Privacy Policy

Effective: October 21, 2026. Last updated: October 21, 2026.

This policy covers the Guessworks games and websites, including guessworks.games, chartbreaker.app, stalagmight.app, guessus.app and mapinion.app, and any other site that links to this policy (together, the "Games").

The short version

• There are no accounts. We never ask for your name, email address, age or password.
• Your browser gets a random player ID in a cookie so your game, your streak and your scores work. It expires 13 months after it is first set.
• We keep your answers and scores with that ID for 13 months. After that we keep only daily totals.
• We record your country, and your state if you are in the US. We never store your IP address.
• Nothing you type or choose is ever shown to other players. They see totals, never your answers.
• Ads pay for the Games outside Europe, the UK and Switzerland; we show no ads there. In the US you can opt out of the sale or sharing of your information at any time, and we honor the Global Privacy Control signal.

1. Introduction

Format Partners LLC ("we", "us") makes the Games through its studio, Guessworks. This policy explains what we collect when you play, why we collect it, who helps us run the Games, how long we keep it and the choices you have. By using the Games you agree to this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Games.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Your play

For each game you play, we store:

• your player ID (see 2.5);
• the game and the day's puzzle number;
• your answers: for example the line you drew in Chartbreaker, the answers you gave in Guessus, or the places you picked in Mapinion;
• your score, when you started and when you finished;
• whether you tapped Share (the share text itself stays on your device);
• a fair-play mark if a play looks automated, for example one finished faster than a person could.

2.2 Typed answers in Stalagmight

Stalagmight asks you to type answers. We keep what you type, wrong guesses included, with your player ID. We use it only to score your run and to restore it if you reload the page. Typed answers are never shown to other players.

2.3 Questions about you

Some rounds ask about you, such as the yes or no questions in Guessus and the "One more question" after a game. Your answer is stored with your player ID and your country (and your state, in the US), counted into totals and never shown on its own. These questions are kept light: none ask about health, sex, religion, politics, money trouble, drugs or crime.

2.4 Where you are, roughly

Cloudflare, which hosts the Games, tells us the country of each request from its network address, and the state for visitors in the US. We store those codes with your plays for crowd maps and fair statistics. We never ask for your precise location and we never store your IP address.

In Mapinion, your first visit shows the state (or country) we read, for example "Playing from Indiana?". Your score counts for that home area on the day's board, which lists only states and countries with 30 or more players, by average score, never a single player. You can change it: your choice is kept in a cookie (see 2.6) and stored with your Mapinion plays in place of the one we read.

2.5 Your player ID

Our server creates a random player ID the first time you play and keeps it in a cookie named pid. It contains nothing about you. It lets us keep your game going if you reload, stop one browser from playing the same puzzle twice, and count returning players in our daily totals.

2.6 Cookies and storage on your device

The pid and area cookies and the logbook are needed for the Games to work, so they are always on. Counting returning players with your player ID is audience measurement: the data stays with us, is never combined with other data or shared, and you can object to it (section 7).

2.7 What we do not collect

We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, password, age or birthday, payment details, contacts, photos, precise location or browsing history on other sites. We do not store your IP address.

2.8 When you write to us

If you email us, we receive your email address and your message. We use them only to reply and to keep a record of the request.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information above to:

• run the Games: score your play, restore a game in progress and allow one play per browser each day;
• show the crowd: totals, averages, "better than X% of players", maps and charts, built from many plays and never showing one person's answers;
• keep play fair: rate limits, bot checks and fair-play marks that leave suspicious plays out of crowd numbers. To apply rate limits we use a one-way hash of your network address, used only to count requests over about a minute and never stored by us;
• improve the Games with daily totals, such as players, finishers, shares and returning players;
• make future puzzles: answers to "One more question" become future rounds, as totals;
• show ads (section 4);
• reply to your messages, comply with the law and protect the Games and their players.

We never use your answers to target ads, and we never use them to train AI models.

4. Advertising, Service Providers and Sharing

4.1 Cloudflare

Cloudflare hosts the Games, stores our data and checks for bots with Turnstile. It sees your IP address to deliver and protect the Games. Turnstile uses signals from your browser only to tell people from bots. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views and the sites visits come from; it uses no cookies or local storage. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy and its Turnstile Privacy Addendum.

4.2 Google and its advertising partners

Outside Europe, the UK and Switzerland, ads on the Games are served by Google AdSense. Ads are requested by your browser, so Google receives your IP address, browser information and any cookies it has set, and uses them to choose, limit and measure ads and to prevent fraud. Where allowed, Google and its partners may also use them to personalize ads. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services. If we add another ad partner, we will update this policy first.

