Privacy
Last updated: 17 September 2026
Short version
You can play without an account. Other players see the name you choose, and people in a room see game activity such as guesses, chat, drawings and scores. Private rooms are temporary; public lobby category rooms remain available as their backing rooms are maintained or replaced. Optional analytics is off until you accept it. We do not use advertising trackers, precise location or profiling.
Who is responsible
I Like To Sketch is operated by Josh Smith, who is responsible for how your personal data is used. For privacy questions or requests, email hello@joshsmith.marketing.
Information used
I Like To Sketch processes display names, private room names, room and game identifiers, chat and guesses, drawing strokes, scores and temporary game state. It also processes random session credentials (stored server-side as lookup hashes), security/audit events, and derived network signals used for rate limiting rather than deliberately retaining raw IP addresses in application data. Hosting and application infrastructure may still process request IP addresses and logs.
Cloudflare Turnstile is required before an anonymous room is created or joined, and Cloudflare processes the challenge, device and network information needed for that check. If you accept analytics and a GA4 measurement ID is configured, Google Analytics receives its standard consented web/session measurements, a sanitised page view and a small, fixed set of I Like To Sketch product events. I Like To Sketch code does not send names, room names or codes, player IDs, chat, guesses, drawings, selected words, credentials or arbitrary error text to analytics.
Why it is used
Room and game data is used to provide the game and fulfil the player’s request. Credentials, rate limiting, Turnstile and security logs are used for service security, fraud prevention and the operator’s legitimate interests in protecting players and the service. Optional analytics relies on consent and can be withdrawn at any time.
Sharing and international transfers
Data is handled by Josh Smith and service providers needed to run and protect I Like To Sketch. The game is hosted on an OVHcloud server. Cloudflare receives data when Turnstile is invoked. Google receives analytics data only after consent. The server country, other processing locations and applicable transfer safeguards have not yet been confirmed. Email hello@joshsmith.marketing for the current details before choosing to use the service.
Retention
Application cleanup is configured to remove unstarted private rooms after about 2 hours, cap ordinary active room records at about 12 hours, retain completed result state for about 24 hours, and retain audit events for about 30 days. The maintained public lobby category rooms are maintained for continuing play, so those ordinary room-expiry figures should not be read as a promise that public-room state disappears after that period. Game messages and drawings have application limits, and expired sessions are cleaned up separately. Retention periods for operational backups, provider logs and any configured analytics property are not yet confirmed in this notice. Email hello@joshsmith.marketing for current details.
Your choices and rights
You can play with analytics rejected, change consent in Cookie settings, remove a remembered Sketch name, and clear browser data. Depending on the law that applies, you may ask for access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability or object to processing. Send privacy requests to hello@joshsmith.marketing. UK users may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Children
I Like To Sketch may be used by younger players, so it minimises data, uses temporary private rooms, defaults analytics off, and has no behavioural advertising, location tracking, profiling or date-of-birth collection. The maintained public lobby category rooms support continuing play and may retain their backing room state; they are not covered by the temporary-private-room wording. A completed child-safety assessment is not claimed by this notice; parents and guardians can ask Josh Smith for current information before a younger player uses the service.
Security and limits
Room credentials use secure HTTP-only cookies, some public text is automatically filtered, and browser connections are restricted by a content security policy. Automated filtering is not a promise of human monitoring or intervention. No technical system can prevent every misuse. See Safety and reporting for ways to raise a concern. This notice does not claim legal clearance or confirm facts that depend on a production hosting or analytics configuration.