Privacy

Last updated 30 October 2026 (dashboard). Written for South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and the EU/UK GDPR.

Your account

We keep your email address, the name you choose (optional), when you joined and last signed in, and either a scrambled form of your password (it can't be turned back into the password) or, if you use "Continue with Google", Google's ID number for your account. Google then tells us your name and email and that it has confirmed the address - nothing else, and never your Google password. Your account is only for PlayHQ; it isn't shared with or used on any other website.

Your dashboard

To show your progress, we keep your best score and number of games in the browser demo, when you last downloaded PlayHQ, whether you ticked "Teach your first genre", and your best browser-demo AI (a small list of numbers, about 3 KB) and its test score. Deleting your account deletes this too.

The app on your computer

The PlayHQ app runs entirely on your own computer. What it sees on your screen, the games you record and the AI brains you train stay there (in a folder called .playhq in your home folder). None of it is uploaded to us. The browser demo also runs entirely on your device.

Visit counts

We count visits to this website with TractionHQ, a privacy-friendly counter. It records the page, the site you came from, your country, whether you use a phone or a computer, and when you use the demo or download. It keeps a random ID in your browser to count returning visits. It doesn't use cookies, never keeps your IP address and doesn't share anything with advertisers. Counts are deleted after 13 months.

Cookies

Signing in sets one cookie, phq_member, that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days (we store only a scrambled form of it). "Continue with Google" sets a short cookie for up to 10 minutes to check the answer comes from the sign-in you started. Both are strictly necessary. There are no advertising cookies.

Who handles it

PlayHQ runs on Cloudflare (Pages and its database), which stores accounts under its own data-protection terms; its servers may be outside South Africa (POPIA section 72). Google is involved only if you sign in with Google.

Your rights

You can change your name and password and delete your account yourself under My account. You may also ask what we hold, ask for corrections or object; in South Africa you may complain to the Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za).