Privacy Policy

At a glance

• No emails, phone numbers, or real names required.
• We generate a random nickname at registration.
• We store your country (for sanctions compliance and country rankings).
• We store your birth year (for age-based compliance and age group rankings).
• We store a device UID for authentication.
• Optional: you can provide gender (for gender rankings), and language preference.
• We temporarily store your IP address during a session for rate-limiting; it expires when the session ends.
• No Google Analytics. We do show ads (Google, Amazon).
• Purchases are processed by Stripe; we never see your full card number.

What we collect

• Account basics: random nickname, country, device UID.
• Optional profile: birth year, gender, language. You can skip or change these at any time.
• Gameplay data: puzzles played/created, scores, rankings, timestamps, and anti-cheat signals (e.g., move patterns).
• Network: IP address only while your session is active for abuse prevention and rate-limiting.
• Purchases: item purchased, price, and non-card metadata required for receipts/compliance. Card data is handled by Stripe.

Why we collect it

• Authentication with a device UID (and to keep your progress).
• Rankings and gameplay features (country, optional age/gender brackets).
• Safety: abuse/rate limiting (temporary IP), fraud prevention, and sanctions compliance.
• Purchases: to fulfill items and keep legally-required records.
• Preferences: language and UI settings.

Ads & measurement

We don’t use Google Analytics. We may show ads via providers such as Google or Amazon. Advertising helps keep GridRank free.

• Standard mode (13+): We may use limited signals (e.g., device identifiers, coarse location like country, language, page context) so partners can deliver and measure ads. You can limit personalization using the controls below.
• Kids Mode (<13): We do not use personalized/behavioral ads. Ads are contextual only. We instruct ad partners to treat requests as child-directed (e.g., COPPA/TFCD flags) and/or to serve non-personalized ads. Some ad networks may be disabled entirely in Kids Mode.

Ad partner controls

• Google Ads: adssettings.google.com · About Google ads
• Amazon Advertising: amazon.com/adprefs · Privacy
• Broader opt-outs: YourAdChoices, NAI, EU

We don’t sell personal data. Showing ads may involve limited sharing (e.g., a device identifier or coarse location) with ad partners to deliver and measure ads. In Kids Mode, requests are marked as child-directed and served without personalization.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. We don’t store card numbers. We keep purchase records (what you bought, amount, timestamps) as required for accounting, taxes, and fraud prevention.

Cookies & local storage

• GridRank app: we do not set first-party cookies for gameplay. We store a device_uid and user_key in local storage to obtain an auth token. This is strictly necessary for login and security.
• Ads: ad partners may set cookies or similar identifiers to deliver and measure ads. In Kids Mode, we request non-personalized, contextual ads and/or disable certain partners.
• EU/UK: where required, we seek consent for ad/measurement cookies. See our Cookies page for details.

What others can see

Leaderboards and social features may display your nickname, country flag, and—if you opted in—your age group and gender, along with gameplay stats. We do not display real names, emails, or phone numbers because we don’t collect them.

Data retention

• Account data (nickname, country, device UID, optional profile) is kept while your account is active.
• Session IPs are ephemeral and expire when the session ends.
• Purchase records are retained as required by law (e.g., tax/audit) and then deleted or anonymized.

Security

• TLS encryption in transit (HTTPS everywhere).
• Restricted employee access on a need-to-know basis.
• Hardened infrastructure and regular updates.

Your rights & choices

• Access, correct, or delete your data (including optional age/gender/language) from settings, or contact us.
• Disable personalized ads using the links above or your device’s ad settings.
• Delete your account to remove account-level data; legal/transaction records may persist as required.

Children & Kids Mode (Web)

GridRank is a mixed-audience game used by both adults and children. To tailor features for younger players on the web version, we ask for birth year at registration.

• Age gate: If the provided birth year indicates the user is under 13, we enable Kids Mode for that account.
• Purchases: Purchases are disabled in Kids Mode.
• Ads: We do not use personalized/behavioral ads for users in Kids Mode. Ads shown are contextual only, and we instruct our ad partners to treat requests as child-directed where applicable (e.g., COPPA/TFCD flags, non-personalized ads).
• What we collect in Kids Mode (minimal):
  • Device UID for authentication and security.
  • Country (for sanctions compliance and country rankings).
  • Temporary IP address during an active session for abuse prevention and rate-limiting (expires when the session ends).
  • Gameplay data (e.g., puzzles, scores, timestamps) to operate core features.
  We do not require names, emails, or phone numbers.
• Leaderboards: Children may appear on leaderboards under their random nickname and country. If a birth year was provided, the account may also appear in age-based rankings consistent with that birth year.
• Limitations of self-reported age: Birth year is self-reported and may be inaccurate. If a user misstates their age, Kids Mode may not be applied. Parents/guardians can contact us to move an account into Kids Mode or to request data deletion.
• Parental rights: Parents or legal guardians may contact us at hello@gridrank.games to review or delete their child’s information.

Note: Mobile apps will implement platform-specific child-treatment settings and ad flags; this policy will be updated when those apps are released.

International users

Your data may be processed in the United States or other countries where we or our providers operate. We store country for sanctions compliance and rankings.

Changes to this policy

We may update this page as GridRank evolves. We’ll change the “Last updated” date at the top and, for significant changes, provide a notice in the app.

Contact

Email: hello@gridrank.games