Perception Check — Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 20, 2026

Perception Check ("the app"), by Hidden Capy Studios, is built to know as little about you as possible. Almost everything you enter stays on your phone. A few features you choose to use send a little to us, and this page says exactly what.

What stays on your phone

• Your games. Games run on your device. Your results and streaks are stored only on your device and are not sent to us, unless you turn on online play or a streak backup (below).
• Approximate location, only for the stall diary, Light today and Weather today, only if you ask. When you tag a diary entry, or tap "Use a rough location" on Light today or Weather today, the app asks your phone for its location and rounds it to about 1 km before keeping it. The entry and its rough place, and Light today's rough location, are stored only on your device and are never sent to us. A diary entry leaves your phone only if you share it yourself, through your phone's share sheet, to people you choose. Light today's rough location stays until you update or forget it, and leaves your phone in one case only: when you open Weather today, it is sent to the US National Weather Service (NOAA) to look up the forecast for that spot, and nowhere else. The weather pictures and their loops (satellite, infrared and radar images from NOAA) are the same for everyone in a region, are fetched only when you open the page or tap Play, and fetching them sends nothing about you. The last forecast is kept on your device, and forgetting the location forgets it. The "Restroom now" button opens your own maps app, which uses its own location permission; the app reads no location for it. The diary has no camera and stores no photos. The app has no camera feature anywhere; Light today is a reference card you read before using your phone's own camera.
• Precise location, only for "Where did I park?" and Out loud, only while you use them. A parking pin is read only when you tap "Pin it here". The pin, and the section and row you type, are stored only on your device and are never sent to us. They are deleted automatically about 20 hours after you save them, or when you clear them. "Walk me back" opens your own maps app with the pin, so that app can give you directions. An Out loud guide reads your precise position every few seconds while the guide is open on screen, to know when you reach a stop. Those positions are not stored and never leave your phone, and a saved walk holds no coordinates. Out loud's guides are read aloud by your phone's own text-to-speech. The app never reads your location in the background.
• The names you add to Look up stay on your phone. Look up reminds you to find the people you are out with. The names you type, and how often to be reminded, are stored only on your device and are never sent to us or anyone. If you turn on its phone reminders, they are notifications your phone schedules for itself; they stop when the outing ends. Look up uses no location and tracks no one. The kitchen timers under Together ring the same way, only if you turn "Ring this phone" on; the list of timers stays on your phone.
• Together games keep their names on the screen. Party night, Joust, Arena, Called it!, Dots and Boxes, Prism as a group, the Table kit and Table night and its games offer your Look up names, or names you type for one round, and Called it! takes a target you type. None of it is sent anywhere, and these games record no results. For "Today’s awards", today’s names and finishing places stay on your phone until midnight, then are forgotten; "Clear today" forgets them sooner.
• Nearby play stays between the phones in the room. It links phones directly, over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, through Google Play services. It asks for the "Nearby devices" permission only when you tap "Play nearby" (and, on Android 10 to 12, for location, which Android requires to find nearby phones). Only game moves pass between the phones: no names, no typed text, and nothing reaches us.
• Your own lanes, scenes, targets, levels and takes (the Spotter Bingo squares you write for yourself, the Easel subjects you mix, the Called it! targets you type, the Capy Hop levels you build, the music room's takes) stay on your phone. They leave it only through the share sheet when you choose (as text, a finished study as a picture you painted in the app, or a take as a sound file the phone renders from it), or when you share a level or a song with us (below); otherwise they are never sent to us.
• Showing a live game to phones nearby is the host's choice, each time. "Show to people nearby" makes the host's phone broadcast, over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to phones close by that are looking, only the game's six-character code and the kind of game, until the host stops or leaves. No name, no handle, no location. "Join someone nearby" only listens; it asks for the same permissions on that tap.
• Your checklist and meeting spot stay on your phone. "Before the park" keeps your packing list, what you have ticked, the place you agreed to meet, the kind of day (a park, a dog walk, a trail, a passenger seat, a game day, a work meeting) and the kind of park you picked, stored only on your device and never sent to us or anyone.

What leaves your phone

• Advertising: the free version shows banner ads served by Google AdMob. AdMob may collect device identifiers (such as the advertising ID) and coarse technical data to serve and measure ads, per Google's privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). Where required, you will be asked for consent, and you can use your device's ad-personalization settings. Purchasing the one-time unlock removes ads entirely, and with them the ads SDK's data collection.
• Purchases are processed by Google Play / the App Store. We receive no payment details.

