Palettle privacy
Last updated 24 October 2026
Palettle is a daily color-guessing game. You can play without an account. This page says what the site stores, why, for how long, and how to have it deleted.
In short: we don't store your IP address, signing in is optional, and anything kept on our server is tied to a random player id or to your account, and not to your device.
On your device
- Your settings and your results, kept in this browser's local storage. Each finished print is also sent to us, as described below.
- A random player id, made up by your browser. It goes with your results so that each daily print counts once. Nobody sees it.
- When you sign in: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, and a short-lived cookie (10 minutes) used during sign-in. The game needs both.
Clearing this site's data in your browser removes all of these. Results already sent to us stay on our server (see below).
Guests
You don't need an account. On your first print you can pick a display name, or keep the default (for example "Player 1234"). The name is stored on our server with your player id, and the leaderboard shows it as "Name (Guest)".
Accounts (optional, Google sign-in)
If you sign in with Google, we store:
- your Google account id (the stable number Google gives each account; we don't use your email to tell accounts apart),
- your email address, used to recognise the site's admin and to answer deletion requests,
- your display name, which you can change (the default is "Player 1234"),
- the link to your Google profile picture. Google hosts the picture; we refresh the link each time you sign in, and it shows in the header and on the leaderboard.
We don't keep your real name, and we don't store a password.
Sessions. Your browser holds a random session id. We keep only a fingerprint of it. A session ends after 30 days without use, or 90 days after you signed in, whichever comes first. Signing out ends it at once.
Your results
For each print you finish, we store:
- the picture, the mode (daily, practice or unlimited), the day, and the shutter speed you played at,
- your score, whether you named the picture, how far you got, and how long you took,
- your wrong guesses, and any guesses that matched no name at all (up to 10 per print, so we can add them as aliases),
- a flag when the score doesn't match the game's own check (such results are left off the leaderboard),
- the site you played on, and your account if you were signed in,
- a rough location from Cloudflare, which hosts the site: your country, your region (state or province) and your continent.
We never store your IP address. Cloudflare looks up the rough location from your connection, and that is all we keep.
Results are used for the daily leaderboard, the picture stats (how hard each picture is, and where players are), the count of players on the site right now, and your own progress.
Reports and picture suggestions
Reports. If you report a problem with a picture, we store the picture, the reason you chose, the note you wrote (optional, up to 500 characters), the mode and day, your player id, your country and the site.
Suggestions. If you suggest a picture on the submit page, we store what you entered: the name, category, difficulty, the source and picture links, any note, the name you gave (optional), your player id, your country and the site. The people who review pictures can see these and record their own edits (who changed a row and when). A suggestion that is approved is added to the game by hand.
Playing now and spam limits
Playing now. While a game page is open, it checks in about once a minute with your player id (or account) and your country, so the count of players is right. Only the count is shown. A check-in counts for two minutes; older ones are cleared now and then.
Spam limits. To stop floods, we count requests per player and per connection, per hour. The connection is a hash of your IP address mixed with a random salt that changes every day. The address is used only to make that hash and is never stored. The hash can't be turned back into an address, and the salt is deleted the next day. Old counts are cleared now and then, after about two hours.
How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Settings and results on your device | Until you clear your browser's data for this site. |
| Sign-in session | 30 days without use, or 90 days after signing in, whichever is first. Ends at sign-out. |
| Results (picture, score, guesses, day, country, continent) | Kept. Only the player id and region are removed, after 13 months (the country and continent stay). |
| Account (Google id, email, name, picture link) | Until the account is deleted. |
| Guest name | Until you change it or ask for it to be deleted. |
| Report | An open report is kept as it is. Once it is closed, its note and player id are removed a year after it was sent. |
| Picture suggestion | Kept until it is removed on request. |
| Playing-now check-ins | Only the last two minutes count. Older ones are cleared now and then. |
| Spam-limit counts and daily salts | Counts about two hours, then cleared now and then. Salts are deleted the next day. |
Getting your data deleted
To have data on our server deleted, email ryan.nicholasp17@gmail.com and say which data you mean: your account, your guest name, your results or a report. Deleting an account removes the account and its sign-in, and unlinks its results, which then stay anonymous.
Clearing this site's data in your browser removes what is kept on your device.
If you own a picture that we use, or a picture shows you, and you want it removed, email ryan.nicholasp17@gmail.com.
Why we keep this, and who else is involved
We keep results and accounts to run the game and its leaderboard. We also use results in aggregate to show how hard each picture is.
The site is hosted by Cloudflare Pages, with its database on Cloudflare D1. Pictures are served from a separate Cloudflare Pages site. The page loads its font from Google Fonts, and signing in goes through Google.