Privacy notice

Who is responsible

Mitja Dragan is the controller of personal data used by Jigsaw World. For privacy requests, contact support@jigsaw-world.eu.

What we collect and why

For accounts, we keep your username or Google account identifier, display name, verified email, password hash if you use a password, and login sessions. Email/password signup requires an email link and your chosen password before an account is activated. Google sign-in with the same verified email uses the same account. We send verification and password recovery emails when requested and store hashed, expiring tokens. We use account data to provide your account, save your scores and preferences, and protect access. Service administrators can view a restricted account directory containing registered email addresses, sign-in usernames, sign-in methods, registration dates, last recorded puzzle activity times and current Daily streaks to administer accounts. We retain the latest successful sign-in time with your account, including after its session expires; returning with an existing session does not update it. We also retain the latest recorded puzzle activity from starts, changed progress saves and completions with your account. Signing in or browsing does not update that activity time. Administrators can also review recorded puzzle names, modes, play dates and completion times, including private-account activity, for account support and service administration. This review does not expose private puzzle images or saved board contents. These details are not shown on public profiles. Everyone can use the puzzle studio and image collections. Guest uploads and progress stay in browser storage; they are sent to your account only if you choose to save them. For account saves, we keep cropped images, puzzle settings, saved progress and play history. Your uploads are private by default.

If you choose to submit a puzzle publicly, we keep your rights confirmation, the public puzzle image and details, and moderation history to operate the public library and handle rights concerns. Public pages can show your creator display name. A separate choice is required for any future physical reproduction. If you report a puzzle, we keep the reason, details, and any contact information you provide so we can review the report.

Public puzzle, Daily, and tournament results include completion time and an account or browser identifier. Profiles are private by default. Daily, tournament and public puzzle leaderboards show your chosen public display name and a profile link only when you make your profile public; private profiles show “Private player” and a time without an account identifier. Public profiles show a summary of Daily and Weekly challenge results, never your email, sign-in username or private library. Switch back to private in Settings → Profile & privacy to hide your profile and anonymize past leaderboard entries. Your saved results and progress remain in your account. Guest Daily and public puzzle play use a random browser cookie and a server timer record. Guest finishes stay off leaderboards until you create an account or sign in on the same browser within seven days; then we associate the original time with that account. Guest Weekly Sprint is unranked and keeps its progress locally. An account is required to begin a ranked Weekly attempt.

Puzzle descriptions

When an administrator requests a description draft, we send a resized copy of an available public puzzle image to OpenAI to suggest image-specific observations and solving tips. Private uploads and saved boards are excluded from this tool. Drafts are visible only to administrators and appear publicly only after an administrator reviews and publishes them. We record the draft, published text and editing administrator to manage these descriptions.

Feedback and support

If you send feedback, we store your message, its category, account identifier, display name, account email when available, browser information, and the page you came from. We use this to review suggestions, investigate problems, and follow up when needed. Bug reports are also emailed to support@jigsaw-world.eu for review; suggestions remain in the admin inbox. Feedback is visible only to administrators, who can review, close, or delete it. We keep feedback while investigating issues and following up, and remove it when it is no longer needed for those purposes or on a valid deletion request.

Service reliability

We keep aggregate counts of failed server saves, save conflicts, rate-limited requests and server errors in minute buckets for seven days. These counters contain no player identifiers, IP addresses, page addresses or puzzle content. We keep the latest service-health snapshot and send operational alerts to our support mailbox to maintain the service. This monitoring is separate from optional visitor analytics and does not add browser tracking cookies.

Puzzle improvement statistics

During early testing we collect anonymous first-party totals for guest puzzle visits, first interactions and matches, progress milestones, approximate active and visible unpaused time, and puzzle interruptions. These statistics are grouped by UTC day, puzzle type and difficulty and visible only to administrators. They do not require accepting Google Analytics and are not sent to Google or used for advertising. We store aggregate counters, not individual visitor records, account identifiers, IP addresses, referrers, puzzle content, movement paths or keystrokes. No tracking identifier, cookie or browser history is created. A browser preference remembers an opt-out; Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control are also respected. Counts cover the latest seven UTC dates and older buckets are removed when collection or reporting next runs. Hidden tabs and page exits do not reveal why someone stopped. Account/admin play is excluded.

