Who we are
TeacherPuzzle is a free set of daily puzzles for teachers. It is run by Lauren Fulton, LLC, Texas, United States ("we"), which also makes The Game Room and The Arcade. This policy covers the TeacherPuzzle iPhone app and the website at teacherpuzzle.com. Questions go to [email protected].
The short version: we collect what we need to sign you in, grade your puzzles against other teachers, and keep your streak. We do not sell your data, we use no ad networks, and you can delete everything. The website uses Google Analytics to count visits (see "Website analytics"); you can limit it under "Your privacy choices". Our emails do use open and click tracking: we record, with your account, whether you open them and which links you click, so we can measure and improve them and decide who gets which message. If you sign up for texts, we keep your mobile number and send texts through Pingram.
What we collect
You can play today's puzzles without an account. In that case nothing about you is stored on our servers; your scores stay on your phone until you sign in. With an account, we store:
| Information | What it is | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | The address you sign in with. We send a 6-digit code to it; there is no password. | Signing in. Emails you ask for (see "Your choices"). |
| Profile | First name (required). Optional: role, grade band, subject, country, US state, school name. | Greeting you by name, and comparing your results with teachers who teach the same grade band in the same state. |
| How you found us (website sign-ups) | When you make an account on the website: the campaign labels of the link that first brought your browser to teacherpuzzle.com (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, for example "google / cpc / fall_launch"), or the name of the website that linked to us, the page you first landed on (without its query string), and when. Your browser keeps this in its local storage until you sign up. Not collected in the app. | Counting sign-ups per ad campaign and source, so we know which ads and links work. |
| Puzzle results | For each puzzle you finish: the game, the date, your score or time, the text of your result card, whether you solved it, when you finished, and your final percentile. For The Curve, your five estimates. | Your rank, letter grade, streak, stats and archive. Your results also count toward every other teacher's percentile. |
| Consent choices | Each time you accept the Terms or switch an email preference on or off, we record what you chose, the wording version, where you did it (sign-up, settings, the unsubscribe link in an email, or marking our email as spam) and when. | So we can prove and show you exactly what you agreed to. You can see this list in Settings. |
| Staff Room membership | If you are in a Staff Room: the room's name, code and school, and that you belong to it. | Showing the room's daily standings to its members. |
| Challenge links | If you create a challenge link on the website: a short code tied to one of your puzzle results. | So the colleague who opens the link sees your first name and result for that puzzle. |
| Push notification token | If you allow notifications, Apple gives the app a device token. We store it with your account, together with whether it is a test or App Store build. | Sending notifications to your iPhone. Promotional notifications (news) go only to teachers who separately turn them on. Streak reminders (a short evening note when your streak is about to end) go to teachers who allowed notifications, and you can turn them off in Settings. |
| Sign-in session | A session record and refresh token on our servers. On your phone, the same tokens are kept in the iOS Keychain; in a web browser, in that browser's local storage for teacherpuzzle.com. A session lasts up to 10 years, but ends after a full year without use, when you sign out, or when you delete your account. | Keeping you signed in between launches and visits. |
| Game Room link identifier | A random code made for your account (not your email or account number). It is added to The Game Room links while you are signed in, and replaced with a new one about every 30 days. We keep the old codes with your account. | Seeing whether TeacherPuzzle teachers start a Game Room trial (see "Who receives it"). |
| Daily rank email log | If you receive the daily rank email: one row per email saying whether it was sent, failed or skipped, with the date. No copy of the email is kept. | Making sure you get at most one email per day and that a failed email is retried once. Rows are purged after 14 days. |
| Launch email list | If you used "Email me when it opens" on our countdown page before launch: your email address, when you joined, whether you ticked "Also send me TeacherPuzzle news and offers" (never pre-ticked) with the wording version, and whether the launch email was sent. No account is needed. If you later sign up with the same address, the entry is linked to your account, and a news opt-in you gave there becomes your "News from the makers" choice (you can change it at sign-up or in Settings). | Sending you the email that says TeacherPuzzle is open and, only if you ticked the box, news and offers. Kept until you unsubscribe (every email has a one-click link), ask us to remove it, or delete an account with the same address. |
