Privacy Policy

Last Updated: July 30, 2019

Our mission is to help you create, share and play knowledge games, including crosswords, sudoku, word search and quiz. We collectively refer to these as “Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies”. We grew out of a privacy-focused research lab at Stanford University and value your privacy greatly. We want to make sure you understand what information we collect from our users and have tried to be as clear and transparent as possible in this document. However, please do not hesitate to contact our Data Privacy Officer at dpo@amuselabs.com if you have any questions.

Applicability

If you use Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies as an iframe embedded at another site, we at Amuse Labs provide the games as a service to that site, and that site is your primary service provider. In that case, this privacy policy does not apply to you because that site is the data controller for all interactions with you, and we are a data processor, handling data on their behalf. If you have any information requests, please contact your service provider directly. The policy below applies only if you use our website directly.

If you are currently an Amuse Labs customer and have a contract in place with Amuse Labs, the data protection terms in that contract apply; this policy is not applicable.

Subject to the aforesaid statements, when you use any of Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies, you acknowledge that you voluntarily agree to this Privacy Policy, including the manner in which we use your personal information.  If you do not agree to any of the terms in this policy, please do not use our services.

We have two  kinds of users on our website: puzzle solvers (or players) and puzzle creators. This policy applies to both kinds of users.

The data we collect

For puzzle solvers, we may retain the following information indefinitely (unless a delete request is specifically raised by you)

  1. The state of your unsolved and solved puzzles.
  2. Browser and device information
  3. Information about your usage patterns of any Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies, including user interface elements on the puzzles such as reveal, check, social play, etc.

We retain the following for a limited time:

  1. The IP address from where you access our service, and the sequence of requests you make to our service.

For puzzle creators, in addition to all of the above, we collect your login identifier and data files for the puzzles (including questions, answers, metadata) you create or upload into our system. 

Aggregated Information 

“Aggregated Information” is a combination and/or analysis of information from multiple sources (as well as the information that you share) that helps identify or creates trends, benchmarks, summary metrics, or predictive algorithms. When creating aggregated information we take reasonable steps to prevent a specific individual or the individual’s data from being identified. We may create Aggregated Information from information that other customers choose to share with us, along with Your Information.

We may use Aggregated Information: 

  •       to deliver, develop and improve our products
  •       to enable general marketing and advertising statements about our products
  •       for other purposes to which you expressly consent

How we collect Information

For puzzle players: In order to identify your browser, we place secure cookies on your computer when you play a puzzle. The primary purpose of this cookie is to identify your browser when you revisit a puzzle, so that we can restore the state of a partially completed puzzle, to show you which puzzles you have attempted or completed, and to retain your settings preferences.  As you solve a puzzle, your browser may send us information about the partially completed state of the puzzle, which is associated with the browser’s cookie, so that we can restore it in case you revisit the puzzle again. If you do not want to allow the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to delete cookies, automatically decline them or be given the choice of declining or accepting cookies from a particular site. If you do not accept cookies, you can still play puzzles, but the above-mentioned benefits will not be available to you.

For puzzle creators: in addition to the above, we may place a cookie on your computer when you login, to avoid the need for you to login at every access. If you do not accept cookies, he above-mentioned benefit will not be available to you.

We may similarly use HTML5 local storage in your web browser to store the state of partially or fully completed puzzles, or your preference settings. Most web browsers allow you to directly disable HTML5 local storage, or view and delete information contained in it.

Our log files may retain for a limited time IP addresses of accesses, for the sole purpose of tracking any malicious attacks on our servers.  The exact duration of retention may be updated from time to time.

Your information may be stored by us directly, and also provided to a third party analytics provider like Google Analytics for the sole purpose of tracking aggregate analytics. However, we do not control or make any representations on behalf of such third Party.

We occasionally use third party email list software like MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com) to contact constructors who voluntarily provide us contact information by logging in to our site. With each message, we always provide a way to unsubscribe from such a list. However, we do not control or make any representations on behalf of such third Party. 

All of the above technologies are in widespread use by mainstream websites.

“Do Not Track” Obligation

Do Not Track is a voluntary program among Internet advertisers that is intended to give users the ability to opt-out of behavioral targeting and advertising. There are a few ways in which your computer may send a “do not track” signal to certain websites and online services you visit.  Please send an email to dpo@amuselabs.com if you want us to honor these signals from third party internet providers.

