Privacy Policy, Baby Names

1. Who we are

Baby Names: Swipe and Match (“the app”, “we”, “us”) is published by manextapps. This policy explains how the Android app handles information. For questions, see Contact.

2. About the app

Baby Names helps expecting parents choose a name. You swipe through cards of real names, alone or with your partner on the same phone, and see the names you both liked. Each name has its US popularity rank and a chart of how many babies got the name each year since 1950, taken from the US Social Security Administration's public baby names data. That data ships inside the app, so swiping, lists, charts and the sibling check all work offline. An internet connection is used only for ads, for the ad consent form, for the optional purchase, and when you choose to open a link such as this policy.

3. Data we collect

We, the developer, do not operate a server for this app and do not collect, receive or store personal data about you. There is no account or sign in, no analytics or crash reporting tool of our own, and no Firebase.

Google, which provides the ads, collects some data directly through its software development kit (SDK). That is explained in section 5. The optional purchase is processed by Google Play, see section 8.

If you email us, we will receive your email address and whatever you choose to write. We use it only to reply and keep it only as long as needed for that purpose.

4. Data stored on your device

So the app works, it saves the following information locally on your device. It is not sent to us.

• Your favorites, your shared shortlist and the names you already swiped, so they do not come back.
• The deck you are in the middle of, and your filters.
• The first names you type for partner mode (for example “Sam” and “Alex”) and any sibling names you add in the sibling check.
• Counters used to pace ads (how often the app was opened and when the last full screen ad showed).
• Settings: sound, vibration, reduced motion, and whether ads were removed by a purchase.

Google's ad, consent and billing libraries also store some information on your device, such as your consent choices, so that they work correctly.

5. Advertising and Google's ad SDK

Baby Names uses the Google Mobile Ads SDK (Google AdMob) to show ads and Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) to request ad consent where required. The app shows:

• A banner ad at the bottom of the swipe screen, the favorites list and the name page. There is no banner on the hand over screen or the matches screen.
• Full screen (interstitial) ads, only between decks: after you finish a deck of 20 names and start the next one. Never in the middle of a deck, never before your matches, never the first time you use the app, and at most once every three minutes.

There are no rewarded ads. Both kinds of ads stop after the remove ads purchase.

What Google's ad SDK collects

According to Google's data disclosure for the Google Mobile Ads SDK, the SDK automatically collects and shares the following data:

Google states that this data is used for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention, and that it is encrypted in transit. Google may also use information from apps that use its services as described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services and in the Google Privacy Policy. Google's handling of this data is governed by Google's own policies, not by us.

Personalized and non personalized ads

Personalized ads are based on information such as your interests and past activity. Non personalized ads are based on more limited context, such as the app itself and your general (not precise) location. Depending on your choices, your region and your device settings, Google may show you personalized, non personalized or limited ads. Learn more in How Google uses cookies and similar technologies in advertising.

6. Consent and your ad choices

Where it is required (for example in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and, where enabled, certain U.S. states), the app shows Google's consent message when it starts. You can accept, decline or manage your choices.

When privacy options are available for your region, you can review or change your choices at any time in the app under Settings, Privacy choices. If your choices mean ads cannot be requested, the app still works the same way.

You can also manage ad personalization for your Google Account at My Ad Center.

7. Your advertising ID

Android provides a resettable advertising ID. On most devices you can reset or delete it in Settings, Privacy, Ads (menu names vary by device and Android version). Deleting it stops apps from accessing it for advertising; resetting it replaces it with a new random ID. Some devices also offer ad privacy settings for the Android Privacy Sandbox in the same area.

8. In app purchase

You can buy a one time “Remove ads” upgrade. The purchase is made through Google Play Billing: Google handles the payment and your payment details, and we never see them. The app only receives confirmation from Google Play that the upgrade belongs to your Google account, so it can turn off the banner and full screen ads and restore the purchase on a new device (Settings, Restore purchase). Google's handling of purchases is described in the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Play terms.

9. Pronunciation (text to speech)

The speaker button says a name out loud using the text to speech service that is already on your phone (for example Speech Services by Google). The app passes only the name shown on the card to that service. The service is part of your device, not of this app, and works under its own terms and settings. If your phone has no text to speech service, the button is hidden.

10. Android permissions

Baby Names does not ask you for runtime permissions such as location, camera, contacts or storage. The installed app includes the following permissions, which are added by Google's libraries:

• Internet access and network state: to load ads, the consent form and the purchase screen.
• Advertising ID (com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID): lets the ad SDK read the advertising ID.
• Android ad services (ACCESS_ADSERVICES_AD_ID, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_ATTRIBUTION, ACCESS_ADSERVICES_TOPICS): let the ad SDK use Android's Privacy Sandbox advertising features where the device supports them.
• Google Play billing (com.android.vending.BILLING): lets the app offer the optional purchase.
• Wake lock and foreground service: required by the Android WorkManager library that the ad SDK uses for background tasks. Baby Names itself does not run a foreground service.
• An internal receiver permission (com.manextapps.babynames.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION): added by the AndroidX library so that only this app can send messages to its own components. It gives no access to your data.

11. Children

Baby Names is made for adults who are choosing a name for a child. It is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and the app itself does not collect personal information from anyone. Sibling names you type stay on your device. Ads in the app are served by Google, which collects the data described in section 5. If you have questions or concerns, please contact us.

12. Data retention and deletion

• Our servers: we have none, so we keep no copy of your data.
• On your device: your lists and settings stay until you clear the app's data in Android settings or uninstall the app.
• Google: data collected by Google's ad SDK and by Google Play is retained according to Google's policies. See the Google Privacy Policy and How Google retains data.

13. Device backup

Baby Names lets Android's backup feature include your favorites, shortlist, entered names and settings, so they can be restored if you set up a new device. If backup is turned on in your device settings, Android may store this data in your Google Account backup or move it during a device to device transfer, under Google's terms and your device settings. Data stored by the ad and consent libraries is excluded from backup. You can turn backup off in your device's settings.

14. Sharing and links

We do not sell or share your personal data, because we do not receive any. Apart from Google's libraries described above, the app sends information only when you choose to:

• Share a list: the app hands a short text with the names on your list and their US ranks to the sharing app you pick.
• Open a link, such as this privacy policy. This policy is hosted on GitHub Pages; GitHub may log visitors' IP addresses for security purposes under the GitHub General Privacy Statement. This page uses no cookies, analytics or tracking scripts.
• Contact us: the app opens your email app with our address filled in. You decide what to send.

15. Security

Because we do not collect your data, there is no copy of it on our side to protect or lose. Data on your device is protected by Android's app sandbox. Google states that the data its ad SDK collects is encrypted in transit. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

16. Your rights

Depending on where you live, privacy laws such as the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Israel's Protection of Privacy Law, 5741 (1981), and U.S. state privacy laws may give you rights over your personal data. These can include the right to access, correct or delete it, to object to or restrict certain processing, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a data protection authority.

• Since we hold no personal data about you, in most cases there is nothing for us to access or delete. Your data is on your device and you can delete it as described in section 12.
• For data collected by Google, use your ad choices in the app (section 6), your device's ad settings (section 7), and Google's tools described in the Google Privacy Policy.
• You can always contact us, and we will help as far as we are able.

17. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example if the app or the services it uses change. We will post the updated version on this page and change the effective date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also take reasonable steps to let you know, for example through the app's release notes.

18. Contact