Barkdoku privacy

Effective 2 October 2026 · Applies to the Barkdoku app on Android and iOS and the web version at barkdoku.app. · See also our Terms of Service.

The short version

You don't need an account to play Barkdoku, and we never ask who you are. Your progress is saved on your device. For the leaderboards and Bury the Bone, the game sends the results of puzzles you finish, and the bones you bury and dig for, to our server under a made-up dog name. You can turn that off, or delete it, in Settings. The game shows ads, and our ad partner (Google) may collect some device information to show and measure those ads. We treat every player as if they might be a child.

Who we are

Barkdoku is operated by Parity Labs (Pty) Ltd, a private company registered in South Africa (registration number 2026/721789/07). "We" and "us" mean Parity Labs. We decide what happens to the data our server keeps, so we are its "controller" under the GDPR and UK GDPR and its "responsible party" under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Our contact details, and our Information Officer, are at the end of this page.

What stays on your device

Your levels, scores, Golden Bones, daily streak, boosters and settings are saved on your device, in the app's local storage. Deleting the app (or clearing this site's data in your browser) deletes them.

Leaderboards and online stats

Leaderboards, "faster than X% of players" and the messages that drift across the play screen come from our own server at barkdoku.app. They are on unless you switch off Leaderboards & online stats in Settings, and nothing is sent while that switch is off.

Who you are on the server: the first time the game connects, the server creates an anonymous player with a random code (kept on your device) and a made-up name such as "Sunny Beagle 427", picked from a fixed list of friendly words. You can shuffle it for another made-up name. Nobody can type a name, and there is no chat.
What the game sends: whether it runs on Android, iOS or the web, the app version, and for each puzzle you finish: the level or date, score, mistakes, time taken, boosters used, how many times you started the puzzle, and how long you paused before each dog you found (the server keeps only the average and the longest pause). The first time it connects it also sends the progress already saved on your device, so your earlier levels count.
Country: Cloudflare, which carries our traffic, tells our server which country a connection comes from. We keep only the two-letter country code, which is shown next to your name on the leaderboards and counted in messages like "Players from 61 countries are online right now".
IP address: like every website, Cloudflare and our server see your IP address when the game connects. We use it only to answer the request and to limit how many requests one address can make, and we don't save it with your player.
Online now: the server notes when your game last checked in, to count how many players are online.
Server logs: to fix problems and spot cheating, the server writes short technical notes such as "player 123 finished level 40". They can include your made-up name and country, never your IP address, and are deleted after 30 days.
How long we keep it: individual results for up to 13 months, weekly leaderboards for 12 weeks, and your totals (Golden Bones, levels cleared, wins, play time, best scores and times) until you delete them. A device's random code is forgotten once it hasn't been used for 13 months.
Deleting it: Settings → Delete my online data removes your player and everything linked to it from our server straight away, and switches online features off. Deleting the app does not delete your online data, so use this button first. You can also email us (see Your rights).

We use this data only to run the leaderboards, stats, Bury the Bone and logins in the game, and to keep them fair and secure. We don't sell it, share it with advertisers or use it to work out who you are.

Playing on another device

If you want to keep your progress when you get a new phone or reinstall the game, Settings offers two optional ways to get back to your player. You never have to use either.

Save code: the game can show a code such as "K7QP2-XH4MZ". Typing it into Barkdoku on another device moves your player there. The code isn't linked to anything about you; our server only keeps a scrambled (hashed) copy so it can recognise it. Anyone who has the code can play as your player, so keep it private. Making a new code switches the old one off.
Google Play Games (Android) or Game Center (iPhone and iPad): a grown-up has to answer a question before the game signs in. Google or Apple then confirm to our server which Play Games or Game Center player you are, and we keep only that player ID, linked to your Barkdoku player. We don't receive or keep your name, email address, photo or friends list. The game never signs in to these services by itself. Google and Apple handle the sign-in under their own privacy policies.

If both devices already have progress, the game asks which one to keep. We keep a save code or sign-in link until it is replaced or you delete your online data. Delete my online data also removes your save code and any Play Games or Game Center link.

Bury the Bone

In Bury the Bone a player hides a bone and picks three clues, and a friend digs for it. It uses the same anonymous player and online switch as the leaderboards.

What a bone holds: the garden, where the bone is, the three clues and the dog that buried it. Clues are picked from a fixed list the game writes ("It's in the Corgi's yard"). Nobody can type anything, so a bone can't carry a message or personal details.
Who sees it: anyone who has the bone's code or link sees the bone and the burier's made-up name. Sharing a code or link outside the game needs a grown-up to answer a question first.
Dig buddies: when you dig for someone's bone, the two of you become dig buddies, so you can send bones to each other inside the game. Our server keeps that link between the two made-up players. You can remove a buddy at any time, which also stops bones between you.
Hunts: the server keeps where each friend dug and whether they found the bone, so the burier can see how it went.
How long we keep it: a bone can be dug for 14 days, and bones and hunts are deleted between 14 and 45 days after the bone was buried. A buddy link is removed after 12 months without a bone between you. Delete my online data removes your bones, your hunts and your buddy links straight away.

