Privacy Policy

Who we are

Robot Recess is a free arcade for small browser games made with AI and judged by the people who play them. In this policy, “we” and “us” means the people who run Robot Recess. You can reach us any time at hello@robotrecess.com.

This policy covers the Robot Recess website, the game pages it hosts, and the connection Claude and other AI apps use to publish and build games (our MCP server). It explains everything we collect. If something isn’t listed here, we don’t collect it.

What we collect

Here is everything Robot Recess keeps, grouped by what you do on the site.

Everyone, with or without an account

• A visitor cookie

  What

  A random ID (like k3x9q2…) in a cookie called rr_vid. It says nothing about who you are.

  Why

  To count plays and players fairly (so one player isn’t counted ten times), to know which play belongs to which browser, and to slow down spam.

  How long

  The cookie lasts a year in your browser, and clearing your cookies resets it. Copies saved with plays, votes and reports are kept as long as those are.

• A scrambled network ID

  What

  Your IP address, turned into a scrambled code (a salted hash) that changes every day. We never save the IP address itself. For newer (IPv6) addresses we only use the network part, not your device’s part.

  Why

  To cap how much one network (like a school or a home) can count toward judging a game, and to stop floods of sign-ups, log-ins and reports.

  How long

  In our rate-limit records for up to 2 days. A copy is saved with plays, Fun votes and reports.

• Play records

  What

  Which game and version you played, when you started and stopped, how long you actively played, how many times you pressed a key or tapped (only the count, never which keys), how long the game took to load, and whether you played on the page, in Big Screen, in full screen or in the phone player. If you’re logged in, the play is also linked to your account.

  Why

  Judging (a game needs real players who stick around), the weekly charts, and showing creators where players stop playing.

  How long

  There is no automatic delete date for these yet. We keep them while the game is on Robot Recess.

• Game crash reports

  What

  When a game breaks, the error message and the spot in the game’s code where it happened. These come from the game’s code, not from you.

  Why

  So creators (and their AI) can fix the bug.

  How long

  Kept with that version of the game.

• Fun votes and reports

  What

  If you tap a “Fun?” face after playing, your vote (1 to 5) with the game version and the play it came from, linked to your visitor cookie and scrambled network ID (never a name). If you report a game, the reason you picked and any note you write. If you report a chat or Workshop message, which message it was.

  Why

  Fun votes count a little toward judging (a few per network at most). Reports go to our editors to keep the site safe.

  How long

  Fun votes are kept while the game is on Robot Recess, and change if you vote again. Reports have no automatic delete date yet and stay as a record after an editor deals with them.

• Things saved on your own device

  What

  Progress and settings from games you play without an account are saved in your browser, and we don’t receive them. The site also remembers small things on your device, like which games you already reviewed and a game idea you typed before logging in.

  Why

  So games and pages work the way you expect.

  How long

  Until you clear your browser’s data.

• Online rooms (Recess Rooms)

  What

  Only in games that let friends play together online. A player ID made just for that game: it is different in every game, and it never tells the game (or anyone) your username, your account or your visitor cookie. The name other players in the room see, which Robot Recess picks (your 3 initials, or “Robot” and three digits without an account). Which room you joined, and what the game sent in it. Data the game saves under that player ID, like a level you built or a counter everyone adds to. Games can only send numbers, true/false and short words between players: no free-text chat.

  Why

  So friends can play together and games can share data between players, and so reports and blocks work.

  How long

  Rooms are deleted when nobody is using them: a live room 10 minutes after the last player leaves, a turn-by-turn room at most 30 days after its last move. A game’s shared data stays while the game uses it.

• Reports and blocks in online rooms

  What

  If you report a player, the reason you picked, which player, and a short record of the room: who was in it, the room’s current state, and each player’s last 5 minutes of messages. If you block a player, that the two player IDs should never share a room in that game again. Reports from logged-in players are linked to the account; others to the visitor cookie.

