Privacy Policy for The Ruler Game

This Privacy Policy explains what information RulerGame.net collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. RulerGame.net is a free website supported by advertising. Our ad-free classroom version, RulerGameEDU.net, has its own Privacy Policy.

Our company details and how to contact us are in the Contact section at the end.

Information we store and how long we keep it

Teachers

When you create a teacher account, we store your name, email address, and password. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, not in readable form. We also store the games you create, including their Game Codes, settings, and notes.

If you subscribe to Ruler Game EDU, our payment provider, Stripe, processes your payment and billing information. We do not receive or store your full card number. We store information needed to manage your subscription and access to the Service, such as your Stripe customer and subscription references, subscription status and plan, and the dates through which your paid or grace-period access remains active. Stripe may also process information such as your billing address and tax identification number when needed for payments, invoices, or tax calculation.

We keep your account information while your account remains open. If you don't log in for three years, your account is scheduled for automatic deletion, together with its games and student scores. Before completing account deletion, we confirm that any active subscription has been cancelled, as explained in our Terms of Service. Backup copies and billing records are subject to the retention exceptions explained under Deleting information below.

We count how many times each teacher's games are played each month, to understand how the website is used and to enforce fair use. These counts contain no information about students.

Students

Students don't create accounts. To play a teacher's game, a student enters the Game Code and types a name. For each game played, we store:

• the name the student typed,
• the score,
• which game it was, and when the student started and finished.

We don't ask students for email addresses, passwords, or other contact details. We recommend that students use a first name, initials, or a nickname rather than a full name. Our Help/FAQ page describes more privacy options.

The teacher who created the game can see these names and scores. If the teacher turns on the game's leaderboard, the name and score also appear on that leaderboard to other players of the same game. We use this information only to run the games, leaderboards, and teacher reports.

Classroom score records, including the entered student name, score, and associated game information, are deleted from our active database when the teacher deletes the game or when the teacher's account is deleted. Each classroom score record is also deleted automatically three years after the game was played. This removes the entire classroom score record, not just the student's name. Backup retention is explained under Deleting information below.

Separately, scores are saved without student names or teacher-created game identifiers for site-wide statistics, such as game averages. These statistical records are retained after the corresponding classroom score records are deleted.

In some games, when a student gives a wrong answer, we save a picture of the game screen so the student can review their wrong answers afterwards. The pictures may show the name the student typed. They appear on a review page with a long, random web address that is hidden from search engines. Anyone who has that address can see the page, so students should share it only with their teacher. The pictures are deleted automatically after 14 days.

Emails

We and our service providers may use your email address to send messages about your account and the service, such as password resets, payment receipts, renewal reminders, security notices, and important changes to our Terms of service.

If you write to us, for example through the feedback form in your account area, we keep your message so we can answer it.

Server logs

Like most websites, our server records technical information about each visit: IP address, browser type, date and time, the referring page, and the pages requested. We use these logs to keep the website secure, fix problems, and understand overall traffic. We do not routinely combine these logs with teacher account information or student names. However, logs may contain identifiers that allow a connection to particular accounts or games, and we may examine relevant records together when investigating a technical problem, suspected cheating, or a security incident. We delete these logs after 365 days.

Deleting information

• Teachers can delete their games in the account area. This removes the game and its classroom score records from our active database.
• To close your teacher account, contact us using the details in the Contact section. Your account is shared between RulerGame.net and RulerGameEDU.net, so account closure applies to both websites. Cancel any active subscription first, or ask us to cancel it as part of your closure request.
• Authorized school or district representatives can contact us to request access to, correction, export, or deletion of their school's student information. This includes situations where the teacher who created the account has left the school.
• Parents can ask their child's teacher or contact us directly to request access to, correction, or deletion of their child's information, or to request that further collection or use of that information stop. Please provide the Game Code and the name the child used, if available, so we can locate the relevant records.
• Before disclosing or changing student records, we verify the requester's identity and authority. We may contact the teacher or an authorized school representative to help verify a request. If the original teacher is unavailable, we will work with the requester and school to establish another appropriate means of verification.
• We complete deletion requests within 30 days of receiving them, or sooner where applicable law or a signed school agreement requires. Requests are subject to appropriate verification. The backup and legal-retention exceptions below apply.

