Privacy Policy

02What stays in your browser

Your games in progress, statistics (games played and won, win rate, streaks, best time, fewest moves) and settings are saved in your browser's local storage, on your device, and are not sent to us. There is no account, so nothing syncs between devices, and clearing your browser data deletes them for good. Our Cookie Policy lists every entry the site saves.

03Consent messages and your choices

We use Google's consent management platform, Google Privacy & messaging, set up through Google AdSense. It is Google-certified and works with the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF).

In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent message asks for your permission for analytics and advertising. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time with the Privacy choices link in the footer, which reopens the message. Google's tool stores your answer in its own cookies, listed in our Cookie Policy.

04Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to see how many people visit, which pages and games they use, where they come from, on what device and how they found us. We look only at aggregated statistics, to decide what to improve.

Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is our processor for this data. Google LLC in the United States may also receive it; those transfers are covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses.

In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, the Analytics cookies are set only after you accept. Until then, or if you decline, Analytics gets only cookieless pings with no identifiers (Google Consent Mode v2), which can't recognize you or link your visits. Everywhere, advertising signals are denied by default, so Analytics data isn't used for ads or remarketing. Your IP address is used only for a moment to work out a rough location and is not stored. Data is kept for 14 months.

Where we ask for it, the Analytics cookies rely on your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and the ePrivacy rules). The cookieless pings, and Analytics where no consent is required, rely on our legitimate interest in improving the site (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). To opt out, use Privacy choices if you see it, block the cookies, use a content blocker or install Google's Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The games work the same without analytics.

05What we store for the leaderboards

When you submit a Daily Challenge result, or a win in a normal game for the weekly most-wins board, your browser sends our server:

• a random player ID that your browser generated;
• a secret key your browser also generated, sent over an encrypted HTTPS connection to prove the result is yours (the server stores only a hash of it, never the key itself);
• the nickname you chose;
• the deal number and the list of moves you made;
• your time, number of moves and the date, and for the Daily Challenge, when you started it;
• a country code worked out from your connection.

06Why we need it

The server replays your moves from the same deal to check that the win is real. The player ID and secret key let it recognize your later results without an account, e-mail address or password. We use this data to rank results, allow one ranked Daily Challenge result per game per day, count weekly wins, keep cheating off the boards and build the Hall of Fame. Your IP address is not stored with your results.

Your nickname, country flag, times, moves and win counts are public. Nicknames are unique: no two active players can share one, whatever the capital letters. If you're inactive for 30 days, your nickname is released and someone else may claim it; your past results then stay on the boards under a neutral name such as Player 4F2A. You can change your nickname at any time in Settings.

07Server logs

Our server keeps logs that include IP addresses. We use them for security, to spot abuse and to limit excessive requests, which is our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe and running. The logs are kept briefly and rotated.

08When you write to us

If you e-mail us or use the contact form, we receive your e-mail address and your message, and we use them to answer you.

09Advertising

Velvet Solitaire may show ads served by Google AdSense. When ads are shown, Google and its partners may use cookies such as __gads, __gpi and __eoi, or similar identifiers, to deliver and measure ads, limit repeats and prevent fraud; Google does this as an independent controller. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, personalized ads are shown only if you agree in the consent message.

Google explains how it uses this data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and you can turn off personalized ads in Google's Ads Settings at adssettings.google.com.

10Your rights

Under the GDPR and its UK and Swiss equivalents, you can ask to see the personal data we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to how we use it, and get a copy of it. You can withdraw consent at any time with Privacy choices.

We keep leaderboard results, which the all-time Hall of Fame is built from, until you ask us to delete them. Since there are no accounts, write to [email protected] with your nickname and, if you can, the player ID shown in Settings. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

11If you're in the US

We don't sell personal information for money. When ads are shown, Google may use cookies or other identifiers to deliver and measure them, which some state laws, such as California's CCPA as amended by the CPRA, can treat as sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising. In California and other states with this opt-out right, the footer shows a Do not sell or share my personal information link, which opts you out in that browser. Anyone can ask to know, correct or delete their data as described above, and we won't treat you differently for asking.

12Children

Velvet Solitaire is a general-audience game. It isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted a nickname or results, write to us and we'll delete them.

13Contact and changes

Questions or requests: [email protected]. If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new date.