Pinball Companion
Privacy
Pinball Companion for iPhone, iPad and Android collects nothing that identifies you.
Last updated 30 October 2026.
The short version
No account, no advertising, no trackers; the only statistics are anonymous download counts. The app asks our server for one thing: about once a week it downloads the public list of tournament line-ups from peltriaux.com, and that server counts those downloads without keeping who made them. The events map comes from Apple Maps on iPhone and iPad and from Google Maps on Android. Everything else the app knows about pinball ships inside it, and everything you add stays on your device, in your own iCloud on iPhone and iPad, or in your own Android backup on Android.
What the app does and does not do
The machine database
The guides and machine facts are bundled in the app. Reading them makes no network request.
Event line-ups
The Events tab's tournament line-ups ship with the app. About once a week, and when you pull down on the Events list or tap Update now in Settings, the app downloads the latest line-ups from peltriaux.com. The request carries no account, identifier, location or device data. From version 1.5 it also says why it was made (the weekly check, a pull-down or Update now), whether it is the first check that week, and the app's version. The Android app does the same from its first version, and names itself as the Android app and its version (for example “PinballCompanion-Android/1.0”), so that iPhone and Android downloads are counted apart. To count how many people use the app, the server turns each request's internet address into a code, using a key that changes every week: the address itself is never saved, and the codes and the key are deleted at the end of each week. Only daily and weekly totals are kept, and they say nothing about any one person. Without a connection the app uses the last line-ups it has.
The camera (iPhone and iPad)
The camera is used while the machine scanner is open, and when you take a photo of a score display with Add score, and only after you allow it. Apple's text recognition reads the words in view on your device, and the scanner saves no image or text. A photo you take with Add score is kept on your device and synced only through your own iCloud, with its metadata (including location) removed. Nothing is sent to us.
Location
Only after you allow it, the app reads your location once each time you choose Nearby on the Events tab, tap Use my location, or open Add score (one reading, while you are using the app), never continuously, except while the events map is open, when it follows your position to show where you are on the map. It is used on your device to sort events and suggest where you played, and the reading is not stored. If you save a place, it keeps its location rounded to about 100 m, and that syncs only through your own iCloud. Map images come from Apple Maps; we receive nothing.
On Android, only after you allow it, the app reads your location once each time you choose Nearby on the Events tab or tap the arrow that centres the map on you, and follows it only while the full events map is open, to show where you are. Google Play services provides the reading on your device; the app uses it there to sort events and to show your position, and never stores it or sends it to us. When you open Add score, the Android app asks once for your location, then reads it once from Android's own location service to suggest where you played; the reading is never stored or sent to us. A place you save keeps its location rounded to about 100 m, on your phone.
Google Maps (Android)
On Android, the events map uses Google Maps. While a map is on screen, Google's map software in the app downloads the map images for the area shown, so Google does see which area the map shows. By Google's own account it also collects technical data: the device model and system version, crash reports, an identifier specific to Google's map software, how the map is moved and zoomed, and the connection's internet address. Google uses this to provide and improve its maps, under its own privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy). We receive none of it. The app does not send Google your position: it draws where you are on the map, on your device.
iPhone Duo
On an iPhone Duo, the app reads whether the phone is half-folded (the hinge position), on your device, only to lay out the screen. It is not stored or sent.
Your library and notes
Machines you star and notes you write are saved on your device. If iCloud is on for your Apple Account, they sync to your other devices through your own iCloud storage. We cannot read that storage. Events you star sync the same way, through your own iCloud.
On Android, the machines and events you star, your notes, your scores, your saved places and your settings are saved on the device. If backup is on, Android includes them in its own backup to your Google account, and restores them when you set up a new device; score photos are left out of the Google backup and, on Android 12 and later, move to a new phone only with a device-to-device transfer; Google stores that backup and we cannot read it. The downloaded event line-ups are left out of the backup; the app downloads them again. Android does not sync them between devices.
Your scores (iPhone and iPad)
Your scores, places and score photos sync through your own iCloud; we never see them.
Your scores (Android)
On Android, the camera is used only when you photograph a score: the photo is read on your phone with Google's ML Kit, made smaller, stripped of its metadata and kept on the phone; it is never sent to us.
Tips (iPhone and iPad)
Tips are optional and handled entirely by Apple's App Store. Apple processes the payment. We receive no name, email address or payment details, only Apple's standard sales reports, which do not identify you.
The Android app has no tips or in-app purchases.
Links
A link in the app, such as a machine's database page, opens in your browser (Safari on iPhone and iPad). What that website does is covered by its own privacy policy. On Android, “Opens in your maps app” passes the venue's name and position to your maps app, or to Google Maps in your browser if you have none; your own location is not part of it.
Deleting your data
There is no account, so there is nothing for you to ask us to delete: the server never saves a request, the weekly codes and their key are deleted every week, and the daily and weekly totals say nothing about any one person. What you add in the app stays on your device and in your own iCloud or Android backup; deleting the app, or its data in your phone's settings, removes it from the device. Questions: dev@peltriaux.com.
Children
The app collects nothing that identifies anyone, children included.
Changes
If this ever changes, this page will say so before the app does, with a new date at the top.
Contact
Questions: dev@peltriaux.com