Privacy

Last updated 30 September 2026

No account, no email address, no ads and no tracking cookies. Nothing about you is sold or shared for advertising.

Who is responsible

Etymo is run by Sybren, who lives in the Netherlands and is responsible for the data described here. Write to contact@etymo.net with any question or request.

Your game

The first time you play, Etymo's server creates an anonymous player: a random ID with no name, email address or other detail attached. Your games are stored with it: the days you played, the answers you locked in, the clues you used, your scores and when you played. This is what keeps your progress, streak and Journal, so it is needed to provide the game you ask for.

• Cookie __Host-etymogg: a random token that links this browser to your anonymous player. It lasts one year and is renewed when you visit. The server stores only a one-way hash of it. It is strictly necessary for the game, so Etymo asks no consent for it.
• Cookie __Host-etymogg-move-checked: browsers that first opened Etymo between 22 and 29 September 2026 may still hold it. It contains only the value 1 and no identifier. Etymo no longer uses it and deletes it the next time you play.
• Local storage in your browser: a copy of your games and of any move not yet sent, so the game keeps working on a slow connection. Your light or dark theme choice is also saved here, under etymo-theme, so it applies across the site on this device. Until you use the Light mode switch, the theme follows your device setting. The theme choice is not sent to the server. Clearing this site's data removes it.

Game records are kept for as long as Etymo runs, so that your Journal and streak keep working. Because your player is anonymous, Etymo cannot tell which games are yours from a name or email address. To have your progress deleted or sent to you, save your backup file (Journal, Save backup file) and send it to contact@etymo.net. Clearing this site's data disconnects your browser from your progress.

Statistics

Etymo counts visits with Umami, running on Etymo's own server. It uses no cookies and no local storage. For each visit it records the page (the front page, or the address of a page in the word archive, such as /words/metropolis; for an address the archive does not have, only that it was missing), the site you came from, your country, your browser, operating system, device type, screen size and language. It also counts these moments: starting or finishing a day (with the day's score rounded to a range of 1,000), opening Share, sharing, and opening the Rules or the Journal; and in the word archive, following a link to another word, to a source or to today's words.

It never records the words you play, your answers or your player ID (a word archive page's address names only the word on that page). Your IP address is used only for a moment, to tell visits apart with a code that changes every day, and is not stored. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, nothing is sent at all. Statistics are kept for 25 months. Etymo keeps them to learn how people find and play the game, which is a legitimate interest; you can object at any time by turning on Global Privacy Control.

Server logs

The web server records the time, the page asked for and whether it worked. It does not record your IP address or your browser. Old entries are overwritten automatically as new ones come in.

Backups

The game database is backed up, encrypted, so it can be restored after a failure. Backups contain the same anonymous game records.

Email

If you write to contact@etymo.net, Cloudflare forwards the message to the operator's inbox. It is kept for as long as needed to answer you.

Service providers

• OVHcloud hosts Etymo's server in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Cloudflare delivers and protects the site and forwards email. To do so it handles your IP address and the requests your browser makes. Cloudflare may process data outside the European Union under the EU's standard contractual clauses.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your data, for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to its use, by writing to contact@etymo.net. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

Changes

If this page changes, the date at the top changes with it.