Privacy & Disclosures

Last updated: November 12, 2026

This page explains, in plain language, what the website and our free online cribbage game keep, which other services are involved, and how to reach us. Northwoods Gaming Studio develops and operates the Northwoods browser games and the software that powers this website, including the cribbage game, its leaderboard, live matches and online tournaments. The separate Northwoods Cribbage Co. board-sales operation and its domain are run independently by the board maker; board inquiries and sales go directly to that maker (see “Board inquiries and email forms”). Northwoods Gaming Studio does not run that board-sales operation, handle its payments, or control its customer information.

• How we use information
• On your device
• Nickname & leaderboard
• Recovery code
• Live matches & tournaments
• Servers & security
• Board inquiries & email forms
• Tournament prizes
• Donations
• Other services
• Brands & teams
• Contact

How we use information, and what we don’t do

What we use to run the game and answer you

We use your nickname and game records to run the game, the leaderboard, live matches and tournaments. We use the emails you send to the Northwoods Gaming Studio email to respond to your game, tournament and privacy questions. The sections below describe each of these.

What we don’t do

• We don’t sell visitor, player, customer or donor information, and we don’t authorize other companies to sell it on our behalf.
• We don’t use donor information for marketing, and we don’t import it into the game.
• If we use information that Buy Me a Coffee makes available to us, we use it only to acknowledge or thank the supporter.

The outside services that help run the site handle information under their own policies. They are listed in “Other services involved.”

What the game keeps on your device

The game saves things in your browser’s local storage, a small area on your device that belongs to this website. The game itself does not set cookies. It keeps:

• your settings (board, music, tips, seasonal look, counting and cutting choices);
• a solo game in progress, your stats, Daily Deal and Weekly Bingo progress, and your Pine Cones and prizes;
• your nickname and recovery code, if you joined the leaderboard;
• finished-game results that haven’t reached the leaderboard yet. These are dropped after 90 days.

Pine Cones and prizes live only in your browser. If you clear this site’s data or switch devices, they don’t come with you, even if you restore your nickname.

Your nickname and the leaderboard

To join the leaderboard you choose a nickname of 3 to 12 letters, numbers or simple characters. Please don’t use your real name. Names with bad words are blocked, and we may remove a name.

• Public: your nickname, points, wins and losses, best streak and best hand appear on the leaderboard.
• What a result contains: when you finish a game against the computer, the game sends the result (win or loss, the difficulty, whether it was a skunk, your best hand, the time it was played and a random game number) with your nickname and recovery code.
• Not collected: no email address, phone number, address or payment details.

Your recovery code

When you join, your browser creates a long random recovery code. It is stored in your browser, and it is the only way to get your nickname back on a new phone or browser.

• Our database keeps only a one-way scrambled version (a hash) of the code, never the code itself.
• The game sends the code to our servers over a secure connection when you play online or restore your nickname. The current game page uses short-lived, single-use tickets (not your code) to open live connections.
• Older game pages: for now, a game page that your browser saved before our latest update can still use an older method that puts your nickname and code in the web address when opening a live connection. Reloading the game gets the current page. We plan to turn the older method off.
• Keep it private. Anyone who has your code can play as you. Please don’t post it, email it to us, or save it anywhere you wouldn’t keep a password. Your browser or phone’s password manager may offer to remember it, and that is your choice.
• If you lose it, we can’t recover it for you.

Live matches and tournaments

• Live matches: when you play another person, our server keeps the game (the cards played, scores and who played whom), your win and loss record, and any preset reactions sent. Your opponent sees your nickname and icon. There is no free-text chat; only a fixed set of friendly reactions can be sent.
• Waiting for a match: entries in the matching queue are removed within seconds or minutes.
• Tournaments: registering uses your nickname. Brackets, results and prizes are recorded and may be shown on the tournament pages. We don’t collect an email address to contact winners.
• Older features: earlier versions of the game had player chat and groups. Those features have been turned off and the game no longer shows them, but messages and groups created before then may still be stored on our server.
• How long records are kept: finished live-game records are kept. We don’t currently delete them on a schedule.

