Privacy Policy

Voice recordings and microphone access

The App requests microphone permission only when you choose a visible recording action. It records short WAV voice clips for the current game, then reverses and compares audio directly on the device. It does not transcribe or recognize speech.

Temporary clips are stored in the App’s private session cache while needed for gameplay. The App attempts to remove them after processing and when a game closes. If normal cleanup is interrupted or fails, temporary session folders older than 12 hours are pruned when audio is initialized during a later game start. Uninstalling the App also removes its private files, subject to the operating system’s behavior.

Kro Studios does not operate an Echo Dare server that receives or stores your voice recordings or spoken content.

Player names, custom phrases, settings, and progress

Optional player names are held for the active local party and used for handoffs, scores, rankings, awards, and winner cards. Echo Dare does not save those names as normal game progress or send them to an Echo Dare server. A name may leave the device only if you explicitly share generated content that contains it. When you open the system share sheet, the operating system or sharing component may temporarily cache a copy of the selected image or text under the platform’s cache-management behavior.

Optional custom phrases are also held only for the active local party. They are used to create that session’s dare cards, are not added to the built-in deck or saved as progress, and are not sent to Kro Studios. A custom phrase can leave the device only when you explicitly share content that includes the prompt.

The App stores limited settings and progress on your device. These can include completed sessions and rounds, best score, a three-Echo Solo Quest personal best, Sparks and rank progress, Daily Dare streak/date/best, ad-frequency timestamps, a last-share timestamp, and whether you have seen the microphone explanation. The App does not require registration, a login, an email address, or a cloud account.

You can remove local App data through your device settings or by uninstalling the App. Your operating system may include eligible settings or progress in a device backup when backup is enabled. Kro Studios does not receive or control that backup; the platform provider handles it under your device and account settings. Temporary recording cache files are not intended for backup.

Sharing

Sharing is optional and begins only after you choose a visible Share or Invite action. The Home-screen Invite friends action passes only a prepared text invitation and an Echo Dare link to the system share sheet; it does not include a voice clip, player names, or other game content, and it does not create an online game. A completed Solo Echo Quest can share a text-only three-score recap without a recording or player name. Other Share actions can pass a decoded audio clip, score or prompt text, party statistics, ranking text, or a winner-card image to the system share sheet. Winner cards and ranking content can contain player names entered for the active party. Audio sharing includes an additional confirmation reminder.

You choose the receiving app or person. Once shared, the destination service and recipient handle the content under their own terms and privacy practices. Canceling the share sheet does not upload the content to Kro Studios, although a temporary platform-managed cache copy may remain until the operating system removes it.

Advertising and consent

The App uses Google Mobile Ads (AdMob) to display interstitial and rewarded advertising and Google’s User Messaging Platform (UMP) to request and manage advertising privacy choices where required. Echo Dare is intended for adults and limits eligible ad creative to Google’s PG-or-lower content label. Whether an ad is personalized depends on your region, applicable requirements, and your privacy choices. Core gameplay can work without an account or internet connection; UMP checks consent information on launch, and consent messages and ads require a connection.

Depending on your region, consent choices, device settings, and the ad served, Google and selected advertising partners may process information such as:

• IP address and approximate location derived from it;
• device, advertising, app-set, or account-related identifiers where applicable;
• App or product interactions, ad requests, ads viewed, and ad performance;
• crash, performance, and other diagnostic information; and
• consent signals and information used for non-personalized ad delivery, analytics, measurement, attribution, frequency limiting, fraud prevention, and security.

Google’s SDKs may use device storage or similar technologies for these purposes. Data is handled by Google and the ad-technology providers identified through the applicable consent message and their own policies. The App does not send voice recordings, spoken content, or player names to Google Mobile Ads.

When UMP requires a privacy-options entry point, it is available from the App’s Settings & Privacy screen so you can review or withdraw eligible advertising choices. You can also manage advertising permissions or identifiers in your device settings.

Learn more in Google’s Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Support communications

If you email hello@krostudios.com, we receive your email address, message, and anything you deliberately attach. We use that information to answer the request, troubleshoot the App, protect users and the service, and keep records where reasonably necessary. Support messages are retained only as long as reasonably needed for those purposes or applicable legal obligations. Do not attach a private voice recording unless you deliberately want Kro Studios to receive and inspect it.

Disclosure and sale

Kro Studios does not sell voice recordings or player names. Information can be handled by Google and selected advertising partners as described above, by a share destination you deliberately choose, by your operating-system backup provider under your settings, by website and email providers, or when disclosure is required by law or reasonably necessary to protect users, rights, and security.

Website hosting

The Kro Studios website is hosted using GitHub Pages. When you visit this policy or the Echo Dare support page, GitHub may process standard web-request information such as your IP address, browser information, and request time under GitHub’s Privacy Statement. The pages do not contain Kro Studios analytics scripts or advertising cookies.

Retention and security

Voice clips, player names, and local game information are retained on the device as described above. Advertising, platform, website, email, and share providers retain information under their own policies. The App relies on platform-private storage and encrypted network connections provided by integrated services. We use reasonable safeguards, but no storage or transmission method can be guaranteed completely secure.

Age and children

Echo Dare is intended for adults aged 18 and older and is not directed to anyone under 18. The App does not ask players to enter their age or independently verify each person using a shared device. We do not operate an Echo Dare account or voice-upload service that collects personal information from children. A parent or guardian who believes a child has sent personal information through support or a third-party destination may contact that destination and may also contact us.

Your choices and rights

You may deny or revoke microphone permission, although voice gameplay will not work. You may clear local data, uninstall the App, cancel sharing, review or withdraw eligible advertising consent through the in-App privacy choices when available, and manage advertising permissions or identifiers in your device settings.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, withdrawal of consent, or objection regarding information for which Kro Studios is the controller. Because Echo Dare has no user account or server-side player record, we may not possess information that identifies you. Contact us for applicable requests. For information handled independently by Google, GitHub, an operating-system provider, or a share destination, contact that provider.

International processing

Advertising, platform, website, email, and share providers may process information in countries other than your own, subject to their published safeguards and applicable law.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the App, its providers, or applicable requirements change. The “Last updated” date identifies the current version. Adding analytics, a separate crash-reporting service, accounts, cloud features, speech recognition, remote audio processing, or new advertising behavior would require this policy and the store disclosures to be reviewed before release.

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