The rest leaves your phone only if you use the feature, when it is available:

• Online play (rooms, parties and live sessions): an anonymous account identifier created for you (no name, email or profile), a handle the app makes from it or two words and a mark you pick from the app's own lists, your game results and moves, chat chosen from preset phrases, and what a room is for, a question put to the room and your answer to it, bring-back wishes and cheers, all chosen from the app's own lists, never typed text. A live session closes about a day after it opens and is deleted within about a day after that, or at once if its host deletes it. Live action games run through our own game server, which keeps nothing once the game ends.
• Public rooms, only if the host turns on "Let anyone join" for that room: for about two hours, the room's code, its kind (a bingo room, or a race and its game), the host's two-word handle, how many seats are taken and when it was listed can be seen by anyone signed in to the app's online play, and any of them may join. The listing is deleted when the race starts or the room ends, and otherwise within about a day after the two hours. Reporting a public room sends us only its code and which of two reasons you tapped, never typed text; a person then looks at it.
• Leaderboards, only if you turn on "Post my times" (it is off unless you do): each daily game you win posts its mark (a time, a count or a score) and the day to that day's and that week's leaderboard, under the same anonymous identifier as online play and the two-word handle you use there. Other players see the two words and the mark, never anything you typed. Entries are deleted automatically within about ten days, or at once with Settings › Leaderboards › "Remove my times".
• Streak backup, if you turn it on: your daily results, linked to the Google account you sign in with, so you can restore your streak on a new phone. Google sign-in shares that account's email address and name with our sign-in provider, Firebase; we use them only to find your backup.
• Bug reports, wishes and square suggestions: the text you write, a name to thank you by if you give one, the app version, and the screen you sent it from, under the same anonymous identifier as online play. No device ID and no location. A person reads them, and nothing you write is shown to other players unless a person approves it.
• Drawings for the wall, if you send one: the drawing itself (a short list of lines and colours drawn with a finger in the app, never a photo and never your camera), a name to thank you by if you give one, and the app version, under the same anonymous identifier as online play; one a day. A person looks at every drawing before anything is shown. If yours is approved it goes on that day's wall for everyone who opens it, with your chosen name under it if you gave one, and you let us show it there. You can ask us to take it down at any time (see "Data deletion"). Reporting a drawing on the wall sends only which drawing and which of five reasons you tapped, never typed text; a person then looks at it.
• Capy Hop levels and Music room songs, if you share one: a level is the tiles you laid in the builder and your own run that cleared it; a song is the music room's pattern, key, tempo and swing, never a recording and never the microphone. Each carries a name to thank you by if you give one, and the app version, under the same anonymous identifier as online play; one level and one song a day. A person looks at every one before anything is shown. If yours is approved it goes on that week's Players' levels or Players' songs for everyone who opens it, with your chosen name if you gave one, and you let us show it there. You can ask us to take it down at any time (see "Data deletion"). Reporting one sends only which one and which reason you tapped, never typed text.

Online results, streak backups, reports, drawings, levels and songs are kept no longer than one year.

What the app does not do

No accounts of its own (online play uses an anonymous identifier, and only the optional streak backup signs in with Google), no email, no location tracking (every location read happens only while you use the feature that needs it, never in the background, and stays on your phone), no camera, microphone, contacts or calendar access (a drawing for the wall is lines drawn in the app, not a picture from your phone), no analytics SDKs beyond the ads SDK, no selling of data, and no third-party data sharing beyond ad serving and the Google services named above.

Children

Perception Check is made for adults: people-watching bingo and quick puzzles for grown-ups waiting in line. It is not designed for or directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the minimum age of digital consent where you live). The app has no accounts of its own and collects nothing itself beyond the features you choose above, and its ad requests are marked as not child-directed. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through one of those features, contact us and we will delete it.

Data deletion

Everything stored on your phone, including every diary entry, every Look up name, your parking spot, your checklist, Light today's rough location and your saved walks: delete them in the app, uninstall the app, or clear its storage. Leaderboard times you posted: Settings › Leaderboards › "Remove my times" deletes them at once. Anything you have sent us (online results, a streak backup, a report, a suggested square, a drawing, a level or a song): contact us and we will delete it, and take a drawing, a level or a song off where it is shown.

Contact

ilya@hiddencapy.com

Changes

We'll update this page and the effective date when anything changes.