NowClue PRIVACY POLICY

Last updated April 25, 2026

This Privacy Notice for studio schematics llc (doing business as schematics) ("we," "us," or "our"), describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share ("process") your personal information when you use our services ("Services"), including when you:

Download and use our mobile or desktop application (NowClue), or any other application of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or events

Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. We are responsible for making decisions about how your personal information is processed. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us using the email form provided.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

This summary provides key points from our Privacy Notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.

What personal information do we process? NowClue does not require you to create an account, log in, or provide any personal information to use the app. The app is anonymous. Game progress (such as puzzles solved, streaks, vocabulary mastered, and settings) is stored on your device and may be synchronized across your own Apple devices via Apple's iCloud Key-Value Storage, which we do not have access to.

Do we process any sensitive personal information? Some of the information may be considered "special" or "sensitive" in certain jurisdictions, for example your racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. We do not process sensitive personal information.

Do we collect any information from third parties? We do not collect any information from third parties.

How do we process your information? NowClue runs almost entirely on your device. Puzzle generation, hints, and explanations are produced locally using Apple's on-device FoundationModels framework — your gameplay content is not transmitted to us or to any third-party AI provider. We process information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so.

In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We do not share personal information with third parties for marketing, advertising, or analytics. Purchases are processed by Apple under Apple's own privacy practices.

What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information.

How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by submitting a data subject access request, or by contacting us. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Want to learn more about what we do with any information we collect? Review the Privacy Notice in full.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
DO OTHER REGIONS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?
HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We do not collect personal information from you through the app. Information you generate while playing — such as game progress and settings — stays on your device.

NowClue does not require an account, sign-in, email address, or any other identifier to function. We do not collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, payment details, contacts, photos, location, microphone or camera input, health data, or biometric data through the app.

The app stores the following categories of information locally on your device as part of normal gameplay:

Game progress (puzzles solved, current streak, longest streak, total experience points, best solve time, mastered vocabulary)
App settings (selected language, appearance preference, family-friendly toggle, purist mode, daily and weekly challenge state, Heritage Mode progress)
Local diagnostic logs used by Apple's standard system tools

iCloud synchronization. If you are signed into iCloud on your Apple device, NowClue uses Apple's iCloud Key-Value Storage to synchronize the categories above between your own devices so that your progress carries over. This data is stored in your personal iCloud account, which is controlled by you and Apple under Apple's privacy terms. We do not have access to it.

Purchases. In-app purchases and subscriptions are processed by Apple through StoreKit. We receive only the anonymous transaction signals necessary to unlock content (for example, a verified receipt indicating that a subscription is active). We do not receive your name, email, billing address, or payment instrument.

News headlines. To generate certain puzzle clues, the app may fetch publicly available news headlines from the GDELT Project API and Wikinews RSS feeds. These requests do not include any information about you. They are made anonymously over HTTPS.

On-device AI. Hints, explanations, and puzzle generation are produced locally on your device using Apple's FoundationModels framework. Your gameplay content is not sent to us, to OpenAI, to Anthropic, or to any other AI provider.

Sensitive Information. We do not process sensitive information.

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We process the limited information described above to provide and improve the app, to enable purchases through Apple, and to comply with law.

We process information for a small number of purposes, depending on how you interact with the Services, including:

To deliver and operate the Services. Game progress and settings are processed locally to render the puzzle, advance your streak, enable Heritage Mode, and similar core gameplay functionality.
To enable purchases and entitlements. When you make a purchase, we process the receipt issued by Apple to confirm you are entitled to the content.
To respond to you. If you contact us by email, we process the contents of your message to reply.
To save or protect an individual's vital interest. We may process information when necessary to save or protect an individual's vital interest, such as to prevent harm.
To comply with law. We may process information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations.

3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfill our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e., consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
Performance of a Contract. We may process your information when we believe it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.
Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.

We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e., express consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e., implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time.

In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:

If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way
For investigations and fraud detection and prevention
For business transactions provided certain conditions are met
If it is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim
For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin
If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse
If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province
If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records
If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced
If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes
If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations

4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In Short: We do not share personal information with third parties for marketing or advertising. We rely on Apple's platform for synchronization and payments, which Apple operates under its own privacy practices.

We may share or transmit information in the following situations:

Apple iCloud and StoreKit. Game progress synchronized via iCloud and purchase transactions made through the App Store are handled by Apple under Apple's own privacy policy. We do not receive your iCloud account information or your payment details.
Public APIs. The app may make anonymous HTTPS requests to public news sources (GDELT, Wikinews) to retrieve headlines for clue generation. These services receive only the standard network metadata that any HTTPS client transmits (for example, IP address); they do not receive any information about you from us.
Business Transfers. We may share or transfer information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
Legal Obligations. We may disclose information where required to comply with law, legal process, or governmental requests.

5. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We do not maintain a server-side store of your personal information. Information held on your device persists until you delete it.

Because NowClue does not collect personal information on a server, there is no data on our systems for us to retain. Game progress, settings, and other locally stored information remain on your device for as long as the app is installed, and on your iCloud account for as long as you choose to keep it there. Deleting the app from your device or removing its iCloud data through iOS Settings will remove the corresponding data.

If you contact us by email, we may retain that correspondence for as long as necessary to respond and to keep a record consistent with our legal obligations.

6. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age, nor do we knowingly sell such personal information. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent's use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us using the email form provided.

7. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: Depending on your state of residence in the US or in some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), Switzerland, and Canada, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information.

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; (iv) if applicable, to data portability; and (v) not to be subject to automated decision-making. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.

If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?" below.

However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us using the email form provided.

8. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Notice.

California law requires us to let you know how we respond to web browser DNT signals. Because there currently is not an industry or legal standard for recognizing or honoring DNT signals, we do not respond to them at this time.

9. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have the right to request access to and receive details about the personal information we maintain about you and how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, get a copy of, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law.

Categories of Personal Information We Collect

We have collected the following categories of personal information in the past twelve (12) months:

CategoryExamplesCollectedA. IdentifiersContact details, such as real name, alias, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, and account nameNOB. Personal information as defined in the California Customer Records statuteName, contact information, education, employment, employment history, and financial informationNOC. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal lawGender, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity, national origin, marital status, and other demographic dataNOD. Commercial informationTransaction information, purchase history, financial details, and payment informationNOE. Biometric informationFingerprints and voiceprintsNOF. Internet or other similar network activityBrowsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisementsNOG. Geolocation dataDevice locationNOH. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar informationImages and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activitiesNOI. Professional or employment-related informationBusiness contact details in order to provide you our Services at a business level or job title, work history, and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with usNOJ. Education InformationStudent records and directory informationNOK. Inferences drawn from collected personal informationInferences drawn from any of the collected personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual's preferences and characteristicsNOL. Sensitive personal InformationNO

We may also collect other personal information outside of these categories through instances where you interact with us in person, online, or by phone or mail in the context of:

Receiving help through our customer support channels;
Participation in customer surveys or contests; and
Facilitation in the delivery of our Services and to respond to your inquiries.

Sources of Personal Information

Learn more about the sources of personal information we collect in "WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?"

How We Use and Share Personal Information

Learn more about how we use your personal information in the section, "HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?"

Will your information be shared with anyone else?

We do not share personal information with service providers for marketing or advertising. Apple acts as the merchant of record for purchases and operates iCloud synchronization under its own privacy terms.

We may use your personal information for our own business purposes, such as for undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration. This is not considered to be "selling" of your personal information.

We have not disclosed, sold, or shared any personal information to third parties for a business or commercial purpose in the preceding twelve (12) months. We will not sell or share personal information in the future belonging to website visitors, users, and other consumers.

Your Rights

You have rights under certain US state data protection laws. However, these rights are not absolute, and in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law. These rights include:

Right to know whether or not we are processing your personal data
Right to access your personal data
Right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data
Right to request the deletion of your personal data
Right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared with us
Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
Right to opt out of the processing of your personal data if it is used for targeted advertising (or sharing as defined under California's privacy law), the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects ("profiling")

Depending upon the state where you live, you may also have the following rights:

Right to access the categories of personal data being processed (as permitted by applicable law, including Minnesota's privacy law)
Right to obtain a list of the categories of third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including California's and Delaware's privacy law)
Right to obtain a list of specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including Minnesota's and Oregon's privacy law)
Right to review, understand, question, and correct how personal data has been profiled (as permitted by applicable law, including Minnesota's privacy law)
Right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including California's privacy law)
Right to opt out of the collection of sensitive data and personal data collected through the operation of a voice or facial recognition feature (as permitted by applicable law, including Florida's privacy law)

How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise these rights, you can contact us by submitting a data subject access request, by emailing us using the email form provided

Under certain US state data protection laws, you can designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may deny a request from an authorized agent that does not submit proof that they have been validly authorized to act on your behalf in accordance with applicable laws.

Request Verification

Upon receiving your request, we will need to verify your identity to determine you are the same person about whom we have the information in our system. We will only use personal information provided in your request to verify your identity or authority to make the request. However, if we cannot verify your identity from the information already maintained by us, we may request that you provide additional information for the purposes of verifying your identity and for security or fraud-prevention purposes.

If you submit the request through an authorized agent, we may need to collect additional information to verify your identity before processing your request and the agent will need to provide a written and signed permission from you to submit such request on your behalf.

Appeals

Under certain US state data protection laws, if we decline to take action regarding your request, you may appeal our decision by emailing us at s@schematics.studio. We will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken in response to the appeal, including a written explanation of the reasons for the decisions. If your appeal is denied, you may submit a complaint to your state attorney general.

California "Shine The Light" Law

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the "Shine The Light" law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?"

10. DO OTHER REGIONS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: You may have additional rights based on the country you reside in.

Australia and New Zealand

We collect and process your personal information under the obligations and conditions set by Australia's Privacy Act 1988 and New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act).

This Privacy Notice satisfies the notice requirements defined in both Privacy Acts, in particular: what personal information we collect from you, from which sources, for which purposes, and other recipients of your personal information.

If you do not wish to provide the personal information necessary to fulfill their applicable purpose, it may affect our ability to provide our services, in particular:

offer you the products or services that you want
respond to or help with your requests

At any time, you have the right to request access to or correction of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section "HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?"

If you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you have the right to submit a complaint about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and a breach of New Zealand's Privacy Principles to the Office of New Zealand Privacy Commissioner.

Republic of South Africa

If you are unsatisfied with the manner in which we address any complaint with regard to our processing of personal information, you can contact the office of the regulator, the details of which are:

The Information Regulator (South Africa) General enquiries: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za Complaints (complete POPIA/PAIA form 5): PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za & POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za

11. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date at the top of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

12. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us using our email form provided

13. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

Because NowClue does not collect personal information on our servers, the data generated by your use of the app lives on your device and, if you have iCloud enabled, in your personal iCloud account. You can review or delete that data at any time by:

Deleting individual progress within the app where the relevant control is provided;
Deleting the app from your device, which removes its local data;
Removing the app's data from iCloud through your device's Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → Manage Account Storage; and

One thing to flag: I left "(doing business as schematics)" in the intro since you didn't say to remove it, but now that the legal entity is "studio schematics llc," that dba is largely redundant. Want me to drop it? Also, I can save this to a file (e.g. PRIVACY.md in the repo) if useful — say where.