Privacy policy
Updated
Minigame Cafe (minigamecafe.com) is run by an individual operator in Japan, who is responsible for the personal data described on this page. Postal address: MIEUX Shibuya Building 8F, 5-3 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0044, Japan. Email: contact@minigamecafe.com. The operator’s name is given on request by email. “We” means the operator.
You can play without an account. There are no sign-up forms, comments or chat, and nothing you type is published. Apart from emails you send us, the personal data linked to this site is held by Cloudflare and Google, as described below. Google holds the Analytics data on our behalf.
What stays in your browser
The games save your records (games played, wins, top results, daily streak), your finished daily puzzle, an unfinished game and your settings (sound, theme, game options) in your browser’s local storage, a small storage area on your device that belongs to this site. This data stays on your device. We cannot see it or restore it. Where Google Analytics runs, the site reports a few facts taken from play, such as a round’s result and your daily streak as a band like “2-6 days”, but never the stored records. Clearing this site’s data in your browser deletes it, as does closing a private window. The answer of the location check (see below) is kept in session storage, which is cleared when you close the tab.
The Share button builds its text or image on your device and sends nothing by itself. A shared link carries tags saying it came from a share, in text or image form, which game it was and whether it was the Daily or a free game. When someone opens the link and Google Analytics runs for them, it counts the visit as coming from a share.
What we receive ourselves
The only personal data that reaches us directly is what you put in an email to contact@minigamecafe.com: your address, your message and anything you attach. It passes through our mail forwarding service and the operator’s mailbox provider.
We use emails only to answer them and fix what they report. We delete each one once the matter is settled, at the latest 12 months after our last exchange, unless a legal claim or duty requires us to keep it.
Hosting and security: Cloudflare
The site is served by Cloudflare Pages, which uses your request data (see the table below) to deliver and protect the site, under the Cloudflare privacy policy.
We also use Cloudflare Web Analytics. Cloudflare says its script sets no cookies, uses no browser storage and discards your IP address at the nearest Cloudflare data center. We use Cloudflare’s setting that leaves out visits reaching Cloudflare through its data centers in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, so those visits are not measured by this tool.
A small Cloudflare function on this site also works out from your IP address whether your connection appears to come from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland. It answers only yes or no, and we do not store the answer on our side.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to see which pages and games people use. Besides page views, the site sends a few game events: a game starting, a round ending (with win, loss, finished or given up, and a rough time band like “1-3 minutes”), playing again, moving to another game, scrolling to the how-to-play text, a finished daily puzzle, your daily streak as a band (1, 2-6, 7-29 or 30+ days) and a tap on Share (text or image). They never include names, free text or anything you typed. When storage is allowed, Analytics sets cookies named _ga and _ga_<id> that tell repeat visits apart.
Whether Analytics runs depends on where you are:
- In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the Analytics script is not loaded unless you agree. Once ads are running, Google’s consent message asks for your agreement, and Analytics loads only after you give it. Until then, nothing is sent to Google Analytics, not even “cookieless pings” (short messages without cookies that let Google estimate totals).
- Everywhere else, Analytics loads and its storage is on by default. A Global Privacy Control signal turns off the ad-related parts (see the choices below).
If the location check fails for any reason, Analytics does not load, wherever you are.
When Analytics runs, your IP address reaches Google as part of each request. Google says Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses.
We keep Google signals off and do not link Analytics to Google Ads. We may connect our AdSense account to Analytics, so that ad earnings appear in our reports. The 14-month limit in the table below does not cover aggregated reports, which identify no one.
Google explains its side in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Advertising: Google AdSense
We may show ads from Google AdSense to pay for the site. This page never carries ads. When ads are shown:
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google’s Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some other vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info.
- Other ad companies that work with Google may also place and read cookies, use web beacons, or receive your IP address as a result of ad serving. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google’s consent message names these companies and lets you accept or refuse them. Google lists these companies, with links to their privacy policies, on its ad technology partners page.
On pages with ads, Google’s ad code loads when the page opens, before you answer Google’s consent message, because that code is what shows the message. Loading it gives Google your IP address, the page address and your browser’s details, whatever you choose.
Without your consent to personalized ads, Google may show non-personalized ads, chosen from the page and your rough location. Google says these still use cookies to cap how often an ad repeats and for aggregated reporting, where the law allows.
