1. Scope and current operating model
This notice describes the current Gridling website and word-game service. Gridling does not offer user registration, paid subscriptions, purchases, comments, uploads, direct messaging, or personalised advertising. The service is intended for casual puzzle play and does not build an account profile around individual visitors.
This policy distinguishes between information intentionally stored by Gridling and limited technical data that an internet hosting provider may process automatically to deliver and secure a website.
2. Data collection by Gridling
Gridling does not intentionally collect or maintain personal account records, names, email addresses, passwords, precise locations, contact lists, payment details, advertising identifiers, or user-submitted files. It does not sell personal information and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
No first-party analytics dashboard records your puzzle sessions. Gridling does not create a server-side history of your win streak, guess distribution, chosen word length, theme, accessibility preference, or completed answers.
3. Browser LocalStorage
Gridling uses the browser feature called localStorage to remember game progress on the device you are using. Stored values can include current guesses, completed puzzle state, win totals, streaks, guess distributions, selected theme, and accessibility mode.
This information remains within that browser profile. It is not synchronised to a Gridling account or copied into a Gridling gameplay database. Other devices and browser profiles cannot see it. Private-browsing modes may remove it automatically when the private session ends.
Your control
You can erase this information at any time through your browser’s site-data or storage settings. Removing local storage resets local progress and statistics; Gridling has no remote copy from which those values can be recovered.
4. Puzzle requests and hosting records
To run the game securely, your browser sends the selected word length and mode when requesting a puzzle, then sends each submitted guess and its signed game token to the Gridling server for validation and scoring. Local stats, streaks, theme, accessibility preference, and the complete browser game history are not included in those requests. The application does not persist a named gameplay history. A signed token carries short-lived game state so the answer is not exposed to the browser before the game ends.
Important accuracy note: Gridling is hosted by Vercel. Like most web hosts, Vercel may process limited technical request information—such as IP address, browser and device headers, timestamps, requested paths, security signals, and diagnostic logs—to deliver, protect, and troubleshoot the service. Gridling does not use those hosting records to create advertising profiles or personalised game histories.
Technical processing by the hosting provider is governed by the provider’s own privacy and data-processing terms, plan limits, retention controls, and security obligations. Runtime-log availability can vary by Vercel plan and feature, so this policy does not claim a single fixed retention period for every category of platform data.
5. Cookies and advertising technology
The current launch phase does not set tracking cookies, run a commercial advertising framework, or use third-party behavioural analytics. Gridling’s local progress storage is not used to follow visitors across websites.
If advertising, consent-management technology, or analytics is introduced later, the live policy will be updated before that processing begins. Where applicable, visitors will receive the notices and consent controls required for non-essential cookies or personalised advertising. This current notice must not be read as describing a future monetised version that does not yet exist.
6. External links and services
The result screen may link to Wiktionary when a player chooses to view a word definition. Following that link leaves Gridling. The destination website receives the ordinary technical information associated with a web request and applies its own privacy policy. Gridling does not automatically load Wiktionary content or send a player’s complete guess history to it.
7. Privacy choices and applicable legal rights
Privacy rights vary by jurisdiction, the type of information processed, and the legal role and size of the organisation involved. This notice does not claim that every privacy framework applies to this non-commercial project. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act applies only to covered businesses, while UK and EU data-protection rights apply where their territorial and material requirements are met.
Because Gridling does not maintain an account database or server-side gameplay profile, most game information is under the player’s direct control in the browser that stores it.
- Local access: locally stored game data can be inspected through browser developer or site-storage controls.
- Local deletion: clearing Gridling’s site data removes progress and preferences from that browser.
- Sale or advertising sharing: Gridling does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
- Profiles and marketing: there is no named Gridling account profile to correct and no direct-marketing list from which to opt out.
Where applicable law gives a person rights such as access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, or portability, those rights can be subject to legal conditions and exceptions. Requests concerning information processed independently by the hosting provider may need to use that provider’s privacy channel and verification process.
8. Non-commercial status, payments, and HMRC
HM Revenue & Customs is a UK tax authority, not a privacy framework. Gridling currently takes no payments and therefore does not collect billing addresses, tax identifiers, invoices, card details, or payout records from players. If the project becomes commercial, any legally required financial records and the relevant privacy disclosures will be introduced at that time.
9. Security and data minimisation
Gridling minimises information by avoiding user accounts and remote gameplay storage. Requests are validated against strict formats, state-changing guess operations use signed game tokens, API traffic is rate limited, and browser responses use security headers. No internet service can promise absolute security, but reducing the amount of retained information reduces the impact of many common risks.
10. Children and policy changes
Gridling is a general-audience word puzzle and does not knowingly request personal information from children. Because no account or social feature exists, children cannot publish profile details through the service.
This notice may change when the service, hosting arrangement, or legal requirements change. Material changes will be reflected by a new effective date and, when appropriate, an in-product notice. Older statements should not be relied upon after a newer version is published.