Privacy Policy

Games with a friend (game server)

In games with a friend, your browser and the game server communicate over WebSocket. The information sent is the game type, the game settings (the rules for Gomoku and Checkers; the number of players for Ludo and Chinese Checkers; the number of players, rounds and house rules for Daifugo; the number of players, rounds and passes, whether you may pass when you can play, the joker setting, and the handling of A and K for Sevens; the number of players, the number of cards, the joker setting, and the matching rule for Concentration; the number of players, the number of rounds, and whether to play Jiji-nuki for Old Maid; the number of players and the rule settings for Bozu Mekuri; and the play style, the number of players and cards, the card range, the reading speed, and the card text setting for Hyakunin Isshu Karuta), the moves you make, draw offers in Checkers and their acceptance, resign and rematch actions, the action of starting with empty seats filled by the computer, the actions of starting to watch and of taking a seat while watching, the room ID, and the seat token (a random value that lets you return to your seat). The number you set in Hit and Blow and your piece setup in Gunjin Shogi are also sent to the server as moves. The server does not send these to your opponent or to anyone watching until the game ends (in Gunjin Shogi, it sends only the positions of the pieces, not their types). In Daifugo and Sevens, the server deals the cards and, until the game ends, sends each hand only to the player in that seat (in Sevens, who received the joker and the card played in its place are sent to everyone). In Daifugo, the cards returned in the exchange from the second round on are also sent, until the game ends, only to the player who gives them and the player who receives them. In Concentration, the server decides how the cards are laid out, and until the game ends, it does not send anyone the cards that have not yet been turned over (cards that are turned over are sent to everyone). In Old Maid, the server also decides the hands and their order (the order after shuffling following each draw), and until the game ends, sends each hand only to the player in that seat. A card that is drawn is sent only to the player who drew it and the player it was drawn from. At the end of each round, the cards left with the player who lost and, in Jiji-nuki, the card that was set aside are sent to everyone. In Hyakunin Isshu Karuta, the card you press and the time from the first syllable of the reading to your press are also sent (the server checks the time against when your press arrives). The server decides which poem is read, does not send it to anyone until the card is settled, and sends the syllables of the reading to everyone on schedule. Anyone who has the room link can watch without taking a seat (they receive the board, the seat status, and the number of people watching). Names and free-form text are not sent (there is no feature for entering them).

The contents of each room (such as the moves, settings, and seat tokens) are kept in the server’s memory. So that games can continue after the server restarts or stops abnormally, the contents are also written to a file on the server every 30 seconds when they have changed, and always when the server is stopped, and they are read back when the server starts. A room is deleted when 30 minutes have passed since all players disconnected, or when 24 hours have passed since it was created. A deleted room is also removed from the file at the next write (within 30 seconds).

IP addresses (for IPv6, the first 64 bits) are used in memory only to count the connections and the rooms created from the same internet connection against their limits, and are not written to logs or files. The records used for this counting are deleted within 1 hour after the connection ends. The server logs record the game type when a room is created and when someone watching takes a seat, the numbers of connections, rooms, and people watching, the types and counts of disconnections and errors, and error messages when processing fails because of a server bug (these may include moves or Hit and Blow numbers).

Game statistics

To fix bugs and improve the games, game statistics are sent to this site’s servers. The information sent is the game type, the mode (vs computer, pass and play on one device, solo, or with a friend), the computer’s level, the game settings, the result, the number of moves, the game length range, the screen where a room for a game with a friend was created (the menu, the game result, or “Invite again with a new link”), whether connecting, watching, and taking a seat in games with a friend succeeded and the number of reconnections, 3D display failures and the rendering speed range, the time range from opening the page until the 3D display starts (if you leave the page or switch to another tab or app before it starts, that fact and the time range until then), the connection speed range at that time (as estimated by the browser), how much of the page’s program files was loaded from the browser’s cache saved on an earlier visit (all, some, or none), the types of loading failures, the device type (whether it is a phone, and memory and CPU core ranges), the browser and OS type, and an identifier that is created anew each time you open a page (it is not stored).

Room IDs, seat tokens, moves and board positions, Hit and Blow numbers, GPU model names, and page URLs are not sent. IP addresses are only used in memory to count the number of transmissions against a limit, and are not recorded. Records are deleted after 30 days.

Statistics are not sent when your browser’s Do Not Track (DNT) or Global Privacy Control (GPC) setting is on. You can stop them at any time with the switch at the bottom of the home page and each game page.

Access logs

Each time this site’s web server delivers a page or file, it records the IP address, date and time, URL, referrer, and browser type in its access logs. The logs are used to investigate failures and unauthorized access and to count visits. They are split by day, and records older than 10 days are deleted.