Effective date: 12 September 2026
Last updated: 12 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Dot Matrix Games, the game publishing name used by Dot Matrix in Australia (“Dot Matrix Games”, “we”, “our” or “us”), handles information in connection with the mobile game Bolt Shift: Screw Puzzle (“Bolt Shift” or the “Game”).

We aim to collect, use, disclose and retain only information reasonably necessary to operate, support, secure and improve Bolt Shift, provide permitted advertising and purchases, comply with applicable legal requirements and protect the Game from fraud or misuse.

Game and publisher details

Privacy summary

Bolt Shift does not require you to create a player account or provide your name, telephone number, postal address or email address in order to play.

Game progress, settings and most gameplay information are stored locally on your device. Dot Matrix Games does not currently operate a Bolt Shift cloud-save service, online leaderboard, public player profile, public chat, direct-messaging service or multiplayer service.

Bolt Shift uses Google Mobile Ads and Google’s User Messaging Platform (“UMP”) to support advertising and applicable privacy choices. Advertising is subject to technical controls, audience treatment, consent requirements and applicable privacy rules.

Bolt Shift 1.0 also offers an optional one-time Remove Ads purchase through Google Play Billing, subject to Google Play and regional availability.

Production Unity Gaming Services Analytics is currently disabled for all audiences. Local game-state and diagnostic information may still be processed on the device as described in this Policy.

Information stored locally on your device

Bolt Shift may store game-related information locally on your device, including:

  • Completed, current and unlocked levels;
  • Chapter and progression status;
  • Coins, lives, rewards and power-up balances;
  • Daily Reward and Daily Challenge status;
  • Weekly Workshop Challenge status and reward state;
  • Achievement and collectible progress;
  • Perfect Repair mastery status for completed levels;
  • Tutorial and onboarding status;
  • Sound and vibration preferences;
  • Reduced Motion and High Contrast preferences;
  • Rate Us prompt eligibility, dismissal or cooldown state;
  • Welcome Back eligibility and reward state;
  • Your selected audience category used for privacy and advertising treatment;
  • Advertising reward records used to prevent duplicate rewards;
  • Remove Ads entitlement or reconciliation state where needed to operate the purchase correctly;
  • Local save, backup and recovery information;
  • Local diagnostic information; and
  • Locally generated gameplay events used for game-state validation, reliability and troubleshooting.

This information is used to operate the Game, remember progress and preferences, apply the appropriate privacy and advertising treatment, prevent duplicate rewards or purchases, maintain game-state integrity and recover valid save information where possible.

Information that remains solely on your device is not collected by Dot Matrix Games merely because the Game stores it locally.

Audience selection

Bolt Shift is designed for a mixed puzzle-game audience, including players aged 9 and over. It is not designed exclusively for children.

Where advertising functionality is available, Bolt Shift uses a neutral audience-selection process before advertising can be initialised. The Game does not require your exact date of birth for this process.

The available choices are:

  • Under 13;
  • 13–17;
  • 18 or older; or
  • Prefer not to say.

Your selected category is stored locally on the device and is used to determine the privacy, consent, advertising and related service treatment that Bolt Shift should apply. It is not displayed publicly and is not used to create a public player profile.

If you select Prefer not to say, Bolt Shift applies a conservative privacy and advertising treatment.

These categories are operational privacy controls within Bolt Shift. They do not change any legal rights or protections that may apply to you under the laws of your country or region.

Advertising

Bolt Shift uses the Google Mobile Ads SDK to provide advertising where advertising is enabled and permitted.

Advertising requests remain subject to audience treatment, privacy and consent requirements, network availability and technical configuration.

During development, testing, maintenance or restricted operation, live advertising may be disabled completely or replaced with official test advertisements.

Advertising formats

Bolt Shift may use the following advertising formats:

  • Interstitial advertisements: full-screen advertisements shown only at eligible natural breaks in gameplay; and
  • Rewarded advertisements: optional advertisements that a player deliberately chooses to watch in exchange for a clearly identified in-game benefit.

Bolt Shift does not currently use banner advertisements or app-open advertisements.

Interstitial advertising controls

Under the current Game design, automatic interstitial advertisements are not eligible during Levels 1–10.

From Level 11 onward, an interstitial may become eligible only at an appropriate natural post-level boundary and remains subject to frequency controls and suppression rules.