Daily challenge totals

We keep first-party aggregate counts of visible Daily challenge page opens and started and finished attempts, grouped by challenge date, difficulty and whether play began with an account or as a guest. Administrators can see these totals and the total number of registered accounts. A page open is a visit, not a unique person; repeat visits can count again. The aggregate counters contain no names, emails, IP addresses or visitor identifiers, add no browser cookies or storage, are not sent to Google, and are retained for 400 days. Starts and finishes are counted from the puzzle timer records needed to run and save the game; claiming a guest score does not add a second finish. These limited totals are separate from optional Google Analytics and do not change your analytics choice.

Optional puzzle reminders

Daily puzzle and tournament emails are separate choices and are off by default. Guests can choose reminders without creating an account; we activate them only after email confirmation. Signed-in players can manage reminders for their verified account email in Settings → Email reminders. Creating an account, playing or accepting analytics does not subscribe you to Daily or tournament emails. Registered accounts also have a separate week-away reminder, enabled by default for new and existing accounts. After seven days without playing (or seven days after registration if you have not started), we send one invitation to return with a puzzle image. Signing in alone does not reset that period. You can disable it in Settings or through any reminder email; unsubscribe from all disables it too. We store your email, selected categories, confirmation and latest consent timestamps, policy version, hashed expiring links and delivery status to send the emails you request and prevent duplicate sends. Confirmation links expire after 24 hours and are single-use. Preference links expire after 180 days; each reminder includes fresh preference and unsubscribe links. Unsubscribe stops future reminders, although a message already being sent may still arrive. Account verification and security emails remain separate. Google Workspace delivers these emails. We retain active preferences until you change them or request deletion; delivery logs are kept for 30 days. For week-away reminders, we retain one latest activity/delivery marker with your account to prevent repeat emails during the same absence; and expired pending requests and links are cleaned up by the reminder job. Browser storage remembers that the guest return invitation has been shown so it does not interrupt every finish. Daily and tournament email choices use your explicit confirmation. The separate week-away preference is enabled by default and can be turned off at any time.

Email service statistics

Administrators can review aggregate counts of email attempts, messages accepted by the email service, failures and unconfirmed outcomes by day and email type. These counters contain no recipient addresses, message contents, links or identifiers and are retained for 90 days, with cleanup by the reminder worker and reporting. SMTP acceptance does not confirm inbox delivery. We do not add email-open pixels or individual click tracking. Existing reminder delivery records remain subject to the retention described above.

Legal grounds

We use account, puzzle, and progress data to provide the service you request, including account verification and recovery. We use limited security, service-reliability and moderation data for our legitimate interests in protecting the service and responding to rights reports. Public publishing and any future commercial reproduction depend on your separate choices. Optional Google Analytics depends on your consent. Optional advertising cookies and personalized advertising require your consent where applicable.

Cookies and external services

Essential cookies keep you signed in, carry a Google sign-in attempt, or identify a guest puzzle run. The sign-in session lasts up to 30 days; temporary Google sign-in cookies expire after about 10 minutes. Guest puzzle identity and pending-result cookies last up to seven days. Browser storage also keeps local puzzle progress, your theme, acknowledged playing tips, and your analytics choice.

Google Analytics runs only if you select “Accept analytics” or enable Analytics in Manage choices and save your choice. Manage choices also offers Necessary only and keeps optional analytics off by default. You can withdraw consent at any time with Cookie settings; opening it stops further analytics collection and clears first-party Analytics cookies and legacy Google conversion cookies. Closing preferences without saving leaves optional analytics off. Accepting analytics does not authorize advertising storage or personalization. Google’s separate consent message controls advertising measurement choices; ad requests remain paused. With analytics consent, we measure puzzle starts, completed solves, returns to unfinished puzzles and verified registrations to understand play and campaign results. Puzzle events include the play type, guest/account category, difficulty, piece count and completion time. For consenting guests, we also measure time while the puzzle is visible and unpaused, approximate active time while input was recent, coarse interaction counts, progress milestones and when the puzzle is hidden or left. These signals help us find usability problems; a hidden tab does not prove someone abandoned a puzzle. We do not record individual piece movements, coordinates, keystroke contents, session video, names, emails, account IDs, images or puzzle-run tokens in these events. A tab-scoped store of anonymous event hashes prevents repeat counting, and a random signup hint expires after ten minutes or is consumed on your next ordinary page. A consent-preference cookie mirrors your analytics choice for up to 180 days so signup measurement is requested only after consent. Relevant key events can be shared with our linked Google Ads account for campaign measurement, subject to your advertising consent. Hetzner hosts the service and backups. Google handles Google sign-in, account verification, recovery, and support emails through Google Workspace, and, only with consent, analytics. If you choose a Pexels photo, Pexels provides its image and attribution links. The Artwork collection uses public-domain images and credits from the Cleveland Museum of Art; artwork previews load from the museum’s image service.

