This policy covers Bookends (referred to here as "we", "us", or "the game"), a word puzzle available at this website. It’s currently run as a personal / hobby project rather than a registered company.
We collect very little, and only what you choose to give us:
We do not collect email addresses, passwords, payment details, or any other personal information, because the game doesn’t currently ask for any.
Like virtually every website, our hosting provider (Netlify) may automatically log standard technical data when you visit – such as IP address, browser type, and the time of your visit. This happens at the hosting infrastructure level; we don’t actively access, analyse, or use this data ourselves. You can read Netlify’s own privacy policy for details on what they collect: netlify.com/privacy.
We don’t set any cookies of our own. Netlify’s platform may use a small number of strictly necessary technical cookies to operate the service.
We use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics tool, to understand how many people play Bookends and roughly where they come from. Plausible is specifically built as a privacy-respecting alternative to tools like Google Analytics:
You can read Plausible’s own privacy policy for more detail: plausible.io/privacy.
Separately from Plausible, we record a small piece of additional information to understand how often people come back and play on another day:
This exists so we can understand whether people enjoy the game enough to keep coming back, and to show how many people are playing each day – it’s never used to identify, contact, or single out an individual player.
Game data (names, scores, and answers) is stored using Netlify’s data storage service ("Netlify Blobs"). Specifically:
We only use your information to run the core feature of the game: showing a daily leaderboard so you and whoever you share the game with can compare scores. We don’t use it for advertising, marketing, or profiling, and we don’t sell or share it with any third party beyond our hosting provider.
Leaderboard data is currently kept indefinitely, as the game has no automatic deletion process in place yet. If you’d like your name and score removed from a leaderboard, contact us using the details below and we’ll remove it manually.
We don’t sell or share your information with advertisers or data brokers. The only third parties involved are Netlify, our hosting and data storage provider, and Plausible, our analytics provider – both process data on our behalf in order to run and understand the website, and neither is used for advertising.
Data is stored and processed on Netlify’s infrastructure. Netlify may process data in various locations depending on their own infrastructure setup – see their privacy policy for current details on data locations and safeguards.
Bookends is a general-audience word game and is not specifically directed at children. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information (such as an identifying name), please contact us and we’ll remove it.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal information, including the right to:
Because we only hold a self-chosen display name and a game score, exercising these rights is simple – just contact us with the name you used, and we’ll remove the associated entry.
If you’re in the UK and unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 · ico.org.uk
If Bookends adds new features in future – such as user accounts, sign-in, or payments – this policy will be updated to reflect that, and the "last updated" date at the top will change. We’d encourage you to check back occasionally if you’re a regular player.
If you have any questions about this policy, or want a name removed from a leaderboard, get in touch:
bookendsgame@gmail.com