Privacy Policy

Data controller

The data controller is Gabriel Maire.

Contact: [email protected]

Website: parisguessr.net

Data collected

ParisGuessr may collect and process the following data:

• Account email address.
• Display name.
• Password hash. The raw password is never stored.
• Email verification token and verification status.
• Password reset token metadata, including token hash, creation date, expiry date, and usage date.
• Game guesses, scores, distances, daily round information, and dates of participation.
• Anonymous session identifier for users who play without logging in.
• Submitted photos.
• Photo coordinates.
• Optional address or location hint for submitted photos.
• Optional photographer name and photographer/social link.
• Optional submitter email for photo submissions.
• Technical logs needed for hosting, debugging, abuse prevention, and security.
• Aggregated traffic and analytics information provided by Cloudflare.

Purposes of processing

The data is used to:

• Create and manage user accounts.
• Authenticate users.
• Verify email addresses.
• Send password reset emails.
• Run the daily ParisGuessr game.
• Record guesses and calculate scores.
• Display daily and all-time leaderboards.
• Allow users to submit photos for future rounds.
• Moderate submitted photos.
• Prevent abuse, cheating, spam, and unauthorized access.
• Debug errors and maintain the website.
• Measure basic website traffic and performance through Cloudflare analytics.

Legal bases

Depending on the context, processing may rely on:

• Performance of a service requested by the user, for account creation, login, gameplay, score calculation, and leaderboard participation.
• User consent or voluntary submission, for submitted photos, optional attribution, optional social links, and optional submitter email.
• Legitimate interest, for security, abuse prevention, debugging, maintenance, service improvement, and protection of the integrity of the game.
• Legal obligation, where applicable.

Password security

ParisGuessr does not store raw passwords. Passwords are transformed into secure password hashes before being saved in the database.

During login, the password entered by the user is compared with the stored hash. The original password cannot be read back from the database.

Password reset links use temporary tokens. The raw reset token is sent to the user by email, while only a hashed version of the token is stored in the database. Reset tokens expire and are invalidated after use.

Technical service providers

ParisGuessr relies on the following third-party technical providers:

• Railway: application hosting, PostgreSQL database hosting, deployment infrastructure, and technical logs. The application and database are hosted in Railway’s EU West region.
• Cloudflare: domain name management, DNS, proxy/CDN features, traffic protection, and analytics for parisguessr.net.
• Cloudinary: storage, transformation, optimization, and delivery of uploaded images.
• Resend: transactional email delivery, including account verification and password reset messages.

These providers may process technical data necessary to provide their services, such as request metadata, IP addresses, email delivery metadata, uploaded image data, hosting logs, and security logs.

ParisGuessr does not sell user data.

Cloudflare analytics and proxy

The domain parisguessr.net uses Cloudflare in proxied mode. In proxied mode, DNS requests return Cloudflare IP addresses instead of the origin server address, and visitor traffic passes through Cloudflare before reaching the application.

ParisGuessr also uses Cloudflare analytics to understand basic traffic and performance. According to Cloudflare’s documentation, Cloudflare Web Analytics does not collect or use visitors’ personal data.

Data transfers

Some technical providers used by ParisGuessr may be located outside the European Union or may rely on infrastructure or subprocessors outside the European Union.

Where applicable, these providers are expected to use contractual and technical safeguards described in their own legal documents, privacy policies, data processing agreements, and subprocessor documentation.

Retention periods

Data is kept only as long as necessary for the purposes described above.

• Account data is kept until the account is deleted or the user requests deletion.
• Game guesses and scores may be kept to maintain game history and leaderboards.
• Anonymous session identifiers are kept as long as needed for gameplay continuity.
• Submitted photos may be kept until moderation, deletion, replacement, or removal request.
• Rejected photos may be deleted or kept temporarily for moderation traceability.
• Password reset tokens expire after a short period and are invalidated after use.
• Technical logs are kept for a limited period for security, debugging, and hosting operation.
• Aggregated analytics data may be kept according to Cloudflare’s analytics retention settings.

Cookies and sessions

ParisGuessr uses technical cookies or equivalent session mechanisms needed for authentication, login status, anonymous gameplay continuity, and security.

These technical cookies are necessary for the operation of the website.

ParisGuessr does not currently use advertising cookies.

ParisGuessr uses Cloudflare analytics. If additional analytics, advertising, or non-essential tracking tools are added later, this policy will be updated and a consent mechanism may be implemented where required.

User rights

Users may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, or objection regarding their personal data, subject to applicable legal conditions.

To exercise these rights, contact: [email protected]

Users also have the right to lodge a complaint with the CNIL.

Security measures

ParisGuessr uses technical and organizational security measures appropriate for a small educational project, including:

• password hashing instead of raw password storage;
• email verification for new accounts;
• temporary password reset tokens;
• hashed password reset tokens in the database;
• parameterized database queries to reduce SQL injection risk;
• server-side validation of form inputs;
• file extension and upload size checks for submitted photos;
• admin-only access control for moderation pages;
• HTTPS, proxy, and traffic protection features provided through Cloudflare and the hosting configuration.

Contact

For questions about this Privacy Policy or personal data processing, contact: [email protected]