The current design includes limits on how frequently automatic interstitials may be shown and suppresses them during protected states such as tutorials and certain challenge or reward flows.

Automatic interstitial advertisements are not intended to interrupt active puzzle interaction.

Rewarded advertisements

Rewarded advertisements are voluntary. Depending on eligibility, network availability and advertising availability, optional rewarded opportunities may include:

  • A continue opportunity after a failed level;
  • A reward or coin multiplier after level completion; or
  • A Daily Reward multiplier.

You can choose not to watch a rewarded advertisement.

A rewarded-ad benefit is granted only after the advertising system confirms the required rewarded event. Bolt Shift uses safeguards intended to prevent the same rewarded-ad benefit being granted more than once.

Information processed for advertising

When Google Mobile Ads is permitted to initialise or an advertising request is made, Google and its advertising technology may process information associated with the device, application and advertising request.

Depending on the device, operating system, region, privacy settings, audience category, consent choices and advertising configuration, this may include:

  • Internet Protocol (IP) address, which may be used to estimate an approximate or general location;
  • Device information;
  • Operating-system information;
  • Application information and application version;
  • Advertising, device or application identifiers where available and legally permitted;
  • User product interactions, including certain app or advertisement interactions;
  • Information about advertisements requested, displayed or interacted with;
  • Diagnostic, performance and reliability information;
  • Consent, privacy and advertising-eligibility information;
  • Information used to provide and measure advertisements; and
  • Information used for security, abuse prevention and advertising-fraud prevention.

The exact information processed depends on the applicable Google advertising configuration and privacy treatment.

Google’s processing of information is also governed by Google’s own privacy practices. For more information, see Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Advertising treatment for different audiences

Under 13

For a player who selects Under 13, Bolt Shift applies child-directed and conservative advertising treatment.

  • Personalised advertising is disabled through the Game’s advertising configuration;
  • Remarketing is disabled through the Game’s advertising configuration;
  • Child-directed treatment is requested from the advertising provider where applicable;
  • Advertising content is restricted to an age-appropriate maximum content rating;
  • Production Unity Analytics remains disabled; and
  • Advertising is configured to operate subject to applicable Google Play Families requirements.

Age 13–17

For a player who selects 13–17, Bolt Shift applies conservative under-age advertising treatment.

  • Personalised advertising is disabled through the Game’s advertising configuration;
  • Remarketing is disabled through the Game’s advertising configuration;
  • Under-age treatment is requested where applicable;
  • Advertising content is restricted to an age-appropriate level; and
  • Production Unity Analytics remains disabled.

Prefer not to say

A player who selects Prefer not to say receives conservative privacy and advertising treatment.

  • Personalised advertising is disabled through the Game’s advertising configuration;
  • Remarketing is disabled;
  • Conservative advertising restrictions are applied; and
  • Production Unity Analytics remains disabled.

Age 18 or older

A player who selects 18 or older may be eligible for Google’s applicable privacy and consent process.

Depending on your location, applicable law, Google’s configuration and your privacy choices, Google UMP may present a consent or privacy message.

Where permitted, advertising provided to an eligible adult may be personalised, non-personalised, limited or otherwise configured according to applicable privacy and consent requirements.

Consent and privacy choices

Bolt Shift includes Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) to support privacy and consent requirements associated with advertising.

For eligible users, UMP may be used to request, record or refresh advertising privacy choices where required.

The availability, wording and options presented by a privacy or consent message can vary according to your country or region, applicable legal requirements and Google’s configuration.

Your device, operating system, Google account and application marketplace may also provide controls relating to advertising identifiers, advertising personalisation and other privacy settings.

In-app purchases and Google Play Billing

Bolt Shift uses Google Play Billing and related application purchasing technology to provide the optional one-time Remove Ads purchase.

Google Play handles payment processing. Dot Matrix Games does not receive your complete payment-card number, PayPal credentials or complete banking details through the Google Play Billing integration.

Google Play may provide the Game with purchase-related information required to process, acknowledge, deliver and restore purchases. This may include:

  • Product identifier;
  • Purchase or transaction reference;
  • Purchase state;
  • Acknowledgement state;
  • Entitlement or ownership status; and
  • Other limited transaction information required to operate or verify the purchase.

Bolt Shift may maintain local entitlement and duplicate-fulfilment records to ensure the same purchase is not incorrectly delivered more than once.

Purchase ownership may also be re-queried from Google Play so that the Game can restore an eligible entitlement associated with the relevant Google Play account.