| Email delivery log (anonymous) | For each email we send you, our email provider (Resend) tells us whether it was sent, delivered, delayed, bounced or marked as spam. This log stores that status and the time with a one-way hash of your address only: no address, no account number. If an email to your address bounces permanently or is marked as spam, we also keep the hash with the label "bounced" or "spam complaint". (The same events are also kept with your account; see the next row.) | Keeping our email deliverable: we stop the daily rank email to an address that bounces or reports spam (a spam report also turns the daily rank email off in your settings), we never send news to it, and we send at most one sign-in code every 10 minutes to an address that bounces. This log is purged after 90 days. |
| Message events linked to your account | Our emails (sign-in codes, the daily rank email and news emails) use open and click tracking from our email provider, Resend: each email contains a tiny invisible image (a tracking pixel), and its links pass through Resend's servers before opening the page. We attach your account number (a random ID, not your email address) to every email we send as a tag, so Resend's reports are linked to your account. For each email we store, with that account number: when it was sent, delivered, bounced or marked as spam, when it was opened, which link was clicked (with any personal codes removed from the link), and whether you unsubscribed. For texts, Pingram tells us when a text was delivered or failed, which link was clicked and whether you replied STOP; we store that the same way. Some mail apps open emails on their own, so an "open" is not always you. | Measuring and improving our emails and texts (which ones and which links teachers find useful), and choosing who receives which message (for example, sending a news email again only to teachers who did not open it, or not sending more news to someone who never opens it). Kept for 400 days, or until you delete your account. |
| Mobile phone number (only if you sign up for texts) | The mobile number you enter, whether and when you confirmed it with the 6-digit code we text you, and your separate choice to get texts (with its wording version and time). We only text US and Canadian (+1) numbers. For the confirmation code we keep only a one-way hash of it, and only while it is valid (10 minutes); the record that a code was sent is deleted within 2 days. To stop abuse of our texting, we also keep, for 2 days, a one-way keyed hash of the number with the time of each code sent and each wrong code entered (no number, no account), even if you delete your account. We also use the US state in your profile to work out your time zone. | Sending the texts you asked for, only to a number you proved is yours, and only between 8 AM and 9 PM your time. Kept until you remove the number or delete your account. Changing or removing the number turns texts off until you opt in again. |
| Copies of messages we sent you | For each news email, text or notification we send through our messaging system (not sign-in codes or the daily rank email): a copy of the message as sent, the email address, phone number or device count it went to, and whether it was sent or failed. | Checking what went out and fixing sending problems. Kept for 30 days, or until you delete your account. |
| News recipient records | Which news emails, texts or notifications you were chosen for, and whether each one was sent, skipped (for example because you had turned it off), delayed to daytime hours, or failed. | Making sure nobody gets the same message twice, and counting results per message. Kept until you delete your account. |
What stays on your phone only
- Puzzles you played while signed out (sent to your account when you sign in, then removed from the phone; otherwise kept about 60 days).
- In-progress game boards, so you can leave and come back (kept about 60 days).
- Settings: haptics, the daily reminder time, and whether you have seen the welcome screen.
- The daily reminder itself. It is a local notification scheduled by the app on your phone and it skips days you have already played. It never contacts our servers.
What we do not collect
- No location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone access.
- No advertising identifier and no ad networks. The app contains no third-party analytics or crash-reporting code. The website uses Google Analytics, described under "Website analytics". Apart from that, the tracking we do is the open and click tracking in our own emails and texts described above ("Message events linked to your account"); that information stays with TeacherPuzzle and the provider that sent the message (Resend or Pingram). (The Game Room link identifier above works only between TeacherPuzzle and our own Game Room.)
- No payment information. The app is free and has no purchases.
- No student data. TeacherPuzzle is for teachers; nothing about your students is ever entered.
How we use it
- To sign you in and keep you signed in.
- To grade each puzzle against every teacher who played it, and against teachers in your grade band and state.
- To keep your streak, stats and archive.
- To show Staff Room standings to the members of your room.
- To send you the emails, texts and notifications you turned on (see "Your choices"), with texts only in the daytime where you are.
- To measure and improve our emails and texts, and to choose who receives which message, using the open, click and delivery records linked to your account.
- To keep the record of what you consented to.
We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles.
Website analytics
The website (not the app) uses Google Analytics. We share one Google Analytics account with our related site The Game Room (classgameroom.com), so we can understand how teachers move between the two sites.