4.3 Your choices about ads

• Europe, the UK and Switzerland: we show no ads there, so no ad cookies are set and no ad partner receives anything from your visit.
• The US: use the "Do not sell or share my personal information" link at the foot of every page, or turn on the Global Privacy Control in your browser. Either way, ads on that browser are no longer personalized.

4.4 Sale and sharing

We do not sell your information for money. Some US state laws treat letting advertising partners collect information on our pages, for ads based on your activity, as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. You can opt out at any time (4.3).

4.5 Other disclosures

We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our players, the Games or others. If Format Partners LLC transfers the Games to another company, your information may transfer with them, still covered by this policy.

5. Data Storage and Security

Our data is stored with Cloudflare in North America. We protect it this way:

• every connection uses HTTPS;
• our cookies are Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite, so other sites and scripts cannot read them;
• we never store IP addresses, and request logging is turned off;
• our own staff tools sit behind Cloudflare Access sign-in;
• keys and secrets stay on the server, never in the browser.

No method of storing or sending data is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Data Retention

• Plays and answers (typed answers and questions about you included): 13 months from the play, then deleted. We keep only daily totals, which contain no player IDs.
• Player records (the dates you first and last played, your country and US state): deleted 13 months after your last play.
• Cookies: pid expires 13 months after it is first set and is never extended; area expires 13 months after it is set.
• The logbook: on your device until you clear your browser data.
• Rate-limit hashes: about a minute, held only by the rate limiter.
• Emails to us: as long as needed to deal with your message.
• Advertising data: kept by Google and its partners under their own policies.

7. Your Rights and Choices

• Your player ID: use "Show my player ID" on this page. Include it in any request, so we can find your plays; without it we cannot tell which plays are yours.
• Access, correction, deletion and portability: email us with your player ID and we will act on your plays.
• Object to being counted: email us with your player ID and we will leave you out of returning-player totals.
• Start fresh: clear this site's cookies. Your plays are no longer linked to your browser and are deleted on the schedule in section 6. Your streak starts again.
• Ads: see 4.3.
• Browser controls: you can block cookies, but the Games may not work properly without the pid cookie.
• Do Not Track: browsers' Do Not Track signal has no agreed meaning, so we honor the Global Privacy Control instead.

We reply within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires. We never treat you differently for using your rights.

8. Children

The Games are made for adults and teens. They are not directed to children under 13, and our Terms set the minimum age at 13, or 16 in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has played, contact us with the player ID and we will delete their plays.

In the UK we follow the Age Appropriate Design Code for everyone, because some players may be under 18: we show no ads in the UK, we record the country only and never anything finer, nothing a player enters is shown to others, and the Games never nudge anyone toward weaker privacy choices.

9. International Transfers

We are based in the United States, and the Games are run from there. If you play from outside the US, your information is processed in the US. Cloudflare's network may handle your request at a location near you on its way to us. Google may process advertising data in other countries under its own safeguards.

10. US State Privacy Rights

These rights apply to residents of California and of the other US states with consumer privacy laws.

• What we collect (in the categories those laws use): identifiers (your player ID, and the cookie and device identifiers our ad partners use); internet activity (your plays, answers and page views); and approximate location (country and US state). We collect no sensitive personal information.
• Where it comes from: you and your browser, and Cloudflare (approximate location).
• Why: the purposes in section 3.
• Who receives it: our service provider Cloudflare; and Google and its ad partners, through the ads on our pages, which these laws may treat as a sale or sharing.
• Your rights: to know and access the personal information we have about you, to delete it, to correct it, to opt out of its sale or sharing and of targeted advertising, and not to be discriminated against for using these rights.
• How: use the opt-out link or the Global Privacy Control for sale, sharing and targeted advertising. For anything else, email us with "Privacy request" in the subject and your player ID. You may use an authorized agent; we may ask the agent for proof of your permission.
• Timing: we aim to respond within 30 days, and always within the 45 days these laws allow. Where a law permits an extension, we will tell you why we need it.
• Appeals: if we decline your request, reply with "Appeal" in the subject and we will review the decision within the time your state's law sets.
• We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

11. Europe, the UK and Switzerland

Format Partners LLC is the controller of the information described here. We rely on:

• legitimate interests: to run the Games you ask to play, keep them fair and secure, and produce totals. We weighed these against your rights: the information is limited, pseudonymous and never used to build a profile of you;
• legal obligation: where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.

You have the right to access, correct and delete your information, to restrict or object to its use (including to being counted in returning-player totals), and to receive it in a portable format. You can complain to your data protection authority: in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office; in Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner; in the EU, the authority where you live.

Fair-play marks only leave a play out of crowd numbers. We make no decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is material, we will say so on the Games before it takes effect. Continuing to play after a change means you accept the updated policy.

13. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy:

Format Partners LLC
Email: Contact