Optional Meta ad measurement

Meta ad measurement is a separate choice in Cookie settings → Manage choices, off by default. Accepting Google Analytics does not enable it. If you opt in, the Meta Pixel connects to Meta Platforms to measure verified new account registrations from our Facebook and Instagram ads. Meta receives your IP address, browser information, page address and Meta browser/click identifiers. We send the CompleteRegistration event only after a new account is verified; sign-ins and signup button clicks do not count. We do not send names, emails, account IDs, puzzle contents or advanced-matching identifiers. Automatic event detection and page-view events are disabled. Meta may use these signals for ad attribution and optimization under its own privacy policy.

Your separate Meta consent preference is kept on this device for up to 180 days. A random one-use registration hint lasts at most ten minutes and is created only when you have already consented at registration. The Meta Pixel may set _fbp and _fbc cookies, typically lasting up to 90 days. Cookie settings lets you withdraw consent: opening preferences stops further Meta measurement, removes the first-party Meta cookies and discards pending registration hints. Closing without saving leaves it off. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control also prevent Meta measurement. Verification, password-reset and email-preference pages do not load the Pixel, and the staging site does not send Meta events. Meta privacy policy.

Advertising and your consent

We connect to Google AdSense to prepare advertising and display Google’s consent message. Loading these services sends Google your IP address, browser information and the page address. Google may use cookies or browser storage to remember your consent choices. Ad requests are currently paused while site approval and placement setup are completed.

When advertising is enabled, Google and the advertising partners listed in the consent message may use cookies and identifiers to deliver, personalize and measure ads according to your choices and applicable rules. In the EEA, UK and Switzerland, Google’s consent message offers Consent, Do not consent and Manage options. You can review or withdraw your advertising choice below or through Google’s Privacy and cookie settings link when available. Your analytics choice remains separate, and declining optional consent does not prevent you from playing. Learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Daily difficulty preference

When you choose Easy, Medium or Hard for the Daily, a functional cookie remembers that choice on this device for up to 180 days. Pending guest result cookies can retain one claimable result for each difficulty for seven days. These support your selected gameplay and score claiming, separately from visitor analytics.

How long we keep data

Pending email signups expire after 24 hours; password recovery links expire after one hour. A successful verification or password reset consumes its token; resending replaces the previous link. Expired token records are removed as new requests are processed. Account and private puzzle data remain while your account is active or until you request deletion, subject to data needed for rights, security, or legal obligations. Unfinished account challenge timers are retained for eight days after starting, so a Weekly Sprint can be continued throughout the week, and are pruned as new account runs start. Unclaimed guest Daily and public puzzle timer records expire seven days after the run starts and are pruned as new runs start. Local progress remains until replaced or you clear browser storage. Public puzzles remain until unpublished or removed. Saved results and reports remain as needed to operate the public library and review disputes. Hetzner keeps up to seven rolling daily server backups. Encrypted database archives are retained for fourteen days on the server and thirty days on the operator’s computer, so deleted data may remain in backups until replaced. Contact us for a deletion request.

Earlier registration and access records remain in a restricted administrative archive for review and deletion. These can include contact email, device and puzzle-experience answers, access decisions, related emails and timestamps. They do not control account access. You can request their deletion at the support address; messages already sent may remain in support and recipient mailboxes.

Your choices and rights

You can request access, correction, export, or deletion of your personal data, object to certain processing, and withdraw consent by emailing support@jigsaw-world.eu. You can also complain to a data protection supervisory authority. Withdrawing analytics or advertising consent does not affect your ability to play. For uploaded-image rights, see the User Content terms.