- What is collected. The pages you visit, where you came from, and a few actions: finishing a puzzle (the game and date), sharing a result, signing up or signing in, and opening a Game Room card. Google also receives your IP address and browser and device details, and works out an approximate location from them. We never send your name, email, account number or Game Room link identifier to Google.
- Cookies. Google Analytics sets the cookies
_gaand_ga_*on teacherpuzzle.com to recognise your browser between visits. When you follow a link to The Game Room, a short code is added to the link so both sites count you as the same visitor. - Retention. Google Analytics keeps this data for 14 months.
- Your privacy choices. Use the "Your privacy choices" link at the bottom of every page, or open it here, to turn off Google's advertising features (Google signals and ad personalization) for your browser. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we do this automatically. To stop Google Analytics altogether, use Google's opt-out browser add-on.
What other teachers can see
- Your first name and daily results, but only to members of a Staff Room you have joined.
- Your first name and one result to anyone who opens a challenge link you created on the website.
- Your first name and state in "Today's early birds" on the home page and in the app, if you're one of the first 10 teachers to finish a puzzle that day. Turn this off anytime in Settings › Early bird shoutouts.
- Nothing else. Your email, school, role and subject are never shown to other teachers, and your state only in the early bird shoutout above. Your results feed the percentiles everyone sees, but only as an anonymous part of the crowd.
Sharing a result card uses your phone's share sheet. The card contains the game, your score, your grade and percentile, and a link. It does not contain your name or email.
Your choices
- Emails. At sign-up and in Me › Settings › Emails you can turn the daily rank email and "News from the makers" on or off at any time. "News from the makers" is never pre-selected.
- The daily rank email. If it is on, the morning after you play (about 6 AM Eastern Time) we email you your final percentiles, best game and streak. Every one of these emails has a one-click unsubscribe link, which works without signing in: the link carries a signed token for your account, and opening it and pressing the button records "daily rank email off" in your consent history. Mail apps that support one-click unsubscribe can do the same from their own Unsubscribe button. If you mark the email as spam, we turn it off for you in the same way. The email may include one sponsored message from another company. It is always clearly labeled "Sponsored". Sponsors get no information about you: their link only shows them that the visit came from the TeacherPuzzle email.
- News emails. "News from the makers" emails come from [email protected]. Every one has a one-click unsubscribe link that works without signing in, and your mail app's Unsubscribe button does the same. Turning news off does not affect the daily rank email.
- Texts (optional). Texts are for US and Canadian (+1) mobile numbers only. They are off unless you add your mobile number, confirm it with the 6-digit code we text you, and separately choose to get texts. We send texts only between 8 AM and 9 PM in your time zone, based on the US state in your profile (every time zone of that state counts); if your profile has no US state, only between 11 AM and 9 PM Eastern Time. A text that would fall outside those hours waits until the next morning. Reply STOP to any text to stop them. Changing or removing your number turns texts off until you opt in again.
- Notifications. The app asks for notification permission once you are signed in. You can change it any time in iOS Settings › Notifications › TeacherPuzzle. Signing out removes your device token from your account. Promotional notifications (events, new games and offers) have their own switch, "News & offers notifications", in the app under Me › Settings › Notifications. It is off until you turn it on, and it only appears once notifications are allowed for TeacherPuzzle. The website does not send browser notifications.
- Profile. Edit your name and other details in Me › Settings › Edit profile. Everything except your first name is optional.
- Your records. Settings › Consent history shows every consent decision you made and when. Email us if you want a copy of the data we hold about you.
- Website analytics. "Your privacy choices" at the bottom of every website page turns off Google's advertising features for that browser; Global Privacy Control does the same automatically (see "Website analytics").
- Sign out. Me › Settings › Sign out ends the session on our servers and clears the tokens from your phone. Your account and streak stay.
Text messages
TeacherPuzzle texts are optional, recurring marketing texts about events, new games and offers from TeacherPuzzle, The Game Room and The Arcade. Message frequency varies; we send them now and then, not every day. Message and data rates may apply.
- How you sign up. In Account settings on the website, or in the app under Me › Settings › Text messages: add your US or Canadian (+1) mobile number, confirm it with the 6-digit code we text you, then turn on "Text me news and offers". The switch sits next to the full disclosure and is off until you turn it on. Agreeing to texts is never a condition of using TeacherPuzzle or of buying anything.
