Privacy & Cookies

How Blitzcade handles data. Last updated: 5 September 2026.

Who we are

Blitzcade, an independent UK arcade publisher, operates this browser-games site. For the purposes of UK GDPR, Blitzcade is the data controller for the limited information described below. You can reach us at privacy@blitzcade.com.

What we deliberately do not collect

• No IP addresses in our analytics. Visit statistics never record or store your IP address.
• No browser fingerprints or User-Agent strings. We do not store the raw description your browser sends about itself.
• No real-name, age, location, contacts-list or behavioural-profile fields. Optional leaderboard accounts use an email address and public display name, and optional name reports are handled as described below.
• No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies (see Advertising — advertising is currently switched off).
• No optional measurement before you opt in. Our own usage statistics and Google Analytics share the same analytics consent choice. Until you accept, no usage events are sent, no analytics session identifier is created, and the Google tag is not requested. See Google Analytics for the events sent after consent. Nothing is sent to Facebook or any similar service at all. A gameplay demonstration only loads if you ask for it and confirm at that point.

Optional usage statistics

So we know which games people enjoy and whether anything is broken, with your analytics consent the site records limited activity on our own server. This is what a single record can contain:

• Which page or game was opened, and events such as a game starting or ending (with the score for that run).
• A random session id — 32 random characters generated in your browser and kept in localStorage under arcade.analytics.session. It is not derived from your device or identity. It expires after 30 minutes without activity or eight hours in total, and a later measured visit starts a new session. New usage records from 5 September 2026 are not linked to leaderboard accounts. Clearing browser storage or withdrawing consent removes this identifier. The updated tracker deletes the former persistent arcade.sid identifier.
• The referring website's host name only — for example google.com or reddit.com. The full address of the page you came from is discarded and never stored.
• Short campaign labels from links we publish — utm_source, utm_campaign and utm_content for our own reports. Google Analytics can also receive utm_medium. Labels are limited to lower-case letters, numbers, dots, underscores and hyphens, with a strict length limit. Other query parameters and URL fragments are excluded from measurement. These labels help us count which Blitzcade post led to a game start.
• A device class — one of mobile, tablet or desktop. Nothing more specific.
• The time the event happened.

Both our own usage statistics and Google Analytics require your analytics consent. Rejecting or withdrawing consent stops both systems and clears the local analytics session and campaign labels. Gameplay, saved progress, sign-in and score sharing still work. Accepting during a game starts a fresh measured segment; earlier play is not counted. Paused or hidden gameplay does not add to active play time. These changes apply to new records from 5 September 2026; earlier records are not retroactively changed.

Do Not Track

If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, the arcade sends no usage events to either measurement system and does not load Google Analytics. The same exclusions apply to browsers using our opt-out link, verified administrator sessions and configured internal IP addresses. The server checks an address transiently for exclusion; it is not written to usage records. If we cannot confirm that measurement is permitted, both systems stay off.

Things stored on your device

The arcade uses your browser's localStorage. Most of this data stays on your device; an optional analytics session id accompanies permitted first-party usage events, and a signed-in player's saved best scores may be synchronised to their leaderboard account. It holds things such as:

• Your best score for each game (keys like arcade.breaker.best).
• Saved progress for the longer games, for example an in-progress Sudoku grid.
• Settings such as whether sound is muted (arcade.muted) and the display name you last used for a two-player room.
• The random analytics session id described above (arcade.analytics.session), created only after analytics consent and used for new first-party usage records without an account link.
• Your consent choice (arcade.consent), also mirrored in the arcade_consent cookie so the server can respect it. This essential preference records your choice and its date, without an analytics identifier.
• If you are signed in, a marker that a session exists (arcade.session).

You can wipe all of it at any time by clearing site data for this site in your browser settings. Doing so resets your local high scores and also forgets your cookie choice, so the banner will ask you again.

After analytics consent, safe source, medium, campaign and content labels from our links may be held in sessionStorage under arcade.campaign. This connects a landing on the arcade with the game opened next. The raw address is never kept. Labels stop being used after 30 minutes without measured activity and are cleared on a new analytics session, when consent is withdrawn, or when the tab closes.

The arcade also installs a service worker and an offline cache so the games keep working without a connection and can be added to a phone home screen. The cache holds only the game files themselves — no personal data.

Optional accounts

Accounts are entirely optional. You only need one if you want your scores to appear on the global leaderboards.

• What we ask for: an email address. That is it. To confirm it is yours we email you a one-time code that expires after ten minutes; the code itself is stored only as a hash and is deleted once used.
• What we store: your email address, the display name you choose for the leaderboards, your best score per game, and — only if you choose to set one — a password, stored as a secure hash and never in readable form.
• Why: to recognise you when you return and to place your scores on the leaderboards. That is a contract with you (providing the leaderboard feature you asked for) under UK GDPR.
• What we never do: we do not send marketing email, we do not sell, rent or share your address with anyone, and we do not use it to profile you. The only email we ever send is a sign-in code.

Leaderboards

If you sign in and submit a score, your chosen display name and that score are shown publicly on that game's leaderboard while your account is active. Your email address is never displayed. Pick a nickname rather than your real name if you would rather stay anonymous.

If a display name is hidden, the name and scores stop appearing publicly but the account holder may choose a different compliant name to return. A leaderboard ban also keeps the name and scores off public boards: the player may still play, sign in and use private duels, but cannot submit leaderboard scores or change their public name until an administrator restores access. Decisions can be appealed at privacy@blitzcade.com.

Community names & moderation

Public leaderboard display names can be reported by signed-in or anonymous visitors under our Community Rules. A report contains the internal reference for the account being reported, a snapshot and one-way fingerprint of the display name, the game, the selected reason, any optional detail the reporter enters, its status and timestamps. If the reporter is signed in, it also records their internal account reference; for an anonymous reporter it records a non-reversible, target-specific keyed digest so duplicate and abusive reports can be limited without keeping the source address.

We do not store the reporter's raw IP address, User-Agent, email address, session cookie or signed report token in the report. Separate target-specific rate-limit digests stop counting after 24 hours and expired rows are removed during later housekeeping. Optional details are visible to administrators, so please do not put private, sensitive or unnecessary personal information in them.

Administrators can resolve reports, hide or replace a name, suspend leaderboard participation, or restore a user. The decision history records the action, relevant old and new status or name, an optional short note, the administrator's internal account reference and the time. We process reports and moderation records for our legitimate interests in protecting players, enforcing the Community Rules, preventing abuse and keeping public leaderboards suitable for the site.

Open reports remain until a decision is made. Resolved reports and moderation-event history are retained for 12 months, after which they are deleted. A hidden or banned account status remains until the player completes the permitted remediation or an administrator restores it. Deleting an account removes reports and moderation records about that account; reporter or moderator links on records concerning somebody else are removed or de-linked where applicable. See our Terms, Community Rules and Contact page, or email privacy@blitzcade.com with an appeal or privacy request.

Two-player rooms

When you start a "play with a friend" duel, the server creates a temporary room holding a random 5-character code, the game being played, a random number that gives both players an identical game, each player's chosen display name, and the live scores for that match. Rooms are short-lived and are deleted automatically — abandoned rooms within minutes, finished rooms within hours. You do not need an account to use one.

Sharing scores and gameplay demonstrations

After a run, you can create a score card in your browser. The image contains only the game name and score; it is not uploaded to us. Your device's share sheet decides where it goes, or you can download it. Gameplay demonstrations use YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed and are not loaded until you choose to play one, so simply opening a game page makes no YouTube request.

Keeping the arcade working (security & abuse)

To stop people spamming sign-in codes, name reports or duel rooms, we keep short-lived rate-limiting records. Depending on the feature, these count recent attempts against an email address or a keyed, non-reversible digest derived from the source address; name-report limits can also be specific to the reported target. We do not store the raw address in these records. The records stop counting after their stated limit window; expired rows are removed during subsequent housekeeping and are never used for analytics, profiling or anything else. Our web host also keeps standard server logs, as every web host does, for security and troubleshooting.

Signing in sets the arcade_t cookie (and, for the site administrator only, arcade_a). Both contain a random session token and nothing else — see the Cookies table.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file your browser stores for a website. Under UK law (PECR) we may set cookies that are strictly necessary for something you have asked for — remembering your cookie choice, or keeping you signed in — without asking. Anything else, such as analytics or advertising cookies, needs your consent first. This is the complete list of what this site can store:

Before you make a choice on the banner, only essential storage is used. Neither usage statistics nor Google Analytics runs. If you tap Reject non-essential, both remain off and no Google Analytics cookie is set. If you tap Accept analytics and no exclusion applies, our usage statistics start and Google Analytics loads and may set its cookies. You can change your mind at any time using Cookie settings (also in the footer of every page). Withdrawing consent stops measurement, clears our analytics session and campaign storage, and attempts to delete the _ga cookies.

