Privacy

In short

• You can play without an account. We then know you only as a random number in a cookie.
• If you create an account we store your email address and your display name. Your password is kept by Clerk, the service that runs our login, and not by us.
• We count what happens on the site without recording who did it.
• There is no advertising. Google Analytics is used only if you agree to it, and nothing from another company loads before that.
• You can delete your account, with everything you have played, at any time.

Who is responsible

Rivaloria is run by Northway Media Oy (business ID 3581290-6), Turku, Finland, who is the data controller for everything described here. For any question about your data, or to use the rights listed below, write to [email protected].

Playing without an account

The first time you make a guess, start a timed game or give up a game, we set a cookie called guest holding a long random value. It is how we recognise your browser the next time, so that your progress is still there. Looking around the site sets no cookie.

Against that random value we store:

• which players you have identified in which collection, when, and your score;
• your games: when each started and ended, and whether you finished, gave up or ran out of time;
• the guesses you typed, right and wrong, so that we can make the game accept the names people actually use;
• when you last played;
• in the games that are not collections of players (the daily games: the daily player, Close Call, Picture Reveal, Higher or Lower, Odd One Out, Four by Four and Whose Team?; the Daily Triple, the quiz, the career puzzles, Ranker and Roll Call): the answers you gave, what you found, your result, when you started the Daily Triple's Quick Five, for its sixty seconds, and, for a game you chose to play against the clock, when its clock started.

We do not store your name, your network address or anything about your device with it, and we store a fingerprint of the cookie value, not the value itself. If you do not play for two years, the record and everything in it is deleted. Deleting the cookie in your browser cuts the link to the record at once.

If you create an account

An account is optional. When you create one we store:

• your email address, which you use to log in. It is never shown to anyone;
• your display name. Other players can see it: on the leaderboard of a challenge you are in, on a collection's public leaderboard where there is one, by your friends, and by anyone you ask to be your friend;
• no password: registering and logging in are run by Clerk (see "Who else receives data"), which keeps your password. We never see it;
• when the account was created;
• if you arrived through another player's shared link, which player that was;
• the challenges you are in, and whether your leaderboards show first attempts or best ones;
• your friends on the site, and requests to be friends that wait for an answer. Finding a friend by email address shows nobody that address. A request that is declined or taken back, and a friendship that is ended, is deleted;
• your game history, as described above, now kept with the account instead of the cookie.
• a line for each game you reset while logged in: which game it was, how far you had got, your score, how long it had taken and when. It holds no answers and no guesses. It is shown to you, on your account page; the number you had right and the time it took are also shown on the leaderboard of a challenge you are in on that game.

Logging in sets a cookie called account_session that keeps you logged in on that browser for up to 30 days. Logging out removes it.

The only email you get is for registering and logging in: a code to confirm your address, and a message if you ask to reset your password. Clerk sends these for us. We send no newsletters and no notifications.

You can delete your account on your account page. That removes the account, its game history, its friendships, its place in every challenge and on every leaderboard, and its login sessions, immediately and for good.

Sharing and challenges

When you share a game while logged in, the link carries a short code that belongs to your account. We count how many times links with your code were opened and how many accounts were created afterwards. You do not learn who opened your link, and they are not told anything about you beyond what you sent them.

A challenge has a leaderboard that anyone with its link can see. It shows the display names of the players in it and, for each, how many they had right, how long it took and how many attempts they have made: their first attempt or their best. A friend can put you in a challenge; you can leave it on its page.

When you have finished a game while logged in, you see a leaderboard of you and your friends who have finished it too, and of anyone in a challenge on that game with you. They see you on theirs in the same way. It shows each player's display name and their result in that game: the score, how many they had right, how many attempts they have made and the day it was played. It shows nothing of the game's answers, and nothing of a game you have not finished.

Statistics

We count events such as "a page was opened", "a game was started", "a guess was right" and "a result was shared", together with which game or page it was. For the first page of a visit we also count which site the visit came from (a search engine, for example, or a campaign named in the link) and whether the screen was a phone's or a computer's. A count is not tied to you: no cookie, account, network address, identifier or other detail of your device is stored with it, nothing is kept in your browser for it, and neither is what you guessed. The one exception is the sharing code described above, which ties a count of visits to the account of the player who shared the link.

If you agree to it, we also use Google Analytics, a service of Google Ireland Limited. It sets cookies in your browser that tell one visitor from another, and it receives the pages you open, events like those described above (which game and how far, never what you guessed), and technical details such as your browser, your screen size and roughly where you are. Nothing is sent to Google Analytics before you agree. You can change your answer at any time under "Cookie settings" at the foot of every page.

Cookies

The first three are our own, and each is necessary for the feature it belongs to. The others are Google's and are used only as described under Statistics and Advertising.

Your browser also keeps one small note for the length of a visit (session storage, not a cookie): the sharing code of a link you arrived through, so that it still counts if you create an account a few pages later. And, in Ranker, the order you have arranged before you lock it in, so that reloading the page does not lose it; it stays in your browser.

Your answer about Google Analytics is kept in your browser (local storage, not a cookie) for six months, after which we ask again.

Security and technical records

• To stop password guessing and automated abuse we count requests per network address for a few minutes. These counts live only in the server's memory and are never written to the database.
• Like every website, our servers keep access logs (network address, time, page requested) to find faults and attacks. They are kept for at most 30 days.
• Our own cookies are unreadable to scripts on the page, and the site is served over an encrypted connection.
• The site reaches you through Cloudflare, which tells us the country your connection comes from. We use it for one thing: to show you a link to our page of where to watch sport on TV in your country, where we have one. It is read when a page loads and kept nowhere, and it never decides what you may see or do anywhere else on the site.

Who else receives data

We do not sell or give your data to anyone. The site and its database run on servers rented from Hetzner Online GmbH (the servers, in Finland) and Cloudflare, Inc. (the network in front of them), who process the data on our behalf and only on our instructions.

The photographs are served from our own servers. Each photo credit links to its page on Wikimedia Commons; if you follow such a link, Wikimedia's own privacy policy applies there.

Registering and logging in are run by Clerk, Inc. (United States). When you register or log in, Clerk receives your email address and your password, confirms that the address is yours, and tells us who you are. Its script is loaded on the login and registration pages only, and it sets cookies of its own there. Clerk processes this on our behalf; deleting your account here deletes it at Clerk too.

If you agree to statistics, Google Ireland Limited receives what is described under Statistics and processes it for us. Google may transfer it to the United States, under the safeguards it publishes.

Advertising

There is no advertising on the site today, and no advertising or tracking cookies. If that changes, this page will say so first, and anything that needs your consent will ask for it before it happens.

Our legal grounds

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we rely on:

• our agreement with you (Article 6(1)(b)) for running the account you asked for and the game history that goes with it;
• our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) for saving the progress of visitors who play without an account, for anonymous statistics, for counting what a shared link brings, and for keeping the site secure. You can object to these; see below.

Our own cookies listed above are strictly necessary for a feature you have asked for. Google's cookies rest on your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time under "Cookie settings" at the foot of every page.

Your rights

You can:

• ask what we hold about you and receive a copy of it;
• have wrong data corrected;
• have your data deleted. For an account, the quickest way is the delete button on your account page;
• object to processing that rests on our legitimate interests, or ask us to restrict it;
• receive your account data in a form you can take elsewhere.

Write to the address at the top of this page. We answer within one month. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Children

The site is not aimed at children. Accounts are for people aged 16 or over; if we learn that a younger person has created one, we delete it.

Changes to this page

When what we do with data changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top is updated. A change that affects account holders in a significant way will be announced on the site before it takes effect.