Privacy Policy
Effective November 11, 2026
The short version: we built Teddy Arcade so that we don't need your personal information, and we don't keep it. There are no accounts, no cookies, no ads, no analytics, no chat, and no tracking. We never sell personal information or share it for advertising.
1. Who we are
Teddy Arcade ("Teddy Arcade," "we," "us," or "our") runs the website at teddyarcade.com and the game Maze Math Chase at mazemath.teddyarcade.com (together, the "Service"). We are based in Virginia, United States. You can reach us about privacy at privacy@teddyarcade.com.
This Privacy Policy explains what information the Service handles, why, and for how long. It is part of our Terms of Service. Our Cookie Policy explains what is saved in your browser.
2. Children's privacy
The Service is made for children in grades 1 to 5 and the grown-ups who play with them. We follow the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by designing the Service so that it does not ask children for personal information. The only identifier it handles is the device's IP address, used only to deliver the Service and protect it from abuse, as COPPA allows:
- Players do not create accounts and are never asked for an email address, phone number, home address, school, photo, birthday, or location.
- There is no chat and no way to send messages or upload anything. Other than a 4-letter room code, the only thing a player types is a nickname of up to 16 characters; math answers are picked from choices.
- We ask players to use a nickname, not their real name. The game suggests a random kid-friendly nickname (like "Sunny Otter"), and the 🎲 button picks another, so nobody needs to type their name. A grown-up should help a young child choose.
- The nickname is used only to show the player's name to the other players in the same game room. It is kept only in the game server's temporary memory, and it is deleted from that memory when the player leaves the room or the room closes. We do not write it to disk, to a database, or to logs, and we do not use it for anything else.
- We do not show ads, we do not track players across websites or apps, and we do not build profiles of players.
Because we do not collect or keep personal information from children, we have nothing to show, change, or delete later. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child gave us personal information anyway (for example, typed a full name as a nickname), contact us at privacy@teddyarcade.com. Anything typed during a game is deleted from our server once that game's room closes (the last nickname used also stays in that device's browser until its site data is cleared; see section 5), and we will confirm this with you and answer your questions.
3. What the Service handles while you play
To run a game, the game server needs a little information for a short time. None of it is saved to disk, and all of it is deleted from the server's memory when the room closes. A room closes when everyone has left it; an unused lobby closes on its own after 30 minutes, and a game ends after at most 30 minutes.
| Information | Why we need it | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname | To show the player to others in the same game room | In temporary memory only, until the room closes. Never written to disk. |
| Bear costume choices (fur color, outfit, hat, colors) | To draw the player's bear for others in the room | In temporary memory only, until the room closes |
| Gameplay (moves, math answers, power-ups, score) | To run the game, check answers, and show results | In temporary memory only, until the room closes |
| Room code | To put players who share a code in the same game | In temporary memory only, until the room closes |
| A random connection ID made by the game for each visit | To tell players apart during a game | In temporary memory only, until the page is closed |
4. Technical information
Like every website, our servers receive basic technical information when your device connects: your device's Internet Protocol (IP) address, and the browser's request details such as the page asked for and the browser type. Without this, the Service cannot send pages to your device.
- How we use it: only to deliver the Service and to protect it from abuse. For example, the game server briefly counts how many games and connections come from one network, so that one person can't overload it.
- How long we keep it: those counters live only in the server's temporary memory. A connection's count ends when that connection closes, wrong room codes are forgotten within about 2 minutes, and new-game counts within about 11 minutes. If a game's host removes a player, that player's network (unless it is the host's own network) is kept out of that one room until the room closes. We do not keep access logs, the Service does not save visitors' IP addresses, and our web server is set up to leave visitors' addresses out of its logs.
- What we don't do: we don't use IP addresses to find out who you are or where you live, and we don't combine them with any other information.
If something goes wrong on the server, it may write a technical error message to a system log so that we can fix the problem. That log is limited in size, older entries are overwritten as new ones arrive, and it is deleted whenever we update the server. We design these messages not to include nicknames or IP addresses.
5. Information saved on your own device
The game saves a few settings in your browser's local storage so that you don't have to choose them again next time: the nickname you last used, your bear's costume, and your sound settings. This information stays on your device. The nickname and bear costume are sent to the game server when you create or join a game, and the costume is sent again whenever you change it in the lobby. Sound settings are never sent. You can delete these settings at any time by clearing your browser's site data. See our Cookie Policy for the full list.
6. Who we share information with
We do not sell, rent, trade, or share personal information, including for targeted advertising. We do not use third-party analytics, advertising, social media plugins, or tracking tools. Our fonts and images are served from our own servers.
Other players in the same game room see your nickname, your bear, and your score while you play together.
The Service runs on servers we rent from Hetzner Online, a hosting company, in a data center in the United States. Hetzner provides the computers and the network connection. It does not use your information for its own purposes. HTTPS certificates come from Let's Encrypt, which does not receive any information about our visitors.
We may disclose information if the law requires it, for example in response to a valid court order. Because we keep almost nothing, there is usually nothing to disclose.
7. Security
All pages and game connections use HTTPS encryption; a request made with plain http:// is immediately redirected to HTTPS. The game server checks and limits what it accepts, and it keeps game information only in temporary memory. No system is completely secure, but the safest information is information that isn't kept, and that is our approach.
8. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, laws such as the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation may give you rights to access, correct, delete, or get a copy of your personal information, or to opt out of its sale, targeted advertising, or profiling. We do not sell personal information, do not use it for targeted advertising or profiling, and do not keep personal information after a game room closes. That means we usually have nothing to provide or delete. You are still welcome to contact us at privacy@teddyarcade.com with any request or question, and we will answer within the time the law requires. We will not treat you differently for asking.
Your browser's "Do Not Track" and "Global Privacy Control" signals need no special handling here, because we do not track you or sell or share your information in the first place.
9. Schools and teachers
Teachers and homeschool families may use the Service with students. The Service does not ask for or keep student records, grades, or other education records. Teachers should tell students to use nicknames, not real names.
10. Visitors outside the United States
The Service is run from the United States, and the servers are in the United States. If you use it from another country, the information described above is handled in the United States while you play.
11. Changes to this policy
If we change how the Service handles information, we will update this policy and the date at the top before the change takes effect. If a change would mean collecting personal information from children, we will not do it without first getting verifiable consent from a parent, as COPPA requires.
12. Contact us
Questions about privacy: privacy@teddyarcade.com.