Privacy policy

Last updated 13 November 2026

Who we are

Christmas Countdown is made by the developer named on its App Store and Google Play listings ("we"). We are responsible for the small amount of personal information described here. You can reach us at support@christmascountdown.fun.

What stays on your phone

The windows you have opened, your scores and tallies, your style, music and reminder settings, and past years are saved on your phone. If you use iCloud or Google backup, your phone may keep a copy in your own Apple or Google account so that it survives a new phone. We cannot see it.

Daily reminders are set by the phone itself. We run no notification service, so nothing about them is sent to us.

When you share a picture from the app, your phone's own share sheet does it. The app cannot look at your photos.

What leaves your phone

Purchases. Premium is bought through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google takes the payment under its own privacy policy and tells the app which purchases you own. We never see your card details, and the sales reports we receive do not name you.

Feedback. If you send the feedback form, we receive the topic, your message, your email address if you add one, the app version, and whether you use iPhone or Android. We use it only to read your message, fix the app and reply.

Adverts. Without Premium, the app shows banner adverts supplied by Google AdMob. We tell Google to treat every advert request as coming from a child. That means adverts are not based on your interests or on what you do in other apps, are limited to content rated suitable for all ages, and do not use your phone's advertising ID. To deliver an advert, count it and guard against fraud, Google does receive your IP address, which shows roughly where you are, some details of your device and the app, and which adverts were shown or tapped. Google explains this in how Google uses information from apps that use its services. Premium removes the adverts, and the app then asks Google for none. Tapping an advert opens the advertiser's page, which we do not control.

How the app is used. The app tells Google Analytics for Firebase when a few things happen, so that we can see which parts of the app are worth keeping and improving. It sends about a dozen named events and nothing else: a calendar window being opened and which number it was; a window's activity being used; a game being started and finished, with the score; a countdown style being chosen; a carol being played; the Premium screen being seen, and whether it was bought or closed; the daily reminder being switched on or off, and the hour; a picture being shared; and the calm countdown being switched. Every value sent is a number or a word from a fixed list that we wrote. Nothing you type is ever sent to Google — not your letter to Santa, not your wrapping list, not a name, not a message. The only thing you write that we ever see is a feedback message you choose to send us, described above.

With each event Google receives an identifier it gives to the installed app itself (not to you, and not shared with other apps), details of your device and of the app, and roughly which country or region you are in, worked out from your IP address. We do not send your advertising ID; on iPhone the part of Google's software that could read it is not even included in the app, and on Android the permission for it is removed. We never tell Google who you are: we set no user name, no account and no identifier of our own. The information is held by Google under Google's privacy policy and how Google uses information from apps that use its services, and we see only the totals and charts Google shows us. It is not used to personalise adverts: we switch that off.

If you would rather we did not count your use at all, Premium does not change this, but you can stop it by deleting the app. We can also switch the counting off for everybody at any time, and will do so if we no longer need it.

The settings check. At most once a day the app downloads a tiny file from our website. It can switch optional features off or say that an update is ready. The app sends nothing about you to fetch it, but like any web request it shows your IP address to our web host, which may keep it briefly in its routine logs.

Children

Christmas Countdown is made for families to enjoy together, and children may use it. That is why we collect so little, why adverts are never personalised, why the counting described above carries no name and nothing anybody has written, and why there is no chat, no account and nothing posted in public. The feedback form is for grown-ups. If you are a child, please ask a grown-up to send it for you. If you think a child has sent us personal information, tell us and we will delete it.

Your rights

Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to our using it. We hold very little. Unless you have sent us feedback, we hold nothing that tells us who you are. To use your rights, email support@christmascountdown.fun from the address you put on your feedback and we will answer within one month.

• To clear what is saved on your phone, delete the app. Backups are managed in your iCloud or Google settings.
• For adverts and for the counting described above, Google sets out your choices in Google's privacy policy.
• For purchases, contact Apple or Google.

The law asks us to say what we rely on. It is our legitimate interests: answering people who write to us, keeping the app working and knowing which parts of it are used, and paying for the free version with adverts that are not personalised.

If you are unhappy with our answer you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office or to the data protection authority where you live.

How long we keep things

Feedback, including any email address, is deleted within 90 days. Google keeps the usage events described above for as long as our Firebase settings say, which is the shortest period Google offers; after that only totals remain. We keep nothing else about you.

Where information is handled

Google and our hosting provider may handle information outside the UK and Europe. Where they do, it is protected by the safeguards that data protection law requires.

Changes

If the app changes in a way that affects this policy, we will update it and the date at the top, and mention anything important in the app's update notes.

Contact

Email: support@christmascountdown.fun.