Privacy policy

Last updated 26 October 2026

Word Quarry is a daily word game at playwordquarry.com. This page says what the game keeps about you, why, who else handles it, how long it is kept, and what you can ask of us.

In short

You play as a guest. You give us no name, email or password: the game makes a random id for you and keeps your game under it.
Your guest lives in this browser. If you clear the site's data, or play on another device or browser, you start again as a new guest.
If you make an account, with an email and a password, your game goes with it to any device. It keeps the guest's id, so nothing is copied, and you choose a name. We keep your email encrypted and your password only in a form no one can read back.
Other players see your guest name and score on the daily leaderboard, and your name beside words you found first on the day's word lists, unless you hide it. If you build a quarry, they see it with your name and your score on it.
No ads, no cookies, and nothing about you is sold. We count visits with GoatCounter, which keeps no record of who you are.
The game's servers are Google's and Upstash's, in the United States.
You don't have to give us anything. The guest is what lets the game remember you; an account and writing to us are up to you.

Who is responsible

Word Quarry is run by OÜ Trilevik, a private limited company in Estonia: registry code 12337963, Rüütli 7, 51007 Tartu, Estonia. We decide what the game keeps and why, so under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we are the controller of your data. Questions and requests go to privacy@playwordquarry.com. Our full details are on the About page.

When you visit

The server's request log

What: Google's log of each request to the game's server: your IP address, browser, the address asked for and the time.
Why: To keep the game working and secure, stop abuse and fix faults.
Legal basis: Our legitimate interest in a secure and working game (Art 6(1)(f); GDPR recital 49).
Kept: 30 days.

Visits, counted by GoatCounter

What: For each visit to the game, and to a day's or a quarry's page or our "No page here" page: which of those it was (never the day or the quarry), its title, your browser and system, screen width, language and country, and where you came from. Where you came from is, if you followed one of our own links, the word in it that says how it was shared or where we posted it (an invite, a result, a brag, a quarry, or a site's or campaign's name, such as reddit or fb-cold); otherwise, if the link came through Facebook, Google, Bing or TikTok and carries their click code, that service's name (never the code); otherwise, if you came from another site, that site's address without the page you were on. The page sends this to GoatCounter itself, and loads nothing from GoatCounter. GoatCounter works out the country from your IP address, and holds your IP address and browser details in memory for up to 8 hours to tell one visit from the next. It never stores them, sets no cookie and stores nothing on your device. It keeps only totals, such as "40 visits from Firefox today", never a record of one visitor.
Why: To know how many people visit, and where they come from.
Legal basis: Our legitimate interest in knowing how the site is used (Art 6(1)(f)).
Kept: The totals, for as long as we use GoatCounter. Only those pages at playwordquarry.com are counted, not this one or the other pages like it.

Protecting the forms

What: The forms that make an account, log in and set a new password ask your browser to solve a short calculation first (a "proof of work", about a second, done by itself). It sets no cookie, uses no outside service and sends nothing anywhere else. To limit how often the forms can be used, the server counts their use from your connection, and the emails sent to an address, under keyed codes from which neither your IP address nor your email address can be read back. It keeps a security log of each use: the time, the form, what happened and why, and a code made from your IP address that changes every day, never the address itself. Too many requests from one connection in a minute are refused, and nothing is stored for that.
Codes and passwords: After 5 wrong tries, an emailed code stops working, and that address gets no email from us for 24 hours; a connection that does the same to a second address is refused for an hour, longer if it happens again, at most a week. After 5 wrong passwords in a row for an address, the next try waits 30 minutes; after 10, an hour; after 15, the password must be set again by email. If 3 emails in a row to an address go unused, it gets no more for 7 days. An address our email bounced from, or that reported it as spam, is kept as a keyed code so we send it nothing more.
Why: To stop anyone using the game's forms to send email to people who did not ask for it, or to guess passwords.
Legal basis: Our legitimate interest in keeping the game, and the email it sends, secure (Art 6(1)(f)). You can object by writing to privacy@playwordquarry.com.
Kept: The counts of use, 2 days. The security log, 8 days, seen only by us. The counts of wrong codes and passwords, and of unused emails, until they are no longer needed, at most a year. A bounced address's code, 1 year.

What we keep, and why

Your guest account

What: A random id that Firebase Authentication (Google) makes the first time you open the game, when it was made and last used, and the sign-in token your browser keeps. The game's server notes the time of your last visit, once a day, which is what decides when an unused guest is deleted.
Why: So the game knows it is you, and can keep your game.
Legal basis: Providing the game you asked for (contract, GDPR Art 6(1)(b)).
Kept: Until your guest is deleted. A guest that has not opened the game for 12 months is deleted, with everything below that belongs to it.

