Privacy Policy

Who we are

Fun Audio Games (called Hear Out Games until November 2026), the app for iPhone, iPad and Android, its watch apps and this website, is made by Hugo.FM Games Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14615936), trading as Hugo FM. Our registered office is 55 Station Road, Manningtree, Essex, CO11 1EB, United Kingdom. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Hugo.FM Games Limited, which is the controller of the personal information described here. If you have a question about your privacy, email [email protected].

What we don't do

• You never have to make an account: every game can be played without one, and signing in is your choice (see Accounts).
• We don't show ads.
• The app contains no third-party analytics, advertising, crash-reporting or tracking code, and we don't track you across other apps or websites. Its own usage data, described below, comes only to us. If you've allowed it in your device's settings, Apple or Google may also give us crash reports and statistics about the app, which don't tell us who you are.
• We never sell or share usage data, or any other personal information.
• The app has no chat or messaging with other people and no way to post anything. It has no web views: its links to this website open in your browser.

Usage data

To see how the games are played, and to keep the app working, the app sends us usage data: short records of things that happen in it, such as "a game was opened" or "a chapter was finished". It's on unless you turn it off, and it never says who you are.

The random ID

The first time you open the app, it makes a random ID, a string of letters and numbers that means nothing on its own, and sends it with each record, so we can tell which records came from the same installation. It isn't your name, email or phone number, or an ID of your device or of your Apple or Google account. It's kept in the app's own storage and left out of your device's backups, so deleting the app deletes it and installing the app again starts with a new one. Turning usage data off forgets it.

Because the records under one ID belong together, this data is pseudonymous: we can't tell who you are from it, but we treat it as personal information all the same. If you sign in to the app (see Accounts) and leave usage data on, we note that the app's random ID is yours, so we can see how one person plays across their devices. Signing out, turning usage data off, or Delete my usage data removes that note.

What each record says

Every record has the event's name and these details:

• The random ID.
• A session ID, a new random ID each time you open the app or after it's been in the background for 30 minutes, and a number counting the records in that session.
• The date and time on your device.
• The app's version and build number.
• Whether it's the app for iPhone and iPad or the Android app, and the version of the device's system, such as iOS 26 or Android 16.
• The kind of device it's on: a phone, a tablet, a computer or a watch. Only that, never its make or model.
• Your device's language setting.

These are the events, each with only the details listed:

• App opened: whether it was a fresh start, and whether it was the first time.
• App put away: how many seconds it had been open.
• Intro finished: whether it was skipped.
• Welcome finished: whether its steps were completed or skipped.
• Signing in: Google, Apple, or carrying on without an account; whether it worked, was cancelled or failed; and where: as the app started, or in Settings. Never your email address or your account.
• Microphone answered: whether you allowed it, and where it was asked: in the welcome, in a game or in Settings.
• Tab opened: Games, Shop, Help or Settings.
• Help opened: from the Help tab, a game, the welcome or (from version 2) the start screen. Not which topic.
• Play pressed (from version 2, whose games are the website's): whether you were signed in.
• Games left (from version 2): how many turns and seconds they were played for, how many answers were spoken, typed and tapped (the numbers only, never the answers), and how many questions went unanswered.
• Game opened: which game, and whether it carried on from where you left it.
• Game reached an end: which game, the kind of end (a chapter's end, game over or the end) and the point in the story.
• Next chapter started: which game, and which chapter.
• Free part finished: which game, and which pack carries on the story.
• Game started again: which game.
• Game left: which game, the point in the story, how many turns and seconds it was played for, how many answers were spoken, typed and tapped (the numbers only, never the answers), and how many questions went unanswered.
• Game went wrong: which game, and the point in the story.
• Shop opened: from the Shop tab, a game's card, a game's menu or the end of a free part.
• Purchase started: which pack (or, from version 2, Fun Audio Games Unlimited), and whether it was a test purchase (in a test version of the app, where nothing is paid).
• Purchase finished: which pack, whether it was bought, is waiting for approval, was cancelled, failed or was already yours, and whether it was a test purchase. If it failed, the kind of problem: the connection, the store, purchases not allowed on the device, the pack not on sale, or something else. Never a price, a payment or your store account.
• Purchases restored: whether any were found, and how many.
• Pack downloaded: which pack, whether it installed, how long it took and how big it was.

