Privacy Policy

Who we are

Hear Out Games, the app for iPhone, iPad and Android, its watch apps and this website, is made by Hugo.FM Games Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14615936), trading as Hugo FM. Our registered office is 55 Station Road, Manningtree, Essex, CO11 1EB, United Kingdom. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Hugo.FM Games Limited, which is the controller of the personal information described here. If you have a question about your privacy, email [email protected].

What we don't do

• We don't ask you to make an account or sign in.
• We don't show ads.
• The app contains no third-party analytics, advertising, crash-reporting or tracking code, and we don't track you across other apps or websites. Its own usage data, described below, comes only to us. If you've allowed it in your device's settings, Apple or Google may also give us crash reports and statistics about the app, which don't tell us who you are.
• We never sell or share usage data, or any other personal information.
• The app has no chat or messaging with other people and no way to post anything. It has no web views: its links to this website open in your browser.

Usage data

To see how the games are played, and to keep the app working, the app sends us usage data: short records of things that happen in it, such as "a game was opened" or "a chapter was finished". It's on unless you turn it off, and it never says who you are.

The random ID

The first time you open the app, it makes a random ID, a string of letters and numbers that means nothing on its own, and sends it with each record, so we can tell which records came from the same installation. It isn't your name, email or phone number, or an ID of your device or of your Apple or Google account. It's kept in the app's own storage and left out of your device's backups, so deleting the app deletes it and installing the app again starts with a new one. Turning usage data off forgets it.

Because the records under one ID belong together, this data is pseudonymous: we can't tell who you are from it, but we treat it as personal information all the same. If we add sign-in to the app later, we'll update this policy before any usage data is linked to an account.

What each record says

Every record has the event's name and these details:

• The random ID.
• A session ID, a new random ID each time you open the app or after it's been in the background for 30 minutes, and a number counting the records in that session.
• The date and time on your device.
• The app's version and build number.
• Whether it's the app for iPhone and iPad or the Android app, and the version of the device's system, such as iOS 26 or Android 16.
• The kind of device it's on: a phone, a tablet, a computer or a watch. Only that, never its make or model.
• Your device's language setting.

These are the events, each with only the details listed:

• App opened: whether it was a fresh start, and whether it was the first time.
• App put away: how many seconds it had been open.
• Intro finished: whether it was skipped.
• Welcome finished: whether its steps were completed or skipped.
• Microphone answered: whether you allowed it, and where it was asked: in the welcome, in a game or in Settings.
• Tab opened: Games, Shop, Help or Settings.
• Help opened: from the Help tab, a game or the welcome. Not which topic.
• Game opened: which game, and whether it carried on from where you left it.
• Game reached an end: which game, the kind of end (a chapter's end, game over or the end) and the point in the story.
• Next chapter started: which game, and which chapter.
• Free part finished: which game, and which pack carries on the story.
• Game started again: which game.
• Game left: which game, the point in the story, how many turns and seconds it was played for, how many answers were spoken, typed and tapped (the numbers only, never the answers), and how many questions went unanswered.
• Game went wrong: which game, and the point in the story.
• Shop opened: from the Shop tab, a game's card, a game's menu or the end of a free part.
• Purchase started: which pack.
• Purchase finished: which pack, and whether it was bought, is waiting for approval, was cancelled, failed or was already yours.
• Purchases restored: whether any were found, and how many.
• Pack downloaded: which pack, whether it installed, how long it took and how big it was.

What it never includes

• Anything you say or type, the words of the stories, or any audio.
• Whether you use a screen reader, or any accessibility or comfort setting: theme, text size, font, reduce motion, voice speed, music volume, time to answer or the microphone setting.
• Which help topics you read.
• Whether you use a watch, or anything that passes between your phone and your watch.
• Your name, email or phone number, your device's model, advertising IDs, or where you are.
• Your IP address (see below).

Turning it off, and deleting it

Usage data is on unless you turn it off. The first time you open the app, its welcome page says so, with a Turn off button, and the app sends nothing until you've finished or skipped the welcome. You can turn it off, or on again, at any time in the app's Settings, under Privacy, with Share usage data. Turning it off stops the app sending anything, deletes the records it hadn't sent yet, and forgets its random ID. It doesn't delete what was sent before: to delete that too, use Delete my usage data first.

Delete my usage data, in the same place, deletes everything we hold under your app's random ID, and the app starts again with a new one. The random ID is the only way we can find your usage data, so once the app has been deleted, or has forgotten its ID because usage data was turned off, we can't tell which records were yours; they're deleted after 13 months, like all the rest.

Where it goes, and for how long

The app sends usage data over an encrypted connection to our server at hearoutgames.com, through Cloudflare, which sits in front of our website. Records it can't send straight away, without a connection for example, wait in the app for up to 7 days. Our server keeps usage data in a database that Railway hosts for us in the United States (Virginia). We delete each record 13 months after we receive it. We never sell or share usage data, and we don't use it for advertising.

Our server uses the IP address a record comes from only for a moment, in memory, to stop anyone sending too much at once. It doesn't store it, and it isn't part of the usage data. Like any web service, though, Cloudflare and Railway keep standard request logs, which include IP addresses, for a short time, to run the service and keep it secure.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

We use usage data to improve the games and keep the app working: to see which games and screens people use, where stories get stuck or players stop, whether purchases and downloads work, and whether people come back. Our legal basis is our legitimate interests in doing that. We think it's a fair balance with your privacy, because the data doesn't say who you are, never includes what you say or anything about accessibility, isn't used for advertising or shared with anyone, is deleted after 13 months, and is easy to turn off and delete.

