InitialPlay on the webWhat Initial keeps, and why
Updated 27 October 2026. This policy covers the Initial app for iPhone and the web version at initial-app-gamma.vercel.app/play. Initial is made by Think-app (Gerard Indo'Martinez, sole trader, ABN 98 701 357 794, 9/21 Chatsworth Street, Greenslopes QLD 4120, Australia), who is responsible for your data. Contact: founder@think-app.com.
On your phone only
Your XP, rank, badges, streak, round history, settings, the full size original of your profile photo and the blocks you make in a Nearby Race stay on your iPhone. Delete my data in Settings removes all of it.
What reaches our server
| What | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| An account id. Anonymous by default: no email, phone or password. | So your scores, reports and blocks belong to you. | Until you delete your account. |
| If you choose Sign in with Apple: your Apple account id and the email address Apple shares with us, which is Apple's private relay address if you chose Hide My Email. | So you can keep your record on a new phone. We never email you from it. | Until you delete your account. Deleting it also asks Apple to revoke Initial's access to your Apple ID. |
| Your display name. | Shown next to your score on the world board and to the players in a Race. | Until you delete your account. |
| Your profile photo, if you add one: a small 256 pixel copy, stored under a random id that is not your account id. | Shown to other players next to your name on the world board and in Races. | Until you remove the photo or delete your account. |
| Today's Letter: your answers, when you gave them, and the score our server computes. | To check the round fairly and build the world board. | Until you delete your account. |
| Online Race lobbies: the code, who joined, answers, votes and the result. | To run the game between phones over the internet. | Deleted after the lobby expires (a lobby lasts at most three hours), or when you delete your account. |
| Reports you send, with the reported name, the reason and up to their last ten chat messages. | So a person can review abuse. | 12 months from the report. |
| Blocks you make on the board or in an online lobby. | So that player cannot join your lobbies and you do not see them. | Until you delete your account. |
Our server is Supabase, in Sydney, Australia. Race chat messages are not stored by us unless they are part of a report.
Race (Nearby)
In a Nearby Race your display name, answers and chat go directly to the other iPhones in that race over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, not through us. If you report a player, the report and their last messages are kept on your phone and sent to us once you are online.
The AI judge
When an answer is not on our word lists, the app asks an AI model whether it counts: Claude, made by Anthropic. Only three things are sent: the category, the letter and the answer you typed. Your name, account id, photo and anything else about you are never sent to the AI.
The word verdict cache. Each verdict (the category, the answer, whether it counts, a short reason, the usual spelling and how many times it was asked) is stored once, without who asked, so the same answer is judged once for everyone. It holds no personal data and is kept as part of the game's word lists; answers accepted more than once may be added to the lists in a later version of the app.
If you challenge an answer in a ranked round and the judge could not decide, it is kept with your account id so a person can review it, until you delete your account. We also count how many answers each account sends to the judge each day, to keep the service fair; those counts are deleted with your account.
What we never do
No advertising, no tracking across apps or websites, no selling or sharing data for marketing, no contacts, no location, no microphone.
Deleting your data
Settings, Delete my data, deletes your account on our server and everything linked to it (profile, photo, scores, answers, lobbies, blocks, judge reviews), revokes Sign in with Apple if you used it, then clears your phone. Reports you made about others are removed with your account; reports others made about you are kept for 12 months for safety review. You can also email us to ask what we hold, to correct it or to delete it. We handle your data under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and reply within 30 days. If you are not happy with our answer you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).
Children
Initial is not directed at children under 13 and its Race chat is between players who may not know each other.