Who receives what, and for how long
Local storage stays until you clear it. For everything else, see the last column.
| Service (company) | What it receives | Why | When | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting (Cloudflare, Inc.) | IP address, the page you ask for, browser user agent | Deliver and protect the site | Every visit | Cloudflare’s own policy |
| Location check (Cloudflare, Inc.) | IP address, used to find the country | Decide whether Analytics may load | Once per tab | Answer kept in your tab until it closes; not stored by us |
| Cloudflare Web Analytics (Cloudflare, Inc.) | Page, the page you came from, load times | Count visits and measure speed | Visits outside the EEA, UK and Switzerland | Cloudflare’s own policy |
| Google Analytics (Google LLC) | A random ID in the _ga cookie, page address and title, the page you came from, browser, device, screen size and language, rough location from your IP address, the game events above | See which pages and games are used | Outside the EEA, UK and Switzerland by default; inside them only after you agree | Event and user data 14 months; cookies up to 2 years |
| Google AdSense (Google LLC and ad partners) | IP address, page address, browser details, and ad cookies or similar IDs where allowed | Show and measure ads, prevent fraud, personalize ads where you allow it | Pages with ads, once ads are approved | Google’s own policy; your consent choice in a cookie for up to 13 months, or until you change it |
| Email (our mail forwarding service and mailbox provider) | Your address, message and attachments | Answer you | When you write to us | Until the matter is settled, at most 12 months |
Your privacy choices
- Google’s consent message. Once ads are running, visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland see a message from Google on pages that carry ads. It asks for consent to Google Analytics and to ad cookies.
- “Privacy choices” link. The link in the footer opens Google’s message again where it is active, so you can change your answer. Where it is not active, the link brings you to this section.
- US states. In US states with these privacy laws, Google’s message adds a “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link. Choosing “Opt out” tells Google not to use your data for personalized ads on this site.
- Global Privacy Control (GPC). If your browser sends a GPC signal, our page sets Google’s consent settings so that advertising storage is off, your data is not sent to Google for advertising and ads are not personalized. It also turns off Google signals and ad personalization signals in Analytics. On pages with ads, it asks Google’s ad code for non-personalized ads. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, a later answer in Google’s consent message replaces these consent settings, but ads here stay non-personalized while your browser sends GPC. In the US states where Google applies it, Google also reads the signal itself. When your browser sends GPC, this section shows a note that we received the signal and honor it.
- Analytics opt-out. Google’s Analytics opt-out browser add-on stops Analytics on every site you visit.
Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)
- Local storage for records and settings: needed for features you use, and kept on your device.
- Hosting, security and Cloudflare Web Analytics: our legitimate interest in running a safe site and knowing how much it is used.
- Location check: our legitimate interest in keeping Analytics off until you agree.
- Google Analytics, ad cookies and personalized ads: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time through “Privacy choices”. Withdrawing does not affect what happened before.
- Emails: our legitimate interest in answering you.
Your rights
EEA, UK and Switzerland. You can ask to see, correct or delete your personal data, to restrict or object to its use, to receive it in a portable form, and to withdraw consent. You can also complain to your local data protection authority. You do not have to give us any personal data to play. We make no decisions about you by automated means.
US states. Depending on your state, you can ask to know, see, correct or delete personal data, and opt out of its sale, sharing or use for targeted ads. In the terms of California law, the site collects identifiers (IP address, cookie IDs and, if you write to us, your email address), internet activity (pages viewed and the game events above) and approximate location derived from your IP address. These come from your browser or from you, for the purposes in the table above. Under laws such as California’s, letting ad companies use cookies to personalize ads across sites can count as “selling” or “sharing” personal information, even when no money changes hands. We never sell personal information for money, and we share email addresses only with the mail services that deliver them. We do not knowingly sell or share personal information of anyone under 16. Using your rights will not change how the site works for you.
How to ask. Email contact@minigamecafe.com and say which right you want to use. We can act on the emails we hold. To protect them, we act only on requests sent from, or confirmed from, the address concerned. An email does not tell us which Analytics data is yours, because Analytics knows a browser only by a random ID. If you send us the ID stored in your browser’s _ga cookie, we will ask Google Analytics to delete the data tied to it. Google’s Ads Settings and the choices above control ad data. We answer requests within the time the law sets. Someone you authorize may ask for you, and we may ask them to show that you authorized them.
Japan. The operator follows Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information. Under it, you can ask us what personal data we hold about you (in practice, your emails), and ask us to correct it, stop using it or delete it, by emailing the address above. There is no fee. The operator’s name is given on request. Complaints about how we handle personal data can go to the same address.
Children’s privacy
Minigame Cafe is a general-audience site. It is not directed to children under 13 in the sense of the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information by email, write to us and we will delete it.
International transfers
The operator is in Japan. If you email us from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you send your data to us directly, and the GDPR, UK GDPR or Swiss law still applies to how we handle it. The European Commission has also decided that Japan protects personal data adequately, and the UK recognizes that decision. Google and Cloudflare process data in the United States and other countries. Both say they comply with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. framework, and use standard contractual clauses for other transfers.
Changes to this policy
When the site starts using a new service, or uses data in a new way, we update this page first and change the date at the top.
Contact
Send questions and privacy requests to contact@minigamecafe.com. The contact page explains what to put in a message.