Privacy Policy

Geography Games (www.geographygames.net) is operated by Ziga Straus, an individual based in the European Union. For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), I am the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

The site is a personal project rather than a company, and there is no data protection officer. Everything in this policy is handled by me directly, and you can reach me at ziga.developer@gmail.com.

This policy covers the website and its games. It does not cover any third-party website you reach by following a link from here, including advertisers.

You may notice Log in and Sign up buttons on this site. Player accounts are being built but are not available yet. Pressing either button today opens a short "coming soon" notice and nothing else. No registration form is shown, and no email address, password or profile detail is collected or stored.

The plan is for accounts to let you carry streaks, stats and leaderboard scores across devices, and they will stay optional. Every game will remain playable without one.

When accounts do launch, this policy will be updated to describe exactly what is collected, why, and how long it is kept, and that will happen before any sign-up data is accepted rather than afterwards.

Information you choose to give. With no sign-up available, this is limited to what you type into a game: a display name when you submit a leaderboard score or create or join a multiplayer room, plus the guesses and drawings you make while playing. A display name can be any nickname. Please do not enter your real name, an email address or anything else you would not want shown publicly, because leaderboard names are visible to everyone.

Game results. When you finish a run that is eligible for a leaderboard, the completion time, score and number of mistakes are recorded along with a random browser identifier. In multiplayer, the room name, the players' chosen display names, the score and the round-by-round history are stored while the match is live.

Information collected automatically. Like any website, this one is served by a host that processes technical request data such as your IP address, browser type and the page requested, in order to deliver the page and guard against abuse. The site's own code does not store your IP address in its database.

Messages you send. If you email me, I keep the message and your address for as long as needed to deal with it and to keep a record of the exchange.

To run the games you asked for. Storing scores, keeping leaderboards honest, matching players in multiplayer rooms and stopping a daily puzzle being replayed for a better score. The legal basis is legitimate interest in providing a working game that you actively chose to play.

To keep the site standing up. Detecting abuse, debugging faults and measuring load. The legal basis is legitimate interest in the security and reliability of the service.

To show advertising and measure the audience. Advertising and analytics cookies are used on the basis of your consent where the law requires it. Visitors in the EEA and the UK are shown a Google-certified consent message before personalised advertising cookies are set, and your choice is respected on later visits until you change it.

To answer you. Replying to messages you send, on the basis of legitimate interest in responding to correspondence.

Cookies are small files a site stores in your browser. This site also uses local storage, which works similarly but is never sent to the server. It stays on your device and is how your streaks and settings survive a refresh.

The table below lists what is stored and why. First-party items are set by this site; third-party items are set by Google and are governed by Google's policies.

You can delete cookies and local storage at any time in your browser settings, and block them entirely if you prefer. Doing so is safe, because every game still works, but your streaks, personal bests and daily locks will reset. That is the only place they are kept.

Running the site means relying on a handful of external services. Each processes some data on my behalf or, in Google's case, as an independent controller for advertising purposes.

Ads on this site are served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar identifiers to show ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites, to cap how often an ad is repeated, and to measure whether an ad worked.

You can opt out of personalised advertising from Google at Google Ads Settings, and out of personalised advertising from many other vendors at aboutads.info or Your Online Choices. Opting out does not remove the ads, it makes them less relevant.

I have no visibility into, and no control over, which individual advertisers bid on a given ad slot.

Leaderboard entries are kept for as long as the leaderboard exists, because a public high-score table only works if the scores stay on it. Ask and I will remove yours.

Multiplayer rooms and match state are short-lived working data. Rooms are cleaned up automatically once a match ends or is abandoned.

Cookies expire on the schedule in the table above, or sooner if you clear them.

Analytics data is retained according to the settings in Google Analytics, and email for as long as needed to handle and record the exchange.

The service providers listed above, meaning Google, Vercel and Supabase, are established in or operate infrastructure in the United States and other countries outside the European Economic Area. Where personal data is transferred there, the transfer relies on the safeguards those providers put in place, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

If you are in the EEA or the UK, data protection law gives you the rights below. To exercise any of them, email ziga.developer@gmail.com. There is no charge, and I will respond within one month.

One honest limitation: with no accounts on the site, I usually cannot verify that a given leaderboard entry belongs to you. Telling me the game and the exact display name you used is what makes a request actionable.

These games are suitable for all ages and are used in classrooms, but the site is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal data from them. No age is requested, because no account is required and no personal detail is needed to play.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has entered personal information, for example a real name on a leaderboard, email ziga.developer@gmail.com and I will remove it.

The site is served over HTTPS, database credentials that can write data are held only on the server and never reach your browser, and every multiplayer guess and score is validated server-side rather than trusted from the client. No system is perfectly secure, but the data held here is deliberately minimal: there are no passwords, no email addresses and no payment details to lose.

This policy will be updated when the site changes, whether that is a new game, a new analytics tool, a different advertising setup, or the launch of player accounts. The date at the top always reflects the current version. Significant changes will be flagged on the site itself rather than made quietly.