1. About this policy
Ophthordle ("we," "us," or "our") is a free ophthalmology and optometry diagnosis game operated in the United States. This policy explains how we handle information when you play, create an account, or contact us.
You can play without providing an email address. An email address is required if you want an account that lets you recover and synchronize your history across browsers or devices.
2. Information we collect
Account and sign-in information. If you request a sign-in link, we collect your email address and create authentication records. Player accounts use email sign-in links rather than passwords. We also store links between your account and its browser profiles. Signing in can connect your existing guest game history to your account. Administrator accounts are separate and use email addresses and hashed passwords.
Gameplay information. For both guests and signed-in players, we store information such as the cases played, diagnoses guessed, hints used, unfinished progress, completion results, number of guesses, dates and times, and statistics such as streaks. Guest records are associated with a randomly generated browser identifier. Guest gameplay is stored on our servers as well as, where needed, in your browser.
Browser information. We store identifiers, session information, game drafts and recovery copies, time-zone preferences, and display preferences using cookies and local storage, as described below.
Technical information. Requests to our website and infrastructure can include your IP address, browser information, requested URLs, timestamps, and error or security information. We and our service providers may process this information to deliver the website, investigate problems, and prevent abuse. Location reporting uses an approximate country and, for United States requests when enabled, state derived from the request, as described in Section 3.
Messages you send us. If you contact us, we receive your email address and the contents of your message and attachments. Ophthordle is an educational game, not a patient-record service; please do not send identifiable patient information.
3. Country and United States state reporting
When country reporting is enabled, an accepted first completion of a case increments a daily counter for the approximate country supplied by our hosting provider, Vercel. When United States state reporting is also enabled, a United States completion can increment a separate daily state counter. Vercel estimates the country and state from the request's IP address. These estimates can be inaccurate, including when a VPN or proxy is used. This reporting does not request GPS access or store your raw IP address, city, street address, or precise coordinates. Hosting and security logs are separate, and our providers may process IP addresses to deliver and protect the service.
Country-reporting records contain only a country code, a New York calendar date, and a count of completed games. United States state-reporting records contain only a state code or an unknown-state code, a New York calendar date, and a count of completed games. These records do not contain a player, browser, account, session, game-result, or monthly counting identifier, and we do not attach country or state information to your individual game history. Existing gameplay authorization determines whether a completion is accepted; this reporting adds no cookies and reads no cookies beyond those already needed to authorize that completion. Saving the same completed result again does not add another count.
Administrators see aggregate completed-game totals by country and, when enabled, by United States state for today, the last 7 days, the last 30 days, and lifetime recorded activity. State reporting covers the 50 states and the District of Columbia. These totals count games, not unique people, and the daily date boundaries use the America/New_York time zone. This reporting does not identify your physical computer or track your browsing on other websites. We do not reconstruct countries or states for older results collected before the respective feature was enabled. United States games without a recorded, recognized state appear as unknown, including older country counts and requests with missing or unrecognized state information.
If a request includes an enabled Global Privacy Control signal (Sec-GPC: 1) or Do Not Track signal (DNT: 1), we skip new country and state counting for that request. These signals do not erase earlier aggregate counts or stop the storage of gameplay, account, or security information needed for other functions. There is currently no separate location-reporting switch in Settings.
4. Cookies and local storage
We use the following first-party cookies:
| Cookie | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
ophthordle_player | Recognizes an authorized guest or signed-in player session. | Up to 180 days; may be renewed with continued use. |
ophthordle_time_zone | Selects archive dates using your browser's time-zone offset. | Up to 7 days. |
ophthordle_completed_view | Remembers a recently completed case for navigation. | Up to 1 day. |
admin_token | Maintains an administrator's signed-in session. | Browser session; token authorization expires after 7 days. |
Local storage holds browser identifiers, game drafts and recovery copies, sign-in hints, and your light/dark preference. Some identifiers and game data are exchanged with our servers. Local storage generally remains until the application or your browser removes it.
You can block or clear cookies and local storage through your browser. Doing so may sign you out, remove local drafts, or prevent progress from being recovered. Clearing browser storage does not itself delete records already saved on our servers.
We do not use advertising cookies, third-party advertising pixels, or browser fingerprinting.
5. How we use information
We use information to:
- Operate the game, save progress, calculate results and statistics, and recover or synchronize account history.
