Privacy

We keep the tests you send and the rule you write when you Guess. They are kept with the rule they were sent for, not with your name.

We keep them for three reasons: so everyone gets the same light for the same wording; so we can look again when you report a light; and so we can correct a light that was wrong.

Your words stay out of our ordinary running records and out of our fault reports, and we never publish them. When you copy a Result to share, you choose what goes in it.

If you delete your Account, we remove who you are, your Round history and the links between them. The shared record of a sentence and its light stays, because other players' finished Results rest on it. Wording that carries personal details is removed when you ask us.

After a Daily rule has ended everywhere, you can copy the full story of your Round: the rule, what you guessed and up to three of your own tests that you choose. It is put together on your device and goes only where you paste it. We never publish or host it. We record that a story was copied and how many tests were in it, never a word of it.

Counting how you use the game

We count how the game is played: which screens you open, what you tap, and how fast pages and lights arrive, to see what to fix and improve. It is on unless you turn off the Usage data switch in Menu > Settings, and it stays off if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal. In Quebec we ask first, and nothing is counted until you say yes. We tell where you are only roughly, from your connection's region, and keep only whether we ask you first, never your location. Turning it off changes nothing about playing.

Your words stay out of those counts: never a test, a guess or anything else you type. Records of use are kept for 90 days and records of faults for 30 days.

After 90 days only daily totals remain: how many played, solved or shared that day, with nothing that points to one person. The service that helps us read those counts keeps its own copy for its plan's period, under the game's player id, which names no one. If you delete your Account, we remove our records; that service's copy is not ours to remove, so write to us and we will ask it to remove that copy too.

This browser also keeps a random id for a year, so we can count visits and see when a first visit leads to a first game. It holds nothing else and names no one. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, it is never given one. In Quebec, or anywhere in Canada when we can't tell the region, it is given only after you say yes.

We also read Rounds as they were played, your words included, to see how people understand the game. We see them under a made-up name, never your email or your name, and never share them.

What this site keeps in your browser or app

Playing gives your browser a small, unguessable marker so the game knows it's you the next time you send something. It keeps your Round, your tests and your Results yours, and lets you finish a Round later without an Account. It holds a random value and nothing else: no name, no address, no email and none of your words. Only our own server reads it; it is never sent to another site, and no script on the page can see it.

The player marker arrives only when you start playing. The game also remembers which Round you are in the middle of, what you chose about usage data, that you have seen the line about it, and for a day whether you arrived from a link or a reminder. Clear your browser's cookies and this browser becomes a new player, with a fresh start and no history.

The app also keeps a copy of the Round you are in the middle of on this phone: your own tests, their lights and the two opening sentences, so you can read it with no signal. It never leaves the phone, and it is deleted when the Round ends, when its day is over, and when you sign out or delete your Account.

Safety copies

So that finished Rounds are not lost if something breaks, the game keeps a private safety copy of them, including the words you tested and guessed. Nobody outside the game can reach it.

When something is deleted, it is removed from that copy too. The database service keeps its own rolling history for up to 30 days, and we keep a weekly full copy for 8 weeks. Both expire by themselves, so a deletion reaches them within 8 weeks.

If you make an Account

An Account is optional. If you sign in with an email code, we keep your email address, because that is where the code is sent. If you sign in with Google, we keep the identifier Google gives us for you and the email address Google has confirmed for you, so we can send you your Account's emails and the ones you choose. We take no name and no picture from Google, and an email address never joins two Accounts. If you sign in with Apple, we keep the identifier Apple gives us, the email address Apple shares with us (which may be a private address that forwards to yours), and a key that lets us end the link with Apple when you delete your Account.

A sign-in code is kept only in a scrambled form, stops working after ten minutes and works once. Signing in adds one more marker to your browser, which keeps you signed in; signing out removes it. To stop floods of code emails, we count requests for a code by network address, kept scrambled and cleared within the hour. Nothing else is counted that way, and playing never is.

If you turn on daily reminders, we keep how you want them (email, or this browser's notifications), the time you chose and your time zone, which also sets when your Daily ends. For notifications, we also keep the address your browser's push service gave us. We keep these until you turn reminders off or delete your Account.

If you buy something

When you buy a Membership, we keep what you bought, when, what you paid and how long it runs, with your Account.

On the web, Membership is sold through Link, Stripe's Managed Payments service. Your card details and your invoice stay with them, never with us.

