privacy

Privacy policy.

Last updated 25 August 2026

Only Words has no accounts. It never asks for your email address, your password, or your payment details. The words you type are the data.

Only Words is operated by Leelandio, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, which is the data controller for the information described here. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Leelandio, LLC.

This policy explains what the site collects, why it collects it, and what you can do about it. It applies to onlywords.me and no other site.

What we do not collect

There is no sign-up on this site. We do not ask for and cannot receive:

• Your name, unless you type one into the optional player-name box
• Your email address or telephone number
• A password — there are no accounts to protect
• Any payment or financial information
• Your precise location

What the game stores

Words you type

When you create a puzzle, the secret word is stored on our server so that guesses can be scored against it. When you guess, the guessed word, its rank, and the time it arrived are stored so the puzzle's host can see the board.

If you fill in the optional player name box, that name is stored alongside your guesses and is shown to the host and to other players on the same puzzle. It is free text. Do not put your real name or any private detail in that box if you do not want the other players to see it. Names that match a list of offensive terms are replaced with the word "someone".

Stored on your own device

The site uses your browser's local storage — not cookies — to remember three things: the player name you last used, the guesses you have made on a puzzle so the list survives a refresh, and whether you chose to reveal or hide the secret word on your board. This data stays on your device. Clearing your browser data removes it.

Server logs

The site runs on Google Cloud. Like effectively every web server, it records standard technical request data, which includes your IP address, the time of the request, the page requested, and your browser's user-agent string. These logs exist to keep the service running and to investigate abuse and faults. They are not used to build a profile of you.

Cookies and advertising

This site shows advertising supplied by Google AdSense. That advertising is how the site pays for itself.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve advertisements based on your prior visits to this site and to other sites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies allows Google and its partners to serve advertisements to you based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• You can opt out of some other third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you are shown a consent choice before personalised advertising cookies are set, and you can change that choice at any time.

This site does not use Google Analytics and runs no other tracking or analytics service.

Who else handles your data

We use Google as our infrastructure and advertising provider. Specifically:

• Google Cloud and Firebase host the site and store puzzles and guesses.
• Google AdSense serves the advertising described above.
• Google Fonts serves the two typefaces the page uses, which means your browser requests those files from Google's servers.

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone beyond the providers listed here.

How long data is kept

Puzzles and their guesses are kept so that shared links keep working. If you want a puzzle and everything guessed on it deleted, send us the puzzle link and we will remove it. Server logs are kept for a short period on Google Cloud's standard retention schedule and then discarded automatically.

Children

Only Words is suitable for a general audience but is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has submitted personal information through the player-name box, contact us and we will remove it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live — in particular under the GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in California — you may have the right to ask what data we hold about you, to ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and to object to how it is used. Because the site holds no accounts, the practical way to exercise these rights is to send us the puzzle link involved so we can find the records.

We do not sell personal information as that term is defined by the CCPA.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page changes with it. Material changes will be noted on the home page.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or complaints go to Leelandio, LLC at hello@onlywords.me.