Backup copies. The deletion periods above refer to our active systems. Deleted information may remain in backup copies for up to one year before those copies are deleted or overwritten.

Billing records. We retain billing and transaction records for the periods required by applicable accounting and tax laws. These records are not deleted simply because a teacher deletes a game or closes an account.

Cookies and browser storage

RulerGame.net uses these cookies and similar technologies:

• A login cookie for teachers, described below.
• Analytics cookies from Google Analytics help us understand how the site is used. See Google Analytics below.
• Advertising cookies from Raptive and its advertising partners, including Google, are used to show, measure, and personalize ads. See Advertising below.

Teacher account cookie. We use a cookie called ci_session to manage teacher account sessions. It is set when you visit the teacher sign-in page, including before you log in. It is configured as a browser-session cookie rather than a cookie with a fixed expiry date. Your browser may preserve it if you use session restoration. You may need to sign in again after a period of inactivity. If this cookie is already present, your browser may also send it when you visit other pages on the same website.

Session storage. Game pages keep a few things in the open browser tab: a one-time score token that lets us reject faked scores, the game's settings in some games, a reference to the student's wrong-answer pictures, and, if the teacher protected the game with a password, the password the student entered. None of this contains the student's name, and the browser deletes it when the tab is closed.

Local storage. The brain games save the player's personal best in the browser's local storage, so it can be shown on the game-over screen. It stays on that device until the browser's data is cleared.

When a teacher subscribes to Ruler Game EDU, they go to Stripe's own payment pages, which use Stripe's cookies under Stripe's privacy policy.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking cookies may stop some parts of the site from working, such as logging in to the account area. Your browser's help pages explain how to manage cookies.

Advertising

CMI Marketing, Inc., d/b/a Raptive ("Raptive") is a service provider of this Site for the purposes of placing advertising on the Site, and Raptive will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Raptive's data usage, click here: https://raptive.com/creator-advertising-privacy-statement

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use RulerGame.net, such as which pages and games are visited and for how long. Google Analytics sets cookies (such as _ga) that contain a randomly generated identifier, and your browser sends your IP address to Google when a page loads. We use the reports to improve the site.

You can stop Google Analytics from collecting data about your visits with the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

How we use and share information

We use the information described above for these purposes, and on these legal bases under the GDPR:

• to provide teacher accounts, games, reports, and subscriptions (our contract with the teacher);
• to run the games, leaderboards, and wrong-answer reviews that teachers use with their classes (our legitimate interest in providing the classroom tool the teacher chose);
• to keep the website secure, prevent cheating and abuse, and enforce fair use (legitimate interests);
• to keep payment records as accounting law requires (legal obligation);
• to show and measure advertising, and to understand how the site is used with Google Analytics (your consent, where the law requires it).

We don't sell the information in teacher accounts or students' names and scores. We use the following service providers to operate the website: KnownHost for hosting; Stripe for payments; Google for analytics; and Raptive and its partners for advertising, as described above. We may also disclose information when the law requires it. Our server is located in the United States. KnownHost and Stripe are certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

Children's information

Children may play our games, including class games set up by their teachers. Students don't create accounts. Apart from the server logs described above, the only information we store about students is what's listed under Students: the name they typed, their scores, and in some games, pictures of wrong answers. Ads and Google Analytics also run on these pages, as described above.

Parents and authorized school representatives who want student information reviewed, corrected, exported, or deleted, or who want further collection or use stopped, can follow the steps under Deleting information above.

Your rights

• Access. You can ask for a copy of the personal information we have about you.
• Correct. You can ask us to correct or update your personal information.
• Delete. You can ask us to delete your personal information.
• Limit or object. You can ask us to limit or stop using your information, or to give it to you in a machine-readable format.

To make a request, contact us using the details below. We may need to keep certain information for recordkeeping, to complete transactions, or when the law requires it.

You can also complain to a data protection authority.

Sensitive personal information

Please don't send us sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers or information about health, race or ethnic origin, religion, political opinions, criminal background, or union membership. If you do, it will be handled under this Privacy Policy.

Contact

RulerGame.net and RulerGameEDU.net are run by HL Publishing Ltd., business ID 2108060-1, Satakunnankatu 11 LTH 1, 33100 Tampere, Finland. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy.

Email: webmaster@rulergame.net

Telephone: