Privacy policy

Who is responsible

The controller of the personal data described here, under the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and, for players in the European Economic Area, the EU GDPR, is APIDLY LTD (trading as Wordtide), a private limited company registered in England and Wales (company no. 17042735), registered office 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 7DE, United Kingdom. Full company details are on our company information page.

There is no public email address and we have not appointed a data protection officer (the law does not require one for us). Reach us, including for any data-protection question or request, through the contact form at wordtide.app/contact (choose “Privacy or my data”), or by post to APIDLY LTD at the registered office above, marked “Data protection”.

What we store about your player

• A random player ID, created when you first play the shared world. It is not linked to your name, email, phone or device identifiers.
• A display name. It starts as an auto-generated “adjective animal” name (like Brave Otter). You can rename yourself; custom names are filtered for inappropriate words.
• Game progress: score, words played, level, streak, quests, achievements, cosmetics, your Word Album (the words you have found, including Album collections), your team colour, weekly league points, and the tiles you place on the shared board.
• Your time-zone offset (for example “UTC−5”), so daily quests, streaks and reminders follow your local day. It is not your location.
• Daily Seven results: your best word and score for the day, kept with your display name for the day’s top list. These rows are deleted after 30 days.
• Solo Journey results: the best number of stars for each level you finish. When a level ends we receive its number, stars, score and a checksum of the moves, not the moves themselves.
• Daily counters from your device: how many Journey levels and Little Tide rounds you finished today, and whether this device has a Little Tide profile, so the matching daily quests can count. No Little Tide words or stickers are included.
• “Built on you” notes: when someone builds on your word, we keep a short list of who (display name), which word, and where, until you have seen it.
• Activity days: which days a player ID was active, used only for our own counts of players per day and how many come back. These rows are deleted after 35 days.

This data is stored on Cloudflare (Durable Objects). We do not ask for, or store, your real name, email address, phone number, photos, contacts or location.

Saving your progress (optional)

You can protect your player with a passkey (Face ID, fingerprint or your device PIN) or a five-word recovery code. For a passkey we store its public key, credential ID, a signature counter and transport hints that your device provides. The fingerprint or face never leaves your device. For a recovery code we store only a one-way hash of it. Neither needs an email address or any other personal detail. In Little Tide and Easy mode, these options sit behind a grown-up check.

Reporting names and moderation

Players can report a display name as rude, mean, personal information, or pretending to be someone. When you report a name we store: the reported name, the reason, your player ID, the time, and a short keyed fingerprint of your network (a one-way hash of your IP address, or of the first half of an IPv6 address) so that one household or network cannot hide a name on its own. We do not store the IP address itself.

• When three different players report the same name, everyone else sees an auto-generated animal name in its place until we review it.
• On review we either clear the name or rename every player who holds it to an auto-generated animal name and block that name from being used again.
• When you choose a custom name, we note your player ID next to that name for up to 180 days so that, if it is later reported and removed, we can rename the right player.
• Reports about a name that was never hidden are deleted 60 days after they were filed, and a cleared name’s reports are deleted straight away. A hidden or removed name stays blocked while it is still around (reported, reviewed, or someone tries to take it again); the record of that decision and its reports are deleted 13 months after the last of those.

Teams, leagues, lighthouses and reactions

League tables, the Daily Seven top list, the weekly tide results and the World Dictionary show display names with points or words. If you are the first player ever to play a word, the word and your display name are kept as a “lighthouse” in the World Dictionary until the world is reset. Reactions are a fixed set of emoji. There is no free-text chat anywhere in Wordtide.

On your device

A signed token is kept in your browser’s localStorage so the game knows who you are when you come back. We also keep preferences there (theme, sound, Easy mode, language, the “Who’s playing?” choice), your Solo Journey progress, a copy of the items you bought (so ads stay off while you are offline), and everything in Little Tide (stickers, level, settings). The app’s offline copy (its files and the dictionary of the world you play) sits in the browser’s cache storage. All of this is strictly needed for the game you asked for, so it needs no consent, and none of it is used for ads. Clearing your browser data signs you out of that player and erases Little Tide progress. Our own pages set no analytics cookies. On grown-up play, our ad partner and consent tool may store their own cookies or similar identifiers (see “Ads” below); they are never set in Little Tide or kid profiles.

