Pinpoint Panic – Privacy Policy
Effective October 22, 2026 · Updated November 8, 2026 (new: optional shared photo-pack links)
Pinpoint Panic (“the game”) is a party game played at pinpointpanic.com and in the Pinpoint Panic app. This policy explains what happens to your information when you play.
The short version
- There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking or analytics.
- Your photos, home location, player names and scores stay on your own device. We do not collect, receive or store them, unless you choose to share a photo pack as a link (see “Shared photo packs” below).
- To draw maps and look up addresses, the game contacts a few outside services, listed below.
Information stored on your device
The game saves your settings (home address and location, play area, player names and colors), the photos you load and their locations, and the leaderboard in your browser’s or app’s local storage on your device. This information never leaves your device unless you choose to save a photo pack (.zip) file and share it yourself. The game also saves your Solo scores and streak. To erase all of it at once, tap “Clear all game data” in the Leaderboard section of the setup page. You can also erase parts of it: “Remove all photos” deletes the photos and their locations, and “Reset leaderboard” deletes the party-game results; your address, settings and player names stay until you use “Clear all game data”. Clearing the site’s data in your browser, or uninstalling the app, also removes everything.
Photos and location data
When you load photos, the game reads the GPS location stored inside each photo, on your device, to place it on the map. Photos are not uploaded to us. The game does not use your device’s live location.
Shared photo packs (only if you choose to share)
“Share as a link” and “Challenge the neighborhood” upload a photo pack to our server so other people can play it. Nothing is uploaded unless you tap Create my link.
- What is uploaded: the photos in the pack (up to 30), the spot on the map where each one was taken, the pack name, the name or business you type (optional), and, for a challenge, your Solo score. Your home address is not uploaded; the pack’s map center is the middle of its photos.
- Hidden photo data is removed: before upload, each photo is re-saved on your device as a plain image. This removes the information phones store inside photos (camera, date and time, exact GPS tags). Only the photo’s map spot is kept, because it is the answer in the game.
- Who can see it: anyone who has the link. Links are not listed or searchable on our site, but people you send them to can pass them on. Don’t share photos of people, private homes, license plates, or anything you wouldn’t post publicly.
- Where it is stored: on Cloudflare R2 storage, run by Cloudflare for us. To limit abuse, our server briefly uses a one-way scrambled form of your internet (IP) address to count how many packs are shared from it per day. It is not stored with the pack.
- How long: until it is deleted. You can delete your own links any time under “My shared links” in the share window (on the device you shared from). If you no longer have that device, or you want any pack removed, email us with the link.
- Reports: every shared pack has a “Report this pack” link. We remove packs that break these rules.
Outside services the game uses
To work, the game’s page asks these services for content. Like any website, they receive your device’s internet (IP) address and the request, under their own privacy policies:
- Map images: Esri (ArcGIS), OpenStreetMap and CARTO receive requests for the map areas being shown. For the 3D fly-over at each reveal, OpenFreeMap supplies buildings and street names, and Amazon Web Services supplies hill heights, for the same areas. You can turn the 3D map off in More options.
- Address lookup: when you tap “Find address”, the address you typed is sent to OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service to find it on the map; if that service is busy, it is sent to Photon, an OpenStreetMap search run by Komoot. You don’t have to use your home address: a nearby landmark or street corner works, or you can set home by tapping the map, which doesn’t use the address search at all.
- Internet photos: when you tap “Add photos from the internet”, your home map location and play-area size are sent to Wikimedia Commons to find free, geotagged photos nearby. “Add local landmarks” sends the same location to Wikipedia to find well-known places nearby.
- Hosting: the game is hosted by Cloudflare, which processes standard web traffic to deliver the site.
Children
The game does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children under 13.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions about this policy: support@pinpointpanic.com