Privacy

Privacy Policy

Effective 29 September 2026

Who we are

HalfOpen: Black ICE (“the app”) is made by illitrate Publicashions, the name under which Jai Nelson publishes games, in the United Kingdom. If you have a question about this policy or your privacy, email support@halfopen.co.uk.

What the app collects

Nothing. The app does not ask for your name, email address, location, contacts, photos or any other personal information, and it does not create an account. It contains no advertising, analytics, crash-reporting or tracking code, from us or anyone else. It never connects to us or to any server of ours.

What the app stores on your device

To work properly, the app keeps a small amount of game data on your device:

• your progress through the game’s opponents;
• a match you have not finished, so you can carry on after closing the app;
• your settings, such as sound and haptics.

This data is never sent to us, and we cannot see it. Deleting the app deletes it.

Playing against someone on another device

If you choose to play against another person on their own device, the app uses Apple’s Game Center to find them and to carry the match. Only this needs Game Center. Everything else in the app works without it.

• You need to be signed in to Game Center. Your opponent sees your Game Center nickname.
• During a match, the two devices send each other only what the game needs: the cell each player probes, what the other player’s sector answers, whose turn it is, and when the match ends. At the start, each device sends a sealed fingerprint of its deployment. At the end, it sends the deployment itself, so each device can check that the other answered honestly.
• The match travels through Game Center, which Apple runs, or directly between the devices when you are near each other. It is never sent to us, and we cannot see it.
• To find someone near you, your device may ask for permission to find devices on your local network. It is used only for that. If you say no, everything else still works, and you can change it later in Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network.
• There is no chat. Players cannot send each other messages in the app.

Game Center is Apple’s service, and Apple handles your Game Center account and nickname under its privacy policy.

Apple

You download the app from Apple’s App Store, or as a beta through Apple’s TestFlight. Apple handles your purchase and download under Apple’s own privacy policy. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device’s settings, Apple may give us anonymous crash reports and usage statistics. These do not identify you, and you can turn this off at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements.

Beta testers

If you test a beta of the app through TestFlight, Apple shares with us the name and email address we invited you with, your device model and system version, and any feedback, screenshots and crash reports you choose to send. We use these only to run the beta and fix problems, and we do not share them with anyone. You can leave a beta at any time in the TestFlight app, and ask us to delete your details by emailing support@halfopen.co.uk.

Children

Because the app collects no personal data from anyone, it collects none from children. It has no chat. Parents can stop a child playing games against other people, or adding Game Center friends, in Settings › Screen Time › Content & Privacy Restrictions › Game Center.

This website

This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party content. It is hosted by GitHub Pages. Like any web server, GitHub records the IP address of visitors for security and to keep the service running, under the GitHub General Privacy Statement. We do not receive or use that information.

If you email us

If you contact support, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to include in your message. We use it only to reply to you and to fix the problem you tell us about. We do not add you to any mailing list or share your details with anyone. We delete support emails once they are no longer needed.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us what personal information we hold about you, which in practice can only be your support emails and, if you test a beta, your TestFlight details, and ask us to correct or delete it. Email support@halfopen.co.uk. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of the app changes what is described here, we will update this page before that version is released and change the date at the top.