Pierluigi Ingrosso built the HiveMaze app as a Free app. This SERVICE is provided by Pierluigi Ingrosso at no cost and is intended for use as is.

This page is used to inform visitors regarding my policies with the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information if anyone decided to use my Service.

If you choose to use my Service, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation to this policy. The Personal Information that I collect is used for providing and improving the Service. I will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.

HiveMaze is an online game: your progress is stored on my server and not on your phone, so the app has to identify your game. It does so without knowing who you are, as explained below.

Information Collection and Use

I do not ask you for your name, your email address, your phone number, or any other information that identifies you as a person. The app does not use your location, your camera, your microphone, your contacts, or your files. The only Android permission the app requests is INTERNET, which the game needs in order to reach my server.

To keep your game running, the following information is created by the app and stored on my server:

• A random game code. The first time you open the app, it generates a random code (a UUID, a sequence such as 3f2a9c7e-…), stores it in the encrypted area of your device (Android Keystore) and sends it to my server, which uses it to recognise your game every time you play. This code is not your device identifier, it is not your advertising identifier, and it is not connected to your Google account in any way. It is invented by the app and leads back to nobody.
• Your game progress. Cash, Tickets, Tickets earned in total, node levels, the grid and its obstacles, active boosters, the number of Swarms, and the time of your last save. This is what lets you close the app and find your factory where you left it.
• Your display name. The game assigns you one automatically (for example «Busy Bee 42») and you can change it from the Settings screen. This name is public: it is shown to other players in the leaderboard, together with your Tickets earned and your Swarms. Please do not put personal information in it. Nothing else of yours is ever shown to other players.
• A username and a password, only if you choose to create them. Linking an account is optional and exists for one reason: if you uninstall the app, the random game code is lost and so is access to that game. No email address is requested, and your username is never shown to other players. Your password is never stored as you typed it: my server keeps only a BCrypt hash, which cannot be turned back into the original password.

Advertising

HiveMaze shows rewarded ads only: short videos that you start yourself, by tapping a button, to receive a temporary boost in the game. There are no banners and no ads that appear on their own. If you never tap that button, you never see an advertisement.

The ads are served by Google AdMob. To show an ad, Google's software development kit inside the app processes information of its own, including your device's advertising identifier (a code you can reset or switch off in your Android settings), technical information about your device and the app, your IP address, and how you interacted with the ad. For this information Google acts as an independent controller, under its own rules: see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy.

So that the reward is given only to somebody who really watched the video, my server does not take the app's word for it: the app passes Google two technical values — your internal game identifier and a single-use code valid for two minutes — and Google sends them back to my server together with a cryptographic signature. My server keeps those values in memory for a few minutes in order to check that signature, and never writes them to its database.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the first time you open the app you are shown Google's consent form, where you choose whether to allow personalised ads and the advertising partners behind them. If you refuse, the game works exactly the same and the rewarded videos are still available: the ads are simply not personalised. You can change your mind at any time by clearing the app's data in your Android settings, which makes the consent form appear again the next time you open the app, or by turning off ad personalisation under Settings → Google → Ads on your device, where you can also reset your advertising identifier.

Why I am allowed to process this information

For users in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, these are the legal bases under Article 6 of the GDPR:

• Performance of a contract (Art. 6.1.b) — running the game, saving your progress, showing the leaderboard and handling the optional account. Without this information the game cannot work at all.
• Legitimate interest (Art. 6.1.f) — keeping the Service secure, preventing abuse and rewards obtained by cheating, and showing non-personalised rewarded ads, which is what allows me to offer the game for free.
• Consent (Art. 6.1.a) — showing personalised rewarded ads and sharing the related information with advertising partners. This consent is collected through Google's consent form and can be withdrawn at any time, as described above.

Log Data

I want to inform you that whenever you use my Service, my server and my hosting provider record Log Data. This Log Data may include your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, the time and date of your use of the Service, which request was made and whether it succeeded. It is used to keep the Service working and to protect it from abuse; it is not used to profile you and it is not attached to your game profile.

Unlike many apps, HiveMaze contains no analytics and no crash reporting software: nothing in the app watches how you play or reports back to me when something goes wrong. Your username, if you created one, appears in my server logs when you sign in; your password and your game code never do.

Cookies

Cookies are files with a small amount of data that are commonly used as anonymous unique identifiers. These are sent to your browser from the websites that you visit and are stored on your device's internal memory.

This Service does not use these “cookies” explicitly. However, the app uses third-party code and libraries — in particular Google's advertising software — that may use similar technologies and identifiers to collect information and improve their services.

Service Providers

I may employ third-party companies and individuals due to the following reasons:

• To facilitate our Service;
• To provide the Service on our behalf;
• To perform Service-related services; or
• To assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.

I want to inform users of this Service that these third parties have access to their Personal Information. The reason is to perform the tasks assigned to them on our behalf. However, they are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose. These are the third parties I use:

• Render — hosts the game server.
• Neon — hosts the PostgreSQL database holding your game progress, in the European Union (Frankfurt).
• Google AdMob — serves the rewarded ads and collects your advertising consent. For the advertising information Google is an independent controller rather than my processor.
• Google Play — distributes the app and processes information of its own under its own rules.

Some of these providers may process information outside the European Economic Area, in particular in the United States. Where that happens, the transfer relies on the safeguards required by the GDPR: Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission and, where applicable, the provider's certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

How Long Information Is Kept

• Your game and your optional account: for as long as the game exists, which means until you ask me to delete it. Progress is not deleted automatically after a period of inactivity — an idle game is meant to be left alone and come back to.
• The single-use advertising codes: a few minutes, in memory only. Once they expire they are gone.
• Log Data: for the short period my hosting provider keeps it, in the order of days, and only for security and troubleshooting.
• Advertising information held by Google: for the periods stated in Google's own privacy policy, which I do not control.

Your Rights

Under the GDPR (Regulation EU 2016/679) you may ask me at any time to give you a copy of your information, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict how it is used, or to hand it over in a portable form, and you may object to processing based on my legitimate interest. Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting what was done before.

To exercise any of these rights, write to me at whiterhombuses@gmail.com. Please include the display name shown in the app's Settings screen, and your username if you created an account: since I do not know who you are, that name is the only way I can find your game. I will answer within 30 days.

If you believe your information is being handled unlawfully, you may lodge a complaint with the Italian Data Protection Authority or with the supervisory authority of the country you live in.

Security

I value your trust in providing us your Personal Information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. All traffic between the app and my server travels over an encrypted HTTPS connection; your game code and access token are stored in the encrypted area of your device; access tokens expire after a short time; and passwords are stored only as BCrypt hashes. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and I cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Links to Other Sites

This Service may contain links to other sites, and the advertisements it shows may take you to sites operated by advertisers. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by me. Therefore, I strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. I have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Children’s Privacy

These Services do not address anyone under the age of 13, and in some European countries the minimum age to consent to the processing of personal data is higher, up to 16. I do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under those ages. In the case I discover that a child under 13 has provided me with personal information, I immediately delete this from our servers. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact me so that I will be able to do the necessary actions.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

I may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. Thus, you are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. I will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page, and significant changes will also be mentioned in the app's release notes on Google Play.

This policy is effective as of 2026-09-19.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions about my Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact me at whiterhombuses@gmail.com.

HiveMaze: Idle Bee Tycoon — Android package com.pieringro.hivemaze.