The microphone and speech recognition

You can answer each question by speaking, typing or tapping. Speaking needs the microphone and your device's speech recognition. The app asks before it uses them: in its welcome steps, when you first open a game, or from its Settings. You can say no, or turn them off later in your device's settings, and still play every game by typing and tapping.

The microphone is only on while a game is open and listening for your answer, which can carry on with the screen off or the phone locked if you leave a game playing. A short sound plays when it starts listening (unless you turn the listening sounds off in Settings), the ring around the picture on screen shows that it's listening, and our watch app, if you use it, buzzes. Pausing or leaving the game turns the microphone off.

On iPhone

Apple's speech recognition turns what you say into words. Where your iPhone supports it, this happens on the iPhone itself. Where it doesn't, your voice is sent to Apple to be recognised, under Apple's privacy policy.

On Android

Your phone's speech recognition service turns what you say into words. On most phones this service is Google's. Many phones recognise speech on the phone itself. Others send your voice to the service's servers, under its provider's privacy policy (for Google, the Google Privacy Policy).

What the app does with your words

The app uses the words only to work out your answer to the question it asked. It doesn't record or keep your voice. What you said shows on screen while you play, but it isn't saved, and neither your voice nor your words are ever sent to us or made part of the usage data.

Watches

Our watch apps, for Apple Watch and for Wear OS, are remotes for the game on your phone. While a game is open, your phone tells the watch the game's title, what it's doing in a few words (such as "Your turn") and the name of its big button, and the watch tells your phone which button you pressed. That's all that passes between them, and none of it is about you. It goes between your own phone and watch through Apple's or Google's watch connection, which may pass it through their servers, encrypted, when the two aren't close to each other.

The watch apps keep nothing, send nothing to us and have no usage data of their own, and the phone's usage data doesn't say whether you use a watch.

Your saves

The app saves your place in each game at every question, so you can carry on later. A save holds where you are in the story and the game's own scores and choices, not what you said. Saves, and any packs you download, are kept on your device. They don't come to us, though your saves and the app's settings may be included in your device's own backups (such as iCloud or Google backups) if you have those turned on. Deleting the app deletes them.

Buying packs

Packs of more stories and levels are bought through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google handle the payment, and we never see your payment details. The app only learns which packs your account has bought, so it can unlock them and restore them on another device. Apple's and Google's privacy policies cover the purchase itself. Apple and Google also send us the sales and refund reports they give every developer, which we use for our accounts and to answer support questions.

Downloading packs

After you buy a pack, the app downloads it from our pack storage at packs.hearoutgames.com, which Cloudflare hosts for us. The request names the pack file and nothing else about you. Like any web server, Cloudflare's servers see the IP address the request comes from, the time, the file asked for and basic technical details, such as the kind of software making the request. Cloudflare keeps these standard logs for a short time, to run the service and keep it secure. We don't use them to identify you or to build a profile, and we don't sell or share them.

This website

hearoutgames.com doesn't use cookies, analytics or ads. Railway hosts it and Cloudflare sits in front of it, and both keep the same kind of short-lived standard logs. The pages use fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser fetches them from Google's servers, under the Google Privacy Policy.

If you email us

If you email us, we get your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to reply and help you, and we delete it when we no longer need it for that.

Legal basis, and where it's processed

Under UK and EU data protection law, our legal basis for usage data (see the usage data section above), for the server logs and for answering your emails is our legitimate interests: improving the games and keeping the app working, running the pack downloads and this website, keeping them secure, and helping you when you ask.

Our hosting and email providers may process this information outside the UK: usage data is stored in the United States, and Cloudflare handles requests in data centres around the world. They act for us under contracts with appropriate safeguards, such as the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum or the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Children

Hear Out Games is for everyone, children included, and we built it so that children can play safely. There's no account, no ads, no chat with other people, and no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking code. The app never asks anyone's name, age, email or anything else about who they are.

The app's usage data, described above, is the same for every player and doesn't say who anyone is. We use it only to keep the app working and to make it better, never for advertising or to build a profile of anyone, and we never sell or share it. When a child answers out loud, the device's own speech recognition, from Apple or Google, turns what they say into words for the game; the recording is never sent to us.

If you're a parent or guardian: you can turn usage data off, or delete it, in the app's Settings, under Privacy. You can turn the microphone off in your device's settings, and every game still works by typing and tapping. Purchases go through Apple or Google, so their parental controls, such as Ask to Buy and Family Link, apply. If you think a child has sent us personal information, for example by email, tell us at [email protected] and we'll delete it.

Your rights

Your saves are on your device, and you control them. The usage data we hold is under a random ID rather than your name, so the app is how you reach it: Delete my usage data, in Settings under Privacy, deletes it, and turning off Share usage data stops it, which is also how to object to it. Wherever you live, you can ask us what else we hold about you, such as an email you sent, and ask us to correct or delete it. Email us to do so.

If you're in the UK or the European Union, data protection law also gives you the right to object to how we use your information and to complain to a data protection authority. In the UK, that's the Information Commissioner's Office.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the app or this website handles information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If the change matters, we'll also say so in the app's update notes.

Contact

Hugo.FM Games Limited (trading as Hugo FM)
55 Station Road, Manningtree, Essex, CO11 1EB, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Web: hugo.fm

For help with the app itself, see Support.