You install a free puzzle game. It asks for nothing, opens straight into a level, and costs nothing. So what is it taking? This guide from Maxio Fun Studio explains what data mobile games collect, how to read the Data safety section on any Google Play listing, and which requests are reasonable and which are not.

The Data Safety Section Is the Thing to Read

Every app on Google Play has a Data safety section on its store listing. Most people scroll straight past it. It is the single most useful thing on the page.

Developers have to declare which categories of data their app collects or shares, and why. The categories are specific, not vague: location (approximate or precise), personal info, financial info, health and fitness, messages, photos and videos, audio files, files and documents, calendar, contacts, app activity, web browsing history, app info and performance, and device or other IDs.

For each one they must also state the purpose: account management, advertising or marketing, app functionality, analytics, developer communications, fraud prevention and security, or personalisation.

Tap See details and you get the full list rather than the summary. Two minutes there tells you more than any review.

"Collected" and "Shared" Are Not the Same Thing

This distinction matters and the labels are easy to misread.

Collected means the app takes the data off your device. Notably, data that stays on your phone does not count as collected, and neither does data processed only briefly in memory and not kept.

Shared means the data is passed to a third party. There are exceptions here that surprise people: transfers you start yourself, transfers to service providers working for the developer, and fully anonymised data do not count as shared.

That last exception is worth sitting with. An advertising network working on the developer's behalf can receive data without it being labelled as shared. So "collected but not shared" does not mean the data never leaves the developer's orbit.

The Honest Part: Google Does Not Verify This

The Data safety section is written by the developer. Google's own documentation does not claim to verify the accuracy of these declarations.

There is an independent security review programme called MASA, but even that explicitly does not verify the accuracy and completeness of a developer's Data safety disclosure. The "Verified" badge you may have seen currently applies only to VPN apps.

So treat the section as a declaration under rules, not as an audited fact. It is still useful, because lying there is a policy violation with real consequences, but it is a self-report.

What a Free Game Typically Collects, and Why

Most free games collect three things, and all three have a legitimate reason behind them.

Device or other IDs. Usually the advertising identifier. This is what lets an advertising network avoid showing you the same advert fifty times, count whether an advert led to an install, and in many cases target what you see. This is the big one for ad-funded games.

App activity and performance. Which level you reached, where players get stuck, crash logs, how long sessions last. This is how a studio finds out that level 23 is broken without waiting for someone to write a review about it.

Approximate location. Often derived from your connection rather than GPS, and used to serve region-appropriate adverts and comply with regional rules. Approximate means an area of three square kilometres or more.

None of those are alarming on their own for a free game. They are how the thing is funded and maintained.

What Should Make You Stop

Some requests have no plausible reason in a game, and these are the ones worth reacting to.

Precise location. Under three square kilometres, which is effectively where you are. A block puzzle has no use for this.

Contacts. Unless the game genuinely has a friends feature you intend to use, there is no reason.

Messages, photos, files or audio. A game that wants access to your SMS, your gallery or your documents is asking for something it cannot possibly need to run a level.

Phone number. No single player game needs it.

One qualifier. Photo access is reasonable if the game lets you set a custom avatar, and microphone access is reasonable in a game with voice. The question is always whether the request matches something the game actually does.

Children's Apps Have Much Stricter Rules

If an app declares children in its target audience, Google's Families Policy applies and the rules tighten considerably.

Those apps are not allowed to transmit advertising identifiers, device serial numbers, MAC addresses, IMEI or similar persistent identifiers. They cannot serve interest-based or remarketing adverts. They cannot collect precise location or request the device phone number. And they must use only Google Play Families certified advert SDKs.

This is genuinely strict, and it is the clearest reason to prefer apps that declare a child audience when choosing for a child. The catch is that the rules apply based on what the developer declared, so an app aimed at general audiences is not held to them even if children use it.

Permissions Are a Separate Thing

The Data safety section and the permissions list are not the same, and they can disagree.

Permissions are the technical capabilities the app requests from Android: camera, microphone, location, storage, contacts. Data safety is about what the developer says they do with data. An app can hold a permission and not use it, or collect data that needs no permission at all.

Check both. You can revoke any permission in Settings, then Apps, then the app, then Permissions. Android will also automatically remove permissions from apps you have not opened in a while if you leave that setting on, which is worth keeping enabled.

The Three Controls Worth Using

Reset or delete your advertising ID. In Settings, then Privacy or Google, then Ads, you can reset the identifier or delete it entirely. Deleting it means apps receive a string of zeros instead, which breaks personalised advertising while leaving games working. You will still see adverts, just less targeted ones.

Revoke permissions you do not need. Especially location on games. Nothing breaks.

Play offline. This is the blunt one and it is the most effective. In airplane mode, an offline game cannot send anything anywhere, because there is nothing to send it over. No adverts load, no analytics are transmitted, no identifiers go out. The game plays exactly the same.

What Our Games Do

At Maxio Fun Studio we would rather tell you plainly than let you guess.

None of our games require an account, an email address or a phone number. There is nothing to sign up for, so there is no profile of you to build.

All four are single player with no chat, no friend lists and no usernames, so there is no social graph either.

They are funded by advertising, which means that when you are online the advert network receives the standard identifiers any ad-funded app sends. We are not going to pretend otherwise. That is the honest cost of a free game.

Because every game runs fully offline, airplane mode is always available, and in that state nothing is transmitted at all while the game keeps working normally. If data collection is something you care about, that is the control we would point you to.

Frequently Asked Questions

What data do free mobile games collect? Usually device or advertising identifiers, app activity such as levels reached and crash logs, and approximate location. Those three are standard for an ad-funded game. Anything beyond them deserves a closer look.

Is the Data safety section on Google Play verified? No. It is a declaration written by the developer. Google's documentation does not claim to verify its accuracy, and the independent MASA security review explicitly does not verify the disclosure either.

Should a puzzle game need my location? Approximate location is common and usually tied to advert serving. Precise location, meaning under three square kilometres, has no plausible use in a puzzle game and is a reason to skip it.

How do I stop apps tracking me on Android? Reset or delete your advertising ID in Settings under Privacy or Google, then Ads. Revoke permissions the app does not need. For offline games, airplane mode stops all transmission while the game still works.

Are children's games safer on data? If the developer declares a child audience, yes, considerably. Google's Families Policy bans advertising identifiers, interest-based adverts, precise location and phone numbers for those apps. The rules apply based on the declared audience, not on who actually plays.

Does "collected but not shared" mean my data stays with the developer? Not necessarily. Transfers to service providers working for the developer, including advertising partners, are not counted as sharing, and neither is fully anonymised data.

The Short Version

Read the Data safety section and tap See details. Expect advertising identifiers, app activity and approximate location in a free game. Treat precise location, contacts, messages and phone number as reasons to walk away. Remember the section is self-declared, not audited.

Every game from Maxio Fun Studio is free, offline and needs no account, so airplane mode is always an option. Available on Google Play.