- Provide community comparisons, including aggregate answer distributions and common guesses.
- Understand use and growth through administrator reports, including activity, country totals, and United States state totals.
- Deliver requested sign-in emails, respond to support or privacy requests, and send necessary service or security communications.
- Protect accounts, troubleshoot problems, maintain backups, and meet applicable legal obligations.
Public community statistics do not display player email addresses or account identifiers. Country and United States state reports are restricted to administrators. We do not use game results to make decisions about employment, insurance, credit, or access to healthcare.
We do not sell or rent personal information, share it for targeted advertising, or use player email addresses for promotional mailing lists.
6. Service providers and other disclosures
We use:
- Vercel for website hosting, request processing, approximate country and state information, and image delivery, including Vercel Blob.
- Supabase for the database that holds account, authentication, gameplay, country records, and United States state records.
- Resend to deliver requested sign-in emails. It receives the recipient's email address and the message, including the sign-in link.
- Google/Gmail to receive and respond to messages sent to our contact email address.
These providers process information needed for their services and may maintain operational and security records. Authorized administrators may access information to operate and support Ophthordle. We may also disclose information when required by law or reasonably necessary to address fraud, abuse, or threats to safety or security.
Links to learning resources, team profiles, and social platforms lead to services with their own privacy policies. Externally hosted images may transmit connection information to their hosts when loaded. If you choose to share a game result, the information you share is available to the recipients or services you select.
Ophthordle is operated in the United States. Information may be processed in the United States and other countries where our providers operate. Their data-protection laws may differ from those where you live. Contact us with questions about where your information is processed.
7. Retention and deletion
Accounts and gameplay. We retain account and gameplay records to preserve your history and provide the functions described above. There is currently no automatic deletion of these records solely because they reach a particular age or an account becomes inactive.
Account deletion. In Settings, signed-in players can select Delete Account. This removes the account, associated email sign-in records, linked browser profiles and sessions, and their saved gameplay records from the active application database. Aggregate country and United States state counters remain because they do not contain an account or browser identifier and cannot be matched back to the deleted account.
Guest deletion. Guests can select Clear Statistics in Settings to delete the current browser's authorized guest profile and its saved history. This does not identify or delete unrelated guest profiles in other browsers, or profiles whose browser credentials you have already cleared. Logging out does not delete saved account history.
Authentication records. Sign-in links expire after 15 minutes and can be redeemed once. Player sessions have a renewable 180-day validity period. Expiry prevents further use of a token; it does not necessarily delete the underlying authentication record at that time.
Country and United States state totals. We retain daily aggregate completed-game counts by country and United States state to provide historical reports, including lifetime totals. These records contain no individual identifiers, remain after account or guest-history deletion, and cannot be used to restore deleted game history. There is currently no fixed deletion period for these aggregate records.
Backups, logs, and correspondence. Deletion from the active application database does not immediately remove copies in backups, provider logs, or prior support correspondence. We maintain backups for disaster recovery. Logs and correspondence may be retained for support, security, dispute resolution, and legal obligations. We do not currently specify a fixed maximum retention period for backup copies. You can contact us about the scope of a deletion request.
Deleting an account on one browser does not directly erase local storage on every other device. You can clear remaining local copies through those browsers' settings.
8. Your privacy choices and rights
You can play as a guest, delete your account or current guest history, manage browser storage, and use supported browser signals to stop new country and state counting as described above.
Depending on the law that applies to you, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a portable copy of your personal information; restrict its use; or object to particular processing. Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw that consent. You may also have the right to complain to your local privacy regulator or appeal a decision about your request.
Send requests to ophthordlegame@gmail.com. We may need to verify that you control the account or browser history involved before providing or deleting information. We will respond within the period required by applicable law and will not penalize you for exercising an applicable privacy right.
9. Security and children
We use safeguards such as HTTPS, protected session credentials, hashed authentication tokens, and access controls. No internet service or storage system can guarantee absolute security. We will provide breach notifications where required by applicable law.
Ophthordle is intended for eye-care professionals, trainees, and others interested in ophthalmic education. It is not directed to children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate deletion steps.
10. Changes and contact
We may update this policy as the service changes. We will update its effective date and provide additional notice of material changes where required. This policy explains our practices; visiting the website is not a substitute for consent where consent is legally required.
For privacy questions or requests, contact Ophthordle at ophthordlegame@gmail.com.