The short version
- You can play without an account, and we never ask for your name or email to play.
- Your letters, times and streak are saved in your own browser and are not sent to us.
- We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which puzzles people finish, so we can make better puzzles.
- The site shows no ads, and we don't sell your data or share it for advertising.
Who we are
This policy covers Morning Crossword at morningcrossword.com, a free daily mini crossword. "We" and "us" mean the team that runs the site.
What stays on your device
To remember your game, the site saves a few things in your browser's local storage. They never leave your device, and we can't see them.
| Saved item | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Puzzle progress | The letters you typed, your clock and the hints you used on each puzzle, so you can come back to it |
| Stats | The days you solved, your times and your streak |
| Theme | Whether you picked light or dark mode |
| Offline copy | Pages you visited, so they still open without a connection |
You can delete all of it at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser settings. That also resets your streak.
What Google Analytics measures
We use Google Analytics, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to understand how the site is used. It collects:
- the pages you view, and the site or search that sent you here
- your device type, browser, screen size and language
- your approximate location, such as country or city, worked out from your IP address (Google does not store the full address)
- game events: when you finish a puzzle, with the puzzle's date, your time, the number of hints and whether it was that day's puzzle, and when you tap Share
It never receives the letters you type or your answers. We use this only to improve the site, for example to see which puzzles are too hard.
Cookies
The site itself uses no cookies. Google Analytics sets cookies named _ga and _ga_*, which tell repeat visits apart and last up to two years. We don't use advertising cookies or Google's advertising features.
If your device is set to a European time zone, analytics cookies are off by default, and Google only receives counts without cookies. You can turn Google Analytics off on every site with the Google Analytics opt-out add-on, or block cookies in your browser. The puzzle works the same either way.
Hosting and security
The site is hosted and delivered by Cloudflare. To deliver pages and protect the site from attacks, Cloudflare processes technical data for every request, such as your IP address, browser and the page asked for, and keeps it in short-lived logs.
Who receives data
Only the two services above: Google, for analytics, and Cloudflare, for hosting. Both may process data in the United States and other countries, under their own privacy terms. You can read how Google uses data from sites that use its services and Cloudflare's privacy policy. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising.
How long data is kept
Data in your browser stays until you clear it. Google Analytics keeps event data for the retention period set in our account, at most 14 months, and reports only in aggregate.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, for example in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California, you may have the right to know what data is collected about you, to ask for it to be deleted, and to object to analytics. Because we never ask who you are, the simplest way to use these rights is the tools above: clear your browser data and use the opt-out add-on. For any other request, email hello@morningcrossword.com (see the contact page). We don't use your data for any decision that affects you.
Children
The puzzles are written for all ages. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and there is nothing on the site that asks for it.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the site handles data, we will update this page and the date at the top.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your data? Email hello@morningcrossword.com. If you write to us, we use your email address only to reply, and we delete the message when the matter is closed.