Privacy

What leaves your device, and when

Last updated October 9, 2026 (links to the other legal pages added)

Your town, your case files and the names at your table are kept in your own browser and nowhere else. There are no accounts, no cookies and no advertising. We keep simple counts of what is played, with nothing that says who you are, and Cloudflare, which delivers the site, counts visits for us without cookies. What you write leaves your device in two cases, and the game tells you when: when live townsfolk are seated in a case, and when you play in a phone room, where each player is on their own phone. If you buy a paid season, Stripe takes the payment and we keep only the key we give you.

What stays in your browser

• Your town: its name, the places on the map, every case file (including the culprit's alibi) and each resident's record. (Key holders: see "Your town, saved with your key" below.)
• Today's date, so one browser is not counted as a new visitor twice.
• The names you typed for the players at your table, so you don't have to type them again.
• If you are in a phone room: its code and a random pass for your seat, until you leave or it closes.
• Your Daily Alibi results for the last fourteen days: for each day, whether you named the culprit and the evening. Older days are dropped. Alongside it, your streak: how many days running you have played, the last day you played, and your best run.

This is held in your browser's local storage on this device. Unless you hold a key, we cannot see it, it is not backed up, and it does not follow you to another phone or computer. "Start a new town" on the Town page erases the town; clearing this site's data in your browser erases everything.

Counting, not tracking

To know whether anyone plays, the site adds one to a daily tally on our server when certain things happen: a visit (once per browser per day, and whether it is that browser's first), which of a few broad places the visit came from (direct, search, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Reddit, email, or other), a case started or closed, a Daily Alibi played, the Lamplighter or a later culprit named rightly or wrongly, a season begun, a buy button pressed, a purchase completed, a key entered, a saved town restored, a phone room opened or joined, a case closed in a room, a town page made or looked at (and whether its visitor tapped the button to start their own), a case of your own written, a gift button pressed or a gift emailed, and a welcome-back note shown.

That is the whole of it. A tally is a number against a date. It carries no name, no key, no internet address and nothing you typed, and the page you came from is reduced to one of those few words in your browser before anything is sent. We set no cookies. Your browser keeps one small note (today's date) so it is not counted as a new visitor twice. Tallies are deleted after 120 days.

Cloudflare Web Analytics. The site is delivered by Cloudflare, and we use its Web Analytics to see how many people visit, which pages they open, where they came from, and how fast the pages load. When a page loads, a small script from Cloudflare sends it the address of the page, the page that linked to you, how long the page took to load, and your browser's type and screen size; Cloudflare also sees your internet address, as it must to deliver any page, and uses it to work out your country. It sets no cookies, keeps nothing in your browser, does not follow you to other sites and does not build a profile of you. It never sees what you type in the game, your town, or your key. Cloudflare handles this under its own privacy policy. If your browser or an extension blocks the script, the site works exactly the same.

A town page, if you make one

Nothing about your town is public unless you choose "Make a town page" and confirm. If you do, a copy of your town is stored on our server and shown to anyone who has the link: the town's name, its places and what your table called them, each case, the name of whoever did it as it was typed, and the alibi they gave. Residents' records and scores are not included. Our server also draws a picture of your map from that copy, showing the town's name, its latest case and the name of whoever did it, which is what a messaging app shows when the link is sent. The link is long and random and the page asks search engines not to list it, but anyone you send it to can pass it on.

The page only changes when you press "Update the page", and "Take the page down" deletes it from our server at once. The browser that made the page holds the only pass that can change or remove it; if you have lost that browser, write to support@alibitown.com with the link and we will take it down. We may also remove a page that shows something unlawful or somebody's private details.

Cases you write yourself

With a paid key your table can write its own cases. When you save one, its title and what happened are sent to our server with your key, so the server can check the key, and are handed straight back; we do not keep them. The case is kept in your town like everything else in it: in your browser, in the copy saved with your key, and on your town page if you have made one and bring it up to date. Cases you write are never sent to the townsfolk's AI model.

Your town, saved with your key

If you have bought a season, your town is also saved on our server against your key, so it comes back after a cleared browser or on a new phone. That copy holds what is in your town: its name, the places and what your table called them, each case file (the players' first names as typed, and the culprit's alibi) and the residents' records. It is stored under the key alone, with no email address or other identity, and anyone who has your key can open it, so treat the key as private.

If a purchase is refunded and the key is left opening nothing, the saved copy is deleted at the same moment. The town in your browser is not touched.

Without a key, none of this applies and your town never leaves your browser. To remove the saved copy, use "Start a new town" on the Town page, which replaces it with an empty one, or write to support@alibitown.com with your key and we will delete it.