  Why

  Reports go to our editors to keep rooms friendly. Blocks keep you apart from that player.

  How long

  Recent messages are kept with a room for 24 hours. Reports have no automatic delete date yet and stay as a record after an editor deals with them. Blocks last as long as the game’s rooms do.

If you make an account

• Your account

  What

  Your username, your password (only as a scrambled hash that can’t be turned back into the password), your 3-letter high-score initials, your bio if you write one, whether you’re a playtester, your XP and badges, your plan (Free or Premium), and when you joined. We don’t ask for your real name, email, phone number, address, school or photo.

  Why

  To run your account and show your profile.

  How long

  Until your account is deleted.

• Staying logged in

  What

  A session cookie (rr_session). We store only a scrambled copy of it.

  Why

  So you stay logged in.

  How long

  Up to 30 days. It’s deleted when it runs out or when you log out.

• Your birth month and year

  What

  Asked once on the sign-up form.

  Why

  To check whether we can make an account for you.

  How long

  Not kept at all. We use it for that one check and throw it away, for everyone.

• Recovery codes

  What

  Scrambled copies of your recovery codes (we can’t read the codes themselves), and when each one was used.

  Why

  So you can get back in if you forget your password.

  How long

  Until you use them or make a new set. A code from an editor stops working after 24 hours.

• Scores, achievements and cloud saves

  What

  Your best score in each game (shown with your initials), achievements you unlock, and save data a game stores for you.

  Why

  High-score boards and keeping your progress.

  How long

  Until your account is deleted.

• Notifications

  What

  Messages for you, like “your bug report was fixed in v4”.

  Why

  To tell you what happened.

  How long

  Your newest 200.

• Which games’ online rooms you played

  What

  When you play a game with online rooms while logged in, a note of that game and your player ID in it (never what you did there).

  Why

  So a turn-by-turn game can ring your bell when it’s your turn, and so everything a game kept under your player IDs can be deleted with your account.

  How long

  Until your account is deleted.

If you make games

• Games you publish

  What

  The game files, title, description, instructions, category, which AI tool you used, thumbnails (including one captured from your own test play), every version with its notes, and the results of our automatic checks.

  Why

  To host your game, check it and show it to players.

  How long

  While the game is on Robot Recess. Removed games are taken down but may be kept as a record.

• The Workshop

  What

  Sessions you start or join: team chat, requests for Claude, every revision of the game’s files, and which Claude app sent each change (like “Claude Code”).

  Why

  So your team can build a game together.

  How long

  No automatic delete date yet.

• Teams and invites

  What

  Who is on a game’s team and their role, and invite links (stored only as scrambled copies).

  Why

  So teammates can work on a game together.

  How long

  Until the team changes. Invite links expire.

• Connected apps and tokens

  What

  If you connect Claude Code, claude.ai or another app: the app’s name, the address it uses to finish signing in, scrambled sign-in tokens, and when it was last used. For personal tokens: the name you gave it, its first few characters, a scrambled copy and dates.

  Why

  So your AI app can publish and build games as you.

  How long

  App sign-ins last up to 30 days at a time and are deleted a day after they run out. Disconnect an app or revoke a token any time in Settings.

• Premium extras

  What

  The public address and public key of a backend you connect to your game (like a Supabase project; we refuse secret keys), and your Discord webhook address if you turn on the Discord bridge (stored encrypted).

  Why

  To switch those features on for your game.

  How long

  Until you disconnect them.

If you chat, comment, review or report

• Reviews

  What

  Your Fun rating, how hard the game felt, and any notes you write.

  Why

  Judging, rankings, and feedback for the creator.

  How long

  Until your account is deleted.

• Comments

  What

  What you write under a game, with your username.

  Why

  To share it with other players.

  How long

  Until it, or your account, is deleted.

• Recess Chat

  What

  Your messages and what kind they are (chat, bug, idea, shout-out), replies and reactions. For a bug report from inside a game, also the game version, how far into the game you were, your score, and a screenshot of the game if you attach one.