Restoring a Google Play purchase does not restore locally deleted gameplay progression, coins, lives or other locally stored game data.

Remove Ads

Bolt Shift 1.0 offers an optional one-time Remove Ads purchase through Google Play, where available.

Remove Ads suppresses automatic interstitial advertisements.

Optional rewarded advertisements may remain available after purchasing Remove Ads because the player deliberately chooses whether to watch them in exchange for an identified in-game benefit.

The Remove Ads entitlement is intended to be associated with the relevant Google Play purchase ownership. Bolt Shift may query Google Play to reconcile or restore that ownership when appropriate.

No other production in-app purchase is offered in Bolt Shift 1.0.

Production Analytics

Production Unity Gaming Services Analytics is currently disabled for all audiences in Bolt Shift 1.0.

Bolt Shift contains technical support for Unity Gaming Services Analytics, but the public production configuration does not currently submit gameplay Analytics to Unity Analytics.

Restricted development or internal-testing builds may use approved development Analytics when necessary to test Game functionality, reliability or event handling.

Development events may include technical or gameplay information such as:

  • Session events;
  • Level start, retry, failure and completion;
  • Internal level identifiers;
  • Chapter progression;
  • Daily Reward and Daily Challenge events;
  • Weekly Workshop Challenge events;
  • Power-up and reward events;
  • Achievement and collectible events;
  • Perfect Repair events;
  • Application and content version information; and
  • Diagnostic categories used for development testing.

Local provider-neutral gameplay events may remain on the device for troubleshooting, reliability and game-state validation. Failure or unavailability of an Analytics service is not intended to prevent core gameplay.

Perfect Repair and mastery information

Bolt Shift may store a local record of whether a level has been completed as a Perfect Repair and related mastery progress.

This information is used to display mastery status and progression within the Game. Under the current production configuration, it is not used to create a public leaderboard or public player profile.

Weekly Workshop Challenge

Bolt Shift may offer a locally generated Weekly Workshop Challenge using existing game levels.

The Game may store information such as the current challenge week, selected challenge levels, completion state and whether the weekly reward has already been claimed.

This information is used to operate the Weekly Workshop Challenge, prevent duplicate rewards and maintain challenge progress between sessions.

The current Bolt Shift 1.0 Weekly Workshop Challenge does not use an online public leaderboard.

Welcome Back rewards

Bolt Shift may use locally stored timing information to determine whether a player is eligible for a limited Welcome Back reward after a period of inactivity.

This information is used locally to determine eligibility, grant the reward once and prevent repeated claims for the same qualifying return.

Rate Us

Bolt Shift may provide a voluntary Rate Us option or prompt after certain positive gameplay milestones.

The Game may store local eligibility, dismissal or cooldown state to avoid showing review prompts too frequently or at inappropriate times.

If you choose to rate or review Bolt Shift, you may be directed to Google Play or a Google Play review interface. Your interaction with Google Play is subject to Google’s terms and privacy practices.

Accessibility and preference settings

Bolt Shift may store accessibility and presentation preferences locally, including settings such as Reduced Motion and High Contrast.

These preferences are used to adjust the Game’s presentation on your device and are not intended to identify you.

Crash reporting and diagnostics

Bolt Shift does not currently use an active third-party crash-reporting SDK in the production Game.

The Game may store local diagnostic and recovery information on your device to help protect saved progress, detect technical failures and investigate unexpected behaviour.

Google Play may independently provide platform-level crash, Android Vitals, ANR, installation or device-compatibility information to developers through Google Play Console. Such processing is governed by Google’s platform terms and privacy practices.

Information Bolt Shift does not directly request during normal gameplay

Bolt Shift is not designed to directly request the following from you during normal gameplay:

  • Your full name;
  • Your home address;
  • Your telephone number;
  • Your contact list;
  • Your call history;
  • Your text messages;
  • Your precise GPS location;
  • Your photographs or personal videos;
  • Camera content;
  • Microphone recordings;
  • Health information;
  • Biometric information;
  • Your complete payment-card details;
  • Your PayPal credentials;
  • Your bank-account credentials;
  • Your personal files or documents;
  • Your browsing history;
  • Your email address unless you voluntarily contact support;
  • Your exact date of birth for Bolt Shift’s audience-selection process; or
  • A public player profile or social-media identity.

