Privacy policy

Who we are

Rowndy is made by Dzined Ltd, Hertford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom (“dzined”, “we”). We are the controller of the personal information described here. Contact us about privacy at hello@dzined.com.

Playing without joining the leaderboard

Playing collects nothing about you. Your stats (games played, best score), your light or dark mode and sound settings, and, if you have joined the leaderboard before, your name, email and country, are saved in your browser’s local storage so the game remembers them. They stay on your device and are not sent to us. You can clear them at any time in your browser settings.

We don’t use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers. Like any website, our hosting provider handles your IP address to deliver pages and protect the site from abuse.

To suggest your country on the leaderboard form, we look up your approximate location from your IP address when the form loads. The result is shown to you to change or confirm and is not stored unless you submit the form.

Joining the leaderboard

If you submit a score you choose to give us:

• the name to show on the leaderboard and your country (shown publicly with your score);
• your email address (never shown), so we can tell players apart and contact you about your entry;
• the game itself: the words you played, scores, clears, wrong words and how long it took;
• records of what you agreed to and when (the version of these terms, your age confirmation and your choices about emails and partners);
• a one-way scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address and your browser type, to stop cheating and spam.

You must be 16 or over to join the leaderboard. Names and words are checked automatically and may be hidden if they are offensive.

Why we use it, and our legal bases

Under UK and EU data protection law (the GDPR) we rely on:

• Contract: to run the leaderboard you asked to join, including showing your name, score and country, and the stats built from it.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the leaderboard fair and safe (spotting cheating, spam and offensive names) and to keep records of your consents.
• Consent: to email you about new dzined games, and to share your details with marketing partners, but only if you ticked those boxes. Each is separate and optional.

Sharing and selling to marketing partners

If, and only if, you tick “share my name, email and country with dzined’s marketing partners”, we may share or sell your name, email address and country to carefully chosen businesses so they can send you offers. They may be in games, puzzles, publishing, entertainment and retail. We may be paid for this. Each partner must use your details only for their own marketing to you, keep them secure and stop when you ask.

We never share or sell the details of anyone who did not tick that box, and we never share the words you play or your IP address with partners.

Under some US state laws (including California’s) this sharing counts as a “sale” of personal information. You can opt out at any time: email hello@dzined.com with “Do not sell or share my personal information”, or ask us to withdraw your partner consent. We will stop sharing your details and tell partners we have already shared them with.

Who else handles it

We use service providers that process data for us under contract and only on our instructions: our website host (Netlify), our cloud server and database providers (Google Cloud and PlanetScale), and our email provider. Your name, score and country are public on the leaderboard and stats pages.

Some of these providers are in the United States. Where your information leaves the UK or EU we rely on approved safeguards, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK and EU adequacy arrangements for certified US companies.

How long we keep it

• Leaderboard entries: for as long as the leaderboard runs, or until you ask us to remove them.
• Consent records: for as long as we use the consent, and up to six years after, to show it was given.
• Partner sharing: we stop as soon as you withdraw; partners must delete or suppress your details too.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop emails or partner sharing. In the UK and EU you also have the rights to restrict or object to our use, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time (this doesn’t affect what we did before). Residents of US states with privacy laws can ask to know, correct and delete their information and to opt out of its sale or sharing, and we will not treat you differently for using these rights.

Email hello@dzined.com from the address you used. We may need to confirm it’s you, and we’ll reply within one month (or 45 days where US law allows). If you’re unhappy, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority.

Children and Rowndy Kids

Rowndy Kids is made for children and collects no personal information. It has no leaderboard, no sign-up, no email and no tracking. Scores are kept only on the device. Sharing a score uses the device’s own share button or copies a line of text to the clipboard; nothing is sent to us.

The main leaderboard is for people aged 16 and over. If you believe a child under 16 has joined it, email hello@dzined.com and we’ll delete the entry.

Changes

If we change this policy we’ll update the date above, and ask for your agreement again next time you join the leaderboard if the change matters. See also our Terms of use.