  Why

  Live chat, and sending bugs and ideas to the game’s creator.

  How long

  Each channel shows its newest 1,000 messages. We keep a copy for moderation and bug reports, with no automatic delete date yet. Screenshots too.

• Moderation

  What

  Which messages were hidden and by whom (a moderator, player reports, or the safety check), who is muted, and who reported what. When a Workshop message is reported or hidden, a copy of it goes to our editors’ moderation desk.

  Why

  To keep chat (and Workshop chat) friendly and fair.

  How long

  Mutes are deleted when they end. Hidden messages and reports have no automatic delete date yet.

If you buy Premium

• Payments

  What

  What you bought, the price, the date, whether it went through, and the IDs Stripe gives us for the payment, your Stripe customer record and your subscription. Stripe collects your card and billing details; we never see or store your card number. Stripe’s checkout asks for an email for your receipt, and we don’t save it.

  Why

  To switch Premium on and off, and for our records.

  How long

  Kept for our records (things like taxes and refunds need them).

Cookies and storage on your device

We use only our own cookies, and none of them are for ads. Page scripts can’t read them, and games can’t either (games run on separate web addresses).

On the live site the names start with __Host-, which tells browsers to keep them locked to robotrecess.com.

The site also saves a few things in your browser’s own storage. They stay on your device: we don’t get a copy, and games can’t read them. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes them all.

Without JavaScript, the game idea waits in the rr_idea cookie above instead.

How we use it

• Running the arcade: playing games, accounts, high scores, saves, chat and the Workshop.
• Judging and charts: deciding which new games make the Arcade and ranking games each week.
• Helping creators: totals about plays (never a list of who played), reviews, bug reports and crash reports.
• Keeping it safe: filters, reports, moderation, rate limits, and spotting fake accounts that try to boost a game.
• Fixing problems and answering you when you write to us.

Who can see what

Everyone

Your username, initials, bio, badges, playtester level, the date you joined, games you publish, your comments, your messages in Recess Chat, and your high scores (with your initials). Don’t put your real name or contact details in any of these.

A game’s team

The creator and their teammates see reviews of their game with the reviewer’s username, bug reports and ideas from chat with anything you attached (including screenshots), and totals about plays and crashes. They don’t see a list of who played.

Workshop members

Everything in that Workshop session: team chat, requests and every revision.

Editors (our site staff)

What they need to keep the site running and safe, like reports, hidden messages, chat screenshots and a log of editor actions. On the editors’ desk they can also see each account’s play activity: how many games it has played, its active play time overall and this week, and when it last played.

Games

Games run in a locked-down sandbox and can only see whether you’re logged in and your 3 initials, and, in games with online rooms, the player ID made just for that game and the name other players see. Never your username, your cookies, or anything else.

Other players in an online room

The name Robot Recess gave you in that room (your initials, or “Robot” and three digits) and what the game sends between players. Data a game marks as “private” is hidden from other players, but it isn’t hidden from the game itself: the game’s own code can read your private data while you play it, the same way it reads your saves.

Apps you connect

An app you connect (like Claude Code) acts as you: it can read and change your games and Workshops through Robot Recess, until you disconnect it in Settings.

Services that help us

A few companies help run Robot Recess. Each gets only what it needs for its job.

Cloudflare

Hosts the site and stores its data. Like any web host, it handles your IP address to deliver pages and block attacks, and keeps short-lived technical logs. We may also use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page visits; it doesn’t use cookies.

Google Fonts

Our pages load two fonts (Press Start 2P and Silkscreen) from Google, so your browser connects to Google’s servers, and Google sees your IP address and browser type. It doesn’t set cookies. Fonts used inside games are copied into the game, so games don’t contact Google.

Stripe

Handles Premium payments. Card and billing details go straight to Stripe and never to us.

Anthropic

For accounts younger than 7 days, chat messages (the text and the username) may be checked by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, to make sure they’re OK for all ages. Anthropic handles them for us under its commercial terms.

