Privacy Policy

Big Beam. Last updated 10 November 2026.

The short version

Big Beam has no accounts and no tracking. The web game has no ads. In the iPhone and Android apps, Google AdMob shows a short ad now and then between levels, never a personalised one, and owning the pack turns them off. To put you on the leaderboards, the game sends the rounds you clear and your Infinite runs to our server under a board name: one you type, which is checked before anyone else sees it, or two words such as BLUE BLOB from the game's own word lists. If you report another player's name, it sends that report too. It never asks for your real name, email or anything else about you, and you can remove yourself at any time. The game also sends anonymous play stats to our own server, under a random number that isn't linked to you, to see how the game is played.

What stays on your device

The game keeps the level you're on, the furthest level you've cleared, your stars for each level, your best score, any Daily Beam best and streak from before it was retired, the names you've reported, your sound and vibration settings and, in the phone apps, how many levels you've cleared since the last ad, on your own device, in the app's storage (or your browser's, on the web). None of that list is sent to us (a report itself is, as below). Outside the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the app also keeps its random stats number there, and any play stats waiting to be sent (see Play stats). Deleting the app, or clearing Big Beam's data in your browser, removes it.

The leaderboards

As you start a level, the game tells our server the level, the shape of the playing field and the game's version. When you clear it, the game sends the stars it showed and the moments you held the beam. The server plays the round again to check the stars, then adds them to the boards. The presses of rounds you don't clear aren't sent. When an Infinite run ends, the game sends its score, the moments you held the beam and how long it lasted, for the Infinite boards. When you report a name, the game sends that row's report handle (a random code the server gave the row) with your device's key.

The first level you play makes your place on the boards. For it, the server keeps:

your board name, and the month you joined (for the NEW board). If you typed your name, the server also keeps the result of its check (below) and any reports other players make about it, and a random report handle for each name you've typed, until you leave the boards;
a fingerprint of a random key that the server makes for your device. The key itself is kept only in the game on your device and in your backup links;
your best stars on each level and each Daily Beam you played, and your star totals for each week, each month and all time;
any monthly prize you win: the month, your place and your stars, for as long as you're on the boards, so the game can show it and give you its skins (see the prize rules);
your best Infinite scores for the Infinite boards;
each round and Infinite run sent, with its presses, how long it took and its stars or score, for 30 days, to look into cheating;
if you report a name: which name, that you reported it, when, and a scrambled form of your network (it changes daily), so one player, or one network on a day, counts once.

Board names

You can type a board name of 3 to 12 letters, numbers and spaces, or tap Pick one for me for two words from the game's lists. No real name is needed. A typed name is checked before anyone else sees it; until then, and if it doesn't pass, the boards show you as PLAYER and four digits. The check is in two steps. Our server first compares the name with a list of words that can't be used. Then it sends the name to Anthropic, whose Claude model judges whether it is rude, hateful or pretends to be us. Anthropic is a service provider that does this check for us: it gets only the name's text, never your key, IP address, device or anything else about you. The server keeps the result for each name while a player has that name or it has reports, so the same name isn't sent again.

Hold your finger on a name on any board and tap Report name to report it; you can once you're on the boards. It is hidden for you at once, and the server checks it again. If the report can't be sent, the game says so and the name is hidden only for you. A name reported by three players who have each cleared a level on the boards, from three different networks, is hidden for everyone, whoever picks it, until we look at it. A name hidden that way, and a name we've cleared or turned down, is kept with its reports or our decision so it stays that way for anyone who picks it.

Everyone can see the boards: board names, ranks, tiers and stars. A player who owns the pack has a glowing row on every board, so that much is shown too; nothing else about the purchase is. Your IP address is used only to limit how fast requests come, how many new players one network makes each day and how many play stats one network sends each day, and to count reports from one network once. The address isn't stored. Each day's limits keep only a scrambled form of it, which changes daily, and they're cleared after two days; a report keeps its scrambled form for as long as the report is kept. Our server runs on Fly.io in Sydney, Australia.

To leave, tap Leaderboard, then Rename, then Remove me from the boards. That deletes your board name (typed or picked), your report handles, any reports you made, your stars, rounds, Infinite runs, prizes and everything else the server keeps about you, and the game stops sending rounds until you join again. A typed name's check and the reports about it go too, unless another player on the boards has had the same name, reports hid it or we decided on it: then they stay with the name, not with you. Play stats aren't linked to your board name, so they aren't part of it. Your progress on your device stays.

Play stats

To see how many people play, for how long, who comes back, where players stop, and how the ads do, so we can make the game better, the game sends four kinds of anonymous play events to our own server (Merzo Software, on Fly.io in Sydney, Australia):

opening the game, and whether it's the first time;
each round: the level (in Infinite, the gates opened), Levels or Infinite, whether you won, lost or left it, and how long it took;
each moment a full-screen ad is due: whether it showed, didn't load, or you tapped the pack instead;
closing the game: how long it was open.

With them go a random stats number made on your device, the game, the kind of phone (iPhone, Android or web), the app's version and the date in Sydney. No name, no device identifier and no advertising identifier. Your IP address isn't stored.

The stats number isn't your board key, and it's never joined to your board key, your board name or anything else about you. It isn't sent to Apple, Google or AdMob, and it isn't used for advertising or tracking. In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the events go without a stats number and nothing for them is kept on your device.

The events themselves are deleted after 60 days. A scrambled copy of the stats number, with the day it was first seen, is kept until there have been 60 days with no events from it, and then deleted too. After that, only daily totals are kept.

Backup links

If you tap Share backup link, the game makes a link on your device that holds a copy of that progress. It goes only where you choose to share or paste it, and anyone who has it can load that progress. When the link is opened, the progress is read from the part after its # sign, which browsers never send to a server, so it never reaches us or our host. A link pasted into Restore is read on your device too. Once you're on the leaderboards, the link also holds your board key, so whoever opens it plays as you on the boards.

Buying the pack

The pack (no ads and three skins) is bought in the phone app, through the App Store or Google Play. The store takes the payment: we never get your name, email or card. Your phone sends the store's proof of the sale to our server, which checks it with the store and keeps the store's transaction ID against your board key, so the pack stays yours. Restore purchases adds the pack to the player on that phone too, up to 5 players for one purchase; nothing is moved, so the player who bought it keeps it. The store gets a code made from your board key, never the key itself. Removing yourself from the boards takes your key off the purchase but leaves the transaction ID in place, so you can still restore the pack.

The web game shows no ads. In the iPhone and Android apps, Google AdMob shows a full-screen ad now and then as you tap Next after clearing a level: at most one every 3 levels, and none before level 10 or in Infinite. If you own the pack, you see none.

We ask Google for non-personalised ads only, so the apps never ask to track you. To show the ads, count them and stop fraud, Google's ad software in the app still collects a device identifier, advertising data, how you interact with the ads, crash and performance data, and your rough location from your IP address. It goes straight to Google: we don't link it to you, and it isn't used to track you across other companies' apps or websites. Google explains how it uses this in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the app asks for your consent with Google's form the first time it opens. To change your answer, pause a level and tap Privacy choices.

The website

The game is a set of files served by our host, Fly.io, which also runs the leaderboards server. Like any web server, it records requests (such as IP address, time and the file asked for) in technical logs, used only to keep the service running. We don't use them to identify you, and they aren't combined with anything else.

Children

The phone apps are listed for players 13 and over, because they show ads. The game asks no one, children included, for a name, email, age or contact details. A typed board name is checked by our word list and by Anthropic's model before anyone else sees it, and any player can report one.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.

Contact

Questions about this policy: see the support page.