Technically, the banner sets the Google Consent Mode v2 signals — analytics_storage, ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization — to "denied" before any optional Google tag can run. Analytics uses basic consent mode: its tag is requested only after analytics consent. Advertising is disabled, and the current Blitzcade banner is not represented as the Google-certified consent-management platform required before AdSense can be enabled for relevant visitors.

Google Analytics

What it is. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a measurement service run by Google LLC. It tells us things like how many people visit, which pages and games they open, roughly where in the world they are (country/region level), what kind of device and browser they use, and which site sent them here. It works by loading a small Google script that sets the _ga cookies listed above and sends page-view and event data to Google's servers, some of which are outside the UK. Google acts as our processor for this data.

It only runs after you accept analytics. The Google Analytics tag is not requested, and no Google Analytics cookie is set, until you consent and our shared exclusion check permits measurement. Rejecting is one tap and is remembered. Do Not Track, Global Privacy Control, a browser opt-out, configured internal IP addresses and verified administrator sessions keep both measurement systems off.

How we have configured it to collect as little as possible:

• IP anonymisation. GA4 does not log or store IP addresses; they are used only transiently to work out a rough location and then discarded. We do not enable any feature that would retain them.
• Google Signals is switched off, so your visits are not linked to your Google account or used for cross-device reporting, and ad personalisation is switched off — GA4 data from this site is not used to build advertising profiles or to target ads.
• Event and user data retention is set to 14 months. The user-data retention period can reset with new activity. Google deletes expired data automatically; standard aggregate reports can remain available beyond this period.
• We do not send names, emails, account details, form contents or account user IDs. Events describe page and game selection, active play time, scores and outcomes, progress and transformations, sign-in or account creation, score-submission outcomes, score sharing and app installation. They use bounded game and action labels, counts and scores. Page addresses exclude queries and fragments; only safe source, medium, campaign and content labels are supplied separately. Referring addresses are reduced to a website origin, and raw IP addresses are not included in event parameters. Google Analytics data is not joined to leaderboard accounts.
• Automatic enhanced measurement is disabled. We send selected events through our shared consent and exclusion check, rather than collecting typed searches, form contents or arbitrary links automatically. Content progress and outbound actions use bounded categories.

Legal basis. Your consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a) and PECR regulation 6). You can withdraw it as easily as you gave it.

Withdrawing consent. Open Cookie settings (also linked in the footer of every page) and reject analytics. Both measurement systems stop, the local analytics session and campaign labels are cleared, and the site attempts to delete its _ga cookies. Google Analytics is not requested on later pages. You can also clear site data or block Google Analytics everywhere with Google's opt-out browser add-on.

More from Google. How Google handles this data is described in Google's privacy policy and its privacy & terms for partner sites.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

We may introduce advertising through Google AdSense in future to cover hosting costs. If and when we do:

• Google and its partners may set or read third-party cookies and similar identifiers in order to serve and measure ads, and in some configurations to personalise them.
• Before AdSense is enabled for visitors in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, we will configure a Google-certified consent-management platform with a genuine option to refuse. The current Blitzcade settings panel is not that certified platform and does not authorise us to switch advertising on. Depending on the choice offered at that future point, refusing personalised advertising may result in non-personalised or limited ads.
• This page and the Cookies table will be updated on the same day advertising goes live, and this notice replaced with the details of what is actually running.
• Google's own handling of data is described in its privacy & terms for partner sites.

Our optional usage statistics will continue to require analytics consent.

Children

Blitzcade is a general-audience games site, not a service directed at children. Individual titles may contain mature content: Red Shift Relay includes graphic fictional violence and carries a “16+ advised” content advisory, which is not an official age rating. No account is needed to play. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.

