britmap

Who is responsible

The data controller for britmap is Charles Walker. For any question about your data, or to make a request about your rights, email privacy@britmap.app.

What britmap stores on your device

These are kept in your own browser (localStorage, or short-lived cookies). Clearing your browser storage for this site removes them.

What britmap records when you play

When you complete a day's puzzle, and only if you haven't opted out, britmap saves one small row to its database:

• the date you played;
• a salted SHA-256 hash of your device ID (a one-way fingerprint that lets britmap count returning devices without ever knowing who they are; it can't be reversed back to the ID or to you);
• for each of the five rounds: how far your guess was from the target, and the score that earned; and
• your total score for the day.

That is the whole play record — it is never linked to your IP address. britmap does not collect your name, email address, or precise location anywhere in its own code. One further category, error reports, is described under Diagnostics below.

Separately, from the moment you open the game — and again only if you haven't opted out — britmap keeps one small row for the day recording how far you got. It is updated as you play rather than added to, so a day is one row however many times you open it. It holds:

• the date you played;
• the same salted one-way hash of your device ID;
• how far through the day's puzzle you got;
• whether you were shown, and finished, the short intro; and
• when you arrived and when you last did something.

This is what lets britmap see where people stop playing, which it cannot learn from finished games alone. It records no guesses, no scores, and nothing about you.

To stop abusive automated submissions, britmap's code does briefly compute a salted, one-way hash of your IP address when you open the game, as you move through it, and when your browser sends an error report, solely to rate-limit how much traffic comes from one network. Each of those three uses has its own separate hash, and britmap never joins them to one another. Those hashes are kept in short-lived throttle ledgers retained for no more than two days, are never linked to your play record, and are never used to identify you. Your raw IP address is never stored or logged by britmap's code. The lawful basis for this narrow processing is legitimate interests (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(f), Recital 49): keeping a free game usable by preventing automated abuse.

Diagnostics

When something in britmap breaks in your browser, and only if you haven't opted out, britmap sends one short error report so the fault can be found and fixed. A report holds:

• the error message and the technical trace that goes with it;
• which page you were on — the path only, never the full web address; and
• your browser and device type (the “user agent” string your browser sends to every website it visits).

That is the whole report. It is not linked to your device ID — it carries no identifier tying it to your play record, or to any other error report from the same device, and britmap never tries to connect them. Nothing you typed, clicked or guessed is included, and britmap does not keep error reports from a preview or test build. This is governed by the same switch as the play record: turn off “Contribute anonymous play stats” in Settings and no error report is sent either. The lawful basis is legitimate interests (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)): keeping a free game working on devices and browsers we cannot test ourselves.

Error reports are deleted after 90 days — far sooner than the play record, because a fault older than that has either been fixed or is no longer reproducible.

Why, and the lawful basis

The play record is used to keep the daily leaderboard-style stats, to tune how hard each puzzle is, to make streaks work, and to understand where people stop playing and how often they come back. The lawful basis is legitimate interests (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)): the interest is running and fairly calibrating a free game, which needs a rough, anonymous picture of how people do. Because the record is used only to improve the service and is never shared for anyone else's purposes, it also falls under the PECR statistical-purposes exception, which is why this notice and a free, one-tap opt-out exist.

Who else can see it

britmap runs on Vercel (hosting) and Neon (a managed database), both acting as infrastructure providers on britmap's behalf. At the network level these providers may log IP addresses for security and operations. britmap's own code never stores your raw IP address; the only thing it does with your IP is compute a short-lived, salted hash to rate-limit abusive automated submissions, as described above. Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared for advertising.

How long it is kept

Raw play records are deleted or reduced to anonymous aggregates within 24 months. Error reports are deleted after 90 days. The on-device items above last until you clear your browser storage.

Your choices and rights

You can stop contributing the play record at any time: open Settings in the game and turn off “Contribute anonymous play stats”. From then on nothing is sent. You can also clear your browser storage to remove everything britmap has kept on your device.

You have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to have it erased, and to object to it being processed. To do any of these, email privacy@britmap.app.

One catch: because your play record is only ever keyed by a one-way hash, britmap genuinely cannot find it from your name or email (UK GDPR Art. 11). To make a request work, include your device's client ID so it can be matched:

One thing your client ID cannot reach: error reports (see Diagnostics above) carry no device ID at all, by design. britmap therefore has no way to tell which of them came from your device, so a copy or erasure request cannot single them out — which is part of why they are kept for far less time than the play record.

Complaints

If you think britmap has mishandled your data, please email privacy@britmap.app first so we can try to put things right.

If you're still not satisfied, you can also complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office, at ico.org.uk.