Privacy Policy
Puzzle-Me is a free puzzle site. You can play every game without an account, without an email address and without telling us who you are. This page explains the small amount of data the site does handle, why, and what you can ask us to do about it.
Who is responsible for your data
The data controller for puzzle-me.com is:
- Rita Raquel Carvalho Rodrigues de Oliveira
- 3080-325 Figueira da Foz, Portugal
- Email: [email protected]
- Or the contact form, which reaches the same address
What data the site handles
Messages you send. Whether you use the contact form or write to the address directly, we receive your email address, your name if you give it, the subject you picked, and whatever you put in the message. We use it to answer you and nothing else — we never add it to a mailing list and never pass it on.
Messages sent through the form are stored in the site's own database, on Cloudflare, so that none is lost on the way. Only the person named above reads them. The form also keeps a short cryptographic digest of your IP address with the date folded into it, purely to stop a robot sending hundreds of messages; it is not the address itself, and once the date changes it no longer connects to anyone.
The site has no Data Protection Officer: given its size, it is not required to appoint one.
Technical data from your visit. The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Like any web server, it processes your IP address, your browser and operating system, the page that referred you, the pages you open and the time you open them. This happens automatically as part of delivering the page and keeping the service secure.
Data that stays in your browser. Your game preferences and your personal best times and scores are saved in your browser's localStorage. That is storage on your own device. It is never sent to us, we cannot read it, and clearing your browser data deletes it permanently.
Your streak and your achievements. The consecutive-day streak and the achievements are worked out on your device, from that same local storage. They never reach the server. The practical consequence is worth knowing: clearing your browser data resets them, and we have no way to restore them.
How often each game is opened. For each game the site keeps a number that goes up by one whenever that game's page is opened. That is all of it: the name of the game and a number. It does not record who opened it, or when, or from where — there is no identifier, no cookie, no IP address, and nothing is written to your device. It exists so the game list can be ordered by what people look for most. Since it stores nothing, it also cannot tell one person opening a game three times from three people opening it once.
The leaderboard
Some games have a global leaderboard — the one part of the site where something of yours, with a name next to it, is stored on our server and shown in public. Joining is entirely your choice. If you finish a game and decide to submit your result, three things are saved:
- the nickname you type in;
- your score or time for that game;
- a random anonymous identifier generated in your browser, which lets the site recognise your own entries so you can update or replace them.
- the day on which you set it, so that the daily and weekly rankings can be worked out.
That is all. No account, no email address, no password and no real name is requested or required, and we make no attempt to work out who you are. The nickname and the score are visible to every visitor.
Please do not use your real name, your email address or anything else that identifies you as a nickname. Pick something invented. Anything you type there becomes public, and you should treat it that way.
To have an entry removed, email [email protected] with the nickname and the game. We delete it and confirm, normally within a few days. You do not have to explain why.
Why we are allowed to handle this data
Under Article 6 of the GDPR:
- Consent — Article 6(1)(a) — for advertising and analytics cookies, and for publishing your nickname and score on the leaderboard. You give it by acting; you can withdraw it at any time.
- Legitimate interests — Article 6(1)(f) — for keeping the site available and secure, preventing abuse and cheating, and measuring audience in aggregate. Our interest is running a stable free site; the impact on you is minimal and the data is technical.
- Steps taken at your request before entering a contract — Article 6(1)(b) — when you write to us and we reply.
Advertising and Google AdSense
The site is free and pays for itself through the Google AdSense programme, operated for Europe by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure ads.
If you consent to advertising cookies, you may see personalised ads, chosen using data about your browsing across sites that use Google's advertising products. If you refuse, you see non-personalised ads, chosen from the page's content and rough location only. The site works exactly the same either way, and it stays free either way.
You can review and change your Google ad settings at google.com/settings/ads. Google explains how it uses data from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Our Cookie Policy lists the cookies involved.
Analytics
If analytics are in use on this site, they run only after you consent, IP addresses are anonymised before storage, and the results are read in aggregate — how many people opened a game, which pages are popular. We do not build profiles of individual visitors and we do not sell data to anyone.
Transfers outside the European Economic Area
Cloudflare and Google may process data on servers outside the EEA, including in the United States. These transfers are covered by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or by an adequacy decision such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, together with technical safeguards like encryption in transit.
How long we keep things
- Contact messages: 12 months after the exchange ends.
- Server and security logs: 90 days.
- Leaderboard entries: until you ask for removal, or until the game is retired from the site.
- Browser storage: on your device, under your control, until you clear it.
Your rights
You have the right to access your data, to have it corrected, to have it erased, to restrict or object to its processing, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting what was done before you withdrew it.
Use the contact form — pick “Personal data (GDPR)” — or write to [email protected]. We answer within one month, as Article 12 requires; if a request is genuinely complex we may extend that by two months and will tell you why. For the leaderboard, the nickname and the game are enough — we cannot identify you any other way, and we will not ask you to prove an identity you never gave us.
Complaints
If you believe your data has been mishandled, you may complain to the Portuguese supervisory authority, the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD), at www.cnpd.pt. If you live in another EU country, you may complain to your own national authority instead.
Children
Puzzle-Me is a general-audience site. It is not aimed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you are a parent and believe your child has submitted something to the leaderboard, write to us and we will remove it.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Significant changes — a new purpose, a new recipient — will be announced on the site, and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent again.
Questions about any of this: Contact.
