Privacy and cookies
The site has no accounts, forms or ads. Here is everything it stores and sends, and how to opt out of what is optional.
Google Analytics: your choice
Google Analytics shows us which puzzles people play and where visitors come from. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland it is off until you allow it; elsewhere it is on until you decline it. You can change your choice here at any time.
Your progress
Solved puzzles are saved in your browser (local storage) so that a check mark appears next to them, and so are your ratings of puzzles, so that the button shows your choice. The light or dark theme you pick at the bottom of a page is kept there too. This data itself is not sent anywhere: the game statistics only say whether the puzzle was already solved in this browser and, when you change a rating, what it was before. To delete it, clear this site’s data in your browser.
Game statistics
While you play, the page sends us what happens in the game: which puzzle was opened, solved or abandoned, the time taken, the number of moves, undos, resets and hints, your rating of the puzzle (liked it or not) if you give one, and the language of the page. Nothing that points to you or your visit is stored with it: no IP address, cookie or other identifier, and these requests are left out of the server log too. So a record cannot be linked to you. We keep the records event by event and indefinitely, to see which puzzles are too easy, too hard or not liked. They are sent regardless of your Google Analytics choice. Ratings go to us only, never to Google Analytics. Totals per puzzle, without single records, are published on the Statistics page.
Google Analytics
If it is on, Google Analytics (Google Ireland Limited, Google LLC) sets the cookies _ga and _ga_… for up to 2 years and receives the same game events, along with the pages you open, your approximate location, your device and your browser. Google processes this data on our behalf and may transfer it to the US under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Data linked to a visitor is kept for 2 months; this setting does not apply to Google’s aggregated reports. We do not use Google Signals or Google’s advertising features. Google Privacy Policy
Server logs
Like any web server, ours keeps a log of requests: a shortened IP address (without its last part, so it points to a network rather than a device), page address, time and browser. The requests that carry the game statistics are left out of it; only when one address sends far more of them than a game can, the excess is refused and noted with the full IP address. The log is kept for 14 days to protect the site from abuse and is then deleted.
Your rights
Under the GDPR, you can ask what data we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, object to its processing, and complain to a data protection authority. The game statistics contain nothing that identifies you, so we cannot find your records in them. Google Analytics stops collecting data as soon as you decline it above, and its cookies are deleted.
Who runs the site
The site is run by Sergii Voloshyn. Questions about privacy: privacy@matchstick-puzzles.games