Privacy policy
This page explains what we collect when you use freegaming.buzz, why we collect it, how long we keep it and how to ask us to remove it. We have tried to write it in plain language rather than legal boilerplate.
The short version
You do not need an account to play anything here. We do not sell your information, we do not trade it, and we do not build advertising profiles from it. What we do collect is the small amount of data that makes a leaderboard work and tells us which games people actually enjoy.
What we collect when you play a game
Some of our games keep a high score table. When you finish a run and your score is recorded, we store:
- the name or initials you typed in, which are entirely your choice
- your score and how long the run lasted
- the date and time the score was recorded
- your IP address, and an approximate location worked out from it
- the page or search that brought you to the game, if your browser reports one
- basic information your browser sends about itself, such as its name and whether you are on a phone, tablet or desktop
IP addresses may be stored for statistical analysis. We use them to get a rough sense of how many separate people are playing rather than how many games are being played, and to stop the same person filling a scoreboard hundreds of times over. We do not use them to try to work out who you are, and we do not combine them with information from anywhere else.
The approximate location is worked out by asking a lookup service which country and general area an address belongs to. It is a rough indication at best. Mobile networks and privacy tools regularly report somewhere quite unrelated to where a person actually is, and we do not treat it as anything more reliable than that.
If you would rather not appear on a scoreboard at all, simply do not submit a score. Games can be played without ever entering a name.
What we collect when you contact us
If you use our contact form, we receive the name, email address and message you send, along with your IP address and the same approximate location described above. We keep that correspondence so we can answer you and follow up if you write again, and we reply to the address you gave us. We do not add you to a mailing list, because we do not run one.
The form asks your browser to complete a quick automated check before it goes through. This is only there to keep out bulk junk, it does not identify you, and it usually happens without you noticing.
Cookies and browser storage
We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Two ordinary things may be stored by your browser while you are here:
- a short lived cookie that lets the site work correctly while you move between pages, which is discarded when you close your browser
- in some games, a local copy of your own best scores, saved by your browser so the game can show them to you next time. That copy stays on your device and is never sent to us. Clearing your browsing data removes it.
Games made by other people
We intend to feature games created by other developers. Where a game is provided by someone else, that developer may collect their own information under their own privacy policy, and we cannot make promises on their behalf. We will always make it clear when a game is not ours.
Who else sees this information
Nobody, other than the people who run this site. We do not sell or rent it. We would only ever hand information over if we were legally required to do so.
We do rely on ordinary service providers to keep the site online and to deliver email, in the same way that any website does. They only handle information as part of providing those services.
How long we keep it
Scores and the names attached to them are kept for as long as the scoreboard exists, since that is the entire point of a high score table. The more detailed information described above, including IP addresses, is kept only while it is useful for the statistics we describe, and is then removed or disconnected from the score it came from.
Children
Our games are suitable for a general audience and we do not knowingly seek out any information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and you believe your child has submitted something you would like removed, contact us and we will remove it.
Your choices
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Scoreboard entries are the easiest case: tell us roughly when you played and the name you used, and we will find it and remove it. You do not need to explain why.
Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect, we will update this page and change the date at the top of it. We will not quietly start collecting something new and leave this page saying otherwise.
Contact
Questions about any of this, or a request to remove something, can go through our contact form. It reaches the same people and saves you writing an email.