Privacy Policy

Lights Bingo, by Thomas Innovative Technologies. Effective November 1, 2026.

The short version: Lights Bingo keeps your game on your phone. We don't run accounts, ads or analytics. The only thing that leaves your phone is Linked play's game events (player names and finds), shared with the other players using your game code.

What stays on your phone

• Player names, game cards, finds, scores, badges and your season scrapbook.
• Family squares you create.
• Photos you take or choose as proof of a find. They're resized, location and camera details are removed, and they're saved only inside the app. Starting a new game deletes the old game's photos.

Apart from Linked play's game events (below), we never receive any of this. Deleting the app removes all of it.

Camera and photos

The app asks for camera or photo library access only when you choose to add a photo proof. You can say no and still play. The app never records audio.

Apple Game Center

If you turn on Game Center, the app sends the scores and badges of the player you choose to Apple Game Center. Apple handles that data under Apple's Privacy Policy. We can see leaderboard entries the way any player can, and nothing more. You can turn Game Center off in the app's Settings.

Linked play

If Linked play is on (Settings), phones playing the same holiday and game code share game events so everyone sees each other's finds and Bingos. This shares only what the game needs: the player names typed into the app, the decorations they mark, and a winning card so other phones can check it.

Nearby: phones close together connect directly over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi using Apple's encrypted peer-to-peer technology. iPhone asks once for "Local Network" permission.

Across cars: when there's a signal, the same game events are also passed along live through Ably, a realtime messaging service (servers in the United States and other regions), so phones in different places with the same code stay linked. Nothing is saved for later: Ably keeps each event for at most two minutes so a phone that just joined or briefly lost signal can catch up, and a phone's name shows in the game only while it's connected. No accounts, emails, locations or device identifiers are sent. Like any internet service, Ably processes your phone's network address to deliver the data (Ably privacy). "Same card" games aren't relayed. We don't use this data for anything else, and we never sell or share it.

You can say no to Local Network, or turn Linked play off in Settings, and still play.

App updates

When the app opens, it checks Expo's update service (expo.dev) for small improvements. Like any internet request, this shares your phone's network address and the app's version with that service. It doesn't include your game data or anything that identifies you to us.

Suggestions you send

If you use Suggest a decoration, the app opens an email (or your share sheet) with your suggestion and any photo you chose. You decide whether to send it. If you do, we receive what's in that message, including your email address, and use it only to consider adding the decoration to the game. Photos are resized and location details are removed before they're attached. We don't publish your photo or share your email address. Ask us anytime to delete a suggestion you sent.

Sharing

When you tap Share, your iPhone's share sheet sends only the text shown (like a game code or a Bingo result) to the app or person you pick.

Children

Lights Bingo is made for families. We don't collect personal information from children or anyone else. A parent should set up Game Center on a child's device.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we'll update this page and its effective date. Questions: support@bthomasconsulting.com.