Privacy Policy

This policy explains what PDX Hunt collects when you book and play a hunt, why we collect it, and the choices you have. We collect what the hunt needs to work, and we do not sell your information.

PDX Hunt is operated by PDX Hunt LLC, a Portland, Oregon company. PDX Hunt LLC is responsible for the information described in this policy.

What we collect

• Your email address, when you book or claim a hunt, so we can send you your entry code and a few messages about that hunt.
• Your email address, if you join the mailing list, which is separate from booking. See "The mailing list" below.
• Payment information, handled entirely by Stripe (opens in a new tab). Stripe processes your card; we receive a confirmation that you paid and never see or store your full card number.
• How your group plays: your team name, when you started and finished, which clues you solved and when, which hints you took, and which letters you checked or revealed. These set your points, let you pick up where you left off, and show us which clues give groups trouble.
• A random device identifier, generated in your browser and not derived from anything about your phone. It is how a code plays on one phone at a time, and it is recorded with your acceptance of the in-app safety rules, along with which version of the rules you accepted and when. It is not used to track you anywhere else. Both are stored against the booking your group is playing, which links them to the email used to book that hunt.
• Feedback you send us: what you write on our feedback form and, if you want a reply, the address to reply to, linked to your booking.

We do not run advertising trackers, and we do not build profiles about you.

What the hunt app keeps on your phone

The hunt app stores your code, the device identifier above, and your in-progress answers in your browser, so you can pick up where you left off and so a typed answer survives a reload. None of this is a cookie, and clearing your browser's data for play.pdxhunt.com removes it.

How we measure the site

We count how our own website is used: which pages get visited, which hunts get looked at, and which buttons get pressed. We do this to find the places where the site is confusing or broken, which is hard to do without knowing where people give up.

We store no cookie, no advertising identifier, and no number that would let us recognize your browser if you came back tomorrow. What we keep is a record of each of these events, with the page, the hunt, and basic details about your browser.

We also record which link brought you here, such as a post on our Instagram or an ad we paid for, so we can tell whether the places we put our name are worth it. Your browser remembers that for the rest of your visit and forgets it when you close the tab. It is the same for everyone who followed the same link. If you then book a hunt, we store that link label with your purchase, so we can tell which places lead to bookings.

Our logging is our own

Everything above, and every error report, goes to a monitoring server we run ourselves. It is not handed to an advertising network, an analytics company, or any other outside service, and only the owners of PDX Hunt can read it.

When something breaks in the hunt app, it sends an error report there. The hunt app also records how the screen changed during your session, with all text hidden and all images blocked, so we can see what went wrong without seeing what you typed. Reports from the hunt app include your entry code and how far your group had gotten. Error reports from our servers can include your email address when they are about an email we tried to send you. Our website does not record your screen.

Checking you're a person

The form that starts a free hunt uses Cloudflare Turnstile (opens in a new tab) to check that a person, not a script, is pressing the button, because starting a free hunt sends an email and we will not be a machine for mailing strangers. Cloudflare sees what it needs to make that check, such as your IP address and details about your browser. A hunt's page loads it only when you choose to play for free; a visitor who pays never loads it.

The map

The map of our hunts on the home page is drawn from OpenFreeMap (opens in a new tab), a free map service built on OpenStreetMap. When you scroll near the map, your browser asks OpenFreeMap for the pieces of the map it needs, so OpenFreeMap sees your IP address, the way any website you load does. OpenFreeMap says it uses no cookies and keeps no user database, and we send it nothing beyond what your browser sends on its own. If the map never gets near your screen, your browser never asks.

Our Instagram feed

The bottom of our home page can show our Instagram profile, @pdx_hunt, drawn by Instagram itself, but only if you press "Show our Instagram". Until you do, your browser asks Instagram for nothing. Once you press it, your browser loads the feed from Instagram, which is owned by Meta. Instagram then sees your IP address and details about your browser, may set or read its own cookies, and handles all of that under Instagram's privacy policy (opens in a new tab), not this one. We receive nothing from it.

We post to our own Instagram account. We do not collect information about people who comment on or interact with those posts.

How we use it

• To deliver your entry code after you book or claim a hunt, and a new one if we ever replace yours.
• To send a short note when you finish, with a link to review us on Tripadvisor or to tell us privately how it went.
• To send one reminder the day after you start, if you have not finished, saying your code still works and asking whether something got in the way.
• To provide support when you contact us or send us feedback.
• To run the leaderboards, and to operate, secure, and improve the hunts.

The mailing list

If you ask us to, we will email you when a new hunt goes live. You can join in two places: the form on our home page, and the optional box on the screen before a hunt starts. Joining is never required to book or to play.

We keep your email address, where you joined, and when. We use it for one thing: a single email each time a new hunt is published. We do not sell it, share it, or use it for anything else.

Every announcement has an unsubscribe link, and your mail app's own unsubscribe button works too. Either one takes you off the list straight away. We keep a record that you left, so we never email you again by mistake.

To stop the sign-up and unsubscribe pages being abused, we count requests per network address. We store a scrambled (hashed) form of that address, never the address itself, and counts older than a day are cleared out as new ones come in.

The leaderboard

When your team finishes a hunt, its team name, points, finishing time and the date it finished can appear on that hunt's public leaderboard, on our website and at the end of the hunt. Nothing else about you is shown: no email address, no code, and no names of the people who played. Pick a team name you are happy to see in public.

Who we share it with

We share information only with the services that make PDX Hunt work, and only as much as they need:

• Stripe processes payments.
• Purelymail delivers your code and the other emails about your hunt.
• Amazon Web Services delivers mailing-list announcements, separately from the emails about your hunt.
• Supabase hosts the database that stores hunt and booking data.

We do not sell or rent your information to anyone. We may disclose information if the law requires it.

How long we keep it

We keep booking, play, and feedback records, and your acceptance of the safety rules, for as long as PDX Hunt runs, and we do not delete them.

Your choices

You can leave the mailing list at any time from the link in any announcement. Emails about a hunt you booked (your code, a note when you finish, and one reminder if you start but do not finish) are part of the service; to stop them, email support@pdxhunt.com. You can also ask us there to show you the information we hold about you.

Children

Anyone can play, and anyone under 18 must be supervised by an adult in their group. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the "last updated" date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about your privacy? Email support@pdxhunt.com.