Privacy Policy

How GeoHiders handles your data, cookies, and third-party services.

Last updated: May 13, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what information GeoHiders ("we", "us", "the game") collects when you visit geohiders.com or play a game, and how that information is used, stored, and shared. By using GeoHiders you agree to the practices described below.

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

• Display name (nickname) — when you create or join a room, you choose a name visible to other players in that room. We do not require it to be your real name and we encourage you not to use one.
• Room codes and game inputs — clues you type, pins you drop on the map, chat messages sent in-game, and the Street View locations you select while hiding.

Information collected automatically

• Technical data — your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, and screen size. This is used by our hosting provider for connection routing and abuse prevention.
• Usage data — anonymized analytics including which pages you visit, time spent on the site, referrer URL, and approximate geographic region (country/city level) derived from your IP.
• Game session data — for the duration of a game, our server holds your socket connection ID, current room, role (hider/seeker), and score. This is in-memory only and is discarded when the game ends or you disconnect.

2. How We Use Information

The information described above is used solely for:

• Running multiplayer game sessions in real time (matching players, syncing game state, awarding scores).
• Understanding aggregate usage patterns so we can improve the game (which features are used, where players are joining from, what causes errors).
• Preventing abuse, spam, cheating, and denial-of-service attacks.
• Displaying relevant advertisements through Google AdSense (see Section 4 below).

3. Cookies and Local Storage

GeoHiders uses cookies and browser local storage for the following purposes:

• Strictly necessary — your chosen nickname and active room code are stored in your browser's local storage so that refreshing the page does not log you out of a game.
• Analytics — Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager set cookies (such as _ga and _gid) to count unique visitors and measure engagement.
• Advertising — Google AdSense and its ad partners may set cookies to serve personalized ads based on your interests and prior visits to other websites.
• Consent — Google's Funding Choices messaging may store your consent preferences for advertising cookies under privacy laws such as the GDPR.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings. Doing so may affect site analytics and ad personalization, but core gameplay will continue to work.

4. Advertising — Google AdSense

GeoHiders uses Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to GeoHiders users based on their visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.

You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings or, for any third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized ads, by visiting aboutads.info.

5. Third-Party Services

GeoHiders integrates with the following third-party services. Each has its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to review:

• Google Maps Platform / Street View — for displaying maps and Street View imagery during gameplay. See the Google Privacy Policy.
• Google Analytics & Tag Manager — for anonymized usage analytics. See the Google Privacy Policy.
• Google AdSense & Funding Choices — for advertising and consent management.
• Vercel — hosts the website front-end. See the Vercel Privacy Policy.
• Render — hosts the multiplayer game server. See the Render Privacy Policy.

6. Data Retention

Game session data (room state, player connections, chat) is stored in memory on our server only for the duration of an active game. When a room is closed or all players disconnect, this data is permanently deleted and is not backed up or logged. Anonymized analytics data is retained by Google according to your account's data retention settings, typically 14 to 38 months.

7. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to access, correct, or delete personal data we hold about you.
• Right to object to or restrict certain processing (e.g., advertising cookies).
• Right to data portability.
• Right to withdraw consent at any time.
• Right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

Because GeoHiders does not require accounts and stores virtually no personally identifying data, most "access" or "deletion" requests are automatically fulfilled by clearing your browser cookies. For other requests, email us at adarshchauhan13@gmail.com.

8. Children's Privacy

GeoHiders is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, please contact us and we will take prompt steps to remove that data.

9. Security

All traffic to and from geohiders.com is encrypted over HTTPS. Game socket connections are secured with WSS. While no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, we use industry-standard practices to protect data in transit.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be communicated via a notice on the site's homepage. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

11. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or about how your data is handled, please contact: