Rather
Privacy Policy
Version 2026-10 · Effective 19 October 2026
1. Who We Are
Rather is operated by Stojanov Ventures UG (haftungsbeschränkt), a company registered in Germany (the “Controller” within the meaning of the GDPR).
Contact:
Stojanov Ventures UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Email: hello@stojanovventures.com
For full company details, see our Imprint.
Rather is a daily puzzle app for iOS, Android and the web. This policy covers the app and this website.
2. What Data We Process
2.1 Your Account
The daily puzzles need an account. For it we store:
- Your email address (to sign in and to send you sign-in codes, links, password resets and the emails in section 2.8)
- If you sign in with Apple or Google: the email address they give us (with Apple’s Hide My Email, a relay address that forwards to you) and their user ID for you. Google also sends your name and a link to your profile picture; Apple may send your name when you sign in on Android or the web. Our backend, Supabase, stores what they send with your account. Rather doesn’t use your name or that picture, and they are deleted with your account. We never receive your Apple or Google password
- A unique user ID
- If you set a password, a hashed version of it (our backend receives the password over an encrypted connection and stores only the hash)
- Your username, once you choose one
- The version of the Terms you accepted and when: the time your account was created, since the welcome screen shows the Terms before any way to sign in
- The platform you signed up on (iPhone, Android or web), to pick the welcome email’s version
- Your Rather More status
You need to give an email address to have an account: without one we can’t create it or send you sign-in codes.
2.2 Your Avatar and Photo
Your avatar is drawn from your username on the device. Once you have finished every step on your profile page on a phone, you can add a profile photo: one you pick from your library or take with the camera. Rather reads only the photo you choose. Your device crops it to a square and makes it smaller before sending it. Our server checks that it is a 512 × 512 pixel JPEG, decodes it and saves a new copy of the picture alone, so no location, camera details or other metadata from the original file are kept. We store that one photo with your account, with Supabase. About the steps, our server keeps only the time you unlocked the photo, never which steps you finished.
Who sees it: any signed-in Rather player can be shown your photo. In the app, your friends see it wherever they see you. So does anyone who opens an invite from you. People who aren’t signed in never see it. It has no public link.
You can change or remove your photo at any time on your profile page. Other players can report it (section 2.5). We see a reported photo in our admin tool and can remove it; after that, that account can’t add a photo again. Your photo is deleted with your account.
2.3 Your Puzzles
For each puzzle you solve while signed in, we store the final board, the time you solved it and your device’s UTC offset then, whether that time came from our server’s clock or your device’s, how many seconds it took, how many hints and checks you used, and when the solve reached our server. From these the server works out your streak (days in a row with a daily solved on its day), your stars and how many puzzles you have solved. The server keeps a summary of your streak, best streak, stars and puzzles solved, updated with each solve, so your stats and your friends’ view load quickly; it can always be worked out again from your solves.
Solves wait on your device until they can be sent, so the app works offline. They are kept per account and sent only under that account.
2.4 Friends
Friends are invite-only and mutual: someone becomes your friend only when one of you accepts the other’s invite. There is no search and no public profile.
What your friends see: your username, your photo if you added one (else an avatar drawn from your username), since when you are friends, the last day you solved a puzzle, which of today’s puzzles you solved, your stars and your streak; when they tap you, your time for each of today’s puzzles and whether you used a hint or a check. Very fast times (under 15 % of the puzzle’s target) show as ”–”. Nobody else sees this, and friends see no earlier puzzles, never your email and never whether you have Rather More.
Invites: an invite is an 8-character code, also sent as a link. We store the code, who made it, when it expires (7 days after it is made), and whether and when it was used, by whom, and whether it was accepted or declined. Each code works once. Anyone signed in who has your code sees your username and your photo, until the code is used or expires. When you enter a wrong code, we store the time (not the code) to limit guessing.
Friendships and blocks: we store who your friends are and since when, and who you blocked. Removing or blocking a friend deletes the friendship; they aren’t told.
2.5 Reports
You can report a friend, or the person whose invite you received. We store who reported whom, the reason you picked (their photo, offensive username, pretending to be someone, times look fake, something else; there is no free text), when, and what we did about it (dismissed, username reset, hidden from friends, banned, photo removed).
Only we see reports, in our admin tool. For a reported player we see their username, their photo if they have one, when they joined, how many friends they have, their streak, how many solves they have and how many of those were very fast, and how many people reported them and why, never who. The reported player never learns who reported them. A new report sends us an email through Brevo with counts only, no names or IDs.
