Privacy Policy — GameSearch

Last updated: 2026-05-27

GameSearch (the "App") is built to help you find video games across multiple digital storefronts. This document describes — in plain language — what data the App handles, where it goes, and what choices you have.

TL;DR

We don't run analytics or build a profile of you.
Free users see one banner ad served by Google AdMob, with personalized ads turned off. GameSearch Plus subscribers see no ads at all.
We don't have a user account system. There is no sign-in.
Your preferences and favorite games are stored only on your device, with an optional one-tap backup to your own iCloud account (not our servers).
The only data we send to third parties is the search text you type, which goes to IGDB and Twitch so they can answer queries.

1. Information stored on your device

The App uses the operating system's local storage (AsyncStorage) to remember your preferences across launches. The following items live on your device only and never reach our servers (we have no servers):

Item	Purpose
Selected country	Localize store links to your region
Enabled storefronts	Filter search results
Favorite games	Power the "Favs" tab
Onboarding-seen flag	Skip the welcome screens on subsequent launches
Plus subscription status	Hide ads + unlock Plus features locally
Stream language preference (Plus)	Filter Twitch search results to one language

You can delete all of this at any time by uninstalling the App, or selectively by toggling settings inside the App.

2. Information sent to third parties

To do its job, the App must contact a small set of third-party services. The only data sent in each case is what is strictly necessary to answer the request.

IGDB (Twitch Interactive)

What we send: game search queries, anonymous app credentials (Client ID / Bearer token issued to the App, not to you).
What we receive: game metadata (titles, cover art URLs, release dates, store website links, hype/score numbers).
Why: to populate the home page (Anticipated, Trending, Critic Reviews, Coming Soon) and to resolve search results.
Their policy: see https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/privacy-policy/

Twitch Helix API

What we send: game category lookups + live-streams-for-game queries, using the same anonymous app credentials.
What we receive: lists of live streams (streamer name, title, viewer count, thumbnail URL).
Why: to power the "Videos" tab.
Their policy: same Twitch privacy policy linked above.

Storefronts (Steam, PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, Epic Games Store, GOG, itch.io)

When you tap a store link, the destination URL opens in your device's in-app browser. For Steam and itch.io, if the official app is installed on your device, GameSearch first asks whether you'd prefer to open the link in that app. We don't communicate with the apps directly — we just hand iOS a URL to open. Once you're on a storefront's page, that storefront's own privacy practices apply — they may set cookies, log your IP address, etc. We have no control over and no visibility into their data handling. Consult each storefront's privacy policy directly.

3. Advertising (free tier only)

Free users see one banner ad pinned to the top of the Discovery, Favs, and Videos tabs. The Settings tab never shows ads. Ads are served by Google AdMob via the official Google Mobile Ads SDK.

We request non-personalized ads only (the SDK is initialized with requestNonPersonalizedAdsOnly: true). Your Apple advertising identifier (IDFA) is not shared with AdMob by this app, and the App Tracking Transparency prompt is not invoked.
AdMob may still collect coarse, device-level signals (IP, OS version, approximate region) to deliver and measure non-personalized ads. That collection is governed by Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
GameSearch Plus subscribers see no ads at all — the banner is removed entirely while a Plus subscription is active.

4. GameSearch Plus subscription

GameSearch Plus is a recurring auto-renewing subscription processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never see your name, billing address, or payment-card details. Apple shares an anonymous receipt with the app to verify your subscription status; we use that only to unlock Plus features (no ads, language filtering for streams) and to keep the local "Plus active" flag in sync. Cancel any time from iOS Settings → your Apple ID → Subscriptions.

5. Information we do not collect

We do not collect, store, transmit, sell, or share:

Your name, email address, phone number, or any identifier
Your device's advertising ID (we explicitly opt out of IDFA collection)
Crash logs or telemetry
Location data (GPS, Wi-Fi, etc.)
Contacts, photos, microphone, camera, or any other sensitive permission

The App requests no permissions beyond what iOS / Android grant by default.

6. iCloud Backup (optional)

Settings → iCloud has two opt-in actions:

Back up favorites writes a single JSON file containing your favorite-game list (game IDs, names, cover-image URLs, and release strings) to your own iCloud account. The file is placed in the app-private container (AppData scope) inside your iCloud — it does not appear in the user-visible iCloud Drive folder, and we have no access to it.
Restore favorites reads that file back from your iCloud and, after a confirmation prompt, replaces your local favorites with what it finds.

What we never send to iCloud: search history, viewed games, country, enabled stores, or anything else outside the favorites JSON envelope.

Disabling iCloud Drive in iOS Settings, or signing out of iCloud, opts you out entirely — the backup buttons will surface a friendly "iCloud unavailable" message and do nothing.

Apple's iCloud privacy practices apply to the storage itself; see https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/.

7. Children

GameSearch contains no advertising, no chat, no community features, and no mechanism for collecting personal information from users of any age. It is suitable for general audiences.

8. Changes to this policy

If the App's data handling changes in a material way, this document will be updated and the "Last updated" date at the top will be revised.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, please contact us:

EEU Apps

Email: support[at]emiruckan[dot]com

Website: https://apps.emiruckan.com