Privacy policy

1. Who is responsible

The controller of your data is the operator of Blockfall, based in Italy. You can reach us at or through the contact page.

2. Data we collect

Playing without an account

You can play Blockfall without an account. Your nickname, settings and results are then kept only on your phone (see section 9), and the app sends us nothing about you, unless you write to us (see "Support messages" below). Opening the leaderboards without an account only loads them from our server. When something goes wrong in the app, it sends us an error report about it (see "Error reports" below).

Server logs

Like every web server, the servers of our hosting provider record each request to this website and to the app's server: your IP address, the time, the address requested and the browser or app version that sent it. Aruba keeps these access logs for security and troubleshooting (see section 6); we don't use them for anything else. When you use the address blockfall.emaborsa.com, your requests pass through Cloudflare first (see section 5).

Accounts

An account is optional. There are three kinds:

• Email account: your email address, your nickname and your password. We keep the password only as a one-way hash, never in readable form. When you change your email address, we also keep the new address until you confirm it.
• Google account: your nickname and the link to your Google account (see "Signing in with Google" below).
• Device account ("Link this device"): no email address and no password. We keep your nickname, the installation ID of the app on your phone, a one-way hash (SHA-256) of a random key that the app creates and that only your phone knows, and when this device link was created and last used. You can secure a device account later with an email address and a password, or with Google: it then also has the data of that kind of account, and keeps its device link.

For every account we also keep its language (taken from your phone's language when you sign up; our emails use it), when you accepted the terms, and when the account was created and confirmed.

Leaderboards and the daily ranking

With an account (of any kind), the app sends us a result when you set a new best on your phone for a mode and difficulty (Marathon, Sprint or Ultra), and the first attempt of each day's daily challenge when it reaches its 40 lines. A result you make without an account waits on your phone (see section 9) and is sent with the account you next sign in with or create on that phone; a daily challenge result only on its own day. For each result we keep: the board (the mode and difficulty, or the daily challenge's day), the score or time it is ranked by, the game's details that let us check it is possible (score, lines, level, pieces placed, line clears of one, two, three and four lines, best combo and the game's time), the app's platform (Android or iOS) and version, and when it was sent. A result the game can't produce is refused and not kept. If an administrator hides a result (see section 3), we also keep when, by whom and, if given, why.

Signing in with Google

When you use "Continue with Google", Google sends us your Google account ID, your email address and whether Google has verified it, your name (full, first and last) and the address of your profile photo. We use the name only to suggest a nickname; we store neither the name nor the photo's address. We store the link between your Blockfall account and your Google account ID, until the account is deleted.

Security data

When an account is created, and at every sign-in attempt with an email address and password or with Google, we record: the email address entered, the IP address, the user agent (which browser or app made the request), the platform (Android or iOS), the app version, the installation ID, your phone's language and region setting, its time zone, and the outcome (signed in, or why not). Signing in with a device account only updates when that device link was last used.

Request limits

To stop abuse, our server counts requests for a short time: per IP address, per account, or per email address (the email address only as a one-way hash).

Support messages

When you write to us with the contact form on this website or with Help and support in the app, we receive the type of message (question, problem or idea), the email address you want the answer at, the subject, the message, and whether it came from the website, Android or iOS. The message is sent to our mailbox by email; it is not stored in the app's database.

Error reports

When something goes wrong in the app, with or without an account, it sends our server a report: the error message, where in the app's code it happened (the stack trace), when, the app version, the platform (Android or iOS) and its version, and, if you are signed in, the ID of your account. A report is about the app, not your data, though an error message can sometimes quote a piece of data the app was handling when it failed. Reports go only to our own server, never to an analytics or crash-reporting company.

3. Why we use it

• To provide the service you asked for: creating and running your account, signing you in, and sending the emails that belong to it (confirming your registration or a new email address, resetting your password). Legal basis: the contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
• To keep accounts and the service safe: the security data and the request limits help us spot and stop attacks on accounts, fake sign-ups and abuse. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in protecting your account and our service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• To run the leaderboards and the daily ranking: showing your nickname, your results and your rank to other players, and checking that results are possible. Legal basis: the contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Hiding results that look faked keeps the leaderboards fair for every player: our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• To fix bugs: finding and fixing what goes wrong in the app, from the error reports it sends us. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in an app that works (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• To answer your messages: legal basis: your request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and our legitimate interest in answering it (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• To meet legal obligations, where a law requires us to keep or hand over data (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

We don't use your data for analytics, advertising, tracking or profiling, and we never sell it.

