Privacy Policy

RiddleHouses is an independent, personal project — there's no company behind it. The person maintaining RiddleHouses is responsible for the decisions described in this policy. For anything about your data, contact hello.riddlemaster@gmail.com.

RiddleHouses keeps a few things only on your own device, never sent to any server:

• In local storage: your game progress, whether you've seen the intro puzzle, and whether you've accepted or rejected the analytics cookie described below.
• In a small cookie named NEXT_LOCALE: the language you last picked, so your next visit opens in the same one.

This is functional storage that runs the site itself — it's not tracking or advertising, and it's separate from the analytics cookie described next.

Clicking “Reset Board” only resets your game progress — it doesn't touch the intro-puzzle flag, your analytics choice, or your language. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes everything above at once; you'll start fresh next time, the same as a first-time visitor.

RiddleHouses uses two analytics tools:

• Vercel Analytics — counts page visits so we can see overall traffic and which pages get used. Per Vercel's own documentation, it doesn't use cookies. It runs for every visitor, since it's cookie-free and separate from the choice below.
• Google Analytics (via Firebase) — records gameplay events we define ourselves (for example: a puzzle was solved, a hint was requested, which language you're using) so we can tell what's actually working. This one does use cookies. It only loads after you accept it in the cookie banner (or later via “Cookie Settings” in the menu) — rejecting or ignoring the banner keeps it from loading at all, and if you never make a choice, you'll see the banner again on your next visit.

The events we define ourselves don't include your name or email. Like any analytics service, the underlying Google/Firebase infrastructure may also process some technical information automatically as part of how it operates (such as device or browser type) — that happens within Google's own systems, not something RiddleHouses adds or receives directly.

Clicking “AI Hint” sends the puzzle's board state (which item is placed in which house) and the built-in clue text to our own server, which forwards it to Google's Gemini API to generate a suggestion. This only happens when you explicitly ask for a hint.

There's no free-text field in this flow — the request only ever contains fixed puzzle data (item names and the pre-written clue wording), never anything you type yourself, so it can't contain personal information.

If you submit the “Feedback & Suggestions” form, we collect the message you write, which type of feedback it is, and — only if you choose to add one — your email address. This is stored as an issue in our GitHub repository, which is private, so it's visible only to the project's maintainer, not the public; GitHub, as the infrastructure we use to store it, may have its own technical access to it as our service provider. Providing an email is entirely optional and is only used to follow up on that specific piece of feedback.

• Change or withdraw your analytics consent anytime via “Cookie Settings” in the menu.
• Reset your local game progress with the “Reset Board” button, or clear everything listed above by clearing this site's data in your browser — it's stored only on your device, so we can't access or delete it remotely ourselves.
• Ask what data we hold about a feedback submission, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how it's used, by emailing hello.riddlemaster@gmail.com.

If you're in the EU/EEA, these map to your rights under the GDPR — access, rectification, erasure, restriction or objection, and withdrawing consent. We aim to honor the same kinds of requests for every visitor regardless of location, though which rights formally apply can depend on where you are.

Different parts of RiddleHouses run on different third-party providers, each of which may process data outside your own country, including the US:

• Vercel — hosts the site itself.
• Google — Analytics (via Firebase) and the Gemini API for AI hints.
• GitHub — stores feedback submissions.

Each publishes its own privacy and data-processing terms, including whatever safeguards apply to this.

RiddleHouses doesn't require an account and isn't designed or marketed for children. We don't intentionally collect personal information from children. The one place anyone — of any age — can optionally submit a personal detail is the email field in the feedback form, the same as for any other visitor.

If how RiddleHouses handles data changes meaningfully — for example if we add advertising, further analytics, or accounts — this page will be updated first, and the date at the top will change.

See also the Terms of Use.