In the apps, the app store you buy from sells the Membership. RevenueCat, a service that checks store purchases for us, tells us which Account holds it.

The services that work for us

A few companies run parts of the game for us. Each gets only what its job needs, and we sell nothing we keep to anyone. Each works under a written agreement that limits what it may do with your information and requires it to protect it as we do.

Cloudflare hosts the game and its database and sends your sign-in code and the email confirming a purchase. Resend sends those if Cloudflare cannot, and sends every other email from the game: the daily reminder, the emails you choose and the one confirming your choice. Resend keeps your address with the emails you chose and, if usage data is on, whether you are a Member. It also carries our replies when you write to us.

PostHog helps us read the usage counts described above, and gets none while they are off. Sentry receives our fault reports: what went wrong and where in our code, never your words. Better Stack keeps our running records and checks that the game is up.

OpenRouter passes the wording you test, never your name, email or player id, to the language services that check it and decide its light, and those services don't train on it.

What we keep is stored and processed in the United States, by us and by the services that work for us; the language services may check the wording you test in other countries. US authorities may be able to reach it under US law.

Deleting your data

You can delete what Secret Rule keeps about you. With an Account: open Menu > Your Account, choose Delete Account, then Yes, delete everything. Deleting stops the renewal of a Membership we bill. It can't cancel a subscription bought through an app store: cancel that in the store.

That removes your Account and how you sign in, your Rounds and everything you wrote in them, your reports and notes, your Solver numbers and your purchase records, except a short proof of each purchase (see How long we keep things). We also keep a scrambled form of your email address that cannot be turned back into it, with your email choices. If you come back with that address, it gets no news or nudges until you choose again, only the emails you need, such as a sign-in code or a receipt.

No Account? Write to us from the phone or browser you play on and ask us to delete your data. The email carries your player id, so we can find your Rounds and remove them with everything you wrote in them. You can also ask us to remove one thing, such as wording that holds a personal detail, and keep the rest.

Some copies end on their own: records of use after 90 days, records of faults after 30 days, the database service's rolling history within 30 days, and our weekly safety copies within 8 weeks. The shared record of wording and its light stays, as said at the top of this page.

How long we keep things

Records of use: 90 days. Records of faults: 30 days. The database service's rolling history: 30 days. Weekly safety copies: 8 weeks. Your Account and its Rounds: until you delete the Account. Rounds played without an Account: until you ask us to delete them. Reminder settings: until you turn reminders off. Purchase records: as long as your Account.

After you delete your Account, we keep a short proof of each purchase: the plan, the price, the date, the wording you agreed to and a random purchase id. We keep it for 3 years, or until 1 year after the plan ends if that is later.

Emails you write to us: 24 months after your last message. If you ask us to delete or send your data, we keep a short note that you asked, and when, for 24 months.

Age

Secret Rule is for people 13 or older, or 14 or older in Quebec. To buy a Membership, you must be an adult where you live, or have a parent's or guardian's permission. If we learn that someone younger has played, we delete what we keep about them. If a parent or guardian takes back their permission for a teen, we delete the teen's Account. If you think a child is playing, write to us.

In the apps, your app store may tell the game an age range. If it says you are under 18, we ask before counting usage data and send no news or nudges until you turn them on; reminders are only ever on if you turn them on. If it says you are younger than 13, or 14 in Quebec, the game stays closed and we delete what we keep about you. We keep only that the store said under 18, never the range or your age.

When you write to us

The Write to us link opens your own email app with a message already started: your version, your player id and the kind of phone and browser you use are filled in, so we can find your games and look into what happened. Nothing is sent until you send it, and you can change or delete any of it first. We keep your email only to reply to it, and delete it 24 months after your last message.

Who runs Secret Rule

Secret Rule is made and run by Roman Gushel, an individual in the United States, who is responsible for what the game keeps. Write to secretrule@adopterai.com with any question about this page, or by post to 19900 W Dixie Hwy, PMB 160, Miami, FL 33180.

You can ask to see what we keep about you, to correct it or to delete it, and you can take back any yes you gave. Download my data and Delete Account in your Account do most of this at once; for anything else, write to that address. If you aren't satisfied with our reply, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or in Quebec to the Commission d'accès à l'information.

If we change this page in a way that matters, we send a notification before the change applies, and we update the date below.

In effect from 7 October 2026.