The short version
- You never need an account. We do not ask for your name or email address to play.
- Your case progress, marks, settings and cases-cracked tallies are saved in your own browser. They never leave your device and we cannot see them.
- We use Google Analytics to count visits and learn which cases are played, and Google AdSense to show the adverts that keep the games free. In the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, those services set cookies only after you allow them in the consent notice.
- If you email us, we use your message only to reply.
Who we are
Detective Puzzles (detective-puzzles.com) is published by Hamilton Digital Media Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 15608219. We are the data controller for the personal data described on this page.
You can reach us at [email protected] or through the contact page.
What we collect and why
The table lists everything that happens to data when you use the site. Most of it is the ordinary work of serving a web page; none of it involves you creating an account or typing anything into a form that we receive.
| When | Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visiting any page | Your IP address, browser and device type, the page requested, the time and the referring page, recorded in the logs of our hosting and content-delivery providers (Kinsta static hosting on the Cloudflare network). | Delivering pages, keeping the site secure and diagnosing faults. | Legitimate interests. |
| Site analytics (Google Analytics 4) | Pages viewed, approximate location worked out from your IP address (country or region), device and browser type, and game events we may record such as a case being started or solved. Google Analytics does not store full IP addresses. | Understanding which games and pages are used so we can improve them. | Your consent in the UK, EEA and Switzerland. Elsewhere, legitimate interests. |
| Advertising (Google AdSense) | Cookies and identifiers set by Google and its advertising partners. With your consent, interests inferred from your browsing are used to personalise adverts; without it, adverts are chosen from the page's content instead. | Funding the free games. | Your consent for personalised advertising and ad storage in the UK, EEA and Switzerland. Google describes its own processing on its partner sites page. |
| Playing a game | Case numbers, marks, notes, chosen difficulty, cases-cracked tallies and your consent choices, kept in your browser's local storage and cookies. | So an unfinished case survives a reload and your settings persist. | Stored on your device only. It is not transmitted to us. |
| Contacting us | Your email address, your name if you give it, and your message. The form on the contact page only prepares an email in your own mail app; the website itself receives nothing. | Replying to you and fixing what you report. | Legitimate interests. |
| Loading typefaces | Your browser requests font files from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address and browser details for that request. | Displaying the site's typefaces. | Legitimate interests. |
| Printing a case pack | Nothing. PDF packs are generated entirely inside your browser and are never uploaded. | Letting you solve on paper. | Not applicable. |
We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it for automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
Children and families
Detective Puzzles is a general-audience site that families enjoy together. The cases are cozy mysteries about missing items and mix-ups, never violent crime, and the easier ranks suit younger solvers playing with an adult.
The site is not directed at children under 13. It has no accounts, no messaging and no way to upload anything, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email us and we will delete it. Parents and guardians who share a device may wish to review the consent choices described on the cookies page.
How long we keep it
- Hosting and delivery logs are kept by the providers for the periods their policies set, then deleted or aggregated.
- Google Analytics user-level data is retained for no longer than 14 months.
- Email correspondence is kept until the matter is resolved and deleted within twelve months after that, unless we need it to show a correction we made.
- Local storage and cookies on your device stay until they expire or you clear them.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR you can ask us to tell you what personal data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, give it to you in a portable form, and withdraw any consent you have given. Email [email protected] and we will respond within one month. We may need to confirm who you are first.
Because the site holds almost nothing about individual visitors, most requests in practice concern data held by Google. Google's data and privacy controls and ad settings let you see and change that directly.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or to the supervisory authority in your own country.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS only. It is a static website: there is no database of visitor accounts to protect, because none exists. The only information you enter while playing is kept in your own browser.
Changes to this policy
When we change how the site handles data, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will say so here in plain words rather than bury it.
Questions about your data?Write to the desk and choose "Privacy request" as the category. We answer every message.
Contact the bureau