What it never includes

• Anything you say or type, the words of the stories, or any audio.
• Whether you use a screen reader, or any accessibility or comfort setting: theme, text size, font, reduce motion, voice speed, music volume, time to answer or the microphone setting.
• Which help topics you read.
• Whether you use a watch, or anything that passes between your phone and your watch.
• Your name, email or phone number, your device's model, advertising IDs, or where you are.
• Your IP address (see below).

Turning it off, and deleting it

Usage data is on unless you turn it off. The first time you open the app, its welcome page says so, with a Turn off button, and the app sends nothing until you've finished or skipped the welcome. You can turn it off, or on again, at any time in the app's Settings, under Privacy, with Share usage data. Turning it off stops the app sending anything, deletes the records it hadn't sent yet, and forgets its random ID. It doesn't delete what was sent before: to delete that too, use Delete my usage data first.

Delete my usage data, in the same place, deletes everything we hold under your app's random ID, and the app starts again with a new one. The random ID is the only way we can find your usage data, so once the app has been deleted, or has forgotten its ID because usage data was turned off, we can't tell which records were yours; they're deleted after 13 months, like all the rest.

Where it goes, and for how long

The app sends usage data over an encrypted connection to our server at funaudiogames.com, through Cloudflare, which sits in front of our website. Records it can't send straight away, without a connection for example, wait in the app for up to 7 days. Our server, and the database where it keeps usage data, run on a computer that DigitalOcean hosts for us in Germany (Frankfurt). We delete each record 13 months after we receive it. We never sell or share usage data, and we don't use it for advertising.

Our server uses the IP address a record comes from only for a moment, in memory, to stop anyone sending too much at once. It doesn't store it, it keeps no log of requests, and the IP address isn't part of the usage data. Like any web service, though, Cloudflare keeps standard request logs, which include IP addresses, for a short time, to run the service and keep it secure.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

We use usage data to improve the games and keep the app working: to see which games and screens people use, where stories get stuck or players stop, whether purchases and downloads work, and whether people come back. Our legal basis is our legitimate interests in doing that. We think it's a fair balance with your privacy, because the data doesn't say who you are, never includes what you say or anything about accessibility, isn't used for advertising or shared with anyone, is deleted after 13 months, and is easy to turn off and delete.

The microphone and speech recognition

You can answer each question by speaking, typing or tapping. Speaking needs the microphone and your device's speech recognition. The app asks before it uses them: in its welcome steps, when you first open a game, or from its Settings. You can say no, or turn them off later in your device's settings, and still play every game by typing and tapping.

The microphone is only on while a game is open and listening for your answer, which can carry on with the screen off or the phone locked if you leave a game playing. A short sound plays when it starts listening (unless you turn the listening sounds off in Settings), the ring around the picture on screen shows that it's listening, and our watch app, if you use it, buzzes. Pausing or leaving the game turns the microphone off.

On iPhone

Apple's speech recognition turns what you say into words. Where your iPhone supports it, this happens on the iPhone itself. Where it doesn't, your voice is sent to Apple to be recognised, under Apple's privacy policy.

On Android

Your phone's speech recognition service turns what you say into words. On most phones this service is Google's. Many phones recognise speech on the phone itself. Others send your voice to the service's servers, under its provider's privacy policy (for Google, the Google Privacy Policy).

What the app does with your words

The app uses the words only to work out your answer to the question it asked. It doesn't record or keep your voice. What you said shows on screen while you play, but it isn't saved, and neither your voice nor your words are ever sent to us or made part of the usage data.

Watches

Our watch apps, for Apple Watch and for Wear OS, are remotes for the game on your phone. While a game is open, your phone tells the watch the game's title, what it's doing in a few words (such as "Your turn") and the name of its big button, and the watch tells your phone which button you pressed. That's all that passes between them, and none of it is about you. It goes between your own phone and watch through Apple's or Google's watch connection, which may pass it through their servers, encrypted, when the two aren't close to each other.

The watch apps keep nothing, send nothing to us and have no usage data of their own, and the phone's usage data doesn't say whether you use a watch.

Your saves

The app saves your place in each game at every question, so you can carry on later. A save holds where you are in the story and the game's own scores and choices, not what you said. Saves, and any packs you download, are kept on your device. They don't come to us, though your saves and the app's settings may be included in your device's own backups (such as iCloud or Google backups) if you have those turned on. Deleting the app deletes them.

Accounts

You can sign in, in the apps and on this website, with Google or with Apple, if you're 13 or over. You don't have to: every game can be played without an account. Signing in lets you carry on a game on another device and play the packs you've bought, wherever you sign in.