We act on reports within 24 hours. Reports are kept for 12 months after they are made, so we can see repeated problems, and then deleted. When the reporter’s or the reported player’s account is deleted before then, the report stays without that account’s ID.
If we hide an account from friends or ban it, that mark (and, for a ban, the block on signing in) stays until the account is deleted. If we remove a photo, we keep the time we did, so that account can’t add a photo again, until it is deleted. A username we reset is kept on a list so it can’t be taken again, also after that account is deleted. This rests on our legitimate interest in a safe service (Art. 6(1)(f)).
2.6 On Your Device
To keep you signed in, the app stores your session on the device: in the Keychain (iOS) or Keystore (Android), or in the browser’s local storage on the web. It also keeps a copy of today’s puzzles, your recent days and your profile, so they show offline. Signing out clears these from view; deleting your account erases them. Your friends’ day is kept too, until you sign out. In the app, your photo and other players’ photos are kept in memory only, while it runs; on the web, your browser may also keep them in its cache.
Some things stay on your device only and are never sent to us: your blockers (Screen Time keeps the apps you pick on your iPhone; Rather only sees a count), your reminders, what the widgets show, your Sound, Music and Haptics settings, your answer to the analytics question, and how many hints you have used today.
2.7 Server Logs and Sign-in Sessions
Our backend processes your IP address to answer each request and keeps it in logs for security and to detect abuse. Supabase deletes these logs after 1 day.
Sign-in sessions (IP address and device type) are kept while the session lasts and deleted with your account. Our sign-in service keeps no audit log of sign-ins in our database.
2.8 Emails
We send email from no-reply@playrather.app through Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France), our email provider.
- Account emails: sign-in codes and links, password resets and the code to delete your account, sent on behalf of our backend, Supabase. Brevo receives your email address and the content of that email. These are part of running your account (Art. 6(1)(b)).
- Welcome email: one email shortly after you create your account and confirm your email address. This rests on our legitimate interest in helping new players find their way (Art. 6(1)(f)).
- Trial-ending email: if you start a Rather More trial, one email two days before it ends, so you aren’t charged by surprise (Art. 6(1)(b)).
For the welcome and trial-ending emails, Brevo keeps a contact for your account, in a contact list of Rather accounts: your email address, your account ID, when you signed up, your username, and whether you have Rather More or a trial and when it ends. We send no newsletters or marketing emails.
Delivery, opens and clicks. For every email we send, Brevo records whether it was delivered, whether it was opened (with a small image in the email) and which links were clicked, as is standard for its email service. We use this only to see whether our emails arrive and work. This rests on our legitimate interest in emails that reach you (Art. 6(1)(f)). Brevo keeps these logs for 1 month.
Deleting your account deletes your Brevo contact.
2.9 Rather More Subscriptions
Rather More is a paid subscription, bought in the iOS or Android app through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Payment is handled by Apple or Google; we never see or store your card or payment details.
We use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA) to manage subscriptions. Your RevenueCat user ID is your Rather account ID. RevenueCat receives that ID, your purchase and subscription status (which plan, when it started, renews or ends, and any trial), the store’s transaction IDs, your store country, your IP address, your device model and your OS and app version, and tells our backend whether Rather More is active, so we can unlock it. We store only whether your account has Rather More and, during a trial, when it ends and in which store. Transfers to RevenueCat rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (section 6).
2.10 This Website
This website is served by Firebase Hosting (Google), which processes your IP address to deliver the pages and keeps standard request logs. The fonts are hosted here too.
We measure visits with Google Analytics 4 (Google Ireland Limited) only if you accept in the cookie banner. Until you do, and after you decline, Google Analytics isn’t loaded and nothing is sent to Google. If you accept, we use cookies to measure visits and for ad-click attribution with Google Ads: we can see which ad brought you here. This rests on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a); § 25(1) TDDDG). We do not use it for personalised ads. You can withdraw at any time with “Cookie settings” in the footer; withdrawing stops the measurement and deletes the Google Analytics cookies.
2.11 App Usage Analytics and Crash Reports
- Only with your consent: the first time you open the app, a sheet asks whether to share usage data and see which ads work, with “No thanks” and “Continue” side by side; you can change it any time in Settings → Privacy → “Tracking”. Until you answer, and after “No thanks”, Google Analytics for Firebase sends nothing. “Continue” turns it on: usage events, device model and OS, approximate region, the app instance ID and cookies on the web app, the hashed form of your account ID when you are signed in, the advertising identifier and ad-click attribution with Google Ads. On Android, that is the Android advertising ID. On iOS, Rather never reads the advertising identifier (IDFA) and doesn’t show Apple’s tracking prompt. Consent, Art. 6(1)(a).
