In short: Tambola has no ads, analytics or accounts, and your games stay on your phone. When you play with friends, your nickname and game moves go directly between the players' phones over the local network or Bluetooth. The app connects to nowstacks.com only to check for updates and to send feedback or crash reports when you choose to.
Tambola – Housie Number Caller (package com.gauravkr.tambola, "the app"), a Housie / Tambola game, is published by NowStacks (nowstacks.com; "we", "us") and developed for us by our development partner, Gemini Digital Solutions. This policy explains how the app handles information.
1. Information we collect
We do not collect your name, location or any game data. We receive information only in the situations described in section 4 — an automatic update check, and feedback or crash reports that you choose to send. The app never sends anything to analytics or advertising services.
2. Information stored on your device
The app saves a small amount of data on your phone so it can remember your choices:
- game settings (sound, voice caller, call speed, difficulty and similar preferences),
- your game statistics (games played, prizes won, best score),
- numbers already called in Number Caller mode, so a game can be resumed,
- the nickname you type for Play with Friends and a random player ID that lets you rejoin a game if your connection drops,
- your update, rating-prompt and crash-report choices, and — only until they are sent or you decline — up to five crash reports waiting to be sent (section 4).
This data never leaves your device except as described in sections 3 and 4, and is not accessible to us. The app is excluded from Android cloud backup, so this data is deleted when you clear the app's data or uninstall the app.
3. Play with Friends (local multiplayer)
Play with Friends connects phones in the same place directly to each other; there is no server in between.
- What is shared: your nickname, your random player ID (so the host can let you rejoin), and the game itself (your tickets, numbers called, claims, scores and lives). This goes only to the phones in that game and is kept by them only for the duration of the game.
- Wi-Fi / Hotspot mode sends this data directly between the phones over the local Wi-Fi network or the host's mobile hotspot — never over the internet. Phones find each other with standard local network discovery (mDNS), which announces the host's nickname to devices on the same network. Like most local multiplayer games, this local traffic is not encrypted, so only play on networks you trust.
- Nearby (Bluetooth) mode uses Google Nearby Connections, part of Google Play services, which connects phones over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct or the local Wi-Fi. Google Play services may collect diagnostic information about Nearby connections (such as connection reliability, device model and country); you can turn this off in your phone's Settings → Google → Usage & diagnostics. Google's handling of this data is covered by Google's Privacy Policy.
- The host phone acts as referee: it hands out tickets and checks claims. It does not keep the other players' data after the game ends.
Other players — and, while you host, other devices on the same network — can see the nickname you choose, so pick one you are happy to share.
4. Update checks, feedback and crash reports
The app connects to nowstacks.com, our own server, only for these features:
- Update check — when you open the app, it asks nowstacks.com whether a newer version is available, so it can tell you when an update is recommended or required. The request contains only the app's package name and version and, like any internet request, your IP address.
- Feedback and ratings — only if you choose to send feedback (Rate & feedback or Report a problem). We receive your star rating, your message and, only if you type it, your email address, together with the app version, Android version, device model and language.
- Crash reports — if the app closes unexpectedly, it asks you before sending a crash report, unless you chose to send them automatically (you can change this choice in the app's settings). A report contains the technical error details, the app version, Android version, device model, language and any comment you add. It does not include your documents, files, photos, game data or other personal content — although, rarely, a technical error message can quote a small piece of the data the app was handling when the error happened.
We use this information only to reply to you, fix problems and improve the app. It is stored securely on nowstacks.com's infrastructure (our database and hosting providers process it on our behalf), is never sold, and is never shared with advertisers or other third parties. A one-way hashed (non-reversible) form of your IP address is stored with feedback and crash reports only to prevent spam. We delete feedback and crash reports when they are no longer needed, and you can ask us to delete anything you sent at any time (see "Contact").
5. Text-to-speech
To read numbers aloud, the app uses the text-to-speech engine already installed on your device (for example, Speech Services by Google). Only the text of the called number (such as "four and five, forty five") is passed to that engine, whose handling of data is covered by its provider's privacy policy.
6. Third-party services
The app contains no advertising, analytics or social-media SDKs. The only third-party component is Google Nearby Connections (Google Play services), used solely for the Nearby mode of Play with Friends. Crash reports and feedback go only to our own server, nowstacks.com (section 4).
7. Permissions
- Internet: connecting phones directly on the same Wi-Fi or hotspot for Play with Friends, and the update checks, feedback and crash reports in section 4. Game data never travels over the internet.
- Network (network / Wi-Fi state, change Wi-Fi state, multicast): used only to connect phones on the same Wi-Fi or hotspot for Play with Friends and to discover games on that network.
- Bluetooth and Nearby devices (Android 12 and newer): used only for the Nearby mode of Play with Friends, and requested only when you choose it.
- Location (Android 12 and older only): Android requires the location permission for Bluetooth scanning on these versions. The app never reads, stores or shares your location; the permission is requested only when you choose Nearby, and is not requested at all on Android 13 and newer.
- Text-to-speech: no permission is needed; see section 5.
You can withdraw any permission in Android settings. Play with Friends will then be unavailable in the affected mode; everything else keeps working.
8. Children
The app is suitable for all ages. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; the only information the app sends us is described in section 4, and a child should not type an email address into the feedback form without a parent's help.
9. Your rights
Your games and settings stay on your device under your control. To access or delete feedback or crash reports you sent us, or for any question under a privacy law, contact us.
10. Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published on this page with a new "Last updated" date.
11. Contact
NowStacks — Email: gauravkr2506@gmail.com · Contact form: nowstacks.com/contact