Discord

Only when a Premium creator turns on the Discord bridge for their game: copies of bug reports and ideas from that game’s chat (or every message, if the creator picks that) are posted to the creator’s Discord server with the sender’s username. Discord’s own privacy policy applies there.

Creators’ own backends

A Premium creator can connect their game to a service they run (like Supabase). That game then talks directly to the creator’s service, and the creator is responsible for what it keeps. The address has to be approved first (a Supabase project is checked automatically; any other address by an editor), and every other outside connection stays blocked.

Your own Claude

The Workshop doesn’t run any AI itself. If you connect Claude Code or claude.ai, what you type into Claude is between you and Anthropic under your own Claude account. We only receive what Claude sends to Robot Recess, like files, chat posts and requests.

We would only share information beyond this if the law makes us, or to protect someone’s safety.

How long we keep things

• Your account and what’s tied to it (profile, scores, saves, reviews, badges): until the account is deleted.
• Your birth month and year: never kept.
• Log-in sessions: up to 30 days, then deleted. App sign-ins: up to 30 days at a time, then deleted a day after they run out.
• Recovery codes: until used or replaced. Editor codes stop working after 24 hours.
• Rate-limit records (with the scrambled network ID): deleted after about 2 days.
• Online rooms: deleted when nobody uses them (live rooms 10 minutes after the last player leaves, turn-by-turn rooms at most 30 days after the last move); their recent messages after 24 hours unless someone reports them.
• Notifications: your newest 200.
• Play records, crash reports, Fun votes, reports, chat copies, chat screenshots and Workshop sessions: there is no automatic delete date yet, so we keep them while the game or channel they belong to is on Robot Recess. Ask us and we’ll delete yours where we can.
• Payment records: kept for our records.

Your choices

• Play without an account. Every game works without one.
• Settings: change your initials, bio, playtester status and password, make new recovery codes, disconnect apps and revoke tokens.
• Cookies: clearing them resets your visitor ID and logs you out.
• Ask us: email hello@robotrecess.com with your username to get a copy of your information, fix something, or delete your account and the information tied to it. We may need to check that the account is really yours first. We’ll answer as soon as we can.

Kids and families

Robot Recess is for everyone, kids included, and anyone can play every game without an account.

• Accounts are for people 13 and older. When someone makes an account, we ask for their birth month and year. We don’t keep it. If we can’t make an account, we show a friendly page and pause sign-up on that browser for 24 hours, with a cookie that holds nothing about the person.
• Without an account, players can play, tap a Fun vote, read chat, and report games or messages. They can’t post in chat, comment, write reviews, put scores on the boards, publish games, or join the Workshop.
• What we collect from players without accounts: only the visitor cookie, the daily scrambled network ID, play records, crash reports from games, Fun votes, and reports they choose to send. We use these only to run the site: to count plays, judge games fairly, keep things working, and stop abuse. Never for ads, never to build a profile, and never to contact anyone.
• We don’t ask players without accounts for a name, an email, or any other personal information. The report form has an optional note box; please don’t put names or contact details in it.
• Think a child under 13 made an account? Email hello@robotrecess.com with the username and we’ll delete it.

Our guide for parents explains what kids can and can’t do here and how we keep it friendly.

Keeping it safe

Passwords are stored as salted, scrambled hashes. Log-in sessions, app tokens, invite links and recovery codes are stored only as scrambled copies, and Discord webhook addresses are encrypted. Games run in a sandbox on separate web addresses, so they can’t see your account or cookies. Payment details stay with Stripe.

No website is perfectly secure. If something ever goes wrong, we’ll fix it and tell the people affected as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

When we change what we collect or how we use it, we update this page and the effective date at the top. For big changes, we’ll also put a note on the site before they take effect.

Contact us

Questions, requests, or worries about privacy? Email hello@robotrecess.com. Parents and guardians are always welcome to write.