Your account, if you make one

What: Your email address, kept encrypted, with a keyed code made from it to find your account, which cannot be turned back into the address; your password, kept only as an Argon2id hash that no one can read back, us included; the name you choose; and whether you are under 18. The form asks the month and year you were born, which stay on your device: only "under 18" or "18 or over" is sent. Firebase Authentication (Google) keeps only your guest's id and your session.
How it is made: When you ask for an account, we email you a 6-digit code and a link. Nothing is made until one of them is used, so an address someone else typed gets no account. Either works once, for an hour. Until then we keep what you typed (the encrypted address, the password's hash, the name and the age band) for that hour.
Why: So you can log in on any device and your game is kept safe, and to send the account's own emails (below).
Legal basis: Contract (Art 6(1)(b)).
Kept: Until the account is deleted. An account not used for 3 years is deleted, with a warning email a month before. When you log in to an account on a device, the guest that device played as is left behind and deleted. Setting a new password logs out every other device.

Your game

What: Your runs and scores, the words you found and when, your collection, keys, streak, experience and level, badges, the words of the day you found, the days you opened, which tips and pages you have already seen, the heaps you rated, whether you show your name on the word lists, the quarries you build (with the words you built them from) and dig, your best on each, the ones you liked and any you reported.
Why: This is the game: your calendar, your progress and your places on the boards.
Legal basis: Contract (Art 6(1)(b)).
Kept: As long as your guest or account.

What other players see

Your name: A guest's is given by the game, such as "Guest 48213"; an account's is the one it chose, and it then shows on every day you played.
Leaderboard: Your name, score and time, on each day you played live. Kept 90 days, like the day's board.
Word lists: Once a day is over, its lists (Valuable, Rarest, Longest) show the words, how many players found each, and the names of the first players to find them: yours too, unless you hide it with the name choice at the top of the lists. If your account says you are under 18, your name is hidden there until you choose to show it. Kept 90 days.
Word boards: Your name and how many words you have collected (Risers, 90 days, All time). Kept as long as your guest or account.
Quarries: A quarry you build shows in the game with your name, its letters and your score on it, which is its par; the words you built it from are never shown, and a player who finishes it learns only which of their own words were also yours. Its own page (playwordquarry.com/q/…) shows the same to anyone you send the link to, with your name only if you show it on the word lists. When you dig someone's quarry, your name and best score show on its leaderboard. Kept 90 days.
Legal basis: The leaderboard and the word boards are part of the game (contract). Your name on the word lists is our legitimate interest in showing who found what (Art 6(1)(f)), which you can turn off at any time.

Messages you send us

What: What you write in ⋯ → Feedback, the day, your guest name, the game's version and your screen size; our reply, and when you read it. If you email us: your email address and what you wrote.
Why: To answer you, and to fix and improve the game.
Legal basis: Our legitimate interest in answering and improving the game (Art 6(1)(f)).
Kept: 12 months, or until your guest is deleted if that comes first.

Keeping the game fair

What: Each run's moves, which the server replays to work out your score itself. The words a run tried that were not accepted. When you last sent a message or suggested a word, to stop flooding. A report you send about a quarry: which quarry, and the reason you picked from a list.
Why: To stop cheating and abuse, see which words players expect, and act on what players report.
Legal basis: Our legitimate interest in a secure and fair game (Art 6(1)(f); GDPR recital 49).
Kept: The moves, with the run. The words not accepted, 30 days. A report, 90 days, with the day's quarries.

How the game is used

What: Daily counts (visits, games started and finished, players coming back), the list of who played each day from which they are made, how many word meanings each player has looked up (a count, never the words), and the admin's views of recent games and of how new players find their way around.
Why: To understand how the game is played, and make it better.
Legal basis: Our legitimate interest in improving the game (Art 6(1)(f)).
Kept: The list of who played each day, 90 days. Recent games, the last 200. How a new player found their way, and how many meanings they looked up, as long as the guest. The counts, which name no one, as long as the game runs.

Emails we send you

We email only these, and only when you ask: the code and link that make an account (again if you ask for it); a note that an address already has an account, if someone asks to make another with it; and a link to set a new password. They are part of the account you asked for; we send no newsletters and no advertising. The game's own server writes them, with nothing you typed in them but your address, and sends them through Cloudflare from noreply@playwordquarry.com. Cloudflare receives your address and the email to deliver it, and keeps a log of each one's delivery: the address and whether it arrived.

To one address we send at most 3 emails an hour and 5 a day, and at most one a minute, none for 7 days after 3 in a row went unused, and none for 24 hours after a code was guessed wrong 5 times. In all, the game sends at most 100 emails a day.

On your device

The game sets no cookies. It keeps these in your browser's storage for this site:

Your sign-in, as a guest or an account, kept by Firebase (firebaseLocalStorageDb, or firebase:authUser:… where the browser offers no database storage). Without it the game cannot remember you.
Firebase's own note of which of its versions this page has used and on which days (firebase-heartbeat-database), which Firebase sends to Google with sign-in requests.
Your settings: light or dark (wq-mode), and sound on or off (wq-muted). An older visit may have left wq-theme, a colour setting the game no longer reads.
That you signed out (wq-signed-out), so the device waits for you to log in or start a new guest instead of making one.
The game's notes to itself, so it does not give you the same news twice, each filed under an anonymous tag of your guest:
- whether today's keys were shown (wq-keys-shown);
- which pages and tabs have news for you (wq-heap-seen, wq-words-seen, wq-words-tabs);
- where you stood on the word boards (wq-words-rank, wq-words-top);
- which first-time notes you have seen (wq-lang-seen, wq-names-seen).

