Last updated: September 21, 2026
Catkuro is provided by Lobster Claw Software LLC ("we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains what the Catkuro mobile application (the "App") stores, what it shares, and what it does not.
1. Overview
Catkuro is an offline puzzle game. There is no account, no sign-up, and no server of ours. Every puzzle in the App ships inside the App, and your play is recorded on your device.
We do collect a small amount of usage data to keep the App working, and the free version shows advertising. Both are described below, and both can be limited by you.
2. What Stays on Your Device
The following is stored on your device and is never sent to us:
- your half-finished puzzles, including every digit, pencilmark, and struck-out candidate
- which puzzles you have finished, and your best time for each
- which daily puzzles you have solved
- your progress through the story, including which chapters you have finished, which cats you have adopted, and which celebrations you have already seen
- which cells you have revealed with the gift box, so the App can ask before one is erased
- your settings, including theme, board style, sound, haptics, input style, and error checking
- your reminder preferences
- whether you have purchased the ad removal
No summary, count, or category drawn from that list is sent either. We do not record how many puzzles you have solved, which difficulties you play, how far through the story you are, how long you take, which screens you open, or whether you bought anything. The usage data described in section 4 is gathered by Google's own tools from the App itself, and the App adds nothing about you to it.
Uninstalling the App deletes everything in the list above. We cannot recover it for you, because we never had it.
3. What We Never Collect
We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, physical address, contacts, photos, precise location, or any other directly identifying information. There is no field in the App that asks for any of it.
We never collect the contents of a puzzle. What you write into a grid is not sent anywhere, in any form, for any purpose.
4. Usage Data
The App collects a small amount of usage data to help us understand whether the App is working and whether people are enjoying it. Both types are enabled by default and can be turned off individually at any time in Settings > Usage data.
This data is not anonymous in the strictest sense. It is not tied to your name or email, because we never collect either, but Google's tools do attach a randomly generated installation identifier so that repeat activity from the same installation can be recognized. Deleting and reinstalling the App produces a new identifier.
App Analytics: Firebase Analytics collects a baseline of its own about the App, including the app version, the device model, an approximate region derived from your network address, when the App is opened and for how long, how the App was installed, and purchase events reported by the store. It attaches a randomly generated installation identifier and, where you have allowed tracking, an advertising identifier. The App itself adds nothing to this: it reports nothing about you or your play, not which puzzles you open, not which screens you visit, not how many you have solved, not how long you take. This data never includes the contents of any puzzle. Powered by Firebase Analytics (Google). The switch in Settings stops it on this device as soon as you turn it off.
Crash Reports: Collects a report when the App crashes or hits an error, including the device model, the operating system version, a randomly generated installation identifier, and where in the code the failure happened. Reports never include puzzle contents or directly identifying data. Powered by Firebase Crashlytics (Google). Turning this switch off takes effect the next time you open the App, because the Crashlytics software applies a disabled setting on its next run, and a report already stored on the device may still be sent.
For more information on how Google handles this data, see Google's Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
5. Advertising
The free version of the App shows advertising through Google AdMob. No advertisement you did not ask for ever appears while a puzzle is open.
There are two kinds you did not ask for. A strip along the bottom of the screen, which appears only on the screens you pass through between puzzles: the home screen, the chapter and puzzle lists, and the completion screen. And a full-screen advertisement, which can appear only as you leave the completion screen after finishing a puzzle, never at any other moment, and only occasionally: it is limited by how many puzzles you have finished and by how long it has been since the last one.
There is one advertisement you can ask for. Tapping the gift box while solving offers a rewarded video, and the App confirms with you before the video plays. You can use it to reveal the selected cell, or to fill the grid with pencil-mark candidates. Deduction hints stay free and never change the board. Nothing about your puzzle is sent to the advertiser, and the reward is granted by the App on your own device once the video finishes. Closing the video early earns nothing. It is shown only when you ask for it, and it remains available after you remove banner and interstitial advertising.
Google and its advertising partners may process device identifiers, approximate location, advertising interactions, and diagnostic information in order to provide, measure, and protect advertising, subject to your consent choices and your platform settings. On iOS the App asks for your tracking permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. If you decline, advertisements still appear but are not personalized.
Some regions provide a further choice, and where yours does, the App shows an Ad privacy settings row in Settings that reopens it at any time. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland you are asked before advertising begins, and that same row is how you change or withdraw your answer later. In the US states with their own privacy laws, nothing is asked up front and the row is the way in, including the option not to have your information sold or shared. The row is shown only where one of these applies, because everywhere else there is no choice behind it to make.
A single in-app purchase permanently removes banner and interstitial advertising. Optional rewarded help, described above, remains available, because it is never shown unless you ask for it and the purchase does not take it away.
6. Purchases
If you buy the ad removal, the purchase is processed by the Apple App Store or Google Play. We receive confirmation that the purchase happened, so the App can honor it. We do not receive or store your payment card details.
Because there is no account, the purchase is tied to your Apple ID or Google account rather than to anything we hold. Reinstalling the App restores it through the Restore Purchases control in Settings.
7. Notifications
If reminders are enabled, the App shows occasional local notifications. They are composed on your device from a fixed set of messages inside the App. No server is involved, nothing about you is transmitted, and the text of a reminder never mentions your puzzles or your progress. You can turn reminders off in Settings at any time.
8. How Information May Be Shared
We do not sell your information for money, and we have no interest in doing so.
Several US state privacy laws define "sale" and "sharing" broadly enough to cover personalized advertising even where no money changes hands. Where one of those laws applies to you, the Ad privacy settings row described in section 5 is how you tell us not to, and it is available whenever you want it.
Information is shared only as necessary to operate the App:
- with Apple App Store and Google Play, for purchases and platform functions
- with Google AdMob and its advertising partners, for advertising in the free version
- with Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics (Google), for the usage data described in section 4, which is enabled by default and can be turned off individually in Settings
- with legal authorities when required by law
9. Data Retention
Information stored on your device remains there until you delete it, uninstall the App, or clear its data.
Anything the companies in section 8 receive is held by them, under their retention rules rather than ours. We have no copy of it and cannot delete it on your behalf:
- analytics and crash data are retained by Google according to Firebase's own retention settings and policies
- your purchase of the ad removal is recorded by the Apple App Store or Google Play as part of your account with them, and is what lets you restore it on a new device
- advertising identifiers and interactions are held by Google AdMob and its advertising partners under Google's own policies
Each of those companies publishes its own privacy controls, which is where a request to delete what they hold has to go.
10. Children's Privacy
The App is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the App, please contact us.
11. Your Choices
You can:
- turn app analytics and crash reports off individually in Settings > Usage data
- turn reminders off in Settings
- open Settings > Ad privacy settings, where your region provides it, to change your advertising consent or to ask that your information not be sold or shared
- limit ad tracking through your device settings
- ignore the gift box, which never plays a video unless you ask it to
- remove banner and interstitial advertising with a one-time purchase
- delete everything the App holds by uninstalling it
12. Third-Party Policies
Some features rely on third parties, including Apple, Google Play, Google AdMob, and Google Firebase. Your use of those services is also governed by their own privacy policies and terms.
13. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Your continued use of the App after an updated Privacy Policy takes effect constitutes acceptance of it.
14. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact:
Lobster Claw Software LLC