Privacy Policy

The short version: PaperCarnival has no accounts and no server that stores what you make. The names, word lists and activity content you type into our tools are processed in your browser and are never uploaded to PaperCarnival. This page explains exactly what that does and does not cover.

1. What you type into a tool

The generators, bingo, 90 ball bingo, seating charts, charades, scavenger hunts, crosswords and word searches, run entirely in your browser. When you type a word list, a class roster, or the names of your guests, that text is not sent to PaperCarnival. There is no upload, no API call, and no server-side account to store it in. The same is true of a spreadsheet or .csv you import into the seating chart, and of photos you add to picture bingo: the file is read by your browser and never leaves it.

Two things follow from this that are worth being plain about. Wecannot retrieve your lists for you, and we cannot delete them for you either, because we never had them. They live on your device, and clearing your browser data removes them.

The generator pages load no advertising script. The only script from outside this site that runs there is our host's cookieless visit counter, described below. That is deliberate: those pages hold your names in the page address, and no advertising code runs there.

2. Ordinary web serving

PaperCarnival is a website, so a request for a page has to reach a server. Our hosting provider (Cloudflare) processes the technical information any web server receives in order to deliver the page and protect the site: your IP address, the page requested, your browser's user-agent string, and similar request data. This is standard infrastructure processing, handled under our host's terms.

On top of that, we count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics. Cloudflare, which serves this site, adds a small script to each page as it is delivered. It records that a page was viewed, the page address, the page that linked to it, the type of browser and device, the country the request came from, and how quickly the page loaded. It sets no cookie, stores nothing on your device, and gives us no identifier for you. We see totals: how many visits, which pages, from which countries. We cannot see who you are or link one visit to another. Cloudflare's own privacy policy governs what it does with that data. Beyond that one counter there is no Google Analytics, no tag manager, no pixel, no heat-mapping, and no error reporting. We do not build a profile of you, and we do not sell or share personal information.

3. Shared links

Every tool keeps its whole setup in the part of the page address after the # (the "fragment"). Browsers do not send that part to a server, which is why a shared link can carry your list without any of it reaching us.

That also means the content is in the link itself. Anyone you send the link to can open it and see the names, words or prompts it contains, and so can anything the link passes through, a messaging app, an email provider, a shared browser's history. Treat a share link containing real names the way you would treat the list itself.

4. What is stored on your device

Nothing here is sent anywhere. It is all local storage in your own browser, under your control:

• Your cookie choice, in local storage underpph.consent. It stores only the word "granted" or "denied", so we can stop asking. Removed by clearing your browser's site data.
• Seating chart, in local storage underpph.rosters and pph.charts. These can contain student or guest names, because that is what you saved. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Picture bingo photos, in your browser's IndexedDB database. The image files themselves stay on the device and are never uploaded. Removed from the tool's photo library, or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Scoreboard, in local storage underpph.score.board: team names, points and positions. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Pictionary, in local storage underpph.pict.teams (team names), pph.pict.category,pph.pict.difficulty, pph.pict.round andpph.pict.muted (round settings). Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Whiteboard, in local storage underpph.board.strokes (your drawing), pph.board.tool,pph.board.color and pph.board.size (your pen settings). Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Scrum poker, in local storage underpph.poker.custom, pph.poker.deck,pph.poker.mode and pph.poker.rounds: your deck and round settings. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Guess the country, in local storage underpph.globe.level, pph.globe.round,pph.globe.stats and pph.globe.timed: your settings and scores. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Word grid, in local storage underpph.grid.game, pph.grid.stats andpph.grid.timed: today's puzzle progress and your scores. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Typing test, in local storage underpph.typing.bests, pph.typing.difficulty andpph.typing.duration: your best scores and settings. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Timer, in local storage underpph.timer.muted, pph.timer.chime andpph.timer.volume. Whether the end sound is on, which sound it is, and how loud. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Dice, in local storage underpph.dice.count and pph.dice.muted: how many dice and whether sound is on. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.
• Coin flip, in local storage underpph.coin.muted: whether sound is on. Removed in the tool or by clearing your browser's site data.

None of the above is personal in itself, except where you choose to type a name into a roster, a chart or a team list. Clearing your browser's site data for papercarnival.com removes all of it. Because it is per-device and per-browser, saved work does not follow you to another computer, and the export/import backup in the seating tool exists for exactly that reason.

5. Cookies and advertising

PaperCarnival sets no cookies of its own. This site is free, and we intend to pay for it with advertising from Google AdSense. Our application to Google is being reviewed. While it is, Google's advertising script loads on every page except the seven generator pages that hold your names and lists, so that Google can review the site, and no advertisement is shown. Loading that script is a request to Google: Google's servers see your IP address, the page you are on and what your browser tells every site. We set Google's consent signals to "denied" before the script loads, using the banner described in our Cookie Policy, so it sets no advertising cookie unless you agree to one.

If the application is approved, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other sites. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, Google's consent message will ask you first and you can refuse; refusing gives you non-personalized ads. Advertising is never loaded on the generator pages, never appears in printed output, and never appears in a downloaded PDF.

Advertising partners operate under their own privacy policies and, in the course of serving an ad or reviewing the site, receive technical information such as your IP address, browser and the page being viewed. They never receive the content you type into a tool. See the Cookie Policy for the detail, including exactly what our consent banner does and does not guarantee. This page will change when ads go live, and the date at the top will change with it.

You can turn personalized advertising off at Google's Ads Settings, opt out of participating vendors at the Digital Advertising Alliance and, in Europe, at youronlinechoices.eu.

6. Email

If you email us at hello@papercarnival.com, we have your address and whatever you chose to write, and we use it only to reply. We keep it for as long as it takes to deal with it and for up to twelve months afterwards, then delete it. It does not go on a mailing list and we do not pass it on.

7. Your privacy rights

Because we hold no account data and never receive your activity content, there is very little for us to hold in the first place. Even so, U.S. residents, including California residents under the CCPA/CPRA, have the right to know what personal information a business collects, to request deletion, and to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell or share your personal information. If you are in the EEA or UK and have a question about how the advertising partner processes data, their own policy covers it, and you can withdraw consent at any time using the Cookie preferences link in the footer.

You may ask what we hold about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to its use, by emailing hello@papercarnival.com. Almost always the answer is that we hold nothing, because everything you make stays on your device. You can also complain to South Africa's Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za). If you are in the UK you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office; in the EU, to your own supervisory authority.

8. Children's privacy

PaperCarnival is designed for teachers, parents, party hosts and other adults making printable activities. It is not an account-based service for children, it has no profiles, no messaging and no social features, and it does not ask any visitor for personal details.

A teacher or parent may of course type children's names into a tool. We want to be exact about what happens then: those names are processed in the browser, are never uploaded to PaperCarnival, and are never passed to an advertising partner. This site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone: nothing here asks for an age or a name of its own accord, and the tools ask for nothing and upload nothing. South African law treats anyone under 18 as a child; the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), anyone under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email hello@papercarnival.com and we will delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time; the "last updated" date above will change when we do. If a change means new information starts being collected, we will say so plainly rather than quietly.

10. Who operates this site

PaperCarnival is operated by Inyonitech Solutions (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa and based in Cape Town. Under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) it is the responsible party for any personal information this site processes, and under the GDPR and the UK GDPR it is the controller. Its Information Officer is registered with South Africa's Information Regulator and can be reached at hello@papercarnival.com.

11. Contact

Questions about privacy? Reach us via the contact page.