When you sign in, Google or Apple tell us who you are to them, and we keep:

• your account: a random ID we make, and the email address Google or Apple give us (Apple can give us a relay address that hides yours), to show you which account you're signed in to;
• the ID Google or Apple give you for Fun Audio Games, so we know it's you next time. If you signed in with Apple, we also keep, encrypted, the token Apple gives us, only so we can tell Apple when you delete your account;
• a note of each device or browser you're signed in on, until you sign out;
• the packs your account owns, and where you bought them;
• your place in each game you've played on this website while signed in;
• if usage data is on in an app you've signed in to, that its random ID is yours (see Usage data).

We never get your Google or Apple password, and we ask for nothing else. We keep your account until you delete it: in the apps, in Settings, under Account, or on this website, on the account page. Deleting it deletes all of the above, and the usage data of the apps you'd signed in to; we tell Apple, so the app no longer has access to your Apple ID. Packs bought in the App Store or Google Play stay with your Apple or Google account, so the apps can still restore them.

Buying packs

Packs of more stories and levels are bought in the apps, through the App Store or Google Play, which handle the payment: we never see your payment details. On this website, the games come with Fun Audio Games Unlimited instead (below).

• The app learns which packs your store account has bought, so it can unlock them and restore them on another device. If you're signed in, it also sends us the store's record of each purchase (Apple's signed transaction, or Google's purchase token), which we check with Apple or Google, so the pack is your Fun Audio Games account's too. Apple and Google send us the sales and refund reports they give every developer, which we use for our accounts and to answer support questions.

Apple's and Google's privacy policies cover the payment itself.

Downloading packs

After you buy a pack, the app downloads it from our pack storage at packs.funaudiogames.com, which Cloudflare hosts for us. The request names the pack file and nothing else about you. Like any web server, Cloudflare's servers see the IP address the request comes from, the time, the file asked for and basic technical details, such as the kind of software making the request. Cloudflare keeps these standard logs for a short time, to run the service and keep it secure. We don't use them to identify you or to build a profile, and we don't sell or share them.

This website

funaudiogames.com doesn't use analytics or ads, and uses cookies only to sign you in (one while you sign in, which goes after 10 minutes, and one that keeps you signed in until you sign out) and to keep your place in the games (below). DigitalOcean hosts it in Germany, and Cloudflare sits in front of it and keeps the same kind of short-lived standard logs; our server keeps none. The games' sounds come from Cloudflare too, like the packs, and its fonts from this site, so apart from the speech recognition described below, your browser fetches nothing from anyone else. If you played a game on the website's earlier game pages, your place in it and your settings were kept in your browser's storage, on your device: they never came to us, and clearing your browser's data for the site removes them. The home page's two settings, the game's volume and whether your screen reader reads the captions, are kept there in the same way.

The games you talk to on this website

On funaudiogames.com you play dozens of games by talking or typing, as you would with a smart speaker. They need no account.

• What you type or say comes to our server as words, to play your turn, and isn't kept, apart from what a game keeps of your answers to carry on (your rap in Rap Robot, for example). Turning your voice into words is done by your browser's own speech recognition where it has one: in Chrome by Google, in Edge by Microsoft, in Safari by Apple, under their own privacy policies. In a browser without one, such as Firefox, you type, unless you're signed in: then your voice goes straight from your browser to OpenAI's speech recognition, only while the game is listening (after the sound that says so), through a connection our server sets up; OpenAI turns it into words for the game and doesn't use it to train its models. Your voice never comes to us, and we never keep a recording of it.
• Your place in the games: your team, your coins, the made-up nickname the games give you (or your own, below), your progress in each game and how many times you've played today are kept on our server, in Germany, so you can carry on next time. Without an account, a cookie, __Host-hog-guest, holds a random number that tells our server which progress is yours, for a year; the games need it to work, and it's never used for anything else. Progress nobody has come back to for 13 months is deleted. If you sign in, a guest's progress becomes your account's the first time, and deleting your account deletes it.
• The monthly team battle: the coins you win, your team and your made-up nickname go to the team battle's leaderboard at Shout Out Games (shoutoutgames.com, also made by Hugo FM), under a random player number, never your name, email or account.
• Your own nickname, if you buy one in the Coin Shop with your coins: what you say it is goes to OpenAI, which checks it's a name that's all right for children to hear (and doesn't use it to train its models). If the check isn't happy with it, it waits until we've looked at it, and if we turn it down you get your coins back. Once it's passed, the games greet you with it, and in Trivia War the players you play against hear it, and it's what they hear on Trivia War's leaderboard. It's kept until you choose another, so don't use your real full name, or anything else that says who you are or where you live. The team battle's leaderboard keeps your made-up nickname.
• The voices are ElevenLabs'. The words of each line the games say go to ElevenLabs to make it, and nothing about you does, apart from your nickname when a line says it, and what OpenAI writes from your words in Rap Robot and Pet My Monster (below).
• Rap Robot and Pet My Monster use OpenAI. Rap Robot sends the words you give it, to write your rap. In Pet My Monster, what you say to your pet's friend goes to OpenAI with the last few things you've said to them, to write the friend's reply. OpenAI doesn't use them to train its models. It's best not to tell either game anything personal, such as your full name or where you live.
• Animal Genie sends your yes-or-no answers to its guessing service, which we run on Railway, with the random number the games know you by, to guess your animal.
• Fun Audio Games Unlimited, the games' monthly subscription, is bought through Stripe when you're signed in. Stripe takes the payment on its own page, under its own privacy policy, and sends the receipts to the email address you give it there; we never see your payment details. Stripe tells us which account subscribed, whether the subscription is active and when it renews or ends, and each payment's amount, currency, country (for tax) and reference; we keep that for as long as the law asks us to keep accounting records, even after you delete your account (without your account's details).

