Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Wait, What Happened? is an independent daily yes/no mystery game operated by Dormouse Digital Studio. For privacy questions, email [email protected].

2. Information we collect

• Play data on your device. Streak, stats, language preference, onboarding state, and similar settings are stored in your browser (e.g. localStorage) so the game works offline and between visits.
• Account (optional). If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account id, email, name, and profile picture to create a session and nickname. Sessions are stored in our database (Cloudflare D1).
• Gameplay on our servers. When you ask questions that miss the local answer bank, submit a solve guess, or reveal the solution, those requests go to our Cloudflare Functions. We may store usage/quota counts for rate limits and paid tiers.
• Payments. Paid plans (Supporter / Plus) are processed by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers; Stripe may send us customer and subscription identifiers.
• Technical logs. Like most sites, our hosting provider may process IP address and request metadata for security, rate limiting, and reliability.

3. How we use information

• Run the daily puzzle, judge answers, and show results / share cards.
• Remember your language, streak, and stats.
• Authenticate accounts, sync nicknames, and power leaderboards when signed in.
• Enforce free-tier quotas and deliver paid entitlements (including ad-free play).
• Prevent abuse (rate limits) and keep the service secure.
• Show advertising to free-tier visitors (see below).

4. Advertising, cookies & consent (EEA / UK / Switzerland)

We use Google AdSense to show ads to visitors who are not on an ad-free plan (Supporter or Plus). AdSense and its partners may use cookies or similar technologies to serve and measure ads.

For visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, we use Google’s certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) (Privacy & messaging) so you can Consent or Manage options before personalized ads are served, consistent with Google’s EU User Consent Policy and the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF).

You can change ad personalization settings in Google Ad Settings. More about how Google uses data: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

5. Ad-free plans

If your account has an active Supporter or Plus entitlement, we treat you as ad-free: we pause AdSense ad requests for your session and hide ad slots. Billing and subscription details are handled by Stripe’s privacy policy.

6. Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We share data only with processors who help run the product, for example:

• Cloudflare — hosting, Pages, Functions, D1, KV.
• Google — Sign-In (OAuth) and AdSense / CMP when ads apply.
• Stripe — checkout and subscriptions.
• AI model providers — when a question misses the answer bank or we judge a solve attempt, the question/guess text (and necessary puzzle context) is sent to our configured OpenAI-compatible gateway to return a verdict. Do not put secrets or sensitive personal data in questions.

7. Retention

Browser storage stays until you clear it. Account, session, quota, and subscription rows are kept while your account is active and as needed for security, billing, and abuse prevention. You may ask us to delete your account data (see Contact).

8. Your choices

• Play anonymously without signing in.
• Sign out; clear site data in your browser to remove local stats.
• Use the CMP controls (where shown) to manage ad consent.
• Upgrade to an ad-free plan, or request account deletion by email.

9. Children

The game is a general-audience puzzle. It is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country). If you believe a child has provided personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Changes

We may update this policy as the product or legal requirements change. The “Last updated” date at the top will change when we do. Continued use of the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.

11. Contact

Dormouse Digital Studio
Privacy requests: [email protected]
Site: https://waitwhathappened.com/