The Grid: GO™ — Privacy Policy

Starlight Works Games. Effective 21 October 2026. Applies to The Grid: GO™ for iPhone, version 1.2.

In one sentence

The Grid collects no data about you, sends nothing anywhere, and has no account, no analytics, and no advertising.

What the app declares to Apple, and what that means

Every iOS app ships a privacy manifest. The Grid's manifest (PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy) says, key by key:

  • NSPrivacyTracking = false. The app does not track you across other apps or websites.

  • NSPrivacyTrackingDomains = empty. It talks to no tracking domains. It talks to no domains at all: the app makes no network connections of any kind.

  • NSPrivacyCollectedDataTypes = empty. No category of data is collected. On the App Store this appears as “Data Not Collected”.

  • NSPrivacyAccessedAPITypes: User Defaults (reason CA92.1) and File Timestamp (reason C617.1). Two system APIs Apple asks developers to declare a reason for. User Defaults stores your settings on the device (CA92.1: the app’s own data, readable by nothing else). File Timestamp is used once, to read the modification date of the app’s own executable so a saved game can record which build played it (C617.1: a file inside the app’s own container). Neither leaves the device.

What stays on your device

  • Your games. Every move is saved as it is played, so you can quit and come back. Games are stored in the app’s own container and nowhere else. If you delete the app, they go with it.

  • Your settings. Sound, haptics, confirm each stone, whether the engine plays, whether the opening sequence shows, whether the win-rate line shows, the rank you told the app if you chose to, and whether you have seen the How to play screen.

  • Your place in Echoes. Which Echoes cards you have already read, whether you have opened Echoes at all, and which card was shown last — so the next card is one you have not seen. Card names only; nothing about you.

  • The difficulty signal. A running measure of how you have been playing — the average points your own moves gave away, by the app’s post-game review, across your recent games — kept per board size — together with the opponent’s current rank for each board size and the results of your last few games against it — and used to adjust the opponent’s rank between games. It is derived on the device from games on the device, describes your play rather than the engine’s, and never leaves the device.

  • The engine log. A diagnostic text file, capped at 2 MB, with one line per move the engine played: board size, how long it thought, how many candidates it had, the move it chose, and why, how much that move gave away against its best option, and the device's thermal state (a coarse level such as “nominal” or “fair,” never a temperature). It also records the timing of the app’s own saves and engine lifecycle events. It contains no board positions, no saved games, and nothing that identifies you. It lives in the app’s cache and can be cleared from Settings.

The only ways anything leaves the device

There are two, and both are things you do on purpose.

Send the engine log. Settings has a “Send the engine log” button. It opens the standard iOS share sheet and you choose where the file goes — a message, an email, a file, or nowhere if you cancel. The app cannot send it on its own, and we receive it only if you send it to us.

Contact support. Settings has a “Contact support” row. It opens your own Mail app with a message already addressed to us. Nothing is attached. Below the space where you write, the app adds four lines: the app’s version and build number, your device’s model identifier (a string like “iPhone18,2”, not a name you chose), the version of iOS it is running, and the language the app is set to. The message tells you those lines are there and that you can delete any of them before sending. Your own Mail app sends the message; the app does not.

Nothing else in the app has any way to transmit anything: the app links no networking framework and declares no network permissions.

Third parties

The app contains the open-source Go engine KataGo and a neural network from the same project, both running entirely on your device. It contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or crash-reporting software. The complete list of open-source components is in the app under Settings → Acknowledgements.

Children

The app collects no data from anyone, including children, and offers no messaging, user content, or purchases.

Changes

If any of the above changes, this page will say what changed and when, and the app’s App Store privacy details will be updated to match in the same release.

21 October 2026. One thing above changed, in version 1.2, released 31 October 2026.

Settings gained a “Contact support” row, described above. It is the second thing in the app that can send anything anywhere, and like the first it is something you do, through your own Mail app. The app still makes no network connection of its own, and the App Store privacy details are unchanged: Data Not Collected.

21 September 2026. Three things above changed since 18 September.

  • The difficulty signal now describes your play, not the engine’s. It used to be a running average of how the engine’s moves compared with its own best options. It is now the average points your moves gave away, taken from the app’s own post-game review. It is still worked out on the device, from games on the device, and it still never leaves it.

  • The engine log now also records the device’s thermal state, as a coarse level such as “nominal” or “fair”. Never a temperature, and still nothing that identifies you.

  • The magnifier setting is gone, because the magnifier is gone. Pinch the board to zoom instead.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@starlightworksgames.com — see support.