Privacy Policy

Puzzle grids, word lists, puzzle titles, generated answer keys, image scan previews, OCR results, and manual edits are intended to remain in your browser unless you choose a feature that clearly requires server processing.

When you use manual puzzle tools, please avoid entering student names, email addresses, school IDs, private classroom records, confidential information, or other sensitive personal information.

If you choose to use the image scan feature, you may upload, paste, drag and drop, or capture a word search image. The current image scan flow reads the puzzle grid and word list locally in your browser using browser image processing and self-hosted OCR model assets. If the grid or word list cannot be detected clearly, you may be asked to retake, straighten, crop, improve the photo, or type the words manually.

Browser-side image scan processing may include uploaded puzzle images, screenshots, camera captures, extracted OCR text, extracted puzzle grids, extracted word lists, file type, file size, processing time, confidence scores, warnings, and editable review state inside your browser.

We use browser-side images and OCR results to provide the image scan feature, generate editable puzzle text for solving, improve the local workflow, and troubleshoot failures. The current main image scan flow does not send uploaded puzzle images, detected word-list crops, raw OCR text, extracted grids, or extracted word lists to a third-party OCR provider.

We do not intentionally send uploaded images, puzzle grids, word lists, OCR text, puzzle titles, student names, emails, school identifiers, or private classroom content to analytics providers.

Please do not upload images that contain student records, student names, email addresses, school IDs, personal photos, confidential materials, sensitive personal information, or content you do not have permission to process.

Some account features may require signing in with Google. If you choose to sign in with Google, Google may share certain account information with us, such as your Google account identifier, email address, display name, and profile picture, depending on your Google settings and the permissions shown during sign-in.

We use Google Sign-In information to create or maintain your Word Puzzle World account, keep you signed in, provide support, apply OCR usage limits, secure the service, and prevent abuse. We do not request access to your Gmail, Google Drive, contacts, calendar, or other Google account content.

We use Google Sign-In information only for authentication, account management, usage limits, support, security, and abuse prevention. We do not sell Google account information or use it for advertising profiling.

The current main solver image scan runs in the browser and does not spend OCR credits. We may still maintain account credit balances or usage-limit records for account features, disabled legacy endpoints, future protected server features, abuse prevention, and service availability.

Usage and credit records may include user ID, credit delta, balance after the transaction, scan type, endpoint, timestamp, IP address, user agent, and related request metadata. We do not need to store uploaded images, base64 image content, raw OCR text, extracted grids, word lists, or puzzle titles to enforce credits or usage limits.

We do not use OCR credit or usage counts to infer sensitive information about you. Credit rules and usage limits may change over time to protect the service from abuse or excessive cost.

When you visit the site, limited technical information may be processed to operate, secure, and improve the website. This may include IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, referring pages, approximate region, request metadata, and security logs.

If you sign in or use OCR image scan, additional safe technical signals may be processed to keep the feature available, debug failures, apply usage limits, and prevent abuse. We do not intentionally log request bodies, base64 images, raw OCR text, extracted grids, or word lists in production logs.

Word Puzzle World is hosted on Cloudflare Workers with Cloudflare DNS, CDN, HTTPS, and security services. Cloudflare may process technical request data and security logs to deliver the site, prevent abuse, and keep the service available.

Plausible cookie-less analytics may load by default to understand aggregate usage. If additional analytics are configured and you accept analytics cookies or similar technologies, we may use Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity, Ahrefs Web Analytics, and Google Search Console verification to understand aggregate usage and site health.

Analytics events are limited to non-content usage signals such as page views, tool button clicks, print clicks, game completion events, OCR provider type, scan status, grid dimensions, confidence, warning count, and issue count. Analytics events must not include puzzle grids, word lists, puzzle titles, images, base64 image data, OCR raw text, emails, student names, school names, Google account IDs, or private classroom content.

Essential technologies are used to deliver, secure, and operate the website. If account features are enabled, we may use essential cookies or similar technologies to keep you signed in, secure the login process, remember authentication state, prevent CSRF attacks, verify OAuth state or nonce values, and enforce OCR usage limits. These essential technologies are separate from optional analytics cookies.

Plausible is designed to be cookie-less and may load without the optional analytics consent banner. Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Ahrefs, or similar non-essential scripts are loaded only after you choose to accept analytics in the cookie banner.

We store your optional analytics preference in your browser using localStorage under the key wordpuzzleworld_analytics_consent. Image scan previews may also keep a temporary browser-side draft in sessionStorage so you can review a selected image during the scan flow. You can clear these browser-side values by using Cookie Settings where available, clearing browser storage, or closing the session.

Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Ahrefs, Google Sign-In, and other third-party services may use cookies or similar technologies according to their own policies when enabled and applicable.

We may use Cloudflare for hosting, DNS, CDN, HTTPS, and security; Google Sign-In or Google Identity Services for authentication if account features are enabled; Plausible for privacy-friendly analytics; Google Analytics 4 for traffic measurement; Microsoft Clarity for aggregate behavior insights; Ahrefs Web Analytics for SEO measurement; Google Search Console for site ownership verification and search diagnostics; and an email provider or Cloudflare Email Routing to receive support messages.

Each third-party service processes information according to its own terms, privacy policies, and data processing settings. We try to use only the information needed to provide and protect the service.

Word Puzzle World may be useful for teachers, parents, homeschool users, and students. The site is intended for general educational use with appropriate adult guidance.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a student, use this site with permission from a parent, guardian, or teacher. Do not upload personal information, student records, school IDs, or private classroom materials.

If you believe a child has provided personal information to us, contact us so we can review and delete it where appropriate. If the service is used in a school or with children under 13 in a formal setting, the school, teacher, or parent should ensure they have the necessary permissions and should avoid uploading student personal information.

Puzzle inputs that are manually typed are intended to remain in your browser and are not intentionally stored by us. Uploaded puzzle images are not intentionally stored in our database or object storage after OCR processing unless we specifically disclose otherwise.

Account information may be retained for as long as your account remains active or as needed to provide the service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, maintain security, or prevent abuse. OCR diagnostic records are retained for up to 7 days for troubleshooting, cost review, and abuse prevention.

Technical logs, Cloudflare logs, analytics data, and support emails are retained according to operational needs, provider settings, applicable law, and the settings available for those services.

You can decline optional analytics in the cookie banner, reset your choice through Cookie Settings in the footer, use browser privacy controls, clear cookies and local storage, or choose not to enter personal information into puzzle tools.

If you are signed in, you can use Delete account from the top-right account menu to delete your Word Puzzle World account, active sessions, and scan credit records from our D1 account database. This does not delete separate provider logs, Cloudflare security logs, analytics records, or support emails that may be retained according to provider settings, operational needs, applicable law, or security requirements.

You may also request deletion of your account or related personal information by contacting support@wordpuzzleworld.com. When we delete your account, we will delete or anonymize account identifiers and related usage records unless we need to retain limited information for legal, security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or operational reasons.

If you contact support@wordpuzzleworld.com, we may receive your email address and message content. We use it to reply to your request, handle feedback, process deletion requests, or address support issues.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

Questions about this Privacy Policy can be sent to support@wordpuzzleworld.com.