Privacy Policy
Boba Tea Merge · last updated 29 September 2026
The short version. Boba Tea Merge has no accounts. Your progress is saved on your own device, not on our servers. The game sends a small stream of anonymous gameplay events to us, and a copy to two measurement services — Google (Firebase Analytics) and AppsFlyer — so we can see which levels are too hard and which of our own adverts brought people in. In the iOS and Android apps the game can also show you a short video advert from Google, but only when you tap to watch one for a reward, never on its own; the web version shows none. If you play Endless in the app, your in-game name, avatar and best score of the week go on our weekly leaderboard, where other players can see them. One switch in Settings turns all of it off, adverts included.
What the game stores on your device
Your progress lives in your device's local storage and stays there. It is not uploaded, and we cannot see it. That includes:
- Levels cleared, stars earned, and your best Endless scores (all-time and this week)
- Coins, lives, boosters, and daily-bonus streak
- Which bobas you've discovered
- Your chosen name and avatar, and your sound, music and vibration settings
Deleting the app (or clearing site data in your browser) deletes all of it. Because it is only on your device, we cannot restore it for you.
What the game sends us
To learn which levels are too hard and whether people come back, the game
sends short event messages to bobateamerge.com. Each one
contains:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| A random install ID | To tell "the same player returned tomorrow" from "two different players". It is generated on your device, is not linked to you, and is not shared with anyone. |
| Days since you installed, and a session number | To measure whether the game keeps people interested. |
An event name and a few numbers — for example level_complete, level 12, 4 drops left | To find the levels where players get stuck, so we can retune them. |
Platform, app version, the country and time zone your device is set to (for example US, America/New_York), and whether the screen is phone-sized or tablet-sized | To compare regions and versions, and to see whether the game lays itself out properly on a big screen. These are read from your device's settings and the size of the game window, not from your location — the game never asks for location permission, and the screen size is recorded only as "phone" or "tablet". |
| Whether an install came from one of our own adverts, and which one | To know which adverts are worth paying for. This comes from AppsFlyer, below. |
Our own server never records your IP address or device string — both are blanked before the log is written. Apart from the leaderboard below, there is no name, email, phone number, contact list, photo, or location. The one thing you type that can reach us is a gift code that did not match: we keep what was typed (letters and numbers only, 16 characters at most) so we can spot typos of real codes.
The weekly leaderboard
In the iOS and Android apps, your best Endless run each week (Monday to Monday, UTC) is ranked against everyone else's. When an Endless run beats your best of the week, the game sends our leaderboard:
| What | Who sees it |
|---|---|
| Your in-game name and chosen avatar | Other players, on the leaderboard. The name is the one on your profile: a generated one like "MatchaOtter" until you change it. |
| Your score, and how the run went (drops, merges, the highest boba, how long it took) | Other players see the score and your place. The rest is used only to spot scores no real run could reach. |
| Your random install ID, platform and app version | Nobody. It tells your row apart from everyone else's and is never shown. |
Names are checked against a list of offensive words, and a name that fails is shown as a generated one instead. Any player can report a name by pressing and holding it on the leaderboard; we review reports and hide names that are rude or hurtful. The leaderboard is stored in our database, hosted by Supabase, and weekly results are kept for up to 12 months. The Privacy padlock (below) takes you off the leaderboard entirely: nothing is sent, and the leaderboard is not shown. It is not part of the web version of the game.
Who else receives your data
Two measurement services receive a copy of the same gameplay events, plus a few things their software collects on its own. Neither is used to choose the adverts you see. A third service, Google AdMob, delivers the optional video adverts in the apps.
| Service | What it gets, and why |
|---|---|
| Google — Firebase Analytics | The gameplay events above, plus device model and operating system, app version, language, the country Google resolves from your IP address, session timing, and on Android the advertising ID. Purpose: aggregated statistics about how the game is played. Google's own description is at How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. |
| Google signals | Where you are signed in to a Google account that has Ads Personalisation switched on, Google may associate your activity in the game with that account, so that it can report to us aggregated age, gender and interest statistics — never an individual. We only ever see totals per group, and only when a group is large enough that no one can be picked out. You can turn this off for your account at My Ad Center (Ads Personalisation) or review it at My Activity. |
| AppsFlyer | The gameplay events above, plus install and launch times, device model and operating system, app version, language, network type, IP address, and on Android the advertising ID (on iOS, Apple's vendor identifier). Purpose: telling whether an install came from one of our adverts, so we can measure what we spend. AppsFlyer does not sell this data or use it for its own advertising; its policy is at AppsFlyer services privacy policy. |
| Google — AdMob iOS and Android apps only | So that an advert is ready when a watch button appears, the game asks Google for one when a level starts (from level 3) and keeps it until it is watched or expires; the advert itself plays only when you tap to watch. The request tells Google the device model and operating system, app version, language, IP address, and a device identifier Google uses to count adverts and stop fraud: on Android the advertising ID, on iOS never the IDFA, because the game never asks for tracking permission. We ask Google for non-personalised adverts only: chosen by context, meaning this game, not by a profile of you. Purpose: paying for the game. A watched advert earns you the reward on the button and earns us a fraction of a cent. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland you are asked once for consent before any advert is requested; you can decline, and Ad consent at the bottom of Settings changes your answer at any time. Google's description is at How Google uses information in advertising. |
On iOS the game does not ask for tracking permission (the "Allow this app to track you" prompt) and therefore never receives the IDFA. Apple reports ad results to us only through its own SKAdNetwork system, which carries no identifier for you.
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone other than the three services above. If you buy coins, the purchase is handled entirely by Apple or Google. They tell us that a purchase succeeded and give us a transaction number. We never see your card details, billing address, or Apple/Google account.
Turning it off
Open Settings in the game (the gear icon) and tap Privacy — the padlock. When it is lit, nothing is sent: not to us, not to Google, not to AppsFlyer, and not to the leaderboard, which is then not shown. No advert is requested or offered either: the watch-for-a-reward buttons do not appear. The game is fully playable either way: none of this is needed to play, and there is nothing you have to opt in to in order to keep playing.
You can also, independently of the game:
- Reset or delete your advertising ID on Android — Settings → Google → Ads (or Privacy → Ads).
- Turn off Ads Personalisation for your Google account at My Ad Center, which stops Google signals for every app and site, not just this one.
- Opt out of AppsFlyer measurement for your device at appsflyer.com/optout.
Children
Boba Tea Merge is suitable for all ages and is not directed primarily at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. As described above, the game collects no email, contact details or location from anyone. The only name it sends is the in-game name on the leaderboard, which players choose themselves, which starts as a generated one, and which is filtered and can be reported; we recommend players do not use their real name there. There is no behavioural advertising in the game: the optional adverts are non-personalised and only play when a player taps to watch one. Purchases require whatever payment approval Apple or Google enforce on the device, which is where parental controls apply.
How long we keep it
Our own event logs, and the leaderboard's weekly results, are kept for up to 12 months and then deleted. Google and AppsFlyer keep their copies under the retention periods in their policies linked above; Google Analytics keeps individual event data for at most 14 months.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what data we hold about you, or to have it deleted. Because events carry only a random install ID and no personal identifier, we usually cannot connect them to a person — so the practical route is to turn analytics off in Settings, which stops collection everywhere, and to delete the app, which removes everything stored on your device. If you want an event history removed and can tell us your install ID, email us and we will delete it from our log and request deletion from Google and AppsFlyer.
Changes
If this policy changes we will update the date at the top. Material changes will be announced in the game.