How long we keep things

• First-party usage statistics: session and run records support aggregate reports. New records from 5 September 2026 use expiring random session identifiers and are not linked to accounts. Expiring the browser identifier does not delete stored reports. Historical records are retained under the existing reporting policy and have not been retroactively changed.
• Google Analytics data (only if you accepted): event and user data retention is 14 months, with the user-data period resetting on new activity; standard aggregate reports can last longer. The _ga cookies expire after at most 2 years, or sooner if you clear site data.
• Your analytics choice (arcade_consent and arcade.consent): 12 months, then the banner asks again. A browser exclusion (arcade_analytics_optout) lasts 12 months unless you remove it sooner.
• Account details and scores: kept until you ask us to delete them.
• Sign-in codes: ten minutes, then deleted.
• Sign-in sessions: 90 days, or until you sign out.
• Duel rooms: automatically deleted, at most a few hours.
• Open display-name reports: until a moderator makes a decision.
• Resolved display-name reports and moderation-event history: 12 months after resolution or the event.
• Hidden or banned leaderboard status: until the permitted name remediation is completed or an administrator restores access.
• Rate-limiting records and digests: they stop counting after the applicable window (no more than 24 hours for the records described here) and expired rows are removed during later housekeeping.

Your choices

Exclude this browser. Use this opt-out link to stop both our usage statistics and Google Analytics on this browser. It sets the essential arcade_analytics_optout privacy-preference cookie for 12 months. Remove the browser exclusion to return to your normal consent choice; this does not grant consent or override Do Not Track, Global Privacy Control, internal IP rules or verified administrator-session exclusions. The preference parameter is removed from the address before measurement starts.

• Cookie settings. Use the Cookie settings link — it is in the footer of every page — to accept or reject analytics, or to change a choice you made earlier. Rejecting takes effect immediately for site measurement and prevents the Analytics tag loading on later pages. Advertising remains disabled and will require a separate certified consent platform before it can be enabled.
• Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. Either signal switches off both our usage statistics and Google Analytics.
• Google's opt-out. Google's browser add-on blocks Google Analytics on every site, not just this one.
• Local data. Clearing site data for this site in your browser removes saved scores, settings, your cookie choice and any Google cookies in one go.
• Accounts and display names. You never need an account. Active users can change their display name; hidden users must choose a different compliant name to return. Banned users can appeal or ask an administrator to restore leaderboard access.
• Name reports. Do not include private or sensitive information in optional report details. Email us if you need to correct, withdraw or ask about a report.

Your rights (UK GDPR)

Where we hold personal data — such as optional account details, display names and scores, or a report linked to a signed-in account — you have the right to:

• Access a copy of what we hold about you.
• Erasure — ask us to delete your account and everything attached to it. We will do this and confirm, normally within a few days and always within one month.
• Rectification — correct anything that is wrong, including your display name.
• Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable form.
• Object or restrict processing, and withdraw consent where consent is the basis — for our usage statistics and Google Analytics, use the Cookie settings control above; for anything else, email us.

Email privacy@blitzcade.com from the address on the account and we will action it. It costs nothing. Account deletion removes reports and moderation history about that account; where the account was the reporter or moderator on a record concerning somebody else, its account link is removed or de-linked rather than changing that other person's moderation record. If you are unhappy with how we respond, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Where your data is held

Accounts, scores, duel rooms, display-name reports and moderation history are stored in a small database on our UK web hosting. Emailed sign-in codes are sent through our host's mail service. We do not transfer your data outside the UK/EEA for our own purposes. The one exception is Google Analytics, if you accept it: Google may process that data on servers in the United States under the UK–US Data Bridge and Google's standard data-protection terms.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the arcade handles data — in particular if advertising is switched on — we will update this page and change the "last updated" date at the top. Material changes will also be flagged on the arcade home page, and if a change means we need a new or wider consent from you, the cookie banner will ask again rather than assuming.

18 August 2026: added Google Analytics (consent-only), the cookie banner and Cookie settings control, and the full cookie table above.

20 August 2026: added score sharing and score cards, campaign labels stored for the tab (arcade.campaign), and optional gameplay demonstrations hosted by YouTube. A demonstration is never loaded unless you ask for it and confirm, and is not offered at all if your browser sends Do Not Track. The storage table above was extended to cover both.

21 August 2026: clarified that the catalogue is for a general audience and that individual titles may carry mature-content advisories.

30 August 2026: added public display-name reporting, moderation decisions, anti-abuse digests, retention periods, remediation and appeal information.

30 August 2026: returned Google Analytics to basic, opt-in loading and clarified that a Google-certified consent platform must be configured before AdSense is enabled for relevant EEA, UK or Swiss visitors.

5 September 2026: brought both measurement systems under the same analytics consent and exclusion checks, replaced the persistent session identifier with a short-lived one, stopped linking new usage records to accounts, added browser opt-out controls, and described bounded gameplay and site events.

Contact

Questions, requests or anything that looks wrong: privacy@blitzcade.com.