Optimal Nine · Last updated 18 September 2026
This policy explains what Optimal Nine (the “App”) does with your information. The App is published by 1+1=2 LLC (“we”, “us”). It applies only to the Optimal Nine iOS app.
The App has no sign-up, no login, and no user profile. We do not ask for or collect your name, email address, phone number, date of birth, contacts, photos, microphone, camera, health data, or precise or approximate location. We operate no servers of our own and embed no crash-reporting SDK. The one analytics service the App uses, and exactly what it receives, is described under Anonymous usage statistics.
The App saves your progress locally so the game works and remembers where you left off. This data stays in the App's private storage on your iPhone. Apart from the anonymous summary described under Anonymous usage statistics, none of it is sent to us:
The baseball statistics the puzzles are built from ship inside the App as a read-only database derived from the publicly available Lahman Baseball Database. Playing a puzzle involves no network lookup.
If you are signed in to iCloud on your device, the App stores two small items in Apple's iCloud key-value store: a ledger of which daily puzzles you have played and their results, and how many free-play boards you have used today. This is what lets your streak follow you to a second device and survive reinstalling the App.
This data lives in your private iCloud storage, under your Apple Account. It is handled by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy. We have no access to it, no ability to read it, and no copy of it.
Sync is entirely optional. If you are not signed in to iCloud, or you turn iCloud off for Optimal Nine in iOS Settings, the App works exactly the same way and simply keeps everything on the one device.
From version 1.1, the App reports a few anonymous facts about how puzzles play to TelemetryDeck, an analytics service built to avoid collecting personal data, run by TelemetryDeck GmbH in Germany. We use it for one thing: checking that the medal lines are neither too hard nor too easy for real players.
When you finish a puzzle, the App sends:
When you tap Copy or Share on the share card, it sends the medal on that card. Nothing else is reported: not your lineup, not player names, not your streak.
TelemetryDeck's software adds basic technical details to each report: the App's version, your iOS version and device model, screen size, time zone, language and region settings, and a few accessibility settings such as bold text. To count how many people play without knowing who they are, it also sends a code made by hashing (irreversibly scrambling) the identifier iOS assigns to our apps on your device. TelemetryDeck hashes it again when it arrives, so neither they nor we can recover the original. It is not your advertising identifier.
These statistics are not linked to your identity, not combined with data from other companies, and not used for advertising or tracking. We use them only in aggregate. They are sent whether or not you own Remove Ads and whether or not you allow tracking. TelemetryDeck's handling of data is described in its privacy policy.
The free version of the App shows ads supplied by Google AdMob: full-screen ads between free-play boards, and optional rewarded ads you can choose to watch to unlock a hint or an extra board. The daily puzzle itself is never ad-gated.
To serve those ads, Google's Mobile Ads SDK collects information directly from your device. We do not receive this information; it goes to Google. It typically includes:
Google uses this to select and measure ads, cap how often you see the same one, and detect fraud and invalid traffic. How Google handles it is governed by Google's Privacy & Terms. You can review AdMob's own disclosures at Google's AdMob help centre.
The App also participates in Apple's SKAdNetwork, a system Apple designed to measure ad campaign performance without identifying you individually.
Declining consent or tracking does not remove ads; it makes them non-personalized. Google still processes limited data, such as your IP address and device type, in order to deliver an ad at all.
Remove Ads is a one-time, non-consumable purchase handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. Apple processes the payment and tells the App only whether the purchase is active. We never see your payment card, billing address, or Apple Account details. Purchases are subject to Apple's Privacy Policy. Use Restore Purchases in the App's settings to re-apply a purchase on a new device.
| Party | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Google (AdMob) | Advertising identifier, device and network information, IP address, ad events | To serve and measure ads in the free version |
| TelemetryDeck | Anonymous gameplay statistics, app and device details, a hashed identifier | To tell us how the puzzles play, so we can tune their difficulty |
| Apple | iCloud sync data in your own account; purchase transactions | To sync your progress and process purchases |
| 1+1=2 LLC (us) | Anonymous totals from TelemetryDeck; your email, if you write to us | — |
We do not sell your personal information for money. Under some laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act, personalized advertising can count as “sharing” or a “sale” of personal information. Declining tracking when iOS asks, or purchasing Remove Ads, stops that.
Optimal Nine is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the App, contact us at the address below and we will act on it.
We hold no data that identifies you. The usage statistics are not linked to you, so there is no way for us to pick out one person's records. To remove what exists:
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or port your personal information, to object to or restrict its processing, to withdraw consent, and to opt out of targeted advertising — and to do so without being treated differently for it. Since we hold no personal information ourselves, most requests are best directed to Google, Apple or TelemetryDeck, whose data the request actually concerns. We are glad to help you work out which, and you always have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
Google and Apple operate globally, so data they collect may be processed in countries other than yours, including the United States. TelemetryDeck is based in Germany. Each applies the safeguards described in its own privacy policy.
We may update this policy as the App changes. The revised version will be posted at this address with a new date at the top. Material changes will also be noted in the App's release notes.
Questions about this policy or your privacy: 1plus1equals2llc@gmail.com