings described above are configuration: they narrow what is used for advertising, but they do not eliminate data collection, and they do not by themselves establish compliance with COPPA, the GDPR, the UK GDPR, GDPR-K or any other legislation. Google states that its tools do not relieve a publisher of its own obligations under the law, and this policy draws no broader legal conclusion from them.

Non-personalized advertising does not mean that no data is processed. Google states that non-personalized ads still use contextual information, including coarse geo-targeting such as city level based on current location and the content of the current app, and that although they do not use cookies or mobile advertising identifiers for ad targeting, they do still use them for frequency capping and aggregated ad reporting. Technical and device information may likewise be processed in order to deliver and measure advertising and to prevent fraud, which Google names among the purposes of its advertising SDK.

We cannot promise that every ad request will always be handled identically. What is served can depend on your privacy choices, your region, platform settings, and Google's policies and technical behaviour, which may differ between users and may change over time.

Privacy Messages and Privacy Choices

Tilou integrates Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP). The European regulations privacy message and the US privacy message are published in Tilou's AdMob privacy and messaging configuration. Where applicable, UMP may:

  • check whether a privacy message or a privacy choice is required for a given request;
  • display the relevant Google-managed privacy message;
  • record the applicable choices a user makes — Google states that consent choices are saved to local storage on the device;
  • and require a privacy-options entry point inside the app, where the configured message and the applicable regional requirements call for one.

Where such an entry point is required, Tilou shows a Privacy & ad choices option in the app's Settings menu and in the in-game pause menu. Selecting it opens Google's privacy-options form, where you can review or change the choices you made earlier.

This does not mean that every user will always see a privacy form. Google states that what a user sees depends on the publisher's messaging configuration and on request parameters such as the user's device and region, and that no message is shown where no consent needs to be gathered — for example where a user has already made a decision, or is outside the region a message targets. Google also documents that its US state regulations message is presented from the privacy-options entry point rather than at app start. Privacy messages, and the choices they offer, therefore vary by region, by configuration and by the requirements that apply. This policy does not describe privacy consent as legally required in every jurisdiction.

Advertising and privacy messages were introduced in Tilou 1.4.0. Versions of Tilou released before that did not display advertising and did not show a privacy message or a privacy options form.

Regions and Applicable Privacy Requirements

Tilou is available internationally, including in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United States, and advertising is enabled in all of those regions. Privacy choices, privacy messages and advertising behaviour may still differ according to the region a user is in and the requirements that apply there.

Google's privacy tools — its User Messaging Platform, and its age-treatment and ad content rating settings — assist with implementing those requirements. Google states that its tools do not relieve a publisher of its obligations under the law, and we do not claim that using them guarantees compliance with any particular law. This policy describes how Tilou handles information; it is not legal advice about how a specific law applies to a specific user.

How We Use Information

Information described in this policy is used in order to:

  1. save and restore game progress;
  2. operate game functionality;
  3. understand how the game is played and how the app performs;
  4. improve Tilou;
  5. diagnose and fix technical problems;
  6. support security and the prevention of fraud and abuse, where applicable;
  7. and, where advertising is enabled: deliver, measure and protect advertising, provide the optional rewarded-hint feature, and apply the applicable privacy and consent choices.

The published version of Tilou displays advertising, so the advertising purposes listed above apply to it.

Service Providers and Google Services

Tilou relies on services operated by Google. These include:

  • Firebase Authentication — anonymous sign-in;
  • Cloud Firestore — cloud save of game progress;
  • Google Analytics for Firebase — analytics and diagnostics;
  • Firebase Remote Config — remote configuration of app settings, including whether the advertising placements are enabled;
  • Google Mobile Ads / AdMob — advertising;
  • Google's User Messaging Platform — privacy messages and privacy choices.

Google provides infrastructure, analytics, configuration, advertising and privacy-management services used by Tilou and may process information according to its applicable terms, product settings and privacy documentation. Google's own documentation is the authoritative description of that processing:

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own independent marketing purposes. Google does receive and process information in order to provide the services listed above, and where advertising is enabled, Google also processes information in order to deliver and measure advertising. We do not assert that Google acts in only one legal role across all of these services, because that has not been separately verified here.

Data Retention

  • Game progress may remain stored for as long as it is needed in order to provide cloud save.
  • Analytics retention is governed by the retention settings configured in Google Analytics / Firebase and by Google's applicable policies.
  • Where advertising is enabled, advertising-related data may also be retained by Google in accordance with the applicable product settings and Google's policies.
  • Game data stored locally on your device is generally removed when you uninstall the app.
  • Uninstalling the app does not necessarily remove records already stored in the cloud. Cloud-saved progress may remain after uninstalling, and reinstalling may create new identifiers rather than reconnecting you to earlier records.

This policy does not state specific retention periods, because the applicable periods are determined by Google product settings and policies.

Access and Deletion Requests

You can contact us at info@yfbmedia.com with a privacy question, or to ask us to access or delete data relating to your use of Tilou. We handle such requests where it is technically feasible for us to do so and as required by the obligations that apply to us.

There is a practical limitation worth knowing about. Because Tilou does not use a traditional named user account, we normally have no way to connect a person to a particular Firebase or Analytics record. To locate a relevant record we may need technical information that is reasonably available to you or from the app. We will not ask you for personal information that is not needed in order to handle your request, and you should not send us identity documents or payment details.

We also cannot promise to delete records that are held by Google and are not under our technical control. Where that is the case we will say so, and where Google provides a user-facing control we will point you to it. This policy does not state a guaranteed deletion timeline.

Security

Information handled through Tilou is transmitted over encrypted network connections, and Google states that data handled by the Google services this app uses is encrypted in transit. Access on our side is limited to what is required in order to operate the app.

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures intended to protect information handled through Tilou, but no online service or storage system can guarantee absolute security. This policy does not claim any security certification or compliance certification.

Age and Audience

Tilou is intended for a 13+ audience, in line with its target audience declaration on Google Play, which covers the age groups 13–15, 16–17 and 18 and over. No under-13 age group is selected, so children under 13 are not part of the app's declared target audience.

Excluding under-13 age groups does not mean that the app handles no information from minors. Users in the 13–15 and 16–17 groups are inside the declared audience, and the information described in this policy is handled for them as it is for other players. Google notes that users in those two groups may still be considered children or minors in some jurisdictions. Privacy and advertising settings for Tilou should therefore take into account the protections that apply to teenagers and minors and local age-of-consent requirements, and advertising behaviour may vary by region, by applicable age protections and by consent requirements. For advertising this is reflected in the teen age-treatment and PG maximum ad content rating settings described above. Those are configuration settings: they do not establish that the app is legally compliant in every jurisdiction, and this policy draws no legal conclusion about how a particular law applies to a particular user.

Google Play Data Safety

This policy and the Data Safety information shown on Tilou's Google Play listing are separate items. Updating this page does not by itself update or validate the Google Play Data Safety declaration. The declaration shown on the Google Play listing is the authoritative version of that information, and this policy makes no claim about its current contents, because the live Data Safety form was not read while this page was prepared. Before each release, the Data Safety and advertising declarations, the current Google Mobile Ads SDK and Analytics disclosures, the merged release manifest and the advertising configuration are reviewed and brought into line with the app's actual behaviour. This policy makes no claim about how a particular law or store policy applies to those declarations.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when the app changes, or when the services it relies on change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated. Where a change materially affects how information is handled — for example a change to advertising — we intend to update this policy at or before the time that version is released.

Contact

For any privacy question or deletion request: