Beam

Privacy

Last updated 18 August 2026

Beam is a puzzle game. It asks for as little as a game with a leaderboard can ask for, and this page says exactly what that is in plain language.

There is no account

You never sign up and you never give us an email address, a phone number or a password. The first time you open Beam it creates an anonymous identifier for your device so your progress has somewhere to live. It is a random string. It is not linked to you, and we have no way to turn it back into a person.

What is stored

• Your progress: which levels you have cleared, stars, streak and coins.
• The display name and mark you choose, if you choose one.
• Your score for the current day, for the leaderboard.
• Your settings, such as sound and reduced motion.

What is never collected

No email, no phone number, no contacts, no location, no photos, no microphone and no address book. We do not sell your data, and we have no analytics product watching how you play.

Advertising

Beam shows ads. There are small banners on the menus, a full-screen ad between levels every so often, and videos you can choose to watch in exchange for coins. There are never ads while you are solving a board.

The ads come from Google AdMob. Google, not us, decides which ad you see, and to do that Google may use your device's advertising identifier and information such as your rough location, your device type and which ads you have already been shown. Google's handling of that is covered by their own privacy policy, at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. We never see any of it, and we never send Google anything about you.

You can say no. The first time it matters, iOS asks whether Beam may track you. Decline and Google serves ads chosen without your advertising identifier — you still see ads, they are just less targeted, and nothing about the game changes. You can change the answer whenever you like in iOS Settings, under Privacy & Security, Tracking.

Or you can remove them. "Remove ads" in the shop is a one-time purchase that turns off the banners and the between-level ads permanently. The videos you choose to watch for coins keep working, because those are a way to earn rather than something done to you.

Where it is kept

In Google Firebase (Firestore), on Google Cloud servers in the United States. Google processes it on our behalf as our hosting provider. It is not sold, and it is not shared with anyone else.

Deleting your data

Because the account is anonymous and tied to your device, deleting the app deletes your access to it — the progress cannot be recovered, on a new phone or anywhere else, and neither we nor Apple can restore it. If you want the stored copy removed as well, email us and we will delete it; you will need to tell us your display name so we can find the right record.

Purchases

Anything you buy is handled entirely by Apple. We never see your card, your billing address or your Apple ID. We are told only that a purchase succeeded, so we can hand over the coins or the unlock.

Two things are permanent once bought — "Beam Forever" and "Remove ads". If you reinstall Beam or move to a new phone, tap Restore purchases in Settings and they come back. Coins do not: they are spent as you go, and Apple has no way to return them.

Children

Beam is rated 13+ and is not directed to children under 13. It was rated 4+ until advertising was added; showing ads chosen by a third party is not something we were willing to do to a younger audience, so the rating went up rather than the disclosure going quiet.

We do not knowingly collect anything from a child under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has been playing and you would like their stored record removed, email us and we will delete it.

For what it is worth to a parent reading this: Beam has no chat, no messaging, and nothing one player can send to another. The only thing anyone can publish is a display name, which is filtered and can be changed or left blank. And "Remove ads" in the shop turns off the banners and the between-level ads permanently.

Changes

If Beam ever starts doing something this page does not describe, this page changes first, and the date at the top changes with it. Advertising was the change this line was written in anticipation of; it arrived on 18 August 2026 and is described above.

Contact

Questions, or a deletion request: hello@overlaydeck.com