This does not mean that enabled third-party services process no technical information. Information processed through advertising, Google Play Billing and other enabled platform services is described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

Device permissions and internet access

Bolt Shift may use your device’s vibration or haptic functionality to provide gameplay feedback. You can control vibration using the Game’s settings where available and through your device settings.

The Game may use internet access for advertising, privacy and consent functionality, Google Play Billing, application-marketplace functionality and other enabled online services.

Core puzzle gameplay is designed to remain locally playable when network-dependent services are unavailable, although advertising, purchasing and other online functionality may not be available without an internet connection.

Bolt Shift is not designed to require access to your contacts, precise GPS location, camera, microphone or personal media library for normal gameplay.

Support communications

If you contact Dot Matrix Games by email or another support channel, we may receive information you voluntarily provide, including:

  • Your name or email address;
  • The contents of your support message;
  • Your device manufacturer and model;
  • Your operating-system version;
  • Your Bolt Shift version;
  • The affected level number;
  • Screenshots or screen recordings you attach;
  • Diagnostic information you provide; and
  • Any other information you voluntarily include.

We use support information to respond to your request, investigate defects, diagnose technical problems, provide support, protect the Game from misuse and improve its operation.

Please do not send passwords, complete payment-card numbers, PayPal credentials, marketplace credentials, identity documents, private financial information, complete purchase tokens or other unnecessary sensitive information when contacting support.

Third-party platforms and service providers

You may download Bolt Shift through a third-party application marketplace such as Google Play. The marketplace and your operating-system provider may independently process information associated with your account, installation, device, purchases, updates, security or use of their services.

Depending on the Game version and enabled functionality, software or services associated with Bolt Shift may include:

  • Google Play;
  • Google Play Billing;
  • Google Mobile Ads;
  • Google User Messaging Platform;
  • Unity Gaming Services for restricted development functionality; and
  • Website, hosting, email, security and technical service providers used by Dot Matrix Games.

These providers may process information on our behalf or independently, depending on the service involved. Their handling of information is also governed by their own terms and privacy practices.

Relevant privacy information includes:

Local saves, backup and deletion

Bolt Shift progress is primarily stored locally on your device.

Clearing the Game’s application storage, resetting your device or uninstalling Bolt Shift may permanently remove local progress, settings, rewards, mastery information, Weekly Challenge state, accessibility settings and locally stored audience/privacy choices.

Your device manufacturer, operating-system provider or application marketplace may provide separate backup or restoration functionality. Those services are controlled by the applicable provider and may depend on your device and account settings.

Because Dot Matrix Games does not currently maintain a server-based Bolt Shift player account or cloud-save record, we generally cannot identify, retrieve or restore gameplay progress that has been permanently deleted from the device.

A Google Play purchase entitlement, such as Remove Ads, may be capable of being restored through the relevant Google Play account even when local gameplay progress cannot be restored.

You can generally remove locally stored Bolt Shift information by clearing the Game’s application storage through your device settings or uninstalling the Game. Doing so may permanently delete local progress.

Children’s privacy

Bolt Shift is intended for a mixed puzzle-game audience, including players aged 9 and over. It is not designed exclusively for children.

The Game does not require a child to create a Bolt Shift account, provide a name or email address, create a public profile, use public chat, send direct messages or share precise location information in order to play.

Where advertising is enabled, a player who selects Under 13 receives child-directed and conservative advertising treatment under the current Game design.

Players who select 13–17 and players who select Prefer not to say also receive conservative advertising and privacy treatment.

Production Unity Analytics is disabled for all audiences in Bolt Shift 1.0.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe that a child has voluntarily submitted personal information directly to Dot Matrix Games through a support communication, please contact info@dotmatrix.com.au. We will review the request and take appropriate action.

How we use information

Depending on the type of information and functionality involved, information may be used to:

  • Operate and maintain Bolt Shift;
  • Remember local progress and preferences;
  • Apply the appropriate audience, privacy, consent and advertising treatment;
  • Provide permitted advertising;
  • Provide optional rewarded-ad benefits;
  • Process, acknowledge and restore an eligible Google Play purchase;
  • Prevent duplicate rewards, purchases, fraud and misuse;
  • Diagnose defects and unexpected behaviour;
  • Protect save integrity and recover valid local data where possible;
  • Respond to support requests;
  • Maintain the security and integrity of the Game and related services;
  • Comply with applicable legal obligations;
  • Establish, exercise or defend legal claims; and
  • Improve the quality, accessibility and reliability of Bolt Shift.

