Ziko — Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 5, 2026

Ziko ("the app") is a crossword game that generates puzzles about TV shows. It is published by Ziko LLC, a Washington limited liability company ("we", "us"), which is the data controller for the limited data described below.

Ziko LLC, 522 W Riverside Ave Ste N, Spokane, WA 99201, United States. Contact: [email protected]

This policy explains what the app does and does not collect, and who processes the limited data it sends off your device. We've written it to match what the app actually does — no boilerplate claims about data we don't touch.

Short version: Ziko has no sign-up and asks for no name or email. Ziko Pro is an optional paid subscription: Apple takes the payment and we never see your card. What leaves your device is tied only to an anonymous sign-in token: the show name you search for (to look up the show and write the puzzle), a record of the puzzles you've solved and your streak (stored on our backend so your library and streak survive a reinstall, and used to suggest shows like the ones you've played), optional anonymous usage statistics and crash diagnostics you can turn off, and — once you allow notifications — an anonymous device push token so we can alert you about fresh puzzles. Your in-progress puzzles stay on your device, and a single switch turns notifications off.

Information stored only on your device

The following never leaves your phone — it lives in the app's local storage and is deleted when you uninstall the app:

We cannot see any of this, and it is never uploaded. (The puzzles themselves — the grid and the clues — are generated on and stored on our servers, because that is where they are made. What you have typed into one is not.)

(A record of the puzzles you've completed and your streak is also saved on our backend so your library and streak survive a reinstall — see "Information sent off your device" below. Your in-progress puzzles, clue text, and answers are never uploaded.)

Information sent off your device

To generate a puzzle, the app sends a small amount of data to the services listed below. It is not linked to your real-world identity.

Subscriptions and payments

Ziko is free to use. Ziko Pro is an optional paid subscription.

We never see your payment details. Purchases are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. Your card, billing address and Apple Account details are entered with Apple, are processed under Apple's own terms, and are never sent to us or to our processors.

When you subscribe, we receive and store only what is needed to unlock the features you paid for:

This is tied to the same random, anonymous identifier described above, not to your name or email. We use it to unlock Pro features on your device and to enforce the correct limits on our server, and, if you have left "Share usage analytics" enabled, to count subscriptions in aggregate so we can tell whether the paid tier is working. It is never used for advertising, is never combined with data about you from other companies' apps or websites, and is never sold or shared with a data broker.

Cancelling and refunds are handled by Apple, from your Apple Account settings. We cannot cancel or refund a subscription for you.

Service providers

The app relies on these processors to function. They handle only the limited data described above, under their own privacy terms:

What we do not collect

We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, precise (GPS) location, advertising identifiers, or payment details — we never receive your card number, billing address, or Apple Account credentials (see Subscriptions and payments for the purchase identifiers we do receive). The app contains no third-party advertising and no session/screen recording.

A note on IP address and approximate location. As with any app that talks to a server, connecting to our backend transmits your device's IP address to our hosting provider (Supabase, via its Cloudflare network edge). The provider may use that IP to derive an approximate location — for example a city or region — and to route and secure the request. We do not store it, use it for analytics, or link it to you; it is processed transiently by the provider as a normal part of serving your request. In our own analytics and diagnostics we go a step further and disable IP-based location enrichment at the source, so the show searches and usage events we receive are not tagged with your location.

Children's privacy

Ziko is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13 (or equivalent minimum age in your region). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us and we will address it.

Your choices and rights

Data retention

On-device data persists until you uninstall (history is also capped to the most recent puzzles automatically). Rate-limit records are deleted after 48 hours.

Your solved-puzzle library, streak, push token and subscription record are kept for as long as you keep the app, so that they survive a reinstall — there is no automatic expiry for them, and the way to remove them is Settings → Delete my account. An anonymous identity that holds none of these is deleted automatically after 90 days of inactivity.

Usage analytics and crash diagnostics are held by PostHog and Sentry under their own retention schedules.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and post the new version at the same URL.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: [email protected]

The data controller is Ziko LLC, 522 W Riverside Ave Ste N, Spokane, WA 99201, United States. We have no establishment in the EU or UK and have not appointed a representative there; write to the address above or to [email protected].