1. Who we are
This policy covers guessthesearch.com (“GuessTheSearch”, “we”, “us”). We are the controller of the personal data described below. Contact us about anything in this policy at hello@guessthesearch.com.
2. What stays in your browser
To work without an account, GuessTheSearch saves a few things in your browser’s local storage: a random anonymous player id, your streak, your recent results, your display name if you set one, and your last-used theme, difficulty and time period. This never leaves your device unless you use one of the online features below. Clearing your browser data removes it.
3. What we store on our servers
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous player id, puzzle answers, score and time taken | When you finish a puzzle | Daily stats, history and fair leaderboards (scores are recomputed on our side) |
| Display name, answers and score | When you create or answer a challenge link, or join a group league | To show your friends the result |
| Leaderboard name, daily-quiz points and duel results | When you finish today’s puzzle or a duel | The public monthly and all-time leaderboards. Only the name you choose is shown; unnamed players appear as “Player” plus four characters |
| Display name in a duel room | While you play a live duel | To show your opponent who they are playing; not stored after the match |
| Email address | Only if you type it into the “get tomorrow’s puzzle early” box | To send you the puzzle; unsubscribe at any time |
We do not ask for your real name, and we do not sell personal data. Our legal bases are performance of the service you requested (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) for game features, consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for email and advertising cookies, and legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) for security logs.
4. Advertising
GuessTheSearch is free because it shows ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar technologies to serve ads based on your visits to this and other websites, to limit how often you see an ad and to measure performance. Where the law requires it, you will be asked for consent through a consent message before any personalised advertising cookies are set, and you can change your choice at any time.
You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google’s Ads Settings or at aboutads.info. Learn how Google uses data from partner sites at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
5. Service providers
- Cloudflare hosts the site, stores the server-side data in section 3 and relays live duel messages. It keeps short-lived request logs (IP address, user agent) for security and debugging.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page views without cookies and without identifying you.
- Google provides advertising (AdSense). Our servers also read public search suggestions and Google Trends feeds to build puzzles; no data about you is sent when we do.
Some providers process data outside the European Economic Area; where they do, transfers are covered by the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision.
6. How long we keep it
- Scores and answers tied to an anonymous id: up to 24 months, then deleted or aggregated.
- Challenge links: the challenge expires after 48 hours; the record is kept up to 12 months.
- Group leagues: until the league is inactive for 12 months or you ask us to remove you.
- Leaderboard entries: kept for the all-time board until you ask us to remove them.
- Email addresses: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
7. Your rights
You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the processing of your personal data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. Because most of GuessTheSearch is anonymous, tell us your display name, league invite code or email address so we can find your records. You may also complain to your local data protection authority; in Croatia that is AZOP (Agencija za zaštitu osobnih podataka).
8. Children
GuessTheSearch is intended for players aged 13 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from younger children. If you believe a child has given us an email address, contact us and we will delete it.
9. Changes
When this policy changes we update the date at the top of the page. Significant changes will also be announced on the home page. See also our terms of use.