Last updated 7 October 2026

Privacy

The boring - but necessary page

Short version: there are no accounts, no sign-up email, no adverts and nothing is sold. The game remembers your browser so your dives, scores and leagues are still there tomorrow. That is about it. The detail is below.

Who runs this

10BELOW.IO is an independent project run from the UK. For anything on this page, email contact@10below.io.

What we keep

• A cookie that says “same browser as before”. No name, no email. The game cannot work without it.
• Your play. Answers you type, scores, time taken, clues and lifelines used, awards, Treasure and what your submarine is wearing.
• Your public side. A generated callsign, any nickname or league name you choose, and your scores on leaderboards. Typed answers are never shown on a leaderboard.
• Races and leagues. Who raced whom, the answers and times in that race, and who is in which league. Your opponent sees your answers and score for that race.
• Messages you send us. Feedback and answer appeals. With feedback, the type of phone and browser you used (for example “iPhone · Safari · iOS 18”), so we can see a layout problem — never the browser’s full identifying details.
• If you buy the Archive Pass: the email address you give at checkout, and a record of the payment, so the pass can be restored to you.
• Roughly where and how you play. Your location at regional level (players in the EU and EEA by country only), phone or computer, and screen layout. Never your IP address, your town or your exact location.

Some of this also sits in your own browser’s storage, so the game opens where you left it.

Why, and on what basis

To run the game, keep leaderboards honest, stop abuse, and work out which questions land. In legal terms that is our legitimate interests. The usage statistics are collected for statistical purposes only, to improve the game, and you can switch them off:

A browser that sends the “Global Privacy Control” signal is treated as switched off automatically.

Who helps us run it

• Vercel hosts the site and provides visit and speed statistics.
• Neon stores the database.
• Anthropic provides the AI that checks appealed answers. It is sent the question and the answer typed, never who typed it.
• Stripe takes payment for the Archive Pass. You give Stripe your card and email at checkout; we never see your card. Stripe tells us the payment went through and the email used.

These companies are based in the United States, so data can be processed there under their standard data-protection terms. We do not share your data with anyone else.

How long we keep it

• Usage statistics and regional-level location: 180 days, then deleted automatically.
• Dives, scores, races and leagues: for as long as the game keeps its leaderboards and archive, or until you ask us to delete yours.
• Appeals, lifelines and other game events: 180 days, then deleted automatically.
• Archive Pass payments and the email given with them: as long as UK tax rules require a record of a sale to be kept (up to six years).
• Security counters: short-lived.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of your records, have them corrected or deleted, or object to how they are used. Email contact@10below.io from the browser you play in and include your callsign, so we can find the right record; we reply within one month. Clearing your cookies gives you a fresh identity but does not delete what the server already holds, so do ask. If you are unhappy with an answer you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Changes

If this page changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes with it.