Privacy
Last updated October 2026.
The short version
Wordsynth has no accounts and no analytics. It shows ads from Google, and Google uses cookies to choose and measure those ads (more below). Everything else, including fonts and word data, is served from this site itself.
What stays on your device
Wordsynth uses your browser’s local storage to remember your achievements and your progress on the hidden control board. This stays in your browser and is never sent to us. You can clear it any time in your browser’s site settings.
The On-air listener counter
The “On air” tab shows words other people have stayed on for a minute or more. To make it work, while you are tuned in your browser sends an anonymous random number (made fresh each visit and not saved) and the word you are on to /api/live. A short-lived database (Redis) keeps that number, the word, and when it first and last heard from you, and drops it about three minutes after you stop listening. It is not linked to your name, account or device.
To stop one person faking lots of listeners, the server counts how many of these messages arrive from each IP address in a minute. It stores only a scrambled (hashed) form of the address together with the current minute, never the address itself, and deletes the count after one minute.
For the “Popular lately” list it also keeps a tally of how much each word was listened to on each day (for example “rain: 40”). The tally contains no numbers, addresses or anything else about who listened, and each day’s tally is deleted after three days.
The word vote game
On /vote each answer you give (the word or words, the question, your answer and the time) is sent to/api/vote and kept, with an anonymous random number made fresh each visit so answers from one visit can be grouped. It is not linked to your name, account or device, and is used only to improve how Wordsynth rates words. As with the listener counter, a hashed form of your IP address is counted for one minute to limit how many votes one address can send.
The anonymous tip box
The box on the tips page sends what you type to /api/tip. The text is emailed to the site owner and kept in the same short-lived database as the votes (the newest 1,000 tips). No name, email address, IP address or random number is saved with it. As with the listener counter, a hashed form of your IP address is counted for one minute to limit how many tips one address can send. If you write your email address or other personal details in the message, those will be kept too, so only include them if you want a reply.
Hosting
The site is hosted by Vercel, which, like any web host, keeps standard server logs (such as your IP address and browser type) for security and to run the service.
Ads and cookies
Wordsynth uses Google AdSense to show ads. Ads only appear further down the page, under the player, and at the bottom of the vote game. The ad code is only loaded once an ad space comes into view.
Google and other ad companies it works with use cookies to show ads, including ads based on your earlier visits to this site and other sites, and to count views and clicks. Wordsynth itself does not set these cookies and can't read them. Google explains how it uses information from sites that show its ads here.
You can turn off personalized ads from Google in My Ad Center, and opt out of many other ad companies at aboutads.info. You will still see ads, just less tailored ones.
If you visit from the EU, the UK or Switzerland, you are asked for consent before any advertising cookies are set, and you can change your choice later from the same message.
Contact
Questions about privacy or this site: blinkerbuilds21@gmail.com