CloudEx Inc. ("we", "us", or "our") operates the "Where on Earth" app (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices available to you. By using the Service, you are deemed to have agreed to the practices described in this Policy.
1. Our Core Principle
Where on Earth is a geography quiz. You learn flags, countries on a world map, capitals, the shapes of countries, famous sights from photos, mountains, rivers, seas and other landforms, Japan's prefectures and their capitals, US states, world cities, and the states and provinces of eight countries. Questions you get wrong come back later through spaced repetition, and a "review map" colours each place by how well you know it. The world map, the flags, and the photos of the sights are bundled in the app, so the quizzes work offline. Your answers and your learning progress are stored only on your device, and we never view, collect, or receive them. There is no account and no sign-up, and the app contains no advertising SDK and no analytics SDK. Specifically, we do not have access to any of the following:
- Your answers, scores, learning progress, or quiz history
- The learner names you type and the quiz sets you create
- Your settings, including the time of your daily reminder
- The backup files you export, or the contents of the folder you choose for automatic backups
The app does not use your location, camera, microphone, contacts, or photos, and does not ask for permission to access them. Your learning data leaves your device only through a backup that you make yourself or that Android makes according to your backup settings (Section 2). The limited information that is sent over the internet is described in Section 3.1.
2. Your Learning Data and Backups
- Where your learning data is kept: Your answers, your learning progress (how well you know each place and when it is next due for review), a summary of each quiz session, your learners, your own quiz sets, and your settings are stored in the app's private storage on your device. Other apps cannot read it.
- Learners: You can add up to 5 learners so that several people can use the app on one device, each with their own records. Each learner has a name you type (up to 30 characters) and a colour. A nickname is fine — the name is used only to tell learners apart on your device.
- Android backup: The app allows Android's own backup. Depending on your device's backup settings, Android may include your quiz records and settings in the backup saved to your Google account, and may copy them to a new phone when you transfer your data from one device to another. This is handled by Google and Android; we have no access to it. Information that belongs only to the current device — the internal state of the daily reminder, the permission to write to the folder you chose for automatic backups, and the state of your home-screen widgets — is excluded.
- Backing up and restoring by yourself: In the app, you can export all your records and part of your settings as a single JSON file and save it wherever you choose with the system file picker — for example, Google Drive or your device's storage. You can later restore your data from that file. The file is plain text (it is not encrypted) and includes your learners' names, so keep it somewhere only you can access. Restoring replaces the data in the app with the contents of the file; just before that, the app keeps a safety copy of your current data in its own storage (the 3 most recent copies are kept) so that you can undo it.
- Automatic backup: If you turn it on, the app writes the same backup file once a day to a folder you choose and keeps the 7 most recent files.
- Where backup files go: Backup files are written only to the place you choose. We never receive them. If you save them to a cloud service, that service's own terms and privacy policy apply.
- When you uninstall: Uninstalling the app or clearing its data deletes the records and settings stored on your device. Backup files you exported and your Android backup in your Google account are not deleted by this; you can delete them yourself (Section 8).
3. Information We Collect
3.1 Information Collected Automatically
- Crash reports: Via Firebase Crashlytics (Google). When the app crashes, a crash report is sent. It contains the stack trace (a technical record of where in the app the crash happened), the app version, your device model, your OS version, the time of the crash, and a random installation identifier created by Crashlytics. It does not contain your name, your email address, your answers, your learning records, or your learners' names. We use crash reports only to find and fix crashes. The app does not use Google Analytics or Firebase Analytics.
- Purchase information: "Premium" is a one-time in-app purchase made through Google Play. Payment is processed by Google. To unlock Premium, we use only the purchase information that Google Play provides, such as the purchase token and the purchase state. We never receive your card number or any other payment details.
- In-app reviews and updates: The app uses Google Play's In-App Review and In-App Update features to ask you to rate the app and to offer updates. Both are shown and handled by Google Play.
- List of our other apps: To show our other apps, the app downloads their names, descriptions, and icons from our static file host (Cloudflare Pages). The request contains no personal data and none of your app data. As with any request to a web server, it carries your device's IP address and a standard user agent. Tapping an app in the list opens its page on Google Play.
- This privacy policy: The app shows this page by loading it from whereonearth.cloud-ex.biz inside the app. As with any web page, the request carries your device's IP address and a standard user agent.
3.2 Information Stored Only on Your Device
- Answers and learning progress: Each answer, how well you know each place for each type of question, the date it is next due for review, and a summary of each quiz session. They are used to choose the next questions, to bring back the ones you got wrong, and to show the review map and your stats.
- Learners and quiz sets: The learners you add (name and colour) and the quiz sets you create.
- App settings: Difficulty, the range of countries, map, sound, reminder, display, and similar settings.
- Daily reminder: The time you choose is stored on your device, and Android shows the reminder at that time. No server is involved.
- Reading place names aloud: Place names can be read aloud with the text-to-speech engine installed on your device (Android's text-to-speech). The app does not send this text to us. How the speech engine processes the text is up to its provider (for example, Google's speech engine); please see that provider's privacy policy.
- Home-screen widgets: The "country of the day" widget and the flag card widget use only data inside the app.
- Android backup and backup files: As described in Section 2.
3.3 Information We Explicitly Do Not Collect
- Your location
- Your photos or videos, or anything from the camera, the microphone, or your contacts
- Your name, email address, or phone number (the app has no account or sign-up)
- Your answers, learning records, learner names, or quiz sets
- Your device's advertising ID (the app contains no advertising SDK and no analytics SDK)
- A history of the websites you visit, or the contents of other apps
3.4 Permissions the App Requests and Their Purposes
Where on Earth requests only a few permissions and uses them only for the stated purposes:
- Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS, Android 13+) — Used only for the optional daily reminder at a time you choose. Every quiz works without this permission.
- Run at startup (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED) — Used only to schedule the daily reminder again after your phone restarts.
- Vibration (VIBRATE) — A short vibration when an answer is wrong. You can turn it off in the settings.
- Internet and network status (INTERNET / ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE) — Used only for crash reports, Google Play purchases, in-app reviews and updates, downloading the list of our other apps, and showing this privacy policy. The quizzes, the map, the flags, and the photos do not need an internet connection.
- Google Play billing (com.android.vending.BILLING) — Used only to buy Premium through Google Play.
The app does not request location, camera, microphone, contacts, or photos and media permissions. Backup files are saved and opened through the system file picker, so no storage permission is needed either.
4. How We Use Information
The limited information we collect is used only for the following purposes:
- Operating and maintaining the Service
- Unlocking and restoring your Premium purchase
- Diagnosing and fixing crashes
- Showing the list of our other apps
- Responding to support inquiries
- Complying with applicable laws
5. Third-Party Services
Where on Earth uses the following third-party services. Each service has its own privacy policy.
- Firebase Crashlytics (Google LLC) — crash reports
- Google Play Billing (Google LLC) — the one-time Premium purchase; payment is completed on Google Play
- Google Play In-App Review and In-App Updates (Google LLC) — let you rate the app and install updates without leaving it; handled by Google Play
- Android backup (Google LLC) — backs up your quiz records and settings to your Google account if backup is turned on in your device settings; handled by Google
- Cloudflare Pages (Cloudflare, Inc.) — hosts the static list of our other apps
- The text-to-speech engine on your device (its provider, for example Google LLC) — used only when you have place names read aloud
Where on Earth contains no advertising SDK and does not share your data with advertising networks.
The map data, place names, flags, and photos in the app come from Natural Earth (public-domain map data), Wikidata (place names, CC0), flagcdn.com (public-domain flag images), and Wikimedia Commons (photos under CC0, public domain, CC BY, CC BY-SA, or the Free Art License; the author and licence are shown with each photo). They are bundled in the app, so the app does not contact these sites while you play. If you tap a link to one of these sites or to Google Play, it opens in your browser or in the Google Play app, and that site's own privacy policy applies.
6. Data Retention
- Crash reports: retained by Firebase Crashlytics for 90 days, then deleted.
- Your answers, learning progress, learners, quiz sets, and settings on your device: kept until you delete them in the app, uninstall the app, or clear the app's data. The safety copies made before a restore are kept in the app's storage (the 3 most recent).
- Backup files you export: kept where you saved them until you delete them. Automatic backup keeps the 7 most recent files and deletes older ones.
- Android backup: kept by Google according to your Google account and device settings.
7. International Data Transfers
We are based in Japan. Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics) and Google Play purchase information are processed by Google, whose servers may be located in various countries. When you use the Service, this minimal information may be processed outside your country of residence under the safeguards that Google provides for its services.
8. Your Rights
Depending on where you reside (e.g., the EEA, UK, California, Japan), you may have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of the limited information we hold. Your learning data stays on your device, so you can manage it directly. You can:
- In the app, delete the records of the current learner, delete a learner (this also deletes that learner's records), or delete all records at any time
- Uninstall the app or clear its data to erase everything it stores on your device
- Delete the backup files you exported, and manage or delete your Android backup in your device's backup settings
- Turn off the daily reminder or vibration in the app, or withdraw the notification permission in your device settings at any time
- Contact us at the address below to ask about or request deletion of crash data. Crash reports do not contain your name or email address, so please tell us your device model and the approximate date and time of the crash so that we can find them.
9. Children's Privacy
Where on Earth is intended for a general audience. It has no account and does not ask anyone, including children, for personal information; the learner names typed in the app stay on the device. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 (or the minimum age applicable in your region). If you believe that a child has sent us personal information, for example by email, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Changes to This Policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. The latest version is always published at this URL together with its effective date. Please check this page from time to time.
11. Contact
For questions about privacy, data requests, or to report concerns, please email us at .
CloudEx Inc. (Japan)
Effective Date: November 4, 2026