Privacy Policy for a Mobile Game with Ads: What It Must Say and Where to Host It

Short answer: every game on Google Play and the App Store needs a privacy policy at a public URL, and a game with AdMob must say that it uses Google’s ads SDK, which collects the IP address, device identifiers such as the advertising ID, and app interactions, and shares them with Google for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention. The policy also needs to cover consent, children, how long data is kept, how to ask for deletion and how to contact you. Host it on a public web page, not a PDF or a shared document.

Our free privacy policy tool drafts one for a Unity game with AdMob from a few answers, for you to check and adapt, and can host it at a public link. This guide explains what goes into it, so you can check any policy, ours included, against your actual game.

Why the stores and AdMob need one

• Google Play: Google’s User Data policy requires a privacy policy link in the designated Play Console field and inside the app. It must be on an active, publicly accessible, non-geofenced URL, not a PDF and not an editable document. It is required even to complete the Data safety form.
• App Store: Apple requires a privacy policy URL for every app, alongside the App Privacy answers in App Store Connect.
• AdMob: Google’s policies for publishers require you to disclose your use of Google’s ads technology and the data it collects. Your policy is where players read that.

What a game with ads must cover

Who you are and how to reach you

Your name or studio name as the developer, the game’s name, and a contact email that you actually read. Players use it to ask questions and to request deletion.

What data is collected, and by whom

Be specific and honest. A typical hypercasual game collects nothing itself: no account, no name, no email. The SDKs inside it do collect data. For the Google Mobile Ads SDK, Google’s own disclosure lists the IP address (used to estimate approximate location), app interactions such as launches, taps and video views, diagnostics, and device or other identifiers including the advertising ID and app set ID. Name every SDK you ship (ads, mediation networks, analytics, crash reporting) and link to each provider’s privacy policy.

Why it is used

Showing ads (personalised or not), measuring them, analytics, and preventing fraud. If you use analytics only for yourself, say so.

Consent and choices

Explain the consent message players in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland see (Google’s UMP form), that they can change their choice later from inside the game, and what happens if they decline: depending on their choices, ads may be non-personalised or limited ads, and some players may see fewer ads. In US states with privacy laws, say how players can opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of their data for targeted advertising. On iOS, mention the App Tracking Transparency prompt if your game shows it. On Android, players can reset or delete their advertising ID in system settings.

Players in Europe also have rights to access, correct and delete their data and to complain to a data protection authority, and the policy should say on what legal basis data is used (usually consent for personalised ads) and that SDK providers such as Google may process data outside the player’s country.

Children

State who the game is for. If it is not directed at children, say so. If it is (on Google Play, a target audience that includes under-13s), Google Play’s Families policy and laws such as the US COPPA, and the GDPR’s rules on children’s consent in Europe, apply: you must configure the ads SDK for child-directed treatment and use only ad networks certified for families, and your policy should describe that. A generic template is not enough in that case; get advice.

Retention, deletion, security and changes

How long data is kept (for data held by Google, point to Google’s policy), how a player can ask for deletion, how data is protected (Google states that its ads SDK encrypts data in transit), an effective date, and how you will announce changes.

Keep it in sync with Data safety and App Privacy

Reviewers compare the policy with your store answers. If Google Play’s Data safety form says you share device IDs for advertising, the policy must say the same; if the policy promises you collect nothing while the form lists approximate location, one of them is wrong. Fill in the Data safety form for an AdMob game first, then read the policy against it line by line. Do the same with Apple’s App Privacy answers if you ship on iOS. Update the policy whenever you add an SDK.

Where to host it

• Your own website, next to your app-ads.txt file. This is the best long-term home: you control the URL for as long as the game is live.
• A free static host such as GitHub Pages, Netlify or Cloudflare Pages. Fine, as long as the page stays public.
• Our hosted link: the privacy policy tool can publish your policy at a public HyperCodeStore URL that you paste into Play Console and App Store Connect. You can edit it later at the same link, from your account or with the private manage link we show once (keep it safe; we cannot recover it). It is free within the limits shown in the tool. You remain responsible for what the policy says, it is provided as is under our terms, and you should keep your own copy.
• Not suitable: a PDF, a Google Doc or other editable document, a page behind a login, or a page blocked in some countries. Google’s User Data policy rules these out.

Common mistakes

• Shipping the template author’s policy URL. It names their studio and their SDKs, not yours.
• A policy that says "we collect no data" in a game with ads.
• Listing SDKs you removed, or missing ones you added through mediation.
• A dead link. A policy URL that stops working can get the app removed; check it after any website change.
• No in-app link. Google wants the policy inside the app too, usually from the settings or about screen.

For how we handle data on HyperCodeStore itself, see our own privacy policy and terms. The rest of the release steps are in how to publish a Unity game on Google Play.