Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Cryptogram Press publishes the daily cryptogram at https://cryptogrampress.com and the iPhone app “Cryptogram: Daily Cryptoquote”. It is a small independent operation, not a company with a data department. This policy describes what actually happens, and we keep it current with what the software actually does rather than with what it might do one day.

2. The website

2.1 No account, no cookies, no advertising

You do not create an account to use this website and there is nothing to log in to. We set no cookies. There is no advertising, no advertising network, no social media button that reports back, no embedded video player and no web font loaded from another company's server. There is no consent banner because there is nothing to consent to.

2.2 What your own browser stores

Two settings are remembered by your browser so the site looks the same next time: your chosen text size and your chosen colour scheme. These are stored by your browser on your own computer using local storage, are never sent anywhere, and contain nothing but a number and a word. Clearing your browser's site data removes them.

2.3 Measuring how many people visit

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views. It works without cookies, does not build a profile of you, does not follow you to other websites, and does not use your data for advertising. It reports totals such as how many people looked at a page, from which country, on which kind of device. We cannot identify an individual visitor from it and neither can anyone else.

2.4 Server logs

Our hosting provider records ordinary web server information when a page is served — the address requested, the time, the browser type, and an IP address. This is standard for every website on the internet, is used for security and for keeping the site running, and is retained by the provider for a short period on their normal schedule. We do not use these logs to build a picture of individual readers and we do not combine them with anything else.

2.5 If you write to us

If you send us an email, we have your email address and whatever you wrote. We use it to reply and to make any correction you have pointed out. We do not add you to a mailing list, because there is no mailing list.

3. The iPhone app

3.1 What stays on your device

Your puzzle progress, your solved days, your streak, your statistics, your hint balance and your settings are stored on your iPhone. They are not sent to us. If you delete the app, this information is deleted with it.

3.2 iCloud sync

If you are signed in to iCloud, the app uses Apple's iCloud key-value storage so your progress follows you from one of your devices to another. What is stored there is a small amount of puzzle data: which days you have solved, your hint balance, your settings, and the events that make up your streak.

This data sits in your iCloud account, under your Apple ID. We have no access to it, no ability to read it, and no copy of it. Apple's handling of iCloud data is governed by Apple's own privacy policy. You can switch iCloud off for the app in your iPhone's Settings, and you can remove the stored data by deleting the app's iCloud data from your device settings.

3.3 Purchases

If you buy a subscription or a one-off purchase, the transaction itself is handled by Apple. We never see your name, your email address or your payment details, and Apple does not give them to us.

We use RevenueCat to keep track of whether a purchase is active, so that the app knows what you are entitled to and so that “Restore Purchases” works on a new device. RevenueCat receives the purchase receipt issued by Apple and an anonymous identifier generated by the app. That identifier is a random string; it is not your name, your email, your phone number or your Apple ID, and it is not linked to any of them. RevenueCat processes this on our behalf under their own privacy policy.

This is the only data from the app that reaches a company other than Apple.

3.4 Usage analytics

The app records a small number of events about how the app itself is used — for example that a puzzle was completed or that a settings screen was opened.

At present these events do not leave your device. They are written to a file inside the app's own storage on your iPhone and go nowhere else. They are deleted when you delete the app.

We intend to replace this with TelemetryDeck, an analytics service that is designed not to identify individuals and does not use advertising identifiers. If and when that is switched on, this policy will be updated to say so before the version that contains it is released, and the app's App Store privacy information will be updated at the same time.

3.5 Advertising and tracking

The app does not currently show advertising, and it does not access your device's advertising identifier. No data from the app is used to build an advertising profile or to follow you into other apps or websites.

The app is built so that optional rewarded video — a short advert you may choose to watch in exchange for a hint — can be added later using Google AdMob. Two things will happen before that reaches you:

• The app will ask your permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. You may decline. Declining does not restrict any part of the puzzle, and nothing about your use of the app changes except which adverts, if any, you are shown.
• This policy and the app's App Store privacy information will be updated to describe exactly what Google receives, before the version that includes it is released.

You can change your tracking choice at any time in your iPhone's Settings, under Privacy & Security, Tracking.

3.6 What the app does not do

• It has no account system and never asks for your name, email address or phone number.
• It does not ask for your location, contacts, photos, microphone or camera.
• It contains no social media integration.
• Apart from the purchase handling described above, the app's own code makes no network requests at all.

4. Third parties, in full

That is the complete list. There are no others, and nothing is shared with data brokers, advertisers or anyone else.

5. What we never do

• We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We never have.
• We do not track you across other websites or other apps.
• We do not build advertising profiles.
• We do not require an account, so we hold no password and no contact details unless you email us.

6. Children

This is a puzzle for general audiences and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information — which in practice could only happen by emailing us — write to hello@cryptogrampress.com and we will delete it.

7. How long anything is kept, and how to have it deleted

To ask for deletion of anything described here, write to hello@cryptogrampress.com. Because we hold almost nothing that can be connected to a person, most requests are answered by telling you precisely what exists, which is usually nothing.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have the right to know what personal information is held about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to object to certain uses of it. Residents of California have these rights under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them; we do not sell or share personal information and so there is nothing to opt out of. Residents of the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area have equivalent rights under the UK GDPR and the GDPR.

To exercise any of them, write to hello@cryptogrampress.com. We do not require you to create an account to make a request, and there is no charge.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change what the software collects, we change this page before the change reaches you, and we update the date at the top. Two changes are foreseeable and are described above in the sections they belong to: switching on a hosted analytics service, and adding optional rewarded-video advertising. Neither is active today.

10. Contact

Questions, corrections and deletion requests all go to the same place: hello@cryptogrampress.com. A real person reads it.

Keep reading

• Terms of useThe terms covering the app and this website.
• About Cryptogram PressWho makes these, and where every quotation comes from.
• The iPhone appStreaks, offline play, the full archive and iCloud sync.