Privacy Policy
Who we are
Origins Quiz (originsquiz.com) is operated by Emdash LLC. For any privacy question, request, or concern, contact [email protected].
Information we collect
What we collect depends on whether you play as a guest or create an account.
| If you | We collect |
|---|---|
| Play without an account (guest) | Your progress (letters typed, score, completion time) is stored only in your own browser's local storage and never sent to our server. We do receive anonymous usage events, such as "this browser started or finished puzzle X", which share button was tapped, and which website or shared link it arrived from. These are tagged with a random ID your browser generates, with no name or email attached, and are used only to understand overall usage and which links bring in new players. |
| Create an account | Username (public — shown on the leaderboard), email address (not shown publicly, not used to log in, collected for account contact/recovery purposes), and a password. We also save the random browser ID above, and how you first found Origins Quiz (for example, a friend's shared link or a search engine), with your new account. Passwords are never stored in plain text — only a one-way bcrypt hash, which we cannot reverse to recover your actual password. |
| Play with an account | Your answers per puzzle, score, completion time, streaks, and whether you used "Reveal" — tied to your account so your stats/history/streaks persist across devices. |
| Enable notifications | Your browser's push subscription details (a unique endpoint and encryption keys assigned by your browser, not by us) so we can send the "today's puzzle is live" reminder. We don't receive your device's location, phone number, or contacts — push notifications work entirely through your browser's own subscription mechanism. |
We also don't run any advertising trackers, third-party analytics scripts, or social-media pixels. The only technology used for "remembering" things about you client-side is your browser's local storage (for guest progress, theme preference, whether you've seen the onboarding tour, and the random browser ID described above) — no third-party tracking cookies.
How we use this information
- To run the game itself — save your progress, compute your score, streaks, and leaderboard position.
- To send you the daily "puzzle is live" push notification, if you opt in.
- To understand overall usage (how many people play, how many finish) so we can improve the puzzles and the app.
- To keep the service secure — for example, rate-limiting repeated login attempts to prevent abuse.
We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Who we share information with
We don't sell or rent your data to anyone. It's shared only with the infrastructure needed to run the app:
- Render — our hosting provider, which runs the app's server and database. Standard web server logs (which can include IP address and browser type) are generated at this layer as part of normal hosting operation; we don't separately collect or store IP addresses in the app's own database.
- Resend — our transactional email provider. When we send you an email (a welcome email, a password-reset link, the daily "puzzle is live" reminder if you opt in, or a reply to feedback you submitted), it's sent through Resend, which receives your email address and the content of that email in order to deliver it. Resend doesn't use your information for its own purposes. See Resend's privacy policy.
- Google — if you choose to sign in with Google, that button is powered by Google's own Identity Services script, which loads directly from Google's servers and may set its own cookies as part of how that sign-in flow works. This is governed by Google's privacy policy, separate from anything we control.
- Your browser's push service (e.g. Google, Mozilla, or Apple, depending on which browser you use) — if you enable notifications, the Web Push standard requires notification content to be relayed through your browser vendor's push infrastructure to reach your device. This is a standard part of how web push works in every browser, not something specific to us.
These are the only third parties that receive your information, and only as needed to run the app above.
How long we keep your information
Account information and gameplay history are kept for as long as your account exists, so your streaks and stats stay intact. Guest progress lives only in your own browser and is cleared whenever you clear your browser's site data. Anonymous usage events from guest play are kept for measuring overall usage. They carry only a random browser ID, which is linked to an account only if you create one from that browser.
Your choices
There's no self-service "delete my account" button yet — this is a small, independently run project. To request access to, correction of, or deletion of your account and associated data, or to revoke push notifications, email [email protected] and we'll take care of it directly. You can also unsubscribe from push notifications at any time from your browser's own site-notification settings, independent of anything on our end.
Children's privacy
Origins Quiz is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has created an account or provided us information, contact us at the address above and we'll remove it.
Security
Passwords are hashed (never stored as plain text), traffic to the site is encrypted (HTTPS), and login/signup are rate-limited to reduce automated abuse. No online service can guarantee perfect security, but we take reasonable, standard precautions to protect your information.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we'll update the effective date at the top of this page. Continued use of Origins Quiz after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or your data: [email protected].