Privacy Policy

If you play without an account

• Your guesses, scores and streak are saved only in your own browser (local storage). We can't see them and they never leave your device.
• When you lock in a guess, it's sent to us without any name, account or ID attached, and added to the day's anonymous counts. That's what powers "how everyone did" and percentages like "Top 8%". We don't keep a record of who made which guess.
• Like every website, our host sees your IP address and basic browser details when it sends you a page (see "Who helps us run the site" below).

If you create an account

An account is optional. If you create one, we store:

• Your email address, to sign you in, confirm your account and reset your password.
• Your password, stored only as a one-way hash, so nobody can see it, including us.
• Your username, which is public: it appears on the daily leaderboard next to your score. Please don't use your real full name.
• Your guesses and scores, so your history and streak follow you across devices, and so your days can appear on the leaderboard.
• Account records: when you signed up, last signed in and agreed to these policies, and when you last changed your username (you can change it once a week).

All of this comes from you. The only things other players can ever see are your username and your daily score. Everything else is private to you.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To run your account: signing you in, saving your history and showing your username and score on the leaderboard. We need this to provide the service you asked for (performance of a contract).
• To send account emails: sign-up and password-reset codes. Also needed to provide the service.
• To show how everyone did, using anonymous counts. This is in our legitimate interest in making the game fun, and the counts don't identify anyone.
• To keep the site safe and fair: blocking bots, attacks, cheating and abuse, which can involve IP addresses, security logs and an automatic bot check. This is in our legitimate interest, and yours, in a working, secure site.
• To keep records and answer requests: noting when you agreed to these policies and replying to privacy requests, to meet our legal obligations.

We don't make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. If we ever want to use your information in a way that needs your consent, such as personalised ads, we'll ask first, and you can withdraw consent at any time.

Emails

We only email you when you ask us to: a code to confirm your account, or a code to reset your password. No newsletters, no marketing, and we never share your address.

Cookies and local storage

• We don't use advertising or tracking cookies, and we don't show ads right now.
• Your browser's local storage holds your game progress, a short-lived copy of the shared “how everyone did” counts (so we don't fetch them again on every visit) and, if you're signed in, your sign-in session. These are strictly necessary for the game to work and are never used to track you.
• Our host may set a strictly necessary security cookie to protect the site from bots and attacks, and may give us visit counts (pages viewed, country, browser type) that don't use cookies and don't identify you.

If we ever add ads or anything else that isn't strictly necessary, we'll update this policy first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Who helps us run the site

We use a few service providers ("processors"). They handle data only on our instructions, only to provide their service to us, and under data protection terms:

• Cloudflare hosts the website and forwards our email. Like any web host, it processes your IP address and browser details to deliver pages and block attacks. It also runs Turnstile, an invisible check that a real browser, not a script, is signing in, creating an account or adding a guess to the day's counts. Turnstile looks at technical signals from your browser and doesn't track you across sites. See the Turnstile Privacy Addendum.
• Supabase runs our database and sign-in system. It stores account data and the anonymous guess counts, and keeps short-term security logs that include IP addresses.
• Resend delivers our sign-up and password-reset emails.

We don't sell or rent personal information, or share it with anyone for advertising. We'd only disclose it if the law requires us to, such as under a valid court order.

International transfers

We're based in Canada, and our providers may process data in Canada, the United States and other countries. The European Commission and the UK recognise Canada as giving adequate protection to personal information. For transfers to other countries, our providers' data protection terms include safeguards approved for that purpose, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Data stored abroad may be accessible to authorities there under local law.

How long we keep it

• Account data is kept until you delete your account, then removed from our database right away.
• Copies in our providers' backups and logs are kept for a limited time, then deleted.
• Anonymous guess counts are kept indefinitely. They can't be linked back to you.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• Download your data any time on the Account page, as a file you can keep or take elsewhere.
• Delete your account any time on the Account page. This permanently removes your email, password, username, saved history and leaderboard entries. Your guesses stay only as anonymous numbers in each day's counts.
• Correct your data: change your username (once a week) or password on the Account page, or email us about anything else.
• Ask us what we hold about you and how we use it, by emailing [email protected].

If you're in the European Economic Area or the UK, you can also ask us to restrict how we use your data, object to uses based on our legitimate interests, and withdraw any consent you've given.

Requests are free. We'll reply within 30 days, and may first ask you to confirm the request comes from the account's email address. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Quebec's Commission d'accès à l'information, the data protection authority where you live in Europe, or the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

Children

You must be at least 13 to create an account. If you're under the age of majority where you live, or under the age your country sets for agreeing to online services (up to 16 in parts of Europe), you need a parent or guardian's permission. Anyone can play without an account. If you think a child has made an account without permission, email [email protected] and we'll delete it.

Security

Connections to the site are encrypted, passwords are stored only as one-way hashes, and the database only lets each player read their own private data. Email addresses are kept in our sign-in system so we can email you, and are never shown to anyone. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach puts your information at risk, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

If the site changes hands

We will never sell your personal information on its own. If CalGuessr is ever sold, merged or transferred, account data may move to the new owner, who must keep protecting it under this policy. We'll tell you before that happens, and you can delete your account first.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. For important changes, we'll show a notice on the site or email account holders before they take effect.