This page lists everything Actorlink (actorlink.io) collects, why, and how long it is kept. Questions or requests about your data: hello@actorlink.io.
Playing without an account
When you submit your first solve, the site sets one cookie, al_anon: a random, signed identifier that groups your solves and enforces the daily solve limit. It holds no personal details, lasts up to 400 days, and is needed for the game to work, so it is set without asking. Your solves (the chain of actors and the day) are stored against it.
Signing in with Google
If you sign in, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with Actorlink. We use them to create your account; your name and email are never shown. You get a generated handle, which you can rename, and a public profile listing your recent solves and likes. (Accounts created before October 2026 got a handle based on their name; rename it on your profile if you'd rather not show it.) Your picture is shown only if you turn on "Show my Google photo". You can make your profile private: the profile page then disappears and your solves show as anonymous. Profile pages ask search engines not to index them. We never receive your Google password and do not store Google access tokens. A session cookie keeps you signed in. Liking a chain records that your account liked it.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account yourself on your profile. Deletion removes your name, email address, picture, likes and the link to your Google account at once. Your handle, and any handle you used before, is kept so it is never given to someone else, and your solves stay visible credited to "deleted user". Database backups are retained for up to 60 days, so deleted data leaves the backups within 60 days.
Consent and how to change it
Analytics and advertising cookies are used only with your consent. Consent is collected by Google's consent tool (Funding Choices), which appears on your first visit. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time through the "Privacy and cookie settings" link that Google's consent tool places on the page, or by clearing this site's cookies, which brings the choice back on your next visit.
Analytics
With your consent, we use Google Analytics 4 to count page views and a few game events (searching, building and submitting a chain, liking). It runs in consent mode basic: the Google Analytics script is not loaded at all until you agree, so if you decline nothing is sent to Google Analytics and no analytics cookies are set.
Advertising
Actorlink may show one ad slot served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies to serve and measure ads; for visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, ads load only after consent through the tool above. Google explains how it uses data from sites that show its ads at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Error reports
When something breaks, an error report is sent to Sentry, our error-tracking provider, so we can fix it. Reports contain the error, the page path and basic browser details. They are stripped of query strings, cookies, headers and account details, and carry no session recordings; Sentry still sees the IP address a report is sent from.
Request logs and security
The site is delivered through Amazon CloudFront, and AWS WAF screens requests to block abuse such as automated solve spam. Like any web server, CloudFront logs each request (IP address, time, page requested, browser user agent) so we can keep the site running and tune those protections; AWS WAF itself keeps only short-lived samples of the requests it checks. These logs are deleted after 30 days. Solve submissions may also ask your browser to complete a small proof-of-work puzzle; that involves no personal data.
Images
Actor portraits load directly from TMDB (image.tmdb.org), so TMDB receives your IP address when your browser fetches them, as with any image host.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask to access, correct, export or delete your data, object to its use, or complain to your local data protection authority. The data is used to run the game you asked to play (account, solves, likes, the player cookie), for our legitimate interest in keeping the site secure and working (logs, error reports), and with your consent (analytics, advertising). Email hello@actorlink.io and we will reply within a month. We never sell your data.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. See also the terms of use.