Privacy policy

Last updated 16 October 2026

SyphonGames collects as little as it can get away with. There are no accounts, and we do not build profiles about you. We do show advertising, supplied by Google, and that is the one part of this site that involves a third party, and it is set out in full below.

What we collect

Four things, and that is the lot:

• Play and view counts. When you open or start a game we add one to a counter. The counter is a number attached to the game, not to you.
• Search terms. We count how often each term is searched so we know what to add next. Terms are stored on their own, with nothing attached.
• Server logs. Our web server records the usual: IP address, timestamp, requested URL, browser user-agent. These rotate out on a short cycle.
• Messages you send us. Only if you use the contact form, and only what you put in it. See the contact form below.

How we stop double-counting

To keep one person refreshing a page from inflating a play count, we make a short-lived fingerprint by hashing your IP address and browser user-agent together with a random value that changes every time the server restarts. It lives in memory for thirty minutes and is then gone. It is never written to disk, never sent anywhere, and cannot be reversed into an IP address.

Cookies and local storage

SyphonGames sets no tracking cookies of its own. Google's advertising can set and read cookies, and that is set out under Advertising below. Two further things are stored in your own browser, on your own device:

• Your ratings. Saved in local storage so a game does not ask you to rate it twice.
• Game saves. A game may store its own progress or high scores in local storage. That data belongs to the game, stays in your browser, and never reaches us.

Clearing your browser storage wipes both. The admin panel sets a session cookie, but only staff ever see it.

How the games run

Most of the games here are made by SyphonGames. A few are by other developers, and the developer is named on every game's page. Either way, each game runs inside a sandboxed frame that cannot read the rest of the site. We check every upload for structure and file types and reject anything with obvious tracking or mining code, and a game made by someone else is still their software, so if you find one doing something it should not, tell us and we will pull it.

Some games can be played with other people, through a short room code or, in a few games, a public match. While you are playing, our server passes the moves between the players and, in most games, keeps the score. A game can show other players a short display name if it asks for one, and many offer a menu of set phrases or emotes, but there is no free-text chat and no account. Rooms and matches are held in memory only, never written to disk, and are deleted soon after the last player leaves, or after half an hour if a room simply goes quiet.

The contact form

When you send us a message, we keep your email address, your name if you give one, what you write, and anything you attach. We use them to read and answer your message and, for a game you send, to decide whether to host it. Nothing else: they go on no mailing list and are passed to no one.

They are stored on our own server in Sydney, where only we can read them. A file you attach is checked automatically when it arrives, and a game is only ever tried out sealed off from the rest of the site. Everything is deleted automatically 90 days after it arrives, if we have not deleted it already. The form sets no cookies, and your IP address is used only for a short time to stop the form being flooded; it is not stored with your message. If you would rather not use the form, email us instead.

The Android app

The SyphonGames app for Android opens this site in your phone's own browser, normally Chrome, without the address bar. The app asks for no permissions, collects nothing itself and sends us nothing. Everything in this policy applies to the site in exactly the same way whether you reach it through the app or a browser.

Because the site runs inside that browser, your ratings and game saves live in the browser's storage, shared with the site in the browser itself, and clearing the browser's data for this site clears them.

What we do not do

• No selling, renting or sharing of data
• No analytics services of our own, and no fingerprinting scripts
• No accounts, so no email lists and no passwords to leak
• No profiles built about you

Children

The site is open to anyone and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children: there are no accounts, and the only thing anyone fills in is the contact form, which asks for an email address so we can reply. Advertising on this site is not personalised to anyone we have reason to believe is a child, and the site is marked as directed at a general audience rather than at children. Games are labelled by category. Parents who want a closer look at what a particular game does, or who want advertising discussed, are welcome to write to us.

Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Principles you can ask what personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct or delete it. In practice the honest answer is almost always "nothing beyond a few days of server logs", but ask and we will check properly and tell you.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes get a notice on the home page.

Contact

Privacy questions and requests go to our contact form. If we cannot sort it out between us, you can take a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.