Privacy Policy

The Old Gazette · Last Updated: May 25, 2026

This Privacy Policy covers both the theoldgazette.com website and The Old Gazette mobile application.

Website

Who we are

Our website address is: https://theoldgazette.com.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where your data is sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Mobile Application — The Old Gazette

The Old Gazette is a location-based mobile game in which players discover and collect historical newspaper articles from the 1800s and early 1900s. This section explains what the app collects, how it is used, and your choices.

Information you provide directly

Newspaper name — the name you choose for your in-game publication. This is displayed publicly on the leaderboard.
Email address — optional. Provided only if you choose to register it for account recovery. We do not use your email for marketing.

Information collected automatically during gameplay

Location data — The Old Gazette uses your device’s GPS to show nearby historical articles, calculate walking distance for in-game rewards, and record where articles were collected. Location is only accessed while the app is open and in use. We do not track your location in the background.
Gameplay data — articles collected, editions published, assignments accepted, story threads followed, distance traveled, and leaderboard scores.
Device identifier — a randomly generated UUID created on your device at first launch. This identifies your account and is not linked to your name, email, or hardware identifiers unless you register an email address.

Information we do NOT collect

We do not collect your real name
We do not access your contacts, camera roll, microphone, or device files
We do not collect payment information
We do not use advertising networks or sell your data to third parties
We do not track you across other apps or websites

How we use your information

We use information collected through the app solely to operate The Old Gazette:

To show historical articles near your location
To save your collection, editions, and gameplay progress
To display your newspaper name and score on the public leaderboard
To award distance-based rewards (vintage advertisements earned by walking)
To allow account recovery if you provide an email address
To moderate content reports submitted by players

Public information

The following is visible to other players and on our website leaderboard:

Your newspaper name
Your leaderboard and edition scores
Headlines of articles placed on published front pages

Your location, email address, device ID, and gameplay history are never visible to other players.

Third-party services used by the app

Railway (railway.app) — hosts the game server and database. Gameplay data is stored on Railway’s infrastructure. See railway.app/legal/privacy.
Expo / Expo Application Services — used to build and distribute the app. May collect anonymized crash and update delivery data. See expo.dev/privacy.
Google Maps — powers the in-game map. Subject to Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.
OpenStreetMap / Nominatim — used for geocoding historical article locations. No personal data is transmitted.
Library of Congress — Chronicling America — source of all historical newspaper content. No personal data is sent to the Library of Congress.
Sentry — anonymous crash reporting to help us fix bugs. Does not receive location data or gameplay content. See sentry.io/privacy.

Data retention and deletion

We retain your gameplay data for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, all associated data is permanently removed from our servers within 30 days, including your newspaper name, collection, published editions, and any registered email address.

To delete your account, use the Delete Account option in the app’s Settings screen.

Children’s privacy

The Old Gazette is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Your rights and choices

Access — you can view your gameplay data within the app at any time.
Deletion — delete your account and all data from the Settings screen at any time.
Location permissions — revoke location permissions through your device settings at any time. The app requires location to function; revoking permissions prevents gameplay but does not delete existing data.
Email removal — contact us to remove a registered recovery email.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or California, you may have additional rights under GDPR, UK GDPR, or the CCPA. Contact us to exercise these rights.

Security

Gameplay data is transmitted over HTTPS and stored on Railway’s secured infrastructure. Your account is protected by a randomly generated secret token stored on your device. We recommend not sharing your account token with others.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the date at the top of this page. For significant changes affecting the app, we will notify players through an in-app notice. Continued use of the website or app after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

The Old Gazette
theoldgazette.com

For privacy questions, data requests, or account deletion assistance:
[email protected]

Security

We take the security of your account and your gameplay data seriously. A few specifics on what that means in practice:

Account tokens are hashed in our database. Your recovery code is never stored in plain text. We compare a SHA-256 hash of what you send against a SHA-256 hash stored on our side — even in the unlikely event that our database were exposed, your recovery code would not be readable from it.
All API traffic is HTTPS. Communication between the mobile app and our servers travels exclusively over TLS-encrypted connections.
Rate limiting protects against abuse. Our API enforces per-IP request limits so a single bad actor cannot flood the service or attempt to guess at recovery codes.
No payment data is collected. The Old Gazette does not process payments, store credit cards, or integrate with payment processors. There is no payment surface to compromise.
Tokens travel in HTTP headers, not URLs. Authentication credentials are sent in the Authorization header so they are never written to web-server logs, browser history, or referer fields.

If you believe you have found a security issue, please email [email protected] rather than filing a public bug.