Phone rooms

A phone room lets everyone at the table play on their own phone. To give each phone its own part, the room has to live on our server while it is open. It holds the first names typed by the people who join, the name the table gives the place, the alibis written, and who accused whom. Each phone is sent only its own part until the verdict; after it, everyone in the room sees the whole case.

A room is found by a four-letter code. Anyone who has the code can join while a case is not in play, so share it only with your table; the host can remove anyone. A room is deleted two hours after the last thing happened in it, or straight away when the host closes it. Nothing from a room is kept after that, and the town never goes there: the closed case is filed on the host's phone, like any other case. Your browser keeps the room code and a random pass for your seat, so a refresh brings you back to it.

If townsfolk are seated in a room and they are live, the alibis are passed to Anthropic's Claude exactly as described below, with players labelled "Player 1", "Player 2". Rooms need no account and no key.

Buying a season

Seasons one and two are free. Seasons three, four and five are each paid for once, through a checkout page run by Stripe. Your name, email address, card and billing details are typed into Stripe's page and go to Stripe, not to us; Stripe handles them under its own privacy policy and is the seller of record for tax.

When you come back from the checkout we ask Stripe whether that purchase was paid, and if it was we give you a key. We store three things: the key, which seasons it opens, and the reference number of each Stripe purchase behind it, so the same purchase always gives the same key. We do not store your name, email address or card. If you already hold a key when you buy another season, your browser sends the key with the purchase so the new season is added to it. Your browser keeps the key and a copy of each season you own so they play without asking us again; when you open the site it sends the key to check whether another season has been added. Entering your key on another device sends only the key.

Having your key emailed. Choosing to write the email yourself opens your own mail app with the key already written in; nothing is sent to us. Where the site also offers "Send it to me", you type an address and our server emails the key to it through Resend, a mail-sending service, which handles the message under its own privacy policy. We do not keep the address. We keep a scrambled fingerprint of it against your key, which cannot be turned back into the address, so that if you lose the key and type the same address again we can send it there again. Asking for a lost key gets the same answer whether or not we recognise the address. Gifts. If you buy a season as a gift and ask us to email it, you type the other person's address, your name and an optional note. We send them one email with the key, your name and the note, through Resend. We do not keep their address, your name or the note; we keep the same scrambled fingerprint of the address against the gift's key, so that they can ask for the key again. Stripe is told only that the purchase is a gift, never who it is for. The email shows our logo, which your mail app loads from alibitown.com like any picture on the site; it carries no tracking pixel and its links are not tracked.

Refunds. If a purchase is refunded, Stripe tells us which payment it was (a reference number, no name or card) and the seasons it unlocked are removed from the key.

The townsfolk: scripted or live

Empty chairs can be filled with townsfolk. The seating screen and the "How to play" page say which kind this site is running right now.

• Scripted. Their alibis and votes are worked out in your browser. Nothing you write is sent anywhere.
• Live. To write what the townsfolk say, your browser sends our server which case it is, the name your table gave the place, and the alibis written at your table. Our server passes these to Anthropic's Claude, an AI model, and sends back its answer. Players' names are not sent; players are labelled "Player 1", "Player 2". We do not store any of it. Anthropic handles it under its own terms: see Anthropic's privacy policy.

If a case played on one phone has no townsfolk seated, nothing leaves your device in either mode. The Daily Alibi and the Lamplighter story are always worked out in your browser and send nothing. "Share your result" hands a short text (the day's number, two ticks or crosses, and your streak if you have one) to whatever app you choose; we never see it. Because an alibi may be passed to an AI model, please keep real surnames, addresses, phone numbers and anything else private out of them. That goes double when children are playing.

Stopping abuse

When live townsfolk are used, a phone room is opened or a key is emailed, our server counts those per visitor per day so that nobody can run up a bill or send a flood of mail. The count is kept against a scrambled form of your internet address that changes daily, not the address itself, and every count is deleted the following day.

Our host

The site is served by Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes your internet address and basic request details to deliver pages and keep the service secure. We do not use this to identify or follow anyone.

Children

Alibi Town is meant to be played by families together. We do not ask for or knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age. An adult should seat the table and decide whether townsfolk sit in.

More detail

• UK and EU: the legal reasons data is used, how long it is kept, and your rights.
• Sub-processors: the companies that handle data for us, and what each sees.
• AI in Alibi Town: what is sent to the AI model, and what never is.
• Cookies and storage: there are no cookies; this lists what is kept in your browser.
• Data processing addendum: for an organisation running the game for its people.

United States. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. Whatever rights your state's privacy law gives you (to know, to delete, to correct), write to support@alibitown.com and we will honour them; using them never changes what you get from us.

Changes and contact

If what the game does with data changes, this page changes on the same day. Questions: hello@alibitown.com, or by post to the address below.