Our servers and security

Like any website, our servers can see the address (IP address) and browser details of whoever connects. Our live-game service does not store IP addresses. To slow down guessing of sign-in and recovery codes, it keeps a one-way scrambled mark of a connection for a short time (it is cleared within a few hours).

The website and game run on Cloudflare, which may add its own security checks and keeps its own records of visits (see “Other services”).

Board inquiries and email forms

Boards are made and sold by an independent board maker, not by Northwoods Gaming Studio. Northwoods Gaming Studio does not handle board sales.

Two forms on the website, the custom-board form on the storefront and the tournament interest form on the Register page, do not send anything to a server. When you press the button, your email app opens with a message already filled in with what you typed. Nothing is sent until you press Send in your email app.

• Custom-board form: your name, email, wood, design, board of interest, personal wording, speaker choice and notes.
• Tournament interest form: your name, email, city or area (optional), what you’re interested in, and notes.

• Board inquiries go to northwoodscribbageco@gmail.com, which reaches the independent board maker directly. The maker communicates with buyers and handles sales himself. Any reference photos you attach to that email go to the maker. Your email provider and Gmail (Google) also handle the message.
• How the maker takes payment, and how long he keeps emails, photos or other messages, is up to him. This page does not describe it.
• For game, tournament support and privacy questions, use the Northwoods Gaming Studio email in “Contact” below instead.
• This website does not take payments or process orders itself.

Tournament prizes

Two kinds of tournament. The in-person tournaments described on the website’s Tournaments page are organized and scheduled by the independent board maker; questions about their dates, venues, registration and attendance go to northwoodscribbageco@gmail.com. The game’s tournaments are automated online events run by Northwoods Gaming Studio; questions about one, a missing prize or a problem during online play go to nanosectech@icloud.com.

Prizes appear in the game, under the tournament’s “My prizes” tab. We don’t collect an email address to contact winners.

• Pine Cones are in-game rewards. They are kept in your browser and have no cash value.
• Board offers (a board discount or store credit, with an issued code) go to eligible first-, second- and third-place finishers and are shown in the game. They are offers from the independent board maker; Northwoods Gaming Studio does not handle the board sale. To use one, screenshot the prize and include it when you email the board maker about a board. A screenshot shares the offer; it is not proof that the offer is unique or unused.
• If you email a screenshot, you share it, and your email address, with the person you email.

Donations

The “☕ Donate” link in the game’s menu opens the Northwoods Gaming page on Buy Me a Coffee in a new tab. It is an ordinary link: the game keeps the donation separate from your game, doesn’t collect payment details, and doesn’t put anything about you in the link.

Buy Me a Coffee is an independent service. We use it to accept donations. It doesn’t run this game or website. Donating is optional and doesn’t change how the game works.

What Buy Me a Coffee collects, and what it shows to us, is set by its own policy. As of this writing, its policy says that creators (the people who run a page) can see a supporter’s name or display name, email address, message, amount, date and tier, and that full card numbers and IP addresses are not shared with creators. Payments are handled by its payment processor. As described above, we don’t use donor information for marketing and we don’t add it to the game. Please read its policy before you donate: Buy Me a Coffee privacy policy.

Other services involved

• Cloudflare hosts the website, runs the game’s servers and stores its database. Cloudflare can see visitors’ IP addresses and browser details and keeps its own logs. Cloudflare privacy policy.
• Google Fonts. Our storefront and game load their text styles from Google. Your browser therefore contacts Google when a page loads, and Google receives your IP address and browser details. Google privacy policy.
• Gmail (Google) handles the emails you send to the board maker’s Gmail address, as described above.
• Buy Me a Coffee handles donations, as described above.

Some pages link to other websites, such as the American Cribbage Congress. Those sites have their own policies.

About the brands and teams shown on some boards

Some boards shown feature third-party decals applied for decoration. Northwoods Cribbage Co. is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the brands or teams shown.

Contact, questions and requests

Northwoods Gaming Studio email (game, tournament support and privacy questions and requests): nanosectech@icloud.com. Tell us your nickname, never your recovery code. We’ll do our best to help.

Board inquiries and any board purchase or board offer: northwoodscribbageco@gmail.com, which reaches the independent board maker.

We will update this page, and its date, when what we do changes.