Privacy Policy

Crossword Social (“we”, “us”) is a community crossword site at crosswordsocial.com. This policy explains what we collect, why, what other people can see, and the choices you have. You can solve puzzles without an account.

Information we collect

• Your account — your email address, display name and password. We store your password in a scrambled form that can’t be turned back into the original, so nobody, including us, can read it.
• Your profile — an optional bio, and the avatar you choose from ours or upload yourself. When you upload a photo, we remove the details cameras hide inside image files, such as where it was taken, before it’s saved.
• What you do here — the puzzles you create (published and drafts), the puzzles you solve and how long they took, your likes, follows and tags, the comments and direct messages you send, reports you make, members you block, and the achievements you earn.
• Your saved progress — when you’re signed in, unfinished puzzles are saved to your account so you can pick up where you left off on another device.
• Basic technical information — like any website, our servers receive your IP address and browser details when you visit. We use them to deliver pages and to protect the site from abuse, such as repeated sign-in attempts, and don’t add them to your account.

What’s kept in your browser

To keep you signed in and save your place, the site stores a few things in your browser: your sign-in, unfinished puzzles and puzzle drafts, your display preferences (such as light or dark mode) and your privacy choices. They stay on your device. Clearing your browser’s site data removes them and signs you out.

How we use it

• To run the service — signing in, creating and solving puzzles, feeds, following and messaging.
• To show your public contributions to the community (see below).
• To count solves and likes so puzzles can be ranked and recommended.
• To send emails about your account, such as confirming your address or resetting your password.
• To keep the community safe — reviewing reports and acting on misuse.

What’s public

Anyone can see your display name, avatar, bio, when you joined, your published puzzles, how many puzzles you’ve published and solved, your follower and following counts, the achievements you’ve earned, and the comments you post. Your email address is never shown publicly. Your drafts are visible only to you, and your direct messages only to you and the person you’re messaging.

Comments & direct messages

Comments you post are public. Direct messages are private between you and the recipient and are only available to the two of you — we don’t read them. The exception is when a message is reported: to act on the report, our moderators can see the reported message plus a small window of surrounding messages from that conversation, and nothing else. You can delete your own comments, and blocking a member ends all interaction with them.

Analytics & advertising — only with your consent

Analytics. We use Mixpanel to understand how the site is used — for example, how many puzzles get solved and how long they take — so we can make it better. It stays off until you allow it in our consent banner; if you don’t, it never loads. If you allow it, Mixpanel keeps a random identifier in your browser (not a cookie) and receives events such as signing up and solving a puzzle — which puzzle, its difficulty and size, and your solve time — along with basic device details (browser, operating system and screen size) and any campaign tags on the link you arrived from. It never receives the addresses of the pages you visit. When you’re signed in, these events are linked to a random account number, never your email address or display name, and no profile is created for you. Mixpanel also uses your IP address to estimate your approximate location (city and country). See Mixpanel’s privacy policy.

Advertising. To help support the site we may show ads from Google AdSense. Ads stay off until you choose “Accept all” in our consent banner. Only then does Google load its ads, and it may set cookies to show, limit and measure them, which can include personalized advertising. Rejecting keeps them off, and your choice is passed on to Google. Learn how Google uses this data in Google’s partner-sites policy.

You can change your mind about either at any time with Privacy choices at the bottom of every page. Withdrawing turns them off and clears what Mixpanel stored in your browser.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with companies that help us run the service — the providers that host our servers, database and uploaded images, the service that delivers our emails, and Mixpanel and Google if you allow them — or where the law requires it.

Keeping your data safe

Your connection to the site is encrypted, your password is stored scrambled (see above), and only the staff who need it to run and moderate the service can access account information. No online service can promise perfect security, but we work to protect your information.

How long we keep it & deleting your account

We keep your information while your account is open. You can delete your account at any time in Settings. That permanently removes your email address, display name, bio, avatar, password, drafts and follows. Your published puzzles, comments, and the messages you’ve sent stay on the site, shown as from “Deleted user”, and your likes and solves remain only as anonymous counts. Backup copies are kept for a limited time before they’re overwritten.

Your choices & rights

• Edit your display name, bio and avatar in Settings.
• Delete your account in Settings (see above).
• Turn analytics and ads on or off with Privacy choices.
• Block any member to stop all interaction with them.
• Ask for a copy of your data, or for us to correct it, by emailing us (below). Depending on where you live, you may have further rights over your information, and you can contact us to use them.

Children

Crossword Social is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

Changes

We may update this policy; we’ll revise the “last updated” date above when we do. Continued use of the service means you accept the current version.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email privacy@crosswordsocial.com.