- What we keep. Your mobile number; whether and when you confirmed it; every decision to turn texts on or off, with the time, where you made it (website, app, a STOP reply, or a number change) and the version of the wording you agreed to; and the delivery records described under "What we collect". The confirmation code itself is only kept as a one-way hash while it is valid (10 minutes).
- Who sends them. Pingram delivers our texts through the mobile carriers. It receives your number, your account number and the text of each message, and uses them only to deliver our texts, handle replies and report delivery to us.
- Stopping them. Reply STOP to any text to cancel; we record it and send no more marketing texts to that number (you may get one final text confirming it). You can also turn texts off in Settings, or remove your number. Reply HELP for help, or email [email protected].
- When. Only between 8 AM and 9 PM your time, as described under "Your choices".
- No sharing for marketing. We do not sell, rent or share your mobile number or your text opt-in with third parties or affiliates for their marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging opt-in data and consent are excluded from every other kind of sharing in this policy; we share them only with Pingram and the mobile carriers as needed to deliver the texts you asked for, or when the law requires it.
Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. The Terms of Use ("Text messages") describe the program terms.
Keeping and deleting your data
We keep your account data for as long as you have an account. We never delete an account for inactivity. The only shorter periods are the daily rank email log (14 days), the anonymous email delivery log (90 days), message events linked to your account (400 days), copies of messages we sent you (30 days), text confirmation code records (within 2 days; the code itself only as a hash while valid) and the anti-abuse record of codes per number (2 days, keyed hash of the number only) and sign-in codes (15 minutes).
You can delete your account yourself from Me › Settings › "Delete my account…" in the app, or from Account settings › Delete my account on the website. You can also email [email protected] from your account address and we will delete it for you within 30 days. Deleting your account removes, right away (a long message history within a few minutes):
- your profile, results and Curve estimates;
- your consent records and daily rank email log;
- your mobile number and text confirmation code records;
- message events linked to your account (opens, clicks, deliveries, STOP replies), copies of messages we sent you, and your news recipient records;
- your Staff Room memberships (a room you created is removed too if nobody else is left in it);
- challenge links you created;
- your push notification tokens;
- your Game Room link identifiers, so an old link can no longer be matched to you;
- your entry on the launch email list (the countdown page's "Email me when it opens"), if it has the same address;
- your sign-in sessions, codes and account record, including your email address.
One thing stays: a one-way hash (SHA-256) of your email address, marked "account deleted", with the date. It cannot be turned back into your address. We keep it so that you are never added back to a mailing list by mistake. If an email to your address bounced or was marked as spam, that hashed "bounced" or "spam complaint" label also stays, so we do not keep emailing an address that refuses our mail. The anonymous email delivery log (hashed addresses only) is purged after 90 days. The anti-abuse record of verification texts (a keyed hash of the number and times, no account) also stays until it expires after 2 days. Your scores stop counting toward anyone's percentile.
Data on your phone (signed-out scores, saved boards, settings) is removed when you delete the app.
Audience
TeacherPuzzle is for teachers and school staff. It is not directed to children, and there are no student accounts. Creating an account requires confirming that you are a teacher or school staff member and agree to the Terms of Use and this policy. If you believe a student has created an account, email us and we will delete it.
Security
All traffic between the app, the website and our servers uses HTTPS. Sign-in uses one-time codes that expire after 15 minutes, so there is no password to steal. On your iPhone, session tokens are kept in the iOS Keychain; on the website, in your browser's local storage, which other websites cannot read. Sessions stay valid for up to 10 years but end after a year without use, so sign out on a shared computer. Unsubscribe links are signed so that nobody can change your email settings but you. Server-side data lives with Convex; access is limited to the people who run TeacherPuzzle.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal information, or to object to how it is used. You can do most of this yourself in the app (see "Your choices" and "Deleting your data"). For anything else, email [email protected]. If you live in California, the European Union or the United Kingdom, local law may give you additional rights; email us and we will honour them.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change affects what we collect or who receives it, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect, and where consent is needed we will ask for it again.
Contact
Lauren Fulton, LLC
[email protected]
3320 Troup Hwy Unit 132831
Tyler, TX 75713, United States