- Never sent: your email address, username, photo, puzzle content, stars or times. We use no personalised ads.
- Firebase Crashlytics (iOS and Android): when the app crashes, a crash report with the error, device model, OS and app version, and the device state at the crash. We need these to keep the app working, so they don’t depend on consent: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)); storing and reading the data on your device is strictly necessary for the service you asked for (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG). Only if you said “Continue” does a crash report carry the hashed form of your account ID; otherwise it carries no user ID.
You can withdraw consent at any time in the app’s Settings, or for the website with “Cookie settings” in the footer; analytics then stops. All of it is run by Google Ireland Limited. We use it to see how Rather is used, which ads bring players, to fix crashes and to improve Rather.
2.12 What We Don’t Collect
- Precise location
- Contact lists
- Browsing history
Rather shows no ads.
3. Legal Bases for Processing (Art. 6 GDPR)
| Processing Activity | Legal Basis |
|---|---|
| Account creation and sign-in | Performance of contract — Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Storing your username and solved puzzles | Performance of contract — Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Recording the Terms version you accepted and when | Legitimate interest (proving the contract) — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Friends, invites and showing your day to friends you accepted | Performance of contract — Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Storing the profile photo you add and showing it to signed-in players | Performance of contract — Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Reports, blocks, acting on them (removing a photo too), and keeping hidden, banned and reset usernames and removed-photo marks | Legitimate interest (a safe service) — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Account emails and the trial-ending email | Performance of contract — Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Email delivery, opens and clicks (Brevo) | Legitimate interest (emails that arrive and work) — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Welcome email, and your Brevo contact for it | Legitimate interest (helping new players) — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Rather More subscription status (RevenueCat) | Performance of contract — Art. 6(1)(b) |
| Server logs and sign-in sessions | Legitimate interest — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Website delivery (Firebase Hosting) | Legitimate interest — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Usage measurement and ad attribution (Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics, Google Ads), website and app, only with your consent | Consent — Art. 6(1)(a) |
| Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics), the hashed account ID only with your consent | Legitimate interest — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Responding to support requests | Legitimate interest — Art. 6(1)(f) |
| Compliance with legal obligations | Legal obligation — Art. 6(1)(c) |
Where we rely on legitimate interest, our interest is keeping the service secure and working, and being able to show what you agreed to.
4. Data Storage & Security
Your account, profile photo, solved puzzles, friends, invites and reports are stored with Supabase on servers in the EU (Ireland, AWS eu-west-1). We protect them with appropriate technical and organizational measures, including:
- Encryption in transit for all connections
- Row-level security, so each account can only reach its own data; friends’ data is reachable only through the functions that return what section 2.4 lists
- Other players’ photos reachable only through our server function, only by signed-in players and only for a current photo; no public links and no way to list them
- Reports readable only by us, never by players
- Your session in your device’s secure storage on iOS and Android
5. Data Sharing & Third Parties
We do not sell your personal information. We share information with authorities only when legally required.
Processors (Art. 28 GDPR) act only on our instructions, under a data processing agreement:
| Provider | Purpose | Data Location |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase (Supabase, Inc.) | Accounts, profile photos, puzzles, solves, friends, invites and reports; server functions | EU (Ireland); server functions may run outside the EU |
| Brevo (Sendinblue SAS) | Account and service emails, your contact, report alerts to us | EU (France) |
| RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc.) | Managing Rather More subscriptions | USA |
| Google (Google Ireland Limited, Google LLC): Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics, Crashlytics | Usage analytics and crash reports for this website and the app | EU / USA |
| Google (Google Ireland Limited, Google LLC): Firebase Hosting | Serving this website (playrather.app) and the web app (play.playrather.app) | EU / USA |
| Google Workspace (Google Ireland Limited, Google LLC) | Receiving and answering your emails to hello@stojanovventures.com | EU / USA |
Independent controllers process data for their own purposes, under their own privacy policies:
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Apple | The App Store, payment for Rather More on iOS, Sign in with Apple |
| Google Play, payment for Rather More on Android, Google sign-in, and, with your consent, Google Ads (ad attribution, such as the advertising identifier and which ad you came from) |
6. International Data Transfers
Your account data is stored in the EU. Some recipients may process data outside the EU, mainly in the USA. Each transfer has a safeguard:
- Google LLC and Apple: the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (both are certified)
- Supabase (server functions and support) and RevenueCat: Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission
You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards at hello@stojanovventures.com.