IP addresses

Your IP address is used for a moment to rate-limit abuse and protect the servers. It is not stored with your player data. The only thing derived from it that we keep is the network fingerprint attached to a name report (see above).

What is public

Wordtide is one shared board. The words you play and your display name are public. Anyone can see them on the board and on the leaderboards. Please do not put personal information in your display name. Some words that are valid but not right for young players (for example words about violence or drugs) stay playable, but other players see them partly hidden, and the game never suggests them.

Optional extras

• Reminders. If you turn on push reminders, we keep your browser’s push address and its encryption keys, plus when the next reminder is due, until you turn them off or the browser tells us the address no longer works. Notifications are delivered through your browser maker’s push service (for example Apple, Google or Mozilla), which sees an encrypted message only. We send none between 9 pm and 9 am your time.
• Invite links. An invite link carries a sealed code, not your player ID. Anyone with the link can see your display name on its preview card. It stops working after 7 days or when you make a new one.
• Who’s nearby. Players building near you see your display name.
• Robot check. Cloudflare Turnstile may ask your browser to prove it is not a robot, but only if a limit is triggered (for example many new players or wrong recovery codes from one network). Your IP address is then sent to Cloudflare to check the result.
• Word meanings. Meanings are fetched from Wiktionary through our own server, so Wiktionary never sees you.
• Little Tide Garden. If the shared Garden is on (a grown-up can turn it off in the parent corner), Little Tide sends only which picture words were spelled and how many times, with no player ID, name, account or location. We keep one count per word per day.
• Error reports. If the app reports a crash to our server, the report holds the error message and code location, the page address without its query, your browser type, the app version and your country (from the network, not GPS). Anything that looks like a token or recovery code is removed first. About one in ten reports is written to Cloudflare’s server logs; none include a player ID.
• Counters. We count things like words played today, with no names attached.
• Usage counts. To see which parts of the game work, the app counts a short, fixed list of moments, such as “a game started”, “a first word was played”, “an invite was shared” or “a Daily Seven was played”. Each count carries only the interface language and a rough context (game mode, the “Who’s playing?” choice, and phone, tablet or computer). It never carries a player ID, name, word, score, invite or duel code. Page views are counted by path only, with invite and duel codes removed. This uses Vercel Web Analytics, served from our own site with no cookies; to count unique visitors Vercel uses a hash of the request that changes every day and is not stored with your player, so it cannot follow you from one day to the next. We only ever see totals. Nothing is sent when your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, or when you turn off “Share anonymous counts” in Settings. Little Tide, the little and junior profiles and Easy mode never load the analytics script and send no usage counts at all, not even a page view.

Ads

• On our own site, grown-up play only. We show ads through Google H5 Games Ads (AdSense for Games). Ads appear at natural breaks (for example after a Journey level or the Daily Seven) and as optional “watch to get a lantern” rewards. Google and its partners may use cookies, device identifiers and your IP address to serve and measure ads, and, if you consent, to personalise them. See how Google uses data from sites that use its services.
• Consent. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we ask for your choice through a Google-certified consent management platform before any personalised ad is requested, and no ad cookie or similar identifier is stored on or read from your device until you agree. Without consent you only see non-personalised or limited ads that do not use them. You can change your choice at any time from Settings.
• On partner portals (game websites and apps that host Wordtide), the portal runs its own ad system under its own privacy policy. We do not control or receive that data. Check the portal’s policy. Portals do not tell us your age, so Wordtide treats every portal player like a teen: the game asks for non-personalised ads only.
• Teens (13 to 17): non-personalised ads only. When “Who’s playing?” is set to Teens, every ad request asks Google for non-personalised ads, and personalisation is switched off in the consent signals, whatever the consent message says. Adults (18 and up) choose for themselves in the consent message.
• Never for children. Little Tide and the Easy and little/junior “Who’s playing?” profiles show no ads, load no ad code and make no ad requests.
• No in-app purchases on our own site today. If that changes we will update this page.

