Privacy policy

Last updated: 26 September 2026

PoleGuesser is a game, not a data business. This page explains exactly which data the game and its providers process, why, and for how long. It is written for the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, for visitors in the EU and EEA, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In short

• No ads, no tracking cookies, no selling of data, no profiling.
• You can play without an account and without telling us who you are.
• What is public: your nickname and your daily scores on the leaderboards.
• The leaderboard database is in Zurich, Switzerland. Some of our providers are US companies.

Who is responsible

PoleGuesser is run from Switzerland. You can reach us at support@poleguesser.com.

Hosting (Vercel)

The website and its small server functions are hosted by Vercel Inc. (USA). When you open PoleGuesser, Vercel's servers receive your IP address and the usual technical details of a request (the page, the time, your browser type, the referring page). Vercel uses these server logs to deliver the site and to protect it against attacks, and keeps them for a short time under its own retention rules. We do not use them to identify visitors.

Visitor statistics (Vercel Web Analytics)

To know how many people visit which pages, we use Vercel Web Analytics. It works without cookies and only produces aggregated page views: which page was viewed, the referring website, and coarse details such as country, browser, operating system and device type. It does not track you across websites and does not store your IP address. To count a visitor only once per day it uses a hash of the request that is reset every day.

Country detection on your first visit

On your first visit the game asks our server function /api/geo which country you are in, so that it can start you in the right country. The function reads the country from the header that Vercel adds based on your IP address and returns only the country code (for example "CH"). Nothing is stored on the server. The game saves the result in your browser.

Data stored in your browser

The game keeps its data in your browser's local storage. It sets no cookies. Stored are:

• your settings (sound, map mode, scoring, home country)
• your stats, streak and progress in today's daily
• a random player id and your nickname
• a copy of your friends groups
• the pole you picked (which poles you have unlocked follows from your stats), and your progress in past dailies and the World Tour
• your sign-in session, if you sign in with Google

This data stays on your device and is needed for the game to work (it is strictly necessary), so there is no consent banner. You can refuse or remove it at any time by blocking or clearing the site data for poleguesser.com in your browser settings. The game then starts over as if you were a new player.

Leaderboards and friends groups (Supabase)

The daily leaderboard and friends groups run on Supabase. The database is in Zurich, Switzerland; Supabase Inc. is a US company. When you submit a daily score or use groups, we store:

• your random player id and its SHA-256 hash (leaderboards use the hash; the id itself works like a password and is never shown publicly)
• your nickname
• your daily scores: date, country, the lengths of your poles, total and map mode
• the names of the groups you create and the groups you are a member of

Your nickname and scores are public on the leaderboards, and the members of a group see each other's nicknames and scores. Please don't use your full real name as a nickname. Supabase also keeps short-lived technical logs of requests, which include IP addresses, to run and secure the service.

Sign in with Google (optional)

You can sign in with Google to keep your progress on all your devices. Sign-in is handled by Supabase Auth, with Google as the identity provider. We then store:

• your email address, name, profile picture URL and Google account id, as sent by Google
• a copy of your game progress (such as stats, streak, settings and daily progress), linked to your player id

Leaderboards only ever show your nickname, never your Google name or email address. Google learns that you signed in to PoleGuesser; Google's own privacy policy applies to that.

PoleGuesser Plus purchases (Stripe)

PoleGuesser Plus (coming soon) is paid through Stripe. Where available, Stripe acts as the merchant of record: Stripe is then the seller and handles the payment, taxes and receipts. Otherwise Stripe processes the payment for us. You enter your payment details on Stripe's checkout page; your card data never reaches us. Stripe processes your data under its own privacy policy.

From each purchase we receive and store your email address, your player's public hash (to unlock Plus for the right player), the purchase and payment ids, the amount and currency, the date, and the date of a refund if you get your money back.

Anonymous usage counters

To see which parts of the game are used, the game counts events such as "a daily was started", "a daily was finished" or "a result was shared". We only keep a count per day, country and event. The counters contain no player id or other identifier, and no IP addresses are stored. They are kept in the same database in Zurich. The game doesn't send them while it is being tested by automated browsers.

Maps (OpenFreeMap and Amazon Web Services)

Your browser loads the map directly from its providers: map tiles, labels and icons from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org), and the elevation tiles for the mountain shading from Amazon Web Services (s3.amazonaws.com, AWS Open Data). Like any web server, they see your IP address and which tiles are requested, that is, which part of the map you are looking at. Their own privacy policies apply.

Emails to us

If you email us, we use your address and message only to answer you, and delete them once the matter is closed, unless we have to keep them (for example for a purchase).

Legal bases (GDPR)

For visitors in the EU and EEA we rely on these legal bases:

• Hosting and server logs, visitor statistics, country detection, usage counters and loading the maps: our legitimate interest in offering a working, secure game and knowing how it is used (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• Leaderboards, friends groups, sign-in and Plus: providing the features you choose to use (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
• Keeping purchase records: our legal obligation to keep accounting records (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).
• Storing game data in your browser: strictly necessary for the game you asked for, so it needs no consent (Art. 5(3) ePrivacy Directive).

Transfers abroad

Vercel, Supabase, Google, Stripe and Amazon Web Services are US companies or part of US groups, so some data may be processed in the USA. Where a provider is certified under the Swiss-US or EU-US Data Privacy Framework, transfers rely on that framework; otherwise they rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, which the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) recognises. We don't sell your data or pass it to anyone else, unless the law requires it.

How long we keep data

• Server logs at Vercel and Supabase: a short time, under the providers' own retention rules.
• Visitor statistics: only as aggregated numbers.
• Country detection: not stored.
• Data in your browser: until you clear it.
• Nickname, scores and group memberships: as long as PoleGuesser runs, unless you delete them earlier. A group is deleted when its last member leaves.
• Sign-in data and saved progress: until you delete your account.
• Purchase records: as long as you have Plus, and after that as long as accounting law requires (up to 10 years).
• Usage counters: without a time limit, as they contain no personal data.
• Emails: until the matter is closed.

Your rights

You can ask us at any time:

• which data we have about you (access), also in a common machine-readable format (data portability)
• to correct it
• to delete it
• to stop using it (objection)

The quickest way to delete your data is in the game: Delete my account in your account if you are signed in, or Delete my online data under Stats if you play without an account. This removes your nickname, scores and group memberships from our database, and for accounts also the sign-in data and saved progress. Purchase records we must keep for accounting stay until that period ends. You can also email support@poleguesser.com. Because we don't know who is behind a nickname, we may ask you for details that show the data is yours. We reply within 30 days.

If you think we handle your data wrongly, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC, edoeb.admin.ch) or, in the EU and EEA, to the data protection authority of your country.

Children

PoleGuesser is suitable for all ages, and you can play without giving us any personal data. If you are under 16, please ask a parent or guardian before you sign in with Google or buy Plus.

Security

All connections use HTTPS. Scores are checked on our server before they are stored, signed-in players can only access their own account data, and your player id is never shown publicly.

Changes

We update this policy when the game changes (for example when Plus launches). The date at the top shows the current version.

Contact

Questions or requests about your data: support@poleguesser.com. See also the terms of use and the imprint.