Random Balloon — Privacy & Cookie Policy

1. What we collect

• Room & game data — participant names and win counts you enter voluntarily, stored on our self-hosted server. Anonymous rooms expire after 24 hours; claimed rooms are kept until you delete them.
• Account data — if you sign in: your display name, email address, and (for Google sign-in) your profile picture. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt and never stored in plain text.
• Usage analytics— page views and anonymised game events (e.g. “room created”, “game played”). Only collected with your explicit consent and sent to Google Analytics 4.
• Server logs — IP addresses and request metadata are kept for up to 7 days for abuse prevention. We do not sell or share this data.

2. Cookies & local storage

Essential

• session — keeps you signed in (HttpOnly, Secure). Expires after 30 days of inactivity.
• room_token_* — localStorage keys that let anonymous users manage their own rooms. Never sent to our servers.

Preference (set by you)

• cookie_consent — localStorage key storing your analytics preferences. No expiry; cleared when you clear site data.

Analytics (opt-in)

Google Analytics 4 cookies (_ga, _ga_*) are only set after you accept. You can withdraw consent at any time via the cookie banner or by clearing your browser's local storage for this site.

3. Data storage & retention

• Room and account data are stored in a PostgreSQL database on a Hetzner VPS in the EU (Falkenstein, Germany).
• Encrypted backups are stored on Backblaze B2 and retained for 30 days.
• Unclaimed rooms and their game history are automatically deleted 24 hours after creation.
• Audit logs (internal action records) are retained for 12 months.
• Server access logs are retained for 7 days.

4. Third-party services

• Google OAuth — optional sign-in. We receive your name, email, and profile picture from Google. Privacy Policy
• Resend — sends transactional emails (verification, password reset). Email addresses are transmitted to Resend's servers for delivery only. Privacy Policy
• Cloudflare — CDN, DDoS protection, and Turnstile CAPTCHA on room creation. Cloudflare processes request IP addresses. Privacy Policy
• Google Analytics 4 — consent-gated usage analytics. Privacy Policy

5. Pro subscriptions

Pro access is granted per user account. When you subscribe, your account is marked as Pro in our database. We do not store payment card details — payment processing is handled by our payment provider and subject to their privacy policy.

6. Your rights

• Access & portability — you can view all data associated with your account from your account page.
• Deletion — deleting your account from the account page permanently removes your profile, sessions, and all rooms you own. This action is irreversible.
• Consent withdrawal— change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the cookie icon in the footer, or by clearing this site's localStorage in your browser (DevTools → Application → Local Storage).
• GDPR / CCPA — EU residents have the right to object to processing, request rectification, and lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. California residents may opt out of the “sale” of personal information (we do not sell data). Email us at [email protected] for any data request.

7. Security

All data is transmitted over HTTPS (TLS 1.2+). Passwords are hashed with bcrypt (cost factor 12). Database access uses least-privilege roles with row-level security. We conduct periodic security reviews and apply patches promptly.

8. Changes to this policy

Material changes will be announced via email to registered users and noted with a new “Last updated” date above. Continued use of the service after changes constitute acceptance of the updated policy.