Privacy Policy

Service: Paper Bingo
Last Updated: April 30, 2026

1. Introduction

At Paper Bingo ("we," "us," or "our"), we respect your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information about you when you use our website and services.

We operate on a principle of data minimization: we only collect the information necessary to provide the service to you. We do not sell your personal data.

2. Information We Collect

A. Information You Provide

Account Information: To manage sign-ins, we collect your email address to identify your account and save your games.
User Content (The "Bingo Data"): We collect the text and images you explicitly upload to create your bingo games.
Payment Information: We do NOT collect or store your credit card information. All payments are processed by our Merchant of Record, Polar.sh.

B. Automatically Collected Information

Usage Data: We track specific interactions, such as the number of times a game is played. This data is used solely to sort games by popularity and improve the user experience.
Cookies: Our authentication provider (Better Auth) uses cookies and sessions to keep you logged in.

3. How We Store Your Data (Important Security Disclosure)

⚠️ Image Storage & Visibility

Please be aware of how we store the images you upload for your games:

Public Hosting: Images uploaded to Paper Bingo are stored in a public cloud storage bucket.
Obfuscation, Not Encryption: We use complex, random filenames (UUIDs) to make it difficult for strangers to guess the link to your image ("security through obscurity"), but the files themselves are unencrypted.
Private by Default: Games are private by default. As long as you never mark a game as shared, your images remain linked only to your account and will be fully removed from our systems when you delete the game or your account.
Shared Games — Irreversible Exposure: If you choose to mark a game as shared (making it visible to others), the images in that game can be copied by other users. Once a game has been shared, we cannot guarantee that third parties have not already downloaded, cached, or copied those images — even if you later remove the game's shared status or delete the game entirely. Please treat sharing as a permanent action with respect to your images. Do not upload sensitive, private, or personally identifiable documents (such as government-issued IDs, financial records, or private photos) to Paper Bingo.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your data. We share data only with the service providers necessary to run the application:

Better Auth: Used for authentication and identity management.
Polar.sh: Acting as our Merchant of Record. If you make a purchase, your relationship for that transaction is with Polar.sh, and their privacy policy applies to the financial data.
Cloud Infrastructure: We use standard cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Vercel) to host the website and database.

5. Data Retention & Deletion

Account Deletion: You may delete your account at any time through your account settings.
What Happens When You Delete:
- Your Content (Never Shared): If a game was never made public, we will delete your account record, your created games, and all associated images and text from our database and storage buckets.
- Your Content (Previously Shared): When you delete a game or your account, we will remove the images from our own storage systems, provided no other Paper Bingo user has created a copy of that game (a "remix"). If another user has remixed your game, the shared images remain in use within their account and will be retained on our systems for as long as their copy exists — deleting those images would destroy content they have built upon in good faith. In that case, the images are no longer solely yours to delete. If no other user has remixed the game, we will delete the images from our systems upon your request or account deletion. Additionally, we cannot guarantee that copies of previously shared images do not exist outside of our systems — for example, in a third party's browser cache, a downloaded file, or another service. Paper Bingo's deletion obligations extend only to data within our own systems.
- Transaction History (Exception): Because we use a Merchant of Record (Polar.sh), we cannot delete the history of financial transactions (purchases) you have made. This data is retained by Polar.sh for tax reporting and legal compliance purposes and is not controlled by Paper Bingo.

6. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date.

8. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: [email protected]