Privacy

Daybreak Crossword is a daily crossword on daybreakcrossword.com and in the Daybreak iPhone app, run by Premium Digital LLC ("we"). This page says what we keep about you, why, who helps us run it, how long we keep it and how to delete it. The short version: you can play without an account, we keep what the game needs, we don't show ads, we don't use advertising trackers or tracking cookies, and we never sell or share your information for advertising.

Who runs Daybreak Crossword

Premium Digital LLC, 1521 Concord Pike, Ste 301 #268, Wilmington, DE 19803, United States. Email hello@daybreakcrossword.com about anything on this page.

This page covers the website, the iPhone app and our emails. Most players are in the United States, but not all, and we follow the privacy and email rules that apply where you live. Reading this page doesn't sign you up for anything.

What we keep

• Without an account. Your puzzles in progress stay on your device. The site and app also make a random player id for the device, so your solves can count if you sign in within 30 days.
• Your account. Your email address. You sign in with a 6-digit code we email you; we keep only a scrambled copy of the code, for 10 minutes. In the app you can sign in with Apple instead: we keep the id Apple gives us for you, the email Apple shares (which can be a private relay address), and a token that lets us end the Apple sign-in when you delete your account. On the site, a cookie keeps you signed in. In the app, the sign-in is kept in your iPhone's Keychain.
• Your solves. For each puzzle you finish: the time, which helps you used, and when you typed each square's first letter (so we can tell a real solve from a pasted one). This is what streaks, best times, group boards and leagues are made from.
• Groups and leagues. Group names, the name you use in each group, and the name you use in leagues. Other members of your groups see your group name and times; other players in your league see your league name, tier and times. Nobody else sees your email.
• Duels. The name you use in duels, a random public player id, and for each duel: who played, the clue levels, scores, wrong answers, how it ended, when, and any rating change. We also keep which duel puzzles you've had, so you don't get one twice, and your rating, ranked record, streaks and weekly wins. With an account, your duel record is tied to a scrambled form of your account, never your email; your typical Mini time (from your solves) helps pair you with a close opponent. Without an account, it's tied to the device's random player id.
• How the game is used. Small notes about what happens on a page: a visit and where it came from, opening a puzzle, typing the first letter, using a help, finishing, sharing, leaving partway. Each note has the device's random player id, whether it's the iPhone app, a phone or a computer, and, once you're signed in, your account. We don't keep your IP address, browser details or the letters you type in these notes. We use them to make the puzzles and the site better.
• Page views on the website. The public pages (Today, the puzzles, Past puzzles, Plus, About and this page) use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits: the page, the site that linked to it, the country, and the kind of browser and device. It uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and doesn't follow you to other sites. Your own pages, groups and invites don't use it, and the iPhone app doesn't use it at all.
• Technical information. Like any website, our hosting receives your IP address and browser details with each request, to deliver pages, find errors and stop abuse. We don't add them to your account. To limit abuse of sign-in codes, group codes and reports, we keep a scrambled form of your network address for a short time.
• Reports and messages. What you write in "Report a problem" or send us by email, an email address if you leave one, and the puzzle it's about. Please don't send passwords, sign-in codes or sensitive health or financial details.
• Plus. Whether you have Plus, which plan, and when it renews or ends. We never see your card details: Stripe handles payment on the website and Apple handles it in the app.
• Email. If you ask for the daily puzzles by email, the exact wording you agreed to and when.

What other duel players see

• In a duel. Your opponent sees your duel name, the squares you claim, your wrong answers and which clue you're on, as they happen.
• Ranked. Ranked players have a public profile page: duel name, rating, medal, ranked record, streaks and recent ranked games, with opponents' duel names. After five ranked games you're on the public rating board; ranked wins also put you on the weekly board. Anyone with the link can see these pages.
• Friend duels are never public. Your record against each friend is shown only to you.
• Bots. If nobody is free for a ranked game, you may play a bot. It's always labeled "(bot)". A game against it moves your rating half as much as a game against a person and counts in your record, but never on the weekly board.

Duels don't count toward your streak, groups or leagues, and nobody in a duel sees your email.

If you allow notifications in the app and are signed in, we keep a token from Apple for your phone, its time zone (so group alerts stay out of the night) and which alerts you want, and we note which alerts went out. Then we can tell you when someone in your group finishes or joins, or someone joins a duel you started. The alert, with names and times, goes through Apple. Turn alerts off on the Me tab or in your iPhone's Settings. The token goes when you sign out or delete your account.

We don't ask for your real name, birth date, location, contacts or photos. Your country may be worked out roughly from your network address for page-view counts; nothing more precise.

What we get from others

• Apple and Stripe tell us whether a Plus purchase went through, renewed or ended. Not your card details.
• Apple, if you sign in with Apple: an id for you and the email you chose to share. Not your Apple Account password.
• Invite and challenge links tell us which group or friend's link brought you, so you land in the right group.

We don't buy email lists or get sign-ups from partner sites. If you think someone signed you up without asking you, tell us and we'll remove it.

Why we use it

• To run the game: puzzles, your progress, streaks, groups, leagues, duels, sign-in and Plus.
• To send the emails you ask for, and keep a record of what you agreed to and when you unsubscribed.
• To answer your messages and reports, and fix puzzles.
• To understand how the game is used and make it better.
• To keep the game safe: stopping cheating, spam and abuse.
• To follow the law, settle disputes and protect our rights.

