Privacy
Your peace of mind matters to us, both during and after your game. Sudoku Pause minimizes the information it collects and keeps account features optional.
Advertising status. No advertising is currently served on Sudoku Pause. The game, journal, Learn pages, printables, and soundscapes are available without ad requests or ad personalization.
Guest play stays local. If you do not sign in, puzzle grids, notes, timers, daily history, hint allowance and preferences remain in your browser. They are not uploaded to an account.
Optional Google accounts. If you choose “Continue with Google,” Google and Netlify Identity provide the account identifier, name, email address and optional profile image needed to authenticate you. We use these details only to operate your private Sudoku Pause account.
Cloud progress. Signed-in accounts store puzzle history, unfinished games, times, daily hint usage, achievements, timezone and appearance or sound preferences in Netlify’s data services. To make a recreated Google sign-in recoverable, we store a one-way, server-generated fingerprint of the verified account email, not the raw email, alongside the private profile. Profiles are never made discoverable.
Your controls. Signing out removes the browser session only. “Remove Google sign-in” ends account access but retains your private progress for automatic restoration if you return with the same verified Google account. “Delete my data permanently” removes the live profile, recovery fingerprint and linked Identity account; it cannot be restored. Backup copies expire according to Netlify’s managed backup retention and are not used to restore deleted accounts.
Anonymous site statistics. Sudoku Pause collects limited first-party aggregate statistics to understand and improve the site. This includes daily page views, approximate daily browser visits, validated page paths, aggregate puzzle and feature use, and content milestones such as meaningful article reading, lesson completion, and actual sound playback. It is enabled by default under the statistical-purposes approach, but you can switch it off free of charge at any time in “Privacy choices”. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track also switch it off.
What anonymous statistics do not collect. They do not use cookies, advertising technology, Google services, fingerprinting, account IDs, IP addresses, full user-agent strings, precise locations, puzzle grids, entered numbers, candidate notes, search terms, full URLs, URL query parameters, referring URLs, or individual event histories. A local browser flag prevents more than one approximate-visitor increment per day; no visitor identifier is sent. These figures describe approximate browsers, not identifiable people.
Storage and retention. Anonymous statistics are processed in Sudoku Pause’s Netlify Functions and stored only as daily aggregate counters in Netlify DB. They are used only to understand and improve Sudoku Pause, never for advertising, profiling, personalisation, or decisions about individuals. Daily aggregates are retained for 13 months and then automatically deleted. Netlify may process ordinary connection information as the hosting provider; Sudoku Pause does not copy it into these analytics records.
Optional Google Analytics. Google Analytics 4 is separate from anonymous site statistics and is loaded only after you explicitly choose “Accept Google Analytics”. Before that choice, no Google Analytics script, request, or cookie is loaded. When enabled, Google may process device, browser, approximate-location, and interaction information under its own terms. You can change either choice at any time using “Privacy choices” in the footer.
Privacy choices. Essential local storage keeps requested features such as puzzle progress, appearance, textures, hints, accounts, and your privacy decision working. Anonymous site statistics can be turned off independently. Google Analytics is optional and denied by default. Advertising is currently inactive: no AdSense script, advertising request, or advertising cookie is used.
Editorial illustrations. Journal header images may be generated with OpenAI tools, then selected and reviewed by the Sudoku Pause editorial team. The images do not contain personal visitor data.
No advertising data sharing. Because advertising is not currently served, Sudoku Pause does not currently send visitor data to an advertising network or use advertising cookies. Your data is not sold. If this changes in future, this notice and the consent controls will be updated before advertising is enabled.
Authentication is provided by Google and Netlify Identity, and synchronized progress is stored with Netlify. Their own privacy terms also apply when you use those services. We may update this notice as features change, while keeping account use optional and transparent.
Data rights. You can use the permanent-deletion control above or contact us to request access, correction or erasure of your personal data.