Privacy

What students provide

When a student joins a class, the game stores:

• A username, chosen from a short list of generated names that pair a historical figure with a title and a number (like GilgameshTheBold7). There is no way to type in a name.
• A password the game generates (like rocketpenguin91). It's stored so their teacher can look it up if the student forgets it.
• The class code they joined.
• Game progress: cards and decks, map and battle progress, in-game gold, and settings such as sound and music.
• Learning-check totals: how many questions they've answered and how many they got right. Individual answers aren't saved.
• Time played in total, and when the account was created and last played.

Gameplay data

To see how the game is played and fix what's confusing or too hard, the game records play data for everyone, including guests: when a battle starts and ends, the cards played, scores and who won, the difficulty, how long turns take, which tutorial and sign-up steps are reached, and the device's time-zone setting. Each record carries a random account ID, not a name. Teachers don't see this data.

What we never collect

• Student email addresses.
• Student real names. Usernames are generated, and there's no place in the game to type one.
• Location. The only related setting the game reads is the device's time zone.
• Contacts, photos, camera or microphone.
• Advertising or tracking data. There are no ads, no advertising or tracking cookies, and no third-party analytics, and we never sell or share data for marketing.

What teachers provide

• An email address, used to sign in, verify the account and reset a forgotten password.
• A display name, from your Google profile or typed in. Students see it when they join your class.
• Class names and the class codes the game makes for them.
• Confirmation that you're an adult (18+). Teacher accounts are for adults only.
• If you arrived from a tagged link (for example, in a newsletter), which one.

If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with our sign-in service (Firebase Authentication). The game uses your name and email; it doesn't use the picture. Your own game progress is saved to your account, just like a student's.

Guest play

Anyone can play without an account. Guest progress is saved only in that browser on that device, so clearing browser data or switching devices starts over. The game gives each guest a random ID so the gameplay data above can be recorded; nothing else about guests is stored on our servers.

Who can see student data

• The student, when signed in.
• Their teacher: username, password, furthest progress, learning-check totals, time played and the date they last played. Once a student joins a class, they can't move to another teacher's class.
• No one else in the game. Other students and other teachers can't see it.
• The game's developer can access stored data to run, fix and improve the game.

Where data is stored

Progress, class and gameplay data are stored in Google Cloud's us-west2 region (Los Angeles, California, USA), using Google Firebase. Sign-in is handled by Firebase Authentication, also a Google service.

How long we keep it

Student data is kept until the teacher asks us to delete the class or a student's account. Guest progress stays in the browser until its site data is cleared.

Services that run the game

• Google Firebase stores accounts, progress and gameplay data, and handles sign-in.
• GitHub Pages hosts the website.
• Google Fonts and cdnjs (Cloudflare) deliver the game's fonts and code libraries.

Like any website, these services see a device's IP address when they deliver it files. The in-game Feedback button opens a Google Form; anything typed there goes to Google Forms, and the form isn't connected to a player's account.

Browser storage and cookies

The game saves progress and keeps players signed in using the browser's own storage on that device. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies. Google's sign-in window may use Google's own cookies.

Deleting data

Email hello@playshouldersofgiants.com with the student usernames (or the teacher's sign-in email) to delete, and we'll delete those accounts and their saved progress. Teachers can also turn off a class code in their dashboard so no new students can join with it. Guests can erase their progress by clearing this site's data in their browser.

Students under 13 and schools

Shoulders of Giants is made for middle school classrooms, so many players are under 13. That's why students never give personal information: no email address and no real name. Teacher accounts are for adults (18+).

Schools or districts that need a student data privacy agreement can contact hello@playshouldersofgiants.com.

Changes and questions

If this changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. Questions: hello@playshouldersofgiants.com.