Privacy

What we collect

The name you type for a game, the topics you type, and your answers and scores during the game.

Nothing else is needed to play: no account, no email address, no phone number.

Your browser remembers the name you last used and a short-lived pass for the game you're in (for up to 6 hours), so a refresh doesn't throw you out. This stays on your device. We use no advertising or analytics cookies.

Our hosting providers keep standard security logs, including IP addresses, for up to 30 days.

Your browser also keeps a random key so the games played on this device can be counted together. It isn’t linked to your name, and we store it only in scrambled form.

If you accept a feature we offer you and sign in with Google, we keep your Google account’s email address and ID, and that you confirmed you’re 18 or over. We then use a small sign-in cookie.

Why we use it

To run the game you asked for, show the results to the other players, keep the service safe and fair, and improve our questions. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: running a service you chose to use, in a way you'd expect.

We rate how people play — to set how hard questions are, and to offer some players features that aren’t available to everyone. Ratings are never used for advertising and never shown to anyone else.

Who processes it

Google Cloud (hosting and database, London) and Cloudflare (game rooms, in the EU).

AI providers that help write and check questions: Anthropic (writing), Perplexity (research) and OpenAI (fact-checking and safety checks). They receive the topics you type. OpenAI also receives the names you type, only to check they're appropriate. Their business terms don't allow them to train on this data.

Some of these providers are in the United States; transfers use the safeguards UK law requires.

If you buy Plus, Stripe processes your payment. We never see your card details; we keep your subscription’s status and renewal date.

With Plus, we remember how you do in the games you play while signed in (topic, how many right, how fast) to suggest topics and show you facts about your play. This is kept with your account and deleted with it; the log of which suggestions you saw and tapped is kept for 180 days. To compare topics we send OpenAI only topic names, never anything about you. Free players: none of this is recorded — to suggest topics, your device sends the names of topics it recently played with the request; we use them for that answer only and keep nothing.

Weekly leagues: when you finish a game, your device joins this week's league in that language. Up to about 30 other players in your group see the name you played under and your league points for the week — nothing else. League points come only from the game results on our servers. None of this goes to anyone outside Play Now.

Study mode: what you study (the subjects you add, your exam date and daily time), every answer you give, when each question is due for review, and your practice sessions — kept with your account so we can plan your practice and show your progress. To build a subject's map and write questions we send Perplexity, Anthropic and OpenAI the subject's name and its outline, never anything about you. Questions written for a subject join a shared bank, so other learners of the same subject can practise with them; your answers are never shared.

How long we keep it

Names and final scores: 30 days, then deleted automatically.

Topics and the questions written for them are kept to build our question bank. Please don't type personal information into a topic.

Messages you send us from the Help page: 12 months.

Accounts (for Plus): until you delete your account, which you can do at any time in your Account. Payment records are kept by Stripe for as long as the law requires.

Leagues (names, points, tiers): 8 weeks, then deleted automatically. To delete your device's league data at once, tap “Leave leagues” on the League page (you can join again any time; otherwise nothing is added for 30 days).

Study mode: while you have Study and for 90 days after it ends, then deleted automatically. Deleting your account deletes it at once; “Download my data” in your Account includes it.

Which games a device played: 30 days. Play ratings: until 13 months after the device’s last game. If you signed in for a feature we offered you: until you leave it, which you can do at any time and which deletes it.

Reminders (optional)

If you tap “Remind me tomorrow” after Today’s quiz and allow notifications, we keep your browser’s push address (a link your browser gives us to send it notifications — this is personal data), your language, the hour you chose, your time zone offset, your current streak and the date you last played. We use it only to send one reminder a day when Today’s quiz is ready, and only if you haven’t played yet.

The reminder is delivered by your browser’s push service (Google for Chrome and Android, Apple for Safari, Mozilla for Firefox, Microsoft for Edge on Windows); the message is encrypted so only your browser can read it.

Turn reminders off any time on the Today’s quiz page, or in your browser’s notification settings; we delete the push address at once. If you don’t play for 60 days, or the push service tells us the address no longer works, we delete it automatically.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete your data, or object to how we use it. Because we don't know who you are, tell us the game code, the name you used and roughly when you played. Use the form on the Help page. We reply within one month.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Children

Play Now is for anyone aged 13 and over. We don't knowingly collect more from children than the game needs, and nothing about a player is used for advertising. Features offered to selected players are for adults (18+) only.