4. What other players see

With an account, the leaderboards in the app show your nickname with your best result (a score or a time) on each board you have sent one to, and your rank there; the daily ranking shows your nickname, time and rank for each day you took part. Anyone who opens the leaderboards in the app sees them, with or without an account: each board shows its first 100 players, and a signed-in player also sees their own rank. Your current nickname is shown: if you change it, the leaderboards show the new one. The game's details, your email address, your sign-in details and your devices are never shown to other players. Without an account, nothing about you is shown.

5. Service providers

• Aruba S.p.A. (Italy) hosts this website and the app's server, sends our emails and hosts our mailbox.
• Neon, Inc. (USA) hosts the app's database on Amazon Web Services in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Cloudflare, Inc. (USA) runs our domain's DNS and, when you use the address blockfall.emaborsa.com, passes your requests on to our server: it sees your IP address and the requests, to deliver them and to protect the site from attacks.
• Google provides "Continue with Google", if you use it, as an independent controller for its side: see Google's privacy policy. Nothing else is sent to Google.

Aruba, Neon and Cloudflare process the data only on our behalf and on our instructions. Neon and Cloudflare are US companies: where data may be accessed from outside the European Union, the transfer is protected by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or by an adequacy decision (such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework). No data goes to advertising or analytics companies.

6. How long we keep it

• Accounts with an email address or Google: until you delete them. They are never deleted for being unused.
• Device accounts that aren't secured with an email address or Google: deleted with all their data once no device has used them for 24 months. This includes a device account whose new email address was never confirmed.
• Server access logs: as long as Aruba keeps them for security and troubleshooting.
• Registrations not confirmed within 30 days: deleted with all their data. Until then, "Forgot password?" in the app can still finish one.
• Sign-in history (the security data of each sign-in attempt): 12 months.
• Error reports: 30 days; those sent while signed in are deleted at once if you delete your account.
• The data recorded when the account was created and the time you accepted the terms: until the account is deleted.
• Leaderboard results, hidden ones included: until you delete your account. They are not deleted for being old.
• Request counters: until their time window ends (at most one hour), then they are removed.
• Support messages: in our mailbox as long as needed to handle your request.

7. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, in Settings › Account › Delete account. The app asks for your password; an account without a password confirms with Google, and a device account confirms on the phone it is linked to. You can also ask us to delete your account by writing to from the account's email address.

Deleting is for good: the account and everything linked to it are deleted, including the email address, the nickname, the password hash, the link to your Google account, the device links, the leaderboard results, the sign-in history, the failed sign-in attempts made with its email address and the error reports sent while signed in to it; its results disappear from the leaderboards. It can't be undone. If you signed in with Google, you can also remove Blockfall's access in your Google account's settings (third-party connections).

Uninstalling the app doesn't delete your account. A device account that isn't secured can't be used any more once the app is uninstalled or the phone changes; it is deleted after 24 months without use, or right away if you delete it in the app first. The game's settings and results on your phone are not part of the account: they stay there until you uninstall the app.

8. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• access your data and get a free copy of it;
• have it corrected (you can change your nickname, email address and password in the app);
• have it deleted (see section 7);
• restrict its use, and object to uses based on our legitimate interest;
• receive it in a common, machine-readable format (portability);
• withdraw a consent at any time, where we ask for one.

To use them, use the app or write to us at or through the contact page. You can also complain to a data protection authority; in Italy, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.

9. Cookies and device storage

On this website

The website sets one cookie, blockfall_lang: when you open a page in a language or choose one, it keeps that language code for one year, so the pages our emails link to open in your language. It is strictly necessary, so it needs no consent; without it, your browser's language is used. The website uses no local storage, no analytics, no advertising pixels and no other tracking, and its fonts come from our own server, so your browser makes no requests to anyone else. The contact form and the account pages send what you type, or the link's code, to our server only when you use them.

In the app

The app uses no cookies. It keeps on your phone:

Signing out removes the session token, the password and the device key from the phone; the email address stays, to fill in the sign-in form. (A device account that isn't secured can't sign out: it would be lost.) Results waiting to be sent stay after signing out and go when that account signs in again; results made while signed out go with the next account that signs in. Deleting your account removes all account data from the phone, its waiting results included. Uninstalling the app removes everything it keeps; on an iPhone, secure storage can survive uninstalling, so the app erases it on its first start after a new installation.

10. Device permissions

The app asks for no device permissions: no notifications, location, camera, photos, contacts or microphone. It uses the internet connection for accounts, the leaderboards, "Continue with Google", support messages and error reports, and the phone's vibration for haptics, which you can turn off in the game's settings.

11. Children

Blockfall accounts are not meant for children under 14, the age of digital consent in Italy. If we learn that an account belongs to someone younger, we delete it. If you think this is the case, tell us at or through the contact page.

12. Changes

We update this policy when the app, its features or the law change. The current version is always on this page, with its date at the top. The rules for using Blockfall are in the terms and conditions.