Anonymous gameplay telemetry

To tune the game we record anonymous events (for example a session started, the time to a first move, a number of moves, an ad shown, a reward earned, or a once-a-day “active” count with the number of days since this device first played, kept in your browser only). They go to Cloudflare Workers Analytics Engine and carry only the platform, interface language and a rough context such as the “Who’s playing?” choice. They carry no player ID, no name, no word and no IP address; we do not store your IP address with them. Telemetry is sent in small batches, is off in Little Tide and kid profiles (Little Tide and the little and junior profiles send nothing at all), and is not sent when your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control or when you turn off “Share anonymous counts” in Settings.

Logging in through a platform

When Wordtide is played inside CrazyGames, Yandex Games, Facebook or Messenger Instant Games, Telegram, Discord or YouTube, that platform may tell us who you are so your progress can follow you there. We receive only what the platform gives us: a platform-specific user ID, and sometimes a display name, avatar link, language and (for Telegram or Discord) a user handle. We use it to link a Wordtide player to that platform account, show your display name in the game, and pick your language. We do not receive passwords, email addresses or friend lists unless a platform passes a friend invitation you chose to send. The platform’s own privacy policy governs what it collects. You can stop by leaving the platform; delete the linked player any time with “Delete my player” in Settings, or ask us to.

Purchases

Where a platform sells Wordtide items (Yandex Games, Telegram Stars), the platform handles the payment; we never see card or bank details. Yandex and Telegram run their payment systems as independent controllers under their own privacy policies; they are not our processors. We are the seller of the item.

• What you own (Supporter, skins, bought lanterns) is stored with your player and deleted with it.
• The payment record: the item, the platform’s purchase token or payment ID, the amount (Stars), your platform user ID (Telegram or Yandex) and the time. We use it to deliver the item, to stop one payment being redeemed twice, to refund you, to restore a permanent item to a new player on the same platform account, and for our accounts. A Stars purchase can only start after you ticked the Shop’s “deliver now” box, so the record is also our proof of that consent. We keep payment records for six years after the purchase, because UK company and tax law require us to keep accounting records, even if you delete your player; they then are deleted.
• When we send you a receipt, answer /paysupport or refund Stars, our server sends your Telegram user ID and the message to Telegram.

Word lists

The game’s dictionaries and word filters are built from public-domain and openly licensed word lists. Credits and licences are on our licences page.

Trackers and hosting

• Apart from the ad partner and consent tool described above (grown-up play only), there are no third-party trackers. Fonts, sounds and the usage-count script are served from our own site.
• The web app is hosted on Vercel, which keeps standard server logs (such as IP address and requested page) for security and operations.
• Game data is processed and stored by Cloudflare.

We do not sell your data or share it for marketing.

Children

Wordtide is designed so kids can play, with Easy mode and Little Tide, our picture-and-sound mode for ages 3 and up. We follow COPPA, the UK Age Appropriate Design Code and similar laws: we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The “Who’s playing?” screen is a neutral choice of four age groups (little ones 3–6, big kids 7–12, teens 13–17, adults 18 and up); it never asks for a date of birth or any personal detail. Teens get the full game with high-privacy settings: non-personalised ads only, reminders only if they turn them on, and no location of any kind (Wordtide never reads location for anyone). Little Tide and the little and junior profiles show no ads and load no ad or consent code; Little Tide and the little and junior profiles send no analytics or usage counts at all. Little Tide plays on your device and has no player name, no leaderboard and no contact with other players. Easy mode shows other players only as auto-generated animal names and hides the report button. There is no sign-up and no chat, and display names are filtered for inappropriate words. We do not ask for a child’s age or any contact details. Parents or guardians can delete a child’s player at any time with “Delete my player” in Settings (behind a grown-up check on a child’s device), or ask us to. A device in Little Tide or set up for a little one sends no usage counts and no page views.