Where the law asks for a reason (a "legal basis"), it's one of these: running the game you asked to play, your consent (for example the daily email, which you can withdraw at any time), our legitimate interest in keeping the game working, safe and improving (never in place of consent the law requires), or a legal duty. If we ever want to use your information in a new way, we'll tell you first and ask where the law requires.

Cookies and storage on your device

• Sign-in cookie. On the website, one cookie keeps you signed in, for up to a year or until you sign out. Page scripts can't read it.
• Browser storage. Your puzzles in progress, your random player id and your settings, such as clue level. In the app these are kept on your iPhone.

We use no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, so there's nothing to accept or turn off. You can clear this site's data in your browser at any time. That signs you out and removes progress kept on the device, but not what we already have on our side (see "Your choices" below).

Who helps us run it

• Cloudflare hosts the site, stores the data above and counts page views on the website.
• Loops sends our emails (your sign-in codes, and the daily email if you ask for it).
• Stripe takes payment for Plus on the website.
• Apple takes payment for Plus in the app. We ask Apple about a purchase to switch Plus on. If you sign in with Apple, Apple confirms who you are, and we tell Apple when you delete your account. Apple also delivers the app's notifications.
• Google shows us search totals for the site (Search Console): which searches find us and how often. It gets nothing about players from us.
• Anthropic and OpenAI help us write and check puzzles and clues. Nothing about players is sent to them.

They use your information only to provide their service to us, under confidentiality and security terms. Your information is stored and processed in the United States and other countries where they work, where privacy laws may differ from yours. Where the law requires safeguards for that, we rely on recognized ones, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

We don't share your email address with our other games or newsletters, and a Daybreak Crossword account or email doesn't sign you up for anything else. We don't share your information with anyone else, except where the law requires it, to protect people or the game from harm (for example fraud or a security problem), or as part of selling or merging the business; we'll tell you where the law requires, including if different privacy rules would then apply. We may share totals that can't identify anyone, such as how many people solved today's Mini. Links to other websites take you to their own privacy rules.

Email

Sign-in codes are sent only when you ask for one. The daily email is sent only if you ask for it, and every one has an unsubscribe link. Our emails may count whether they were delivered, opened and which links were clicked, so we know what's useful; your email app's privacy settings can block the open count. Unsubscribing stops the daily email within 10 business days at most (usually at once), costs nothing and needs no account; we keep a record that you unsubscribed so we don't send it again. Unsubscribing stops the email; it doesn't delete your account (see "Your choices").

Advertising and selling

We don't show ads, we don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for advertising based on what you do on other sites. Because of that, Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals have nothing more to switch off here, but we honor them if we ever change. If we ever add ads or anything like them, we'll update this page and ask first where the law requires.

How long we keep it

We keep your account, solves, groups, duels and Plus record while you have an account. Duels played without an account are kept as long as they help ratings, boards and pairing; ask us and we'll delete them. Sign-in codes last 10 minutes. The scrambled network addresses used against abuse are kept for a short time. Usage notes and reports are kept as long as they help us improve the game and handle problems. Payment records stay with Stripe or Apple as the law requires. Backups and legal duties can delay a deletion for a short time. When we no longer need something, we delete it or keep it only in a form that can't identify you.

Your choices

• Delete your account. From Me on the site or in the app: "Delete my account". That removes your account, email, solves, streaks, group places and league places, and your duel name, rating, profile and board places. Duels you played stay in your opponents' history, shown as "Deleted player". Usage notes and reports stay only as anonymous counts, without your account or email. A Plus bought on the website stops at once; a Plus bought in the app is billed by Apple, so cancel it in your iPhone's Settings too.
• Stop the daily email. Use the unsubscribe link in any email.
• Your names and groups. You can change your league name and your duel name in the game, and leave a group at any time.
• Ask us. Email hello@daybreakcrossword.com to see what we keep about you, get a copy, correct it or delete it. You don't need an account to ask.

Depending on where you live, privacy laws may give you more rights. They include the EU and UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA) and other US state privacy laws, Canada's PIPEDA and Quebec's Law 25, Brazil's LGPD, Switzerland's FADP and South Africa's POPIA. Those rights can include: knowing what we collect, where it came from, why and who receives it; withdrawing consent; limiting or objecting to how we use your information; and opting out of its sale or use for targeted ads (we do neither). Which ones apply depends on the law where you live.

Someone you authorize can ask for you, with proof that you did. We may need to check it's really you, usually by email, before we share or delete anything; please don't send identity documents unless we ask and say why. Unsubscribing never needs this. Requests are free. We answer within the time the law allows (for California residents, usually within 45 days) and tell you if we need longer or can't do something, and why. We never treat you differently for asking.

If you disagree with our answer, reply with "Privacy appeal" and we'll look again. You can also complain to a regulator: in the EU, your country's data protection authority; in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office; in the US, your state's attorney general or privacy regulator.

Keeping it safe

Connections to the site and app are encrypted, sign-in codes are stored scrambled, and only we can open the tools that read the data, and the companies that help us must keep it safe too. No website can promise perfect security, so tell us if you think something is wrong. If your information is ever exposed, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Children

Daybreak Crossword isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly keep information about them. If you think a child has made an account, tell us and we'll delete it.

Changes to this page

When our practices change, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters, we'll say so on the site, and ask first where the law requires.

Contact us

For a question, a privacy request, an appeal, or to report an email you didn't sign up for: email hello@daybreakcrossword.com, or write to Premium Digital LLC (Daybreak Crossword), 1521 Concord Pike, Ste 301 #268, Wilmington, DE 19803, United States.