Privacy

On your phone

Your games, streak, settings and leagues are saved in your browser, with a random ID made up for your device the first time you play. The ID isn’t your name, number or email; it’s how the game knows your answers are yours.

Erase my games and streak, in Settings, clears all of that, takes you out of your leagues and gives you a new ID. Answers already sent stay with the old ID, which can no longer be matched to your phone.

When you play

Each answer you type goes to our server to be checked, and is saved with the day, the question, whether it counted, how long you took and your ID. So are a few moments in a game: starting, finishing, running out of time, pressing “That should count”, sharing your result and opening a shared link.

If you press “That should count”, your phone also keeps what you typed, and for a week after asks our server, when you open the game, whether it’s on the list yet, so it can tell you. Those checks aren’t saved.

We use them to mark answers fairly, set each answer’s rarity, improve the questions and show the day’s numbers, such as how many players gave each answer. Something typed by enough players can appear, with no ID, under “What Ireland said”.

If we later add an answer you typed and were turned away for, we may give you its km: a record of that is saved with your ID, and your phone asks our server for it the next time you open the game.

We don’t save your IP address. To slow down floods of requests, our server holds it in memory for about a minute, or for an hour after you send a suggestion or make a move code, then forgets it.

Only if you use them

Leagues. Your nickname, scores and answers are shown to the league’s other members: for each question, the answer from our list that counted, never what you typed. They see today’s only once they’ve finished today’s journey themselves. Leave a league and your nickname goes with you. Whoever started a league can see when each member last played and can remove a member; your games stay, and you can rejoin from the link.

If you join a league again under the same name, you can say that an earlier entry which has gone quiet is yours. Its scores then count for you in that league only, and we keep a note of the two IDs and the old nickname so it can be undone. For two weeks the league’s members see that the entry was taken over, and whoever started the league can undo it; joining again from the old device always takes the entry back.

Moving to another device. A copy of your games waits under a one-time code. It’s deleted once it’s used. Unused, it stops working after 24 hours and is deleted the next time anyone makes a code. The device you move to then shares the ID of the one you moved from, and what we held under its own ID moves to the shared one. Where both devices played the same day, the further game goes under the shared ID and the other stays under the old one.

Suggesting a question. We keep what you send, with your ID. Your first name and county appear in the game only if we use your question. Your email, if you give it, is only for telling you that, and is never shown.

The sponsor card

Your results show one sponsor. We count a view (once a day) and each tap, by your ID. Tapping opens the sponsor’s own site, with tags in the link that tell them the visit came from Boreen. Nothing else about you is passed on, and their site has its own privacy policy.

Chipping in

Chipping in is up to you and changes nothing in the game. The link opens a payment page run by Revolut Bank UAB (Irish Branch), and nothing about you or your games goes with it. Boreen gets the payment and what Revolut shows anyone being paid, such as your name, the amount and any note you add, never your card number. No Revolut script or cookie loads on Boreen, and Revolut has its own privacy policy.

Hosting

Boreen runs on Vercel, with its server in Dublin, and its database is with Neon, in London. Like any host, Vercel sees your IP address and browser with each request and keeps short-lived logs to run and protect the site.

If the game breaks in your browser, it tells our server once per visit: the error, the page’s address with any league, move or share code taken out, and the browser, version and system your browser names when it asks for a page. That goes into those logs only, with no ID, and isn’t saved in our database.

Visitor numbers come from Vercel Web Analytics, which uses no cookies. It counts pages, countries, device types and the sites people arrive from, and forgets each visitor within a day.

Cookies and Google Analytics

The first time you open Boreen, it asks whether it can count your visits with Google Analytics. Until you choose Allow, nothing from Google loads and no cookie is set. No thanks, or Save with the switch off, keeps it that way, and you can play either way.

If you allow it, Google Analytics, from Google Ireland, counts your visits: the pages you open, the site you came from, your device and browser, roughly where you are and how long you stay. It sets two cookies, _ga and _ga_ followed by a code, with a random number for this browser. League, move and share codes are taken out of the addresses it sees, and it never gets your Boreen ID, answers or scores. Advertising features and Google signals are off. Google says it doesn’t keep your IP address, and it may handle the data in the US under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

We use the totals to see how Boreen is doing and to show advertising networks how many people play. Nothing about you is sold, and no ad network runs on Boreen.

Your answer is kept in your browser for six months, then you’re asked again. You can change it any time in Settings; turning it off deletes the cookies. Our own server also saves each answer, yes or no, with the day and your Boreen ID,so we know how many say yes. Boreen sets no other cookies for players. If our host is fending off a flood of requests, it may check your browser first and set a cookie to remember that it passed.

Ads

Boreen is getting ready to show ads through Ezoic Inc., in the US, to help pay for it. None load for players yet. When they start, Ezoic and the ad companies that bid through it, Google among them, will use cookies to show ads and measure them, and ads can be based on your visits to Boreen and other sites. In Ireland, the rest of the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the UK and Switzerland, Ezoic’s consent message will ask you first, and ads there will be personalised only if you agree. This page will say more when they start.

How long we keep it

Answers, game events and suggestions are kept while Boreen runs, unless you ask us to delete yours.

Backup copies, with Neon and on our own computer, are kept for about three months, so anything deleted is gone from them within that time.

Your say

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, or have it corrected or deleted, at hello@boreen.ie. We don’t know who you are, so tell us what to look for: your league and nickname, or the email or question you sent. Your answers are saved only under your phone’s ID, so Erase my games and streak is the way to cut them loose from you.

If you’re unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Data Protection Commission at dataprotection.ie.