Privacy Policy
Last updated: November 7, 2026
Who we are
Hornswoggled! ("we", "us") is a free party game for families and classrooms, played at app.hornswoggledgame.com. This policy explains what the game stores and why.
Playing without an account
To join a game you type a name (a first name or nickname is all you need) and pick a character, a colour and two categories. This, your score and the host's announcements are kept in the server's memory only while the game is running. When the host ends the game, or it sits unused, it is deleted.
Optional accounts
Players can make an account to save coins and characters. An account is only:
- a username (we ask that it isn't your real name),
- a password, which we store scrambled (hashed) so nobody can read it, not even us,
- your character, colour, background, coins and the items you unlocked with coins.
We never ask for an email address. Coins are earned by playing and cannot be bought with real money.
No player chat
Players can't send messages to each other. Only the host can send short announcements to the players in their game. Announcements are filtered automatically: swear words, rude words, phone numbers, email addresses and links are hidden with ###. They are only shown to people in that game and are deleted with the game.
Contact form
If you use our Contact page, we save your message, the topic you picked and, if you give them, your first name and an email address so we can reply. We only use your email to answer you, and we never share it.
Feedback and Help messages
If you use the Feedback or Help button, we save what you wrote, along with the screen you were on, the language, the style of game and the room code, so we can fix the problem. Please don't put personal information in these messages.
Things saved on your device
The game saves a few settings in your browser (local storage): your language, the game style, your sound on/off choice, your custom background and, if you log in, a sign-in key. These never leave your device except the sign-in key, which proves to our server that you're logged in. The game itself uses no advertising or tracking cookies.
Technical information
Like every website, our server briefly sees your internet (IP) address when you connect. We use it only to keep the game working and to stop abuse, such as too many messages or log-in attempts in a short time. We don't use it to find out who or where you are.
Ads on our website
Our website, hornswoggledgame.com, shows ads from Google AdSense to help pay for the game. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads and to measure how well they work. We ask Google to show family-friendly ads. You can learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and turn off personalized ads at adssettings.google.com.
There are no ads inside the game itself (app.hornswoggledgame.com).
Where it's stored
The game runs on a server in Toronto, Canada (DigitalOcean). We use secure, encrypted connections (HTTPS).
Kids
Hornswoggled! is made for families and classrooms, and it is designed so that nobody needs to give personal information to play. Classroom games don't allow accounts at all, and students join with a first name only. If you are a parent or guardian and think your child put personal information into the game (for example, a full name as a username), contact us and we will delete it.
Deleting your account
Send us a message on our Contact page (or with the Feedback button in the game), including your username, and we will delete the account and everything saved with it.
Changes
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. If we add something new, such as a way to pay, we will explain it here first.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Send us a message on our Contact page.