Our legal basis for all of this is our contract with you: playing the games, and keeping your place, is the service you ask for when you play.

If you email us

If you email us, we get your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to reply and help you, and we delete it when we no longer need it for that.

Legal basis, and where it's processed

Under UK and EU data protection law, our legal basis for usage data (see the usage data section above), for the server logs and for answering your emails is our legitimate interests: improving the games and keeping the app working, running the pack downloads and this website, keeping them secure, and helping you when you ask.

For your account (see Accounts), our legal basis is our contract with you: signing you in, keeping your place and unlocking your packs is the service you asked for when you signed in.

Our hosting and email providers may process this information outside the UK: usage data is stored in Germany, in the EU, and Cloudflare handles requests in data centres around the world. They act for us under contracts with appropriate safeguards, such as the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum or the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Children

Children play Fun Audio Games, in the apps and on this website, whose games are the ones children play on smart speakers. So the games are made to learn as little as possible about anyone who plays: without an account they never ask for a name, age, email address or anything else about who you are (the games make up a nickname; one a child buys for themselves is checked before anyone else hears it, above), and there are no ads, no chat with other people, no profiling, and no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking code. Accounts, and with them anything bought, are for people aged 13 and over, and anyone under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's permission to buy.

The app's usage data, described above, is the same for every player and doesn't say who anyone is. We use it only to keep the app working and to make it better, never for advertising or to build a profile of anyone, and we never sell or share it. When a child answers out loud, the device's own speech recognition, from Apple or Google, turns what they say into words for the game; the recording is never sent to us.

On this website, a child's voice is turned into words by their browser's own speech recognition, and never goes to OpenAI, which only listens for someone signed in. The words themselves do go to OpenAI in two games, to write the game's answer: what they give Rap Robot, and what they say to their pet's friend in Pet My Monster (above). Their place in the games (their team, coins and progress) is kept under a random number in a cookie, as described above, and deleted after 13 months without play.

If you're a parent or guardian: you can turn usage data off, or delete it, in the app's Settings, under Privacy. You can turn the microphone off in your device's settings, and every game still works by typing and tapping. Purchases in the apps go through Apple or Google, so their parental controls, such as Ask to Buy and Family Link, apply. On this website, clearing the site's cookies in the browser stops the games knowing which progress was your child's, and it's then deleted after 13 months. If you think a child has sent us personal information, for example by email, tell us at [email protected] and we'll delete it.

Your rights

Your saves are on your device, and you control them. The usage data we hold is under a random ID rather than your name, so the app is how you reach it: Delete my usage data, in Settings under Privacy, deletes it, and turning off Share usage data stops it, which is also how to object to it. Wherever you live, you can ask us what else we hold about you, such as an email you sent, and ask us to correct or delete it. Email us to do so.

If you're in the UK or the European Union, data protection law also gives you the right to object to how we use your information and to complain to a data protection authority. In the UK, that's the Information Commissioner's Office.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the app or this website handles information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If the change matters, we'll also say so in the app's update notes.

Contact

Hugo.FM Games Limited (trading as Hugo FM)
55 Station Road, Manningtree, Essex, CO11 1EB, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Web: hugo.fm

For help with the app itself, see Support.