How We May Use and Share Your Information

We may use Your Information for the following purposes: 

  • To save the puzzle state, and restore it when you solve the puzzle from the same device or account
  • To deliver, administer, develop and improve our products
  • To promote safety and security of our products
  • To conduct product and market research and understand and analyse trends and preferences
  • To debug to identify and repair errors in our products
  • To enable solely internal uses to help provide a better user experience
  • To facilitate a judicial, regulatory or legal proceeding
  •  To protect our legal rights, such as pursuing available remedies or limiting the damages that we may sustain.
  • For other purposes to which you expressly consent

For these limited purposes Your Information may be accessed at the offices or servers of Amuse Labs (or third party service providers such as Google Analytics and Mail Chimp). These offices and servers may be located in the USA, India, or any other country or jurisdiction in which we or the third party service provider may have offices or authorized representatives. Therefore, your information may have to be transferred or processed in these jurisdictions, and may be subject to locally applicable laws. In using our services, you are consenting to such transfers of the information you share.

Use of Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies by Minors 

“Notwithstanding anything contained herein, the Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies are not directed to:
A) any individual who is a citizen of any members state in the European Economic Area/United Kingdom and below the age of sixteen (16), and
B) any individual who is a citizen of any country not a part of European Economic Area/United Kingdom and below the age of thirteen (13) or the applicable legal age in his country, whichever is higher.

If you are not compliant to the aforementioned age restrictions, please provide consent from your legal guardian to dpo@amuselabs.com.”

Information Requests  

If you have any information requests, please contact our Data Privacy Officer at dpo@amuselabs.com with any information requests. Your request will be processed within a maximum of 7 business days.

For puzzle players:

If you contact us to have your Information deleted, please provide us all cookies set by the domains *.amuselabs.com, because  this is the only mechanism we have to identify you. Please note that we will not be able to delete your information that has been incorporated into an aggregated form. However, we will delete your information associated with that identifier from our database of in-progress and completed plays.

For puzzle creators:

You can delete and manage your puzzles yourself from your dashboard. If you wish to have all other information in your account deleted, please provide us the account identifier you use to login. Please note that we will not be able to delete your information that has been incorporated into an aggregated form. We will delete your information associated with that identifier from our database of in-progress and completed plays. However, as described in our Terms of Service, we may have already created derivative works of your content for our purposes.

Nothing in this policy requires us to retain any part of Your Information.

Commitments 

We further commit that: 

  •       We will not sell Your Information to third parties.
  •       We will not share Your Information or Aggregated Information with any person in violation of any of the provisions of any applicable law.

Data Security 

We use reasonable practices, procedures and measures in accordance with applicable law to protect Your Information. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

In spite of all the control mechanisms and security processes in place, there can still be instances of data theft and/or any consequential losses suffered as a result if such breach has been caused by hackers and/or any other third party that actively engage themselves to disrupt and/or circumvent the security systems of the Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies. As such circumstances are beyond our control, you understand that we will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential and incidental losses that you may suffer in this regard.

Updates to this Privacy Policy 

We may change this Privacy Policy. The “Last Updated” legend at the top of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post or distribute the revised Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Amuse Labs Proprietary Technologies following these changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy.

Contacting Us 

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, or to log any requests related to data privacy, please send an email to dpo@amuselabs.com. 

 

ADDITIONAL CLAUSES SPECIFIC TO USERS WHO ARE CITIZENS OF COUNTRIES WHICH FORM A PART OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA AND UNITED KINGDOM

PRINCIPLES FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL DATA

Personal Data will be relevant to and not excessive for the purposes for which they are collected and used. For example, Personal Data may be rendered anonymous if deemed reasonable, feasible and appropriate, depending on the nature of the Personal Data and the risks associated with the intended uses.

Personal Data subjects in the European Union and the United Kingdom will be asked to provide their clear and unequivocal consent for the transfer of their Personal Data.

Personal Data will be accurate and, where necessary kept up-to-date. Reasonable steps will be taken to rectify or delete Personal Data that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Data will be kept only as it is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and processed. Those purposes shall be described in this Policy.

OTHER TERMS

Selected Third Parties: The Company will not disclose or share any personal information with any external entity or third party, except upon the End User’s explicit consent.

Other Third Parties: The Company may be required to disclose certain Personal Data to other third parties such as  Law Enforcement Authorities in accordance with the relevant legislation in the different EEA Member States including but not limited to legislation transposing the EU/2016/1148 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union.