Privacy

Last updated October 13, 2026.

hotelcaching is a game. We collect only what the game needs, we never sell data, and we use no tracking or advertising.

What we store

• Your email address, to send you sign-in links and the emails you chose to receive.
• Your handle, optional display name, language, and settings.
• Your Finds and Cachecards: which place, when, the hiding place descriptions you wrote, the cardcodes you hold, and your points.
• Missing reports and notes you send, and, for curators, the Areas you look after.
• Your IP address is held in memory for a short time to stop abuse, and appears in server logs kept for 14 days.

What others see

Your handle and points appear on leaderboards and in Cachecard histories. Your profile shows the places and month of your Finds, or only counts and points if you choose so on your profile. Hiding places are visible only to signed-in players; room numbers only if their writer made them public. Your email is never shown.

Cookies

We set a session cookie when you sign in, a cookie that remembers your language, and one for your colour choice. Nothing else.

Services we use

The site and database run on DigitalOcean servers in Frankfurt, Germany. Emails are sent through Purelymail. Place search and map images come from Geoapify, using OpenStreetMap data: your searches are sent to them, and your browser loads map images from their servers when you open a map.

How long we keep it

Account data is kept until you delete your account. Sign-in links expire after 15 minutes. Backups are kept for 30 days.

Your rights

You can download all your data and delete your account at any time from your profile. Deleting your account erases your email, handle and settings; your Finds stay in Cachecard histories without your name so that the chains keep working. For any other request, write to hotelcaching@wtf.ac.