Privacy Policy

Who we are

BirdGuess runs the daily puzzle at birdguess.com. This policy explains what information the site handles. The Terms of Service cover playing and purchases.

Information we collect

If you play without signing in, your guesses and statistics stay in local storage on your device. Sending a guess still goes to our server so the next clue can be shown. Those guesses are not saved to an account.

If you sign in with Google, we receive the name, email address, and profile photo Google shares, and we store them with your account. We also save your guesses and whether you won or lost, so a signed-in game can be restored.

If you buy the archive, Stripe processes the payment. We store the plan you bought, the amount, a Stripe customer id, and the checkout and payment ids needed to unlock the account and to honor a refund. We do not store your full card number.

A sign-in cookie keeps your session. The host and our account provider may process connection details, such as an IP address, to deliver the site. The host estimates a time zone from that IP address and the region it maps to, so the daily bird changes at local midnight. After you agree to play, that same country estimate can offer the European list when the connection is in Europe, or say that North American birds will open when the connection is in neither region. The country is not stored. If you sign in and choose which list opens first, that choice is saved on your account.

If you send feedback or a bug report, we store the message, whether it is feedback or a bug, an optional email address, an optional puzzle day, the page you came from, and your account if you were signed in.

Public pages load a Google tag for Google Ads. It tells Google that a page was viewed and can store a cookie so a visit can be tied to an ad we ran. Google can also use that cookie to recognize the browser when we run ads later. When you finish a puzzle, that tag sends Google a conversion for the finished game so we can measure which ad clicks lead to a completed puzzle. The tag does not receive your name, email address, guesses, the bird’s name, whether you won or lost, or payment details.

Public pages also load Simple Analytics. It counts the page, the referring site, an anonymized browser and device, the language, the screen size, how far the page is scrolled, and the country inferred from the time zone. It does not set a cookie, and it does not receive your name, email address, guesses, or payment details. A browser with Do Not Track turned on is not counted.

With the consent required before play, we use PostHog product analytics to record page and game activity such as a game loading, guesses or skips, clues viewed, completion, sharing, sign-in, archive interest, checkout, purchases, and errors. We do not send the bird you typed, your Google name, or your email address to PostHog.

With that same consent, we keep a first-party count of page visits, control clicks, and important game actions in Supabase. These records contain the page path, a safe control category, and random browser and session identifiers. If you are signed in, the record also contains your account id so activity can be grouped for that account. If you are not, that same browser identifier still groups the browser’s visits, without a name or email. A page visit can also include the referring site’s hostname, or a short campaign name when the link includes a utm_source label. The full referring address, URL query string, and ad click id are not stored. The admin view shows only the first letters of an email, not the full address. These records do not contain page text, form values, puzzle answers, or your name.

We also use sampled session replay to understand where the interface is confusing or broken. Form inputs and page text are masked in replays. A replay can still show the shape of the interface, click locations, scrolling, device information, and page paths.

How we use it

We use this information to run the puzzle, remember a signed-in game, unlock the archive after you pay, keep you signed in, understand the player journey, improve game design, diagnose problems, measure purchases, read feedback you send, and reply if you email us or leave an address on a note. We also use the Google tag to measure visits from our ads, to count a finished puzzle as a conversion from those ads, and to recognize browsers that have already visited, so later ads can be shown to them. We use Simple Analytics to count visits to public pages. We do not sell personal information.

Who else processes it

• Google, when you choose to sign in.
• Google, which receives the ads tag on public pages so we can measure visits from ads we run, count finished puzzles as conversions, and recognize browsers for later ads.
• Supabase, which stores accounts, saved games, purchases, first-party analytics, and feedback.
• Stripe, which processes payments.
• PostHog, which provides product analytics and privacy-masked session replay.
• Simple Analytics, which counts page views without cookies.
• The company that hosts the website, which delivers the pages you request.

They process that information to provide those services. Google also processes the ads tag to measure our advertising.

How long we keep it

Account, game, and purchase records stay while your account exists. Feedback stays until you ask for it to be deleted, or until we no longer need it to look into the note. Product analytics in PostHog and Supabase may be retained for up to one year; sampled replays may have a shorter retention period. Email askar@flipslabs.xyz to ask for a copy or for deletion. We will delete the account, saved games, and purchase record we hold, except where a record has to be kept for a refund, fraud check, or legal duty. Stripe, PostHog, Google, and Simple Analytics keep information under their own policies. Guess and stat data stored only in your browser stays there until you clear site data.

Consent and choices

The game asks you to acknowledge these policies and consent to product analytics and masked session replay before play. If you do not accept both, the game does not load. You can revoke analytics consent from “Analytics settings” in the footer. Revoking stops future analytics on that device and returns you to the acceptance screen; it does not automatically delete events already sent. You can email us to request deletion.

The Google tag loads when you open a public page, and a finished puzzle is reported to Google Ads from that tag. It is separate from the product-analytics consent above. Revoking that consent does not stop the ads tag or the finished-game conversion.

The Simple Analytics script also loads on a public page, and it is separate from that consent. Revoking product-analytics consent does not stop Simple Analytics. A visit is skipped when the browser has Do Not Track turned on.

Children

BirdGuess is not directed at children under 13. Do not sign in or buy the archive if you are under 13.

Changes

We can update this policy by posting a new version on this page and changing the effective date.

Contact

Privacy questions and deletion requests: askar@flipslabs.xyz.