Contact form

When you write to us through wordtide.app/contact we store the topic, your message and, only if you give one, a reply address, which we use solely to answer you. We do not keep your IP address with the message; a one-way code derived from it limits how many messages one connection can send per day. Contact messages are deleted after 90 days; messages with the “Parents” topic, which may come from or be about a child, after 30 days. If you tick “add my player code”, the message also keeps your player ID so we can find your player, and it is deleted together with your player.

Why we may use your data (legal bases)

• Running the game you asked to play (your player, progress, saving, the shared board, leagues, invites, duels and platform log-in): performance of our agreement with you (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
• Purchases (delivering, restoring and refunding what you bought): performance of our contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b)). Keeping payment records for six years: our legal obligation to keep accounting records (Art. 6(1)(c)).
• Keeping the game safe and working (rate limits, name reports and moderation, error reports, server logs, anonymous counts): our legitimate interests in security, fair play and improving Wordtide (Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Reminders and personalised ads: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time in Settings. Storing or reading ad cookies or similar identifiers on your device also needs that consent (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations in the UK, the ePrivacy rules in the EEA). Non-personalised ads rely on our legitimate interest in funding a free game.
• Teens and children: we rely on the same bases, with the high-privacy defaults in “Children” above; we never rely on a child’s consent for ads.
• Answering contact-form messages and legal requests: legitimate interests, and our legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c)) where the law requires a record.

International transfers

APIDLY LTD is based in the United Kingdom. Our hosting and service providers (Cloudflare, Vercel and, on grown-up play, Google) may process data in the United States and other countries. Where data leaves the UK or the European Economic Area, they rely on the safeguards the law provides, such as adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge) or standard contractual clauses with the UK addendum. When you play on a partner platform such as Telegram or Yandex Games, the data that platform and we exchange about you (your platform user ID, purchases and messages from our bot) goes to and from that platform wherever it is based, because it is needed to give you the game and the items you asked for there.

How long we keep data

• Your player and its progress: deleted automatically 13 months after your last visit (opening the game or playing a word counts as a visit), or straight away when you use “Delete my player”, or when the world is reset. Your all-time leaderboard row goes 13 months after your last move.
• Contact-form messages: 90 days; “Parents” messages: 30 days, the time we need to reply.
• Daily Seven rows: 30 days. Activity days: 35 days.
• Weekly league tables: 14 days after the week ends. Weekly tide results: about 13 weeks.
• Invite links and duels: 7 days. Name-choice notes: up to 180 days.
• Name reports: 60 days; hidden or removed names: 13 months after the name was last reported, reviewed or taken (see “Reporting names” above).
• Push reminder addresses: until you turn reminders off, or after 21 idle days.
• Payment records: six years after the purchase (accounting law, see “Purchases”).

Your rights and deleting your data

You can ask for a copy of your player’s data, a correction, or deletion (in the EU and UK these are your GDPR rights of access, rectification and erasure; you may also object or ask us to restrict processing). Send the request through the contact form at wordtide.app/contact with the topic “Privacy or my data” and include your display name. We answer within one month. You can also ask for your data in a portable form, and withdraw a consent at any time (for ads and reminders, in Settings) without affecting what was done before. We do not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects by automated means alone.

You have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection: online at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, by phone on 0303 123 1113, or by post to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, United Kingdom. If you live in the European Economic Area you can also complain to the data-protection authority in your country. We would appreciate the chance to sort out your concern first, through wordtide.app/contact.

Deleting your player. Open Profile, then Settings, and choose “Delete my player” (on a child’s device a grown-up check comes first). We erase the player and its progress, your name on the leaderboards, leagues and weekly results, your friends, duels and invite links (also on your friends’ side), saved passkeys and recovery codes, platform links, reminders, and the reports you filed, and you get a receipt number. Words you placed stay on the shared board, but no longer carry your name or ID. The device then starts fresh. You can also ask through wordtide.app/contact (tick “add my player code” on the device that plays, or include your display name), and we will do the same for you.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. Questions? Reach us through wordtide.app/contact. See also our terms of use and accessibility statement.