Privacy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 18, 2026

The short version: no accounts, no names or email addresses, no ads, and we never sell data. Your scores and badges are saved under a random Player ID. We use Google Analytics to count visits and games played; in the EU, UK and Switzerland it only sets cookies if you agree.

Who we are

LowKey Games (games.crvscience.com) is run by CRV Science (Corvallis Science) in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. Questions about this policy: contact us.

What we store, and why

Your player profile. The site gives you a random Player ID (for example PHYLO-7X92) and a secret Recovery Code. Our server keeps your Player ID and a scrambled (hashed) form of your Recovery Code, never the code itself. They let you restore your progress on another device.
Your game progress. Scores, leaderboard entries, badges, Field Guide discoveries, Daily Challenge results and the days you played are stored on our server under your Player ID, and on your device.
Security. To block repeated wrong Recovery Code guesses, the server keeps a scrambled (hashed) form of your connection's IP address for about a day, then deletes it.
What we don't collect. The games never ask for your name, email address, phone number, birthday or location, and they take no payments. (The contact form asks for an email address only if you want a reply.)

Public leaderboards

Leaderboards show Player IDs with their scores and dates. Player IDs are random by default; if you rename yours in the Profile menu, don't use your real name or anything that identifies you.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used: pages visited, games started and finished, the kind of device and browser, and an approximate location (country or city) that Google derives from your connection. Google Analytics does not receive your Player ID or Recovery Code. Visits from local test copies of the site are never sent.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, analytics cookies stay off until you accept the cookie banner, and you can change your answer at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of each page. Google's own handling of this data is described in Google's privacy policy.

Cookies and storage on your device

Local storage: the site saves your Player ID and Recovery Code, progress, settings (such as sound) and cookie choice in your browser's local storage, so the games remember you between visits.
Cookies: the only cookies are Google Analytics cookies (named _ga and _ga_…), set only where analytics is allowed. LowKey Games uses no advertising cookies.

Contacting us

When you send the contact form, we receive your message and, only if you choose to include them, your email address, Player ID and device/browser details. They are emailed to the LowKey Games team and a copy is kept on our server so no message is lost. We use them only to read and answer your message, and you can ask us to delete them at any time.

Children

LowKey Games is suitable for students and doesn't ask anyone for personal information. Teachers can use it in class without creating student accounts.

Keeping and deleting your data

Your profile and scores are kept so your progress is there when you return. To delete them from our server, contact us with your Player ID and Recovery Code and we will remove them. To remove the copy on your device, clear this site's data in your browser settings.

Other sites

Links to other sites (such as the CRV Science shop, Buy Me a Coffee and photo credits on Wikimedia Commons and iNaturalist) are covered by those sites' own privacy policies.

Changes to this policy

If we change how data is handled, we will update this page and its date.