Privacy policy

Data we collect and why

You can play without an account. The game database stores no IP addresses or site-wide player or device identifiers. A random game ID groups the questions and answers within one attempt.

• Game activity. We save game settings, starting interface language, prompts, choices, question order, answers, correctness, timing, map-click coordinates, viewport dimensions, placement locations and distances, and the displayed position selected for choice answers. Records can also retain answer metadata from earlier game options. If you leave an unfinished game from the “Leave this game?” prompt, we also save when you left and, if you choose one, an optional reason from a fixed list. We use these records to run and score games, show reviews, calculate statistics, improve the game and investigate errors or unusual play.
• Optional origin. You may select a country of origin for game comparisons. This is self-reported and is never inferred from your IP address. Separately, when an attempt is created, we may save the approximate network country supplied by Cloudflare. This estimate is visible only in private administration, mainly to inspect flagged games. It is not used for statistics, grading or automated review rules and never replaces your selected origin. It may reflect a VPN or proxy rather than where you live. Missing estimates remain unknown. Map clicks and placement coordinates are answers on the game map, not your device’s physical location.
• Shared and daily challenges. We save the challenge, participant attempts, an optional nickname and challenge-scoped browser credentials. These credentials recognize your participation in that challenge and do not connect your play across challenges.
• Messages. If you email us, we receive your email address and the information you choose to include, and use them to respond to your enquiry.

Mapnesia does not request access to your contacts, camera, microphone or device location, or collect Android advertising IDs. The Android wrapper adds no separate account or native advertising or analytics SDK.

What other people can see

Public statistics aggregate game answers and show recent map-click coordinates. Country profiles exclude challenge nicknames and credentials. Origin comparisons require three games, not three people; small samples cannot guarantee anonymity.

Shared-challenge nicknames are public. Completed participants can see nicknames, scores, ordered outcomes, selected countries or choices, placement distances and active progress. Click coordinates and origins stay private in shared results. Shared results have no minimum-participant threshold. Daily challenges use a more limited standings view without individual answer details. Avoid personal information in a nickname or a link you share.

The statistics methodology explains sample limits and how public figures are calculated.

Cookies and storage on your device

The browser stores preferences, including language, color theme, an origin you choose and your last challenge nickname, plus challenge credentials and progress needed to restore your participation. The saved nickname prefills future shared and daily challenge forms and is sent when you join, publish or update a challenge. Your saved origin also keeps your country's available results visible in the statistics leaderboard. The color theme stays in your browser and is not sent to the server or analytics. Language also uses a one-year same-site preference cookie. Challenge cookies let the website render your saved attempt; the server stores credentials as hashes.

The installed app keeps a bounded cache of public maps, scripts, styles, fonts and translated offline screens. This cache adds no player identifier and does not store page HTML, game answers or API responses. New games and pages require an internet connection.

You can clear Mapnesia site data through your browser’s storage controls. This removes local preferences, saved challenge access and cached downloads; it does not delete server-side game records. The Android app uses browser-managed website storage, which may remain after uninstalling the wrapper.

Traffic analytics, diagnostics and errors

We use self-hosted Umami at um.kalatawa.com to understand traffic, performance and feature use. Traffic reports include visited pages, referrers, approximate visitor country and browser/device information. Limited product events include settings, aggregate game outcomes, navigation and button interactions. Home setup events can include a selected origin code, “declined” or “not selected”. Product events exclude nicknames, credentials, personal identifiers and search text; challenge events also exclude challenge codes, game IDs, origins and locale.

Umami analytics and individual game records are kept separate and are not linked by player identity. Analytics availability does not affect gameplay.

When enabled, Bugsink receives server and browser errors so we can fix failures. Reports can include error messages, stack traces, application version, browser details and sanitized route/status breadcrumbs. The reporter excludes request bodies, query strings, cookies, authorization headers and user identifiers; browser route breadcrumbs remove game IDs and challenge codes. Performance tracing and session replay are disabled. Bugsink receives browser reports directly and can therefore see the connection’s source IP address at ingestion.

Temporary in-memory IP rate limits protect game creation and answers. IP addresses are not stored in the game database or application logs. Private operational records contain request totals, latency, job history and administrative actions. Rejection logs exclude submitted bodies, nicknames, answers, origins, click coordinates, credentials and query strings.

Service providers and data sharing

Hosting and infrastructure providers process data needed to serve the website, database, analytics and error reporting. Our email provider processes messages you send us. These providers may handle connection metadata under their own retention and privacy policies.

Optional contributions open a Stripe-hosted checkout. Stripe processes payment and contact information under its privacy policy; Mapnesia does not receive your full card details. Your browser provider and Google Play may process data for their own browser and app-distribution services under their respective policies.

Mapnesia does not sell user data or use it for personalized advertising. Apart from the public and shared results described above, data is used to operate, secure, understand and improve Mapnesia and respond to enquiries.

How data is protected

The public service uses HTTPS to protect data in transit. Administrative game and monitoring views require authentication. Challenge credentials are hashed on the server, and access to private challenge state is checked before it is returned. Error reporting filters request and credential data as described above. No internet service can guarantee absolute security.

Data retention and deletion

• Games and challenges. Game records, including unanswered games, challenge templates and participant records have no automatic expiry or deletion. They remain until removed by the operator. Challenge images are served as static files rather than stored in the game database. Private game-review assessments and the saved network-country estimate follow the game’s retention.
• Operational records. Private request summaries, job history, system samples and administrative audit records are retained for 30 days. Inactive IP rate-limit entries are removed after their quota replenishes, with cleanup every minute.
• Analytics and error reports. Umami has no configured automatic deletion period. Bugsink stores errors only, with a maximum of 10,000 events rather than a fixed retention period in days.
• Device storage. The language cookie lasts one year. Other preferences and challenge access remain in browser storage until cleared; cached public downloads are bounded and replaced as the app updates.

To request deletion of a game or information you supplied, email contact@mapnesia.com with enough information to locate it, such as a game ID or challenge link. Do not send your browser credential. Because there is no account or site-wide player identifier, we may be unable to identify all of your attempts or separate your activity from aggregate analytics. Clearing browser storage or uninstalling the Android wrapper does not delete server records.

Your choices and privacy enquiries

You can play without choosing an origin or nickname, avoid sharing challenge links, and clear local storage through your browser. For questions or requests to access, correct or delete information you provided, contact contact@mapnesia.com. We will review your request and explain any limits on identifying the relevant records.

We update this page when our data practices change. The date above identifies the latest revision.