Privacy Policy
The short version: Find the Nerd does not ask you to create an account, and we do not sell or share your information. The website keeps ordinary server logs, the game keeps your progress on your own device, and if you email us to be a tester we keep that email until testing ends. Posting a score to a leaderboard is optional and shows only the name you type. The game shows an ad only when you choose to watch one for a reward, and those ads come from Google AdMob under Google's rules. The anonymous play statistics that help us tune the game have an off switch in Settings.
Who we are
Find the Nerd is published by Space Nerd Studios, a d/b/a of Space Nerd Labs LLC. You can reach us at alf@findthenerd.com about anything on this page, including a request to delete information we hold about you.
The website
findthenerd.com is a static website. It sets no cookies and runs no third party analytics, advertising, or tracking scripts.
Like nearly every web server, ours records a log entry for each request: Your IP address, the time, the page or file requested, the response status, the amount of data sent, and your browser's user agent string. These logs are used to keep the site working and to see roughly how many people visit. They are rotated and deleted automatically over time and are not combined with anything else to identify you.
The game's home page reads the public leaderboard files described below to show recent scores. That is a request to our own server, logged like any other, and involves no third party.
The browser prototypes store your best score in your browser's local storage. That value stays on your device, is never transmitted to us, and disappears if you clear your browser data.
The tester area
Pre-release builds are kept behind a password. When you sign in, the server records the username used along with the normal log entry described above, so we can see how many testers downloaded a given build.
If you ask to be a tester
Requesting a tester invitation means emailing us. We keep your email address, your name if you give it, and whatever you write to us, and we use it only to run the test: Sending you builds, asking follow up questions, and telling you when the game launches. We do not add you to a marketing list, and we do not pass your address to anyone else. Ask us and we will delete it.
Distribution through Google Play closed testing is handled by Google under Google's own privacy policy, and Google shows us aggregate statistics rather than your personal details.
The game itself
The game does not require an account, a login, or a profile. Your progress, scores, and settings are stored on your device. Uninstalling the game removes them.
Four features send small amounts of data off your device: Leaderboards, rewarded ads, anonymous play statistics, and crash reports. None of them include your name (unless you type one on a leaderboard), your location, your contacts, or anything else personal. Where a device identifier is needed to prevent duplicates or abuse, the game sends a scrambled (hashed) code that we cannot turn back into your device.
Leaderboards
Posting a score is optional: The game asks for a display name before it submits anything, and a score is never posted without that step. A submission contains the name you typed, your score, how far you got, the mode and difficulty, the scrambled device code, and the time. The device code keeps one entry per device on each board and lets a better score replace your earlier one. It appears in the public board file as that scrambled value, which cannot be turned back into your device.
Leaderboards are public. The boards for the Daily Mission, the campaign and the Infinite Initiative are published as plain files on this website, the game reads them, and the game's home page shows the top entries, so anyone can see the name and score you post. Choose a name you are happy to have seen. Inside the game, open ranks are filled with placeholder rows marked as crew, which are not real players. Submissions are rate limited per device. Email us to have an entry removed.
Rewarded ads
The game never shows a forced ad. It offers a short video ad only at moments where watching one earns something in the game, such as the rescue transmission that continues a run after the clock runs out, and you can always decline. When you choose to watch one, the ad is served by Google AdMob. Google receives the information its advertising service needs to deliver and count the ad, such as your device's advertising identifier, its IP address, and basic device details, and handles it under Google's privacy policy and Google's advertising terms. We receive counts, never who watched. You can reset or delete your advertising identifier, and opt out of ad personalization, in your device's Google settings.
The game has no in-app purchases and asks for no payment information.
The web edition
The web edition runs in your browser. Your progress and settings are kept in the browser's own storage, and clearing your browser data removes them. The web edition never posts to or reads the leaderboards, and it sends no play statistics or crash reports. When it is played on the private tester site, nothing leaves your browser beyond the ordinary server log described above.
When the web edition is played on a games portal such as CrazyGames, that portal serves the rewarded ads and may keep your saves against your portal account, under the portal's own privacy policy. Everything the portal collects is between you and the portal; we receive counts, never who played.
Anonymous play statistics
To tune difficulty and find levels that are too hard or too easy, the game reports which level was played, the mode and difficulty, whether it was found in time, how much time was left, and how many wrong taps happened, along with the game version and the scrambled device code. Raw reports are deleted within about a month; only combined statistics, such as the average clear time of a level, are kept.
You can turn this off any time in Settings > Privacy, and the game respects the switch immediately.
Crash reports
If the game shuts down uncleanly, the next launch sends the last lines of the game's own technical log, the game version, the device model, and the scrambled device code, so we can fix the bug. The log lines describe what the game was doing; they do not contain personal information. The same switch in Settings > Privacy turns this off too.
The Google Play listing's Data safety section reflects the same collection described here: Optional leaderboard names, the scrambled device code, anonymous play statistics, crash reports, and the advertising data Google collects for rewarded ads.
Children
Find the Nerd is a family friendly puzzle game, but it is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email us and we will delete it. A separate kids edition is planned; it will have its own section here before it ships.
Your choices
- Ask what we hold about you, and ask us to delete it, by emailing us.
- Turn off anonymous play statistics and crash reports in Settings > Privacy.
- Skip the leaderboard prompt: Scores are never posted without you choosing a name.
- Email us to remove a leaderboard entry you posted.
- Decline any rewarded ad: Nothing in the game requires watching one.
- Reset or delete your advertising identifier, and opt out of ad personalization, in your device's Google settings.
- Clear your browser data to remove locally stored prototype scores.
- Uninstall the game to remove locally stored progress.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what we collect or how we use it, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, note it on the game's home page.