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Your streak, awards and records

There is no account here yet, so your streak, your awards and your best times live in this browser and nowhere else. Until sign-in arrives, this code is how they move — copy it out before you clear your history or change phone.

The Star Battle Privacy Policy

Effective date:

In short

  • You can play without an account. We never ask for your name or email address.
  • Your progress, your streak and your settings are saved in this browser. None of it is sent to us or to anyone else.
  • There is no advertising and no analytics. Nothing about how you play is measured today, whatever you answer in the consent banner.
  • Like every website, our hosting provider, Cloudflare, handles your IP address and basic browser details to deliver the pages and keep the site secure.
  • We do not sell or share your personal information.

Who we are

The Star Battle (thestarbattle.com) is run by Andrei Kovalev, based in Cyprus (“we”, “us”). We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy. We also run other puzzle sites. Each runs on its own domain, has its own copy of this policy, and cannot read what another one stores in your browser.

Questions about this policy or your personal information go to support@mixiebar.com.

What stays on your device

The Star Battle saves the following in your browser’s local storage (every key begins qa:starbattle:):

  • The board you are playing, so that reloading the page does not lose it.
  • Your statistics: the days you solved a puzzle (your streak), how many puzzles you have solved, your best times and the awards you have earned.
  • Your settings, such as theme or sound, and small notes such as whether you have already seen the tutorial.
  • Your answer to the consent banner, and when you gave it.

The cookie policy lists every key and what it holds. The site’s own pages set no cookies; our host may set a short-lived security cookie, as that policy explains.

These items are read and written by the page in your browser. None of them is sent to us or to anyone else, and we cannot see them. Clearing this site’s data in your browser deletes them permanently. We hold no copy, so we cannot restore them.

The site also keeps copies of its own pages and puzzle files in your browser’s cache, so it opens quickly and works offline. The copies are the same for every visitor and contain nothing about you.

Backup in Settings turns your progress and statistics into a piece of text that you can copy, keep wherever you like and paste back on another device. The text is made on your device and goes only where you put it.

What our hosting provider handles

The Star Battle is a set of static pages served by Cloudflare Pages, a service of Cloudflare, Inc. Like any web server, Cloudflare receives the technical details every browser sends with a request: your IP address, your browser and operating system (the “user agent”), the page requested, the page you came from, and the time. Cloudflare uses them to deliver the pages, to cache them close to you, and to protect the site against attacks and abuse.

Cloudflare acts as our processor for request data under its data processing terms, and as an independent controller for some security and network data, as its own privacy policy describes. We can see traffic totals in Cloudflare’s dashboard, but we do not collect or keep a log of individual visits, and nothing on the site links request data to what is saved in your browser. Cloudflare’s own handling is described in its privacy policy.

Measurement and the consent banner

The consent banner asks whether we may measure how the game is played. Measurement is not switched on yet: whatever you answer, no data about your play is sent anywhere. The game works the same either way, and your progress is saved either way.

Your answer is saved on your device so you are not asked on every visit. You can change it at any time by choosing Privacy choices at the bottom of any page: the banner opens again, shows your current answer, and your new answer replaces it. Nothing else on your device is changed. Because nothing is sent, your answer makes no difference to your privacy at present.

When measurement is switched on, we plan to use Google Analytics 4, with a separate property for each site, and only for people who agree. It would receive your IP address (from which an approximate location is derived), your device and browser details, the page address, and a short list of events: starting, finishing or abandoning a puzzle, with the time taken and the number of mistakes and hints; using a hint; pressing share; opening the archive; starting a puzzle outside the daily; installing the site as an app; and earning an award. The events would carry the game and the puzzle, and nothing you typed or placed on the board. Until you answer the banner, events wait on your device; if you decline, they are discarded. We will update this policy, with the provider’s retention period and settings, before any of it starts.

When measurement is switched on, we will ask everyone again, naming the provider. An answer given before then will not count as agreement to it.

If you write to us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you choose to write. We use it only to reply and to deal with your request. Our email is hosted by Zoho, which processes your message on our behalf.

Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following:

  • Saving your game on your device is strictly necessary to provide the game you asked to play, so it needs no consent under the ePrivacy rules (in the UK, PECR). We never receive this information.
  • Request data handled by our host: our legitimate interest in delivering the site and keeping it secure (Article 6(1)(f)).
  • Measurement, once it is switched on: your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time with Privacy choices at the bottom of every page.
  • Your emails to us: our legitimate interest in answering you, and, for a request about your rights, our legal obligation to respond (Article 6(1)(c)).

How long information is kept

  • On your device: until you clear it. We never have a copy.
  • Request data: Cloudflare keeps it for the limited periods set out in its own policy. We keep no request logs of our own.
  • Emails: for as long as we need to deal with your message, and then deleted, unless the law requires us to keep them longer.

Who receives your information, and where

Two other companies are involved: Cloudflare, Inc., which hosts the site, and Zoho Corporation B.V., which hosts our email and processes the messages you send us. Both act as our processors. We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not give it to advertisers or data brokers. We would disclose information to a public authority only if the law required us to.

Cloudflare is based in the United States and serves pages from data centres around the world, so request data may be handled outside your country. For transfers from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Cloudflare relies on its certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, with the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses as a fallback.

You do not have to give us any personal information to use the site. Request data is needed only to deliver pages to your browser. We make no decisions about you by automated means, and we do no profiling.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have the right to ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict how we use it, to receive a copy in a portable form, and to withdraw consent you have given.

Your right to object. Where we rely on our legitimate interests (request data and emails), you can object at any time by emailing us.

You can exercise most of these rights yourself: everything this site saves is in your own browser, where you can see it and delete it. For anything else, email support@mixiebar.com. We will answer within one month, or, for a complex request, tell you within that month that we need up to two more. Because we do not ask who you are, we may hold nothing that we can link to you; if so, we will tell you.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, in particular in the country where you live or work. Our lead authority is the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection of Cyprus (dataprotection.gov.cy). In the UK it is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk). We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.

Notice for California residents

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, does not currently apply to us, because we are below its thresholds. We describe our practices here voluntarily. In the past 12 months, the only personal information collected through this site was identifiers (IP address) and internet activity (the pages requested and browser details), received by our hosting provider from your browser for the purposes described under “What our hosting provider handles”, and disclosed to that provider as our service provider. If you email us, we also receive your email address. We collect no sensitive personal information.

We do not sell or share personal information, and have not done so in the past 12 months. “Share” here means disclosing it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. Because there is nothing to opt out of, no opt-out link is needed today; if that ever changes, this policy will change first.

You have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to have it deleted or corrected; and not to be treated differently for exercising these rights. To make a request, email support@mixiebar.com. You may also use an authorised agent.

Children

The Star Battle is a general-audience puzzle site and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children: playing needs no account and no details of any kind. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

Below a certain age, a parent or guardian must agree to measurement on a child’s behalf. In the EEA each country sets that age between 13 and 16 (14 in Cyprus); in the UK it is 13. If you are under that age, decline the banner or ask a parent first.

Not on this site yet

  • Advertising. There are no ads. If they are added, a Google-certified consent platform will ask for your choice first, and this policy will describe the advertising partners before any ad code runs.
  • Accounts. There is no sign-in. The Sign in button only opens a note saying so, and sends nothing. If accounts are added, they will be optional, and this policy will say what an account stores before one can be created.
  • Measurement, as described above.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we update this page and its effective date. A change that sends more information off your device than this page describes will not take effect until the page says so, and where it needs your consent, you will be asked first. The terms of use cover everything else about using the site.

Contact

Andrei Kovalev, Cyprus
support@mixiebar.com