Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains what information Ethnicity Guesser collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. We designed the site to collect as little as possible, to avoid cookies, and to keep the game playable without any account. This policy may be updated from time to time; the effective date is the date you load this page.
Information We Collect
Ethnicity Guesser is a static, no-login website. We do not ask for your name, email address, password, or any other account information, because there is no account. We do not run a backend that records your game answers or quiz scores. Your daily streak and any local game progress are stored only in your own browser through localStorage, and they never leave your device. Clearing your browser data erases this information completely, with no backup on our side.
The only information we receive automatically is the minimal anonymized traffic data described in the Cookies & Analytics section below. We do not buy, sell, or trade any personal data, because we do not have any personal data to begin with.
Cookies & Analytics
Ethnicity Guesser uses Plausible Analytics for privacy-friendly, cookie-free traffic measurement. Plausible does not use cookies, does not collect personally identifiable information, does not track you across other websites, and does not build a behavioral profile of any visitor. The data it collects is limited to aggregate counts: total page views, rough country (derived from IP at request time and never stored), the referring website, and the page you loaded. There is no user ID, no fingerprint, and no cross-site tracking.
Because Plausible is cookie-free, it does not require a cookie banner under the EU ePrivacy Directive.
This site also uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors find and use the game — for example, which game mode they start, where they drop off, and which pages bring in traffic from search. Google Analytics sets first-party cookies (including a client ID cookie) to distinguish visitors and measure sessions. It does not collect names, email addresses, or anything you type into the site, and we do not enable Google advertising or cross-site tracking features. You can opt out with a content blocker, by disabling cookies for this site, or with the official Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
Third-Party Services
Static site assets (composite face images and phenotype photographs) may be loaded from public CDN-hosted archives such as the Human Phenotypes reference site, Wikimedia Commons, and placeholder image services during development. When you load a page that references an external image, your browser fetches it directly from that third-party host, and the host may record a request in its own logs. We do not control these logs and we do not receive any data from them. We deliberately avoid third-party advertising networks, social-media embeds, and comment widgets, because each of those would bring its own tracker.
We do not embed any third-party login, payment, or chat widget. If we ever add a feature that requires one, we will update this policy first and name the provider and the data it receives.
Data Retention
Because we do not store personal data, there is essentially nothing to retain. Aggregate analytics counters in Plausible are retained by Plausible according to its own data-retention policy, which you can read on the Plausible website. Google Analytics data is retained according to Google's standard retention settings, which you can review in Google's privacy policy. Any game progress stored in your browser through localStorage persists only until you clear your browser data for this site, at which point it is permanently deleted.
We do not store uploaded photos. Although the planned AI face analysis tool has been deferred, we want to be explicit: any future photo feature will be designed so that uploaded images are processed transiently and never persisted on our servers. If that design changes, this policy will be updated before the feature ships.
Your Rights
If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with GDPR-style data protection law, you have rights including access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection. Because we do not collect personal data tied to you, most of these rights are already satisfied by design: there is no profile to access, rectify, or port, and clearing your browser data fully erases your local game progress. For any request that does apply, contact us through the Contact page.
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives you the right to know what personal information is collected, to request deletion, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information, and we collect none beyond the aggregate analytics described above, so there is nothing to opt out of beyond what a content blocker already provides. This policy reflects our good-faith effort to comply with GDPR and CCPA; it is not legal advice and does not create any contractual right beyond those provided by law.
Contact
Questions about this Privacy Policy can be sent to hello@ethnicity-guesser.com. For any formal data-protection request, please include "Privacy Request" in the subject line so we can route it correctly.