Word Legion: privacy
Word Legion is a word duel game. The account is optional: a player name and a password, no email. There are no ads, no in-app purchases and no trackers from other companies (no Google Analytics, no Facebook). To improve the game, it measures how it is used with our own tool, described below, which you can turn off. No data is sold or shared with third parties.
What the game keeps on your device
- Your player name.
- A session token, to resume an online match after a disconnection.
- Without an account: an anonymous token drawn at random by the server, which links your trophies to this device.
- Your settings (sound, display, language), the words you have discovered, and the last known value of your trophies (for display).
- If you are signed in to your account: an account session token. Never your password.
- For usage measurement: a random identifier, the date of your first visit, and the events not sent yet (if you play offline).
This data stays in the local storage of the app or the browser. It is deleted if you uninstall the app or clear the site's data.
What the server receives when you play online
- Your player name, shown to your opponent during the match.
- Your game actions (words played, cards placed) and the match time.
- Your IP address, needed for the connection and to protect against abuse.
The server keeps:
- a summary of each match (date, player names, score, number of words, trophies, human or bot opponent), to balance the game;
- your trophies (with your number of ranked matches, wins and best score), linked to your account or to a fingerprint of your anonymous token, never to the token itself;
- the technical logs of the web server, which contain the IP address, deleted after 14 days.
When no player is available, the server matches you against an automatic opponent (a bot) of your level; these matches count for trophies too. The guided first match and matches without a network are played on your device: they do not go through the game server. Only the usage measurement described below, unless you turned it off, sends how they went.
Your account, if you create one
Without an account, everything stays on your device, as described above. The account saves your profile so you can get it back on another device. It only asks for a player name and a password: no email, no name, no age.
For an account, the server keeps:
- your player name, the date the account was created and the date you last signed in;
- a fingerprint of your password (computed with scrypt and a random salt), never the password itself;
- your open sessions: a fingerprint of each token and its dates. A session ends after 180 days without use;
- the backup of your profile: your card collection (words, number of times played, strength, date of discovery), your achievements, your game statistics (matches, wins, crowns, words and letters played, records), the date of your last visit to the farm, your progress in the tutorial, and your sound and voice settings (on or off);
- your trophies, as for every player;
- your last game language (for the small flag next to your player name);
- if you add friends: your friend list, the friend requests you sent and received, the players you blocked, your friend link, and invitations to play (kept for 24 hours). Your friends see your player name, your flag, and whether you are online, in a match, or since when you have been away;
- if you accept them (later, in the app): your device's technical address for notifications, used only to tell you when a friend challenges you.
The account is not linked to the usage measurement identifier. Your password only travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) and is never written to any log. There is no email: if you forget your password, write to us with your player name (address below) and we will give you a new one.
To delete your account: in the game, open Profile (tap your name on the home screen), then “Delete my account”, and confirm with your password. The account, its backup, your trophies, your friends and your sessions are erased right away, and your player name becomes free again. The server's backup copies are replaced within 24 hours. Summaries of matches already played keep your player name, as for every player. What is in your browser stays there: to erase it too, choose “Sign out and clear this browser”. If you no longer have your password, write to us at the address below.
The microphone, if you play by voice
“Play by voice” is off by default. If you turn it on in the settings, the game asks for microphone access, and only uses it during a match, while you talk to the mic button (or hands-free, if you chose it).
- The audio is processed on your device, by a speech recognition engine that runs inside the game. It is not sent anywhere, not to us and not to any other service, and it is not recorded.
- When you turn it on, the game downloads the recognition model for your language from our server (31 to 50 MB) and keeps it on your device. This download contains nothing about you.
- If usage measurement is on, it only receives, for each spelled word, whether it gave a valid word, its number of letters, the response time and the number of corrections. Never the audio.
To stop: untick “Play by voice” in the settings. You can also remove microphone access in your phone or browser settings.
Usage measurement, to improve the game
The game sends game events to our server, in small batches. They tell us what works and what does not: where new players give up, which words are missing from the dictionary, which cards are too strong, which bugs happen on which phones.
What is sent:
- an identifier drawn at random by the game, with no link to your player name, your device or your name; it is replaced by a new one after 13 months;
- the visit: the site you came from (only its name, for example “tiktok.com”), or the site the game is embedded in, the campaign name if the link carries one, the language of the game and of the browser, the type of device (phone, tablet, computer), the system and browser (for example “iOS, Safari”), a range of screen widths, and whether you play on the website, the installed web app or the store app;
- your matches: the mode, the bot level, the duration, the result and the crowns, forfeits, and the steps of the tutorial;
- your words: the words accepted and refused (the word itself, its length, the time taken to spell it, the hint used), the cards placed, the shuffles, the lost letters, the cards and achievements discovered;
- technical measurements: loading time, smoothness during a match, online latency, and the text of game errors.
What is not sent: your player name, your IP address, your location, your name, or anything you type other than the game's letters. The game does not compute a fingerprint of your device. The IP address is only used, for the duration of the request, to limit abuse: it is not written anywhere, and these requests are not recorded in the web server's logs.
These events are kept for 13 months, then deleted. Only the game's publisher and the tools they use for analysis can access them. They are used only to improve the game, never for advertising or to recognise you from one site to another. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving the game, and you can object at any time.
To opt out: on the game's home screen, open the settings (the sound button) and untick “Usage statistics”. You can also open wordlegion.bonnaf.com/?telemetrie=non once in your browser. The game then deletes its identifier and stops sending anything. If your browser sends the “Global Privacy Control” or “Do Not Track” signal, the game sends nothing either.
Hosting
The server is rented from Hetzner, in Germany. The data does not leave the European Union. On the website, fonts are loaded from Google Fonts. The app includes them and does not make that request.
Children
The game does not ask for a name, an age, an email address or a location. The optional account only asks for a player name and a password. The only free text is the player name. Offensive player names are refused.
Your rights
You can delete your account yourself, from Profile (see above). You can also ask to see or delete what relates to your player name or your account, or the events linked to your measurement identifier (it is shown under the “Usage statistics” box), by writing to the address below. You can also contact the French data protection authority, the CNIL (cnil.fr), or the authority of your country.
Contact
Alexis Bonnafont, publisher of the game: alexis.bonnafont.you@gmail.com