Privacy Policy
This is a plain-English draft written while the site is in development. It should be reviewed before launch.
1. The short version
Cairn is a game. It collects as little as it can get away with, it does not sell anything to anyone, and you can play the whole thing without giving us your name.
2. Playing without an account
You can play without registering. When you do, we store your guesses, the hints you opened and your results against an anonymous identifier held in a cookie-backed session. That identifier is not linked to you, and if you clear your cookies it is gone — along with the progress attached to it.
3. If you create an account
We store your display name, your email address and a hashed password (we never hold the password itself). If you played anonymously first, that progress is moved onto your account so you do not lose the solve that prompted you to sign up.
We use your email address to activate the account, to let you reset your password, and — only if you ask for it — to tell you when a new quest is live. Every such email has an unsubscribe link.
4. What we do with your play data
- To run the game: to show your guess history, work out your score and keep your streak.
- To publish leaderboards. Only your display name and score appear there — never your email address.
- In aggregate, to see which quests were too hard or too easy.
5. Cookies
A session cookie, which is what keeps you signed in and holds anonymous progress. A cookie to remember that you have already seen the "how this works" explainer. That is all — there is no advertising or cross-site tracking on this site.
6. Third parties
Map tiles, fonts and a small number of JavaScript libraries are loaded from third-party services, which will see your IP address as a consequence of serving them. Historical information links out to Wikipedia; following those links is between you and them.
If you choose to sign in with Google or Apple, that provider tells us your email address and name and nothing else.
7. How long we keep it
Account and play data for as long as the account exists. Deleting your account deletes your results, guesses and streak with it — including from the leaderboards.
8. Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or delete your account outright from your profile page. If you would rather ask a person, contact us.