7. Data Retention
| Data Type | Retention Period |
|---|---|
| Account data (email, user ID, username, Terms version and acceptance time, the platform you signed up on, and what Apple or Google sent at sign-in) | Until you delete your account |
| Rather More status on your account | Until you delete your account |
| During a trial, when it ends and in which store | Until the trial ends, or you delete your account |
| Subscription records at RevenueCat and the stores | As long as needed for accounting and tax law; RevenueCat records deleted on request where the law allows |
| Solved puzzles and the stats summary | Until you delete your account |
| Your profile photo | Until you change or remove it, until we remove it or until you delete your account |
| When you unlocked the photo, and when we removed one | Until you delete your account |
| Friendships and blocks | Until removed, or either account is deleted |
| Invites you made | Until you delete your account; each works for 7 days |
| Wrong invite codes (the time only) | Older than an hour: deleted at your next wrong try, or with your account |
| Reports | 12 months after they are made, then deleted; without a deleted account’s ID before then |
| Hidden or banned mark on an account | Until the account is deleted |
| Usernames we reset | Kept, so they can’t be taken again |
| Sign-in sessions (IP address, device type) | While the session lasts, and deleted with your account |
| Your Brevo contact | Until you delete your account |
| Email delivery, open and click logs (Brevo) | 1 month |
| Google Analytics data | Up to 14 months |
| Google Ads attribution data | As set out in Google’s terms |
| Crash reports (Crashlytics) | 90 days |
| Server logs | 1 day |
When You Delete Your Account
Deleting your account (Account → Delete account in the app) removes from our servers your account, username, profile photo, Terms acceptance, sign-up platform, any trial record, every solved puzzle and your stats summary, your friendships (your friends no longer see you), the invites you made, your blocks and your sign-in sessions, and erases the copy on that device. Other devices keep their copy until they sign out, which they do at their next connection. If you signed in with Apple and delete on an iPhone, Apple asks you to confirm once and we revoke Rather’s access at Apple. Your username becomes free again, unless we reset it. Reports you made or that were made about you stay, without your account’s ID, until they are deleted 12 months after they were made. Your Brevo contact is deleted.
Analytics data (up to 14 months) and crash data (90 days) are not deleted with the account, and neither are subscription records held by RevenueCat and the stores (as long as needed for accounting); we delete what we can on request. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription: cancel it in the App Store or Google Play first. More: Delete your account.
8. Your Rights (GDPR)
Under the GDPR and German data protection law, you have the right to:
- Access (Art. 15): get a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- Rectification (Art. 16): correct inaccurate data
- Erasure (Art. 17): have your data deleted
- Restriction (Art. 18): limit how we process your data
- Data Portability (Art. 20): receive your data in a portable format
- Withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)): at any time, for analytics in the app’s Settings, for this website with “Cookie settings”; this doesn’t affect what happened before
Right to object (Art. 21). Where we rely on legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)), you may object at any time, on grounds relating to your situation. We then stop, unless we have compelling legitimate grounds or need the data for legal claims.
To exercise these rights, email hello@stojanovventures.com. We answer without undue delay, within one month.
We make no decisions based solely on automated processing (Art. 22).
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Ours is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit), Alt-Moabit 59–61, 10555 Berlin, www.datenschutz-berlin.de.
We are not required to appoint a data protection officer (§ 38 BDSG).
9. Minimum Age
Rather, including playing without an account, is for people 16 and older; the welcome screen states that by continuing you confirm you are. Rather is not directed at children. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we delete the account and its data. Parents can ask us to at hello@stojanovventures.com.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy. We will tell you about material changes in the app or on this website at least 30 days before they take effect. The version and date are at the top of this page.
2026-10 (effective 19 October 2026): friends, invites and reports; the Terms version stored at sign-up; the platform you signed up on; minimum age 16; Brevo for the welcome and trial-ending emails, and what it records about delivery, opens and clicks; analytics only after consent; how the consent sheet works, and no iOS tracking prompt; profile photos off; reports deleted after 12 months; what stays on your device only; processors and independent controllers listed apart.
Profile photos: a photo you can add once you finish setting up Rather on a phone, seen by signed-in players, reportable, removable by us and deleted with your account (section 2.2).
11. Contact Us
Questions about this policy or your data:
Stojanov Ventures UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Email: hello@stojanovventures.com
For full company details, see our Imprint.