Privacy & Your Data

On The Website

Your Saved Progress

We keep lesson progress, settings and a recorded hand locally so you can continue later. No app feature uploads that save to BackHAUS. Your browser manages local storage and may clear it. Clearing this app’s site data removes its save.

Visit Counts

On straitsmahjong.com, Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits: the page, the site that linked here, your browser, device type and country, and how quickly the page loaded. It uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not follow you to other sites. The phone apps do not count visits.

Ads And Cookies From Google

On straitsmahjong.com’s guides (the pages under /guide/), Google shows display ads beside the articles (Google AdSense). The game itself shows none. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technology to show and measure ads, limit how often you see them and prevent fraud, and, where you allow it, to personalise ads based on your visits to this and other sites. How Google uses information from sites that show its ads: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Your Ad Choices

In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, Google asks for your consent before cookies are used for ads, and you can change your choice at any time with its Privacy And Cookie Settings link. Elsewhere, you can turn off personalised ads in Google’s My Ad Center (myadcenter.google.com) or block cookies in your browser.

Hosting

straitsmahjong.com is delivered through Cloudflare from our web server. Like every website, they receive the technical details of each request, such as your IP address, the page asked for and your browser, and may record them in logs used to run and protect the site.

In The Phone Apps

The phone apps have no account and no analytics or tracking of our own. Google AdMob shows their ads, and the App Store or Google Play handles purchases.

Your Saved Progress

We keep lesson progress, settings and a recorded hand locally so you can continue later. No app feature uploads that save to BackHAUS. Your device’s backup settings may include app data. Uninstalling removes the local app save.

Ads From Google AdMob

The app shows ads at natural breaks between games, lessons and boards, never during a hand. Once a paid table’s free game is used, you can also choose to watch one for one more game. To show and measure ads and prevent fraud, Google receives information about your device and how you interact with the ads, such as device identifiers, an approximate location from your IP address, and the ads you see and tap. How Google uses it: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Remove Ads or Complete turns the ads off.

Your Ad Choices

Where the law requires it, Google’s consent form asks for your permission first. On iPhone and iPad, Apple’s tracking prompt then decides whether ads may use your device’s advertising identifier. Without your permission, ads are non-personalised or limited.

Where Google’s consent form applies, you can change your answer at any time in the app: Settings, Privacy & Your Data, Ad Privacy Choices.

Purchases

Purchases go through the App Store or Google Play, and BackHAUS never sees your payment details. The store tells the app what you own, and the app remembers that on your device. Restore Purchases asks the store again.

Play Nearby

Play Nearby connects devices using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Nearby players can see your chosen name and app version while finding a table. Compare the pairing codes before connecting. The host keeps the full game, including player names, concealed hands and scores. Guests receive their own hand and the shared table view. Nearby games and moves travel between connected devices, without using BackHAUS’s online room server.

Saved Nearby Tables And Seats

This device keeps up to eight hosted tables and eight guest seats until you delete or forget them in Play Nearby. Guests keep a seat credential and any unconfirmed move so they can reconnect. Forgetting a seat does not delete the host’s game. Nearby saves are separate from Export and cannot be transferred to a new host. Clearing app data or uninstalling can lose these games; device backups may include app data but do not make a different device the host.

Nearby Diagnostics On Android

Google Play services Nearby collects connection performance and device/app details, including device model, country, system build and app package name. You can allow or turn off this collection in Android Settings → Google → Usage & diagnostics. Menu wording may vary by device.

Playing With Friends

When you host or join a table with a room code, the app or website connects to our game server at straitsmahjong.com through Cloudflare. We save temporary room records containing your optional name, moves and game state, identifiers for reconnecting, and a hashed version of your IP address to prevent abuse. To host, the app sends the store’s signed record of your Host A Table or Complete purchase for verification. We keep a purchase identifier with the room to limit how many rooms can be hosted with that purchase. Room records let you reconnect and let games recover after a server restart. Active room records are normally deleted when the room closes. If a saved room cannot be restored, its record may be kept to diagnose the failure. There is no account or chat, only preset reactions. Your learning progress and solo saved games stay on your device.

Files You Choose To Share

Export creates a JSON copy of your progress. It goes only to the destination you choose. That destination and your device’s backup services have their own privacy practices. Import reads only the file you select.

Source Links

Opening a source link visits another provider’s website, where its own privacy policy applies.

Contact

Privacy contact: contact@backhaus.sg

Updated 2 October 2026.