Sharing and disclosure

Dot Matrix Games does not sell your personal information for money.

Information may be processed or disclosed where reasonably necessary to:

  • Use advertising and consent providers;
  • Use application marketplaces and payment services;
  • Operate website, hosting, email, security and technical-support services;
  • Provide and measure permitted advertising;
  • Process and restore permitted purchases;
  • Prevent advertising, reward or transaction fraud;
  • Investigate technical problems with authorised developers, contractors or service providers;
  • Respond to lawful requests or comply with legal obligations;
  • Protect the rights, safety and security of players, Dot Matrix Games or others; or
  • Complete a business reorganisation, acquisition, sale or transfer subject to applicable privacy requirements.

Third-party advertising, payment and platform providers may process information as described in this Privacy Policy and under their own privacy practices.

Overseas processing

Dot Matrix Games is based in Australia. Some third-party services used in connection with the Game, website, advertising, payments, email or application marketplace operate internationally.

Google, Unity, application marketplaces, hosting providers, email providers and other technical service providers may process information outside Australia, including in the United States and other countries in which they or their service providers maintain infrastructure.

The exact processing locations may vary according to the provider, service and infrastructure.

Where applicable, we take reasonable steps appropriate to our role and circumstances to use reputable providers and manage personal information in accordance with applicable privacy requirements.

Retention

Locally stored Game information generally remains on your device until it is changed, overwritten, cleared, deleted, removed by uninstalling the Game or otherwise managed by your device or backup provider.

Advertising, payment and platform providers may retain information according to their own systems, configurations, legal obligations and privacy policies.

Information submitted directly to Dot Matrix Games in support communications is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to the request, investigate the issue, maintain appropriate support records, resolve disputes, protect our services and comply with legal obligations.

Personal information that is no longer reasonably required by us will be deleted or de-identified where reasonably practicable and legally appropriate.

Information security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information under our control from loss, misuse, interference and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

No electronic storage, software or transmission system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Access, correction and deletion requests

Depending on where you live and the laws that apply, you may have rights concerning personal information held about you. These may include rights to request access, correction or deletion, object to or restrict certain processing, withdraw consent where applicable, or make a privacy complaint.

Because Bolt Shift does not currently operate a server-based player account or cloud-save system, Dot Matrix Games generally cannot identify or retrieve gameplay information that exists only locally on your device.

We can review personal information that you previously provided directly to us, such as information contained in a support email.

Information associated with Google advertising or Google Play purchases may also be subject to privacy, access or deletion mechanisms provided directly by Google under Google’s own terms and policies.

To make a privacy request to Dot Matrix Games, email info@dotmatrix.com.au with the subject Bolt Shift Privacy Request.

Please provide enough information for us to locate the relevant communication and reasonably verify that the request relates to you. Do not send unnecessary identity documents or sensitive information unless we specifically explain why additional verification is reasonably required.

Privacy complaints

If you have a question or complaint about the way Dot Matrix Games handles personal information, contact us using the details below.

Please describe the issue and, where possible, the outcome you are seeking. We will review the matter and respond within a reasonable period.

If Australian privacy law applies to the matter and you are not satisfied with our response, you may also have the right to contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or another applicable privacy regulator.

Current services not included in Bolt Shift 1.0

The current Bolt Shift 1.0 production release does not provide:

  • A Bolt Shift user-account system;
  • Cloud save operated by Dot Matrix Games;
  • Online leaderboards;
  • Multiplayer;
  • Public player profiles;
  • Public chat or direct messaging;
  • A Battle Pass;
  • Remote push notifications; or
  • Production Unity Analytics.

If any of these services is introduced in a future release, we will review the resulting information handling and update this Privacy Policy and relevant store disclosures before or when required.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when Bolt Shift, its advertising configuration, purchasing functionality, service providers, legal requirements or our information-handling practices change.

The current version will be published on this page with a revised effective date or “Last updated” date.

Where a change is material and additional notice or consent is required, we will provide an appropriate notice or consent mechanism before the relevant processing occurs.

Contact us

For privacy questions, requests or complaints relating to Bolt Shift, contact:

Dot Matrix Games
Dot Matrix
47 Kent Road
Pascoe Vale VIC 3044
Australia

Email: info@dotmatrix.com.au
Subject: Bolt Shift Privacy Request