Barkdoku is free and is paid for by ads: optional "watch an ad" rewards, and occasional ads between levels (never in the middle of a puzzle). Ads come from Google AdMob in the apps and Google AdSense (H5 Games Ads) on the web. To serve, cap and measure ads and to stop ad fraud, Google may collect information such as your IP address, approximate location (worked out from the IP address), device type and how you interact with ads. Google decides how it uses that data, under its own policies.

Because Barkdoku is made for all ages, including children, every ad request is marked as child-directed (under the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, COPPA) and as coming from a user under the age of consent. Google then shows only non-personalised ads, rated suitable for general audiences, and doesn't use the data for interest-based advertising or remarketing.
The app blocks access to your device's advertising ID, and does not ask to track you across other apps.
"Watch an ad" rewards are always optional.

Read how Google uses this data: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Purchases

Barkdoku Plus is an optional one-time purchase made through Google Play (and the App Store on iPhone and iPad). Google or Apple handles the payment under its own terms and privacy policy; we never see or store your payment details or store account. The app only asks the store whether Plus has been bought on your account, so it can unlock the extras, and that answer stays on your device. A grown-up has to answer a question before a purchase can start.

Children

Barkdoku is a family game for all ages and follows the Google Play Families policy. We don't ask players their age, so we treat everyone as if they might be a child.

We never ask anyone, children included, for names, emails, photos or location. There is no sign-up, no chat and no free text. The only thing players can send each other is a Bury the Bone bone, whose clues come from a fixed list the game writes. Names are made up by the game, so no child can share personal details through them or through a bone.
The only things our server keeps that could count as personal information are the random device code and, if a grown-up links one, a Play Games or Game Center player ID. COPPA calls these "persistent identifiers". We use them only to support the internal operations of the game: keeping your progress and leaderboard entries, getting you back to your player, counting players online, stopping cheating and abuse, and keeping the service secure. We never use them to contact anyone, to build a profile, or for advertising based on behaviour, and we don't give them to advertisers. Because we only use them this way, we don't ask for a parent's consent before online features start.
Ads are child-directed and non-personalised, as described above. Signing in with Google Play Games or Game Center, and buying Plus, need a grown-up to answer a question first.
Parents and guardians can switch online features off or delete the data in Settings at any time, or email us to see or delete it. If we learn that we have collected any other personal information from a child, we delete it.

Why we're allowed to use it

Data protection laws (such as the GDPR, UK GDPR and POPIA) say we need a reason, called a legal basis:

Leaderboards, online stats and logins: our legitimate interest in offering optional features that make the game more fun, balanced against your privacy. That's why the data is anonymous, minimal, can be switched off and is easy to delete. A login you or a grown-up set up is also used to do what you asked.
Stopping cheating, abuse and security problems: our legitimate interest in a fair, safe game.
Ads: our legitimate interest in keeping the game free, using only child-directed, non-personalised ads.
Purchases: to give you what you paid for.
Legal duties: where a law requires us to keep or hand over information.

Who else handles it

Cloudflare carries traffic to our server and protects it from attacks. It only processes data on our instructions. We run the server and database ourselves, in Germany and South Africa.
Google (ads, Google Play, Play Games) and Apple (App Store, Game Center), as described above, under their own privacy policies.
Authorities, if the law requires it, or a new owner if Barkdoku is ever sold. A new owner would have to keep to this policy.

Data outside your country

We are in South Africa, our servers are in Germany and South Africa, and Cloudflare, Google and Apple work worldwide, including in the United States. So your data may be handled outside the country you live in. When it leaves the EU, UK or South Africa, we rely on the protections the law allows, such as adequacy decisions or the standard contractual clauses in our providers' data protection terms.

Keeping it safe

Data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Our server stores device codes and save codes only as one-way hashes, limits how often requests can be made, and only our own team can get into the database. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts players' data at risk, we'll tell the regulators and, where we can, the players affected, as the law requires.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to see, correct, delete or get a copy of your data, and object to or limit how we use it. A parent or guardian can do this for their child.

Quickest: Settings → Delete my online data. Your name, scores and times are also shown right there in the game.
Anything else: email [email protected] with your dog name. Because we don't know who players are, we need to check the player is yours, for example with your save code. We reply within one month.
Complaints: we'd like the chance to help first, but you can also complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), the ICO (UK) or your local data protection authority in the EU.
In the US (including California): we don't sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising, and we don't use sensitive personal information. We won't treat you differently for using your rights.

What we don't do

No sign-up with us, and we never ask for an email address or password.
No selling of personal data.
No access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone or precise location.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and its effective date, and describe any new online feature here before it launches. For important changes we'll also tell players in the game first. If a change would need a parent's consent under the law, we'll ask for it before it applies.

Contact

Questions or requests: [email protected]

Parity Labs (Pty) Ltd, Wonderboom, Gauteng, South Africa
Information Officer (POPIA): Shaun Jansen Van Nieuwenhuizen (director), at the email above.
EU and UK: Parity Labs is registering in the EU and UK. Until that's done, write to the email above.