None of it is used to follow you on other sites. You can delete it all in your browser's settings for this site; a guest and its game go with it, while an account's game waits for you to log in again.

Who else handles it

These services run the game for us. Each handles your data only to provide its service to us.

Google: Firebase Authentication (your guest's id and your session), Firebase Hosting (serves the pages), Cloud Run (the game's server) and Cloud Logging (its request log). Our contract is with Google Cloud EMEA Limited, Ireland; the data is stored in the United States.
Upstash: the game's database. Upstash, Inc., United States; the database is in the United States.
GoatCounter: the visit counts. Run by Martin Tournoij in Ireland, on servers at Hetzner in Finland and Germany.
Cloudflare: the address playwordquarry.com, our email forwarding, and the account's emails. Email to support@ or privacy@ passes through Cloudflare, Inc. (United States) to our mailbox. The account's emails pass through Cloudflare as described above.
Our email service: the provider that holds our company mailbox, where that email arrives.

Word meanings come from Wiktionary, run by the Wikimedia Foundation in the United States. When the game shows what a word means, our server asks Wiktionary for that word and keeps the answer. Wiktionary receives only the word: the request comes from our server, not your device, and carries nothing about you.

We sell nothing about you and share nothing for advertising. We give data to an authority only when the law requires it.

Outside the EU

Google and Upstash keep the game's data in the United States, and Cloudflare handles our email there. These transfers rely on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, under which these companies are certified, with the European Commission's standard contractual clauses in their terms as the fallback.

How long

Your guest, your game and your place on the word boards: until the guest is deleted, which happens after 12 months unused.
Your account: until you delete it, or after 3 years unused, with a warning email a month before.
The leaderboard and the day's word lists: 90 days.
Quarries, their leaderboards, likes and reports: 90 days.
Messages: 12 months.
The request log, and the words a run tried that were not accepted: 30 days.
The forms' counts of use, 2 days; their security log, 8 days; the counts of wrong codes and passwords and of unused emails, at most a year; a bounced address's code, 1 year. A sign-up not yet confirmed, an hour.
The list of who played each day: 90 days. Recent games: the last 200.
Visit totals and daily counts, which name no one: as long as the game runs.
When you delete your game: your name and your sessions at once, the rest within the hour (below).
Copies: Upstash, which holds the game's database, keeps no backup copies, so what is deleted there is gone at once. Google, which keeps your guest or account and the request log, removes deleted data from its backup copies within 180 days.

Deleting your game

In the game: Profile → Delete my game for a guest, or Delete my account for an account, which asks for its password. At once, your name leaves the boards and is free for anyone to take, and every device you play on is logged out. Within the hour, everything else the game keeps about you is erased: your games, your words, your keys, your messages and your place on every list. What stays names no one: on the days you played, how many players found each word, and the day's player count and score chart; and the quarries you built, which stay for the players digging them with your name taken off. Your device then starts again as a new guest.

If you cannot log in: set a new password with Forgotten password on the log-in form, then delete the account in the game. Or email privacy@playwordquarry.com from the account's address, and we delete it for you within one month.

Your rights

You can ask us:

for a copy of what we keep about you, also as a file you can take elsewhere;
to correct it;
to delete it, which you can also do yourself in the game (Deleting your game);
to limit what we do with it, or to stop what we do on the ground of our legitimate interest. You can hide your name on the word lists yourself, at the top of the lists.

How: write to us in the game, in ⋯ → Feedback. That shows us the request comes from you: a guest has no email or password we could check otherwise. Or email privacy@playwordquarry.com, from your account's email address if you have one, or with your guest name (Profile shows it), and we may ask you to confirm it from the game. We answer within one month.

If you have lost your guest (cleared data, another device), we cannot tell which guest was yours, so we cannot act on it. It is deleted once it has not been used for 12 months.

If you think we handle your data wrongly, you can complain to the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon, www.aki.ee), or to the data protection authority where you live or work.

Children

Word Quarry is for a general audience, and guests are asked nothing, their age included. An account is for 13 and over: the sign-up form asks the month and year you were born, and under 13 it makes no account and sends nothing. From 13 to 17, an account's name is hidden on the word lists until the player shows it, and we never send such an account marketing email. We keep no more about a child than about any guest, as described above. If a child under 13 has sent us a message with personal details, tell us at privacy@playwordquarry.com and we will delete it.

Do Not Track

We do not follow you across other sites, and let no one else do so through the game, so the game works the same whether or not your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control.

Changes

When we change this policy, we change the date at the top. If a change affects how your data is used, we tell you in the game before it applies.

Contact

privacy@playwordquarry.com · OÜ Trilevik, Rüütli 7, 51007 Tartu, Estonia.