Privacy Policy

Effective · Last updated

Maptism is a free site of map games, run by one person. In this policy, "I" and "me" mean that person. This page explains what the site collects and why.

The short version

Playing without an account

Your browser keeps a random player id in local storage. It is not tied to your name or email. Your settings, like theme and difficulty, stay there too. A second random id lives in session storage and ends when you close the tab. You can clear all of this at any time by clearing the site's data in your browser.

Accounts

Accounts are optional. An account needs an email address, a password, and a display name. Your password is stored only as a scrypt hash, never in plain text. Signing in sets a session cookie that keeps you signed in. Scripts on the page cannot read it.

Your account holds your stars, your preferences, and your leaderboard scores. Your display name appears on public leaderboards beside your scores.

To delete your account, email hello@maptism.io from the address you signed up with. I delete the account along with its sessions, preferences, and stars. Your past scores stay on the leaderboards, but your name on them becomes "deleted player."

Play statistics

The site records anonymous play events so I can see which games people enjoy. An event names the game you opened and the difficulty. It also carries your score and the rounds you played. Each event also carries the random player id and a device class (phone, tablet, or desktop). If you are signed in, it carries your account id too.

Some hosting networks pass along the country a visit comes from. When they do, the event keeps that country. Otherwise the country stays empty.

Ads

The site shows banner ads from Adsterra. Adsterra and its partners may set cookies. They may also collect your IP address and details about your device to show and measure ads. That happens under Adsterra's privacy policy, not this one. The site does not use pop-under ads or adult ads. You can limit ad cookies in your browser settings, or block ads altogether.

Maps

Map tiles come from my own tile server, so loading a map sends no request to an outside map provider. The base map data comes from © OpenStreetMap contributors and OpenFreeMap. Hill shading comes from Esri. Country shapes and city lists come from Natural Earth.

Social media

Maptism posts its own clips and links to platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The site connects to Google, Meta, and TikTok only to publish from Maptism's own accounts. Those connections never read your data. If you follow or comment on Maptism there, that platform's own policy applies.

Links in those posts carry a short tag naming the channel. That tag is saved with the play events, so I can tell which posts bring players.

YouTube

Maptism uses YouTube API Services to upload its own game clips to Maptism's YouTube channel. By using the site you are not using YouTube; nothing on maptism.io loads YouTube content or reads YouTube data. The upload runs from Maptism's server under the site owner's own Google account. It stores only that account's upload credential and the id of each video it uploads. No viewer or player data is sent to YouTube or Google through this connection.

The connection is governed by the YouTube Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. The owner can revoke Maptism's access at any time from the Google security settings page, and the stored credential is deleted when that happens or on request to hello@maptism.io.

Children

Anyone can play. Accounts are not meant for children under 13. If a child under 13 has made one, email me and I will delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version goes on this page with a new "Last updated" date.

Contact

Questions go to hello@maptism.io. That address may forward to my personal mailbox.