What is stored

Short, because there is not much. No email address, no password, no real name, no analytics. The only outside party is Google, which shows the ads (see Advertising below).

If you just play

The first time you finish a puzzle, the site gives you a random identifier and a name picked from a fixed list — something like "Quick Otter". Against that it keeps your times, your move counts and your daily streak.

That identifier is a random string. It is not derived from you, it means nothing anywhere else, and it is the only thing linking one solve to another.

Your player code

Every player has a player code — twelve random letters and numbers. Typing it on another device continues the same player. It is made at random, says nothing about you, and is the only way in: there is no email, password, passkey or date of birth. Getting a new code retires the old one immediately.

Advertising

The homepage and the game pages show ads from Google AdSense. Ads are how the games stay free. They appear beside the board, between levels, and when you choose to watch one for extra hints — never in the middle of a level.

Google, as the ad provider, may use cookies and similar technologies to show and measure ads, and to show ads based on your interests if you agree. Players in the EU, the UK and Switzerland are asked first, in Google's consent message, and can decline; ads still appear, but they are not personalised. You can change your choice at any time with the privacy settings link Google shows on the page.

How Google uses this information is described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. GameZone does not give Google your player code, your name or anything from your profile.

Feedback and contact

The "Problem with this game?" button sends the game, the level, one choice from a fixed list and, in Wordfall, any words you tick that were not accepted. There is no text box, and nothing that identifies you is sent with it.

The Contact page sends a topic and the message you write, and nothing else — no name, no email address, no player code. It is emailed to us once and not stored on the site. Anything you choose to put in the message is used only to deal with it.

What other people see

Your chosen name, your time and your move count — on a leaderboard, or to somebody who shares a challenge with you. Never your identifier. There is no profile page, no messaging and no way to find a particular person.

Names are picked from a list rather than typed, so nobody can put words of their own on someone else's screen.

Where it is kept, and for how long

Where: a database in Ireland (AWS eu-west-1).
Challenges and daily leaderboards: 30 days, then deleted automatically.
Sync codes: 10 minutes. Sign-in challenges: 5 minutes.
Server logs, which include IP addresses: 14 days, then deleted automatically. Used for rate limiting, counting visitors, fixing faults, and investigating abuse of the site — nothing else.
A record of refused requests — what was refused, when, and the address it came from — kept alongside the server logs and deleted on the same 14-day schedule. Written only when a request is turned away, so a normal visit produces none of it.
Daily totals — how many puzzles were solved and how many people played — kept indefinitely. These are numbers only. They contain no identifiers and cannot be traced back to anybody.
Your profile and the all-time leaderboard: until you delete them.

Cookies

One, called gz_s, and it is not for measurement. It holds a signed session so the site knows you are the same player between one puzzle and the next. GameZone sets no advertising or analytics cookies itself. Google may set its own for the ads; see Advertising above.

The site also keeps a copy of that session in your browser's local storage, so clearing cookies does not silently lose your records, plus your theme and last difficulty.

Deleting everything

One button on the account page. It removes your profile, your player code and your leaderboard entries immediately. No form, no waiting and no identity check, because there is no identity to check.

One thing survives: if you played a shared challenge, the result stays so the other player still has theirs — with your name taken off it and nothing linking it to you.

This site is run by an individual, not a company, and does not sell anything. If something here is unclear or wrong, or you want to ask about your data, write to us on the Contact page.