Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 16, 2026

ArtStudy is built to be privacy-respecting. We collect as little as possible and never sell your data.

What we collect

If you sign in (optional): you can sign in with Google, Apple, X, or a one-time code sent to your email. We store the identifier the provider returns, your email where it is provided, and a display name and avatar where available — only to create your account and show your stats. You can play fully without signing in.

Gameplay stats: which painters you were shown, what you guessed, and whether it was correct. When you are signed in this is tied to your account so we can show your accuracy and favourite painter. When you are not signed in it is stored only against a random id kept in your browser (no name, email, or profile) and used purely for aggregate game analytics.

Leaderboards and public profile: your daily scores decide your place on the leaderboard. New accounts are public by default: your display name, photo where you have one, and game statistics appear there and on your own player page, which search engines may index. You can switch this off at any time under Public profile in your profile; a private profile keeps its rank but is shown under a stand-in name, with no photo and no page. If you play a friend challenge, the display name you choose and that score are stored so they can appear in that room.

Subscriptions: if you start a Museum Pass checkout, we send your email address and ArtStudy account identifier to Stripe to process payment and recurring billing. We retain Stripe customer, Checkout session, and subscription identifiers, billing status, and billing-period and access dates to manage your Pass. Full card details are handled by Stripe and are not stored in ArtStudy. Stripe may retain financial records and personal data to meet its financial and legal obligations even after your ArtStudy account is deleted; see Stripe’s privacy policy.

Referrals: if you open ArtStudy through someone's invite link, we store which account invited you, so that a Pass earned through referrals can be granted. You can see only the number of friends who have qualified, never their identity.

Email: if you turn on the daily reminder, we email you when a new round is ready; if a friend finishes your challenge, we email you once. Every such email has an unsubscribe link.

Support: if you write to support@artstudyfun.com, we keep your message and address for as long as it takes to answer you.

Analytics: we use PostHog to understand how the site is used and to improve it. It records usage events (page views, country, device type, in-app actions like starting a game) and may capture anonymized session recordings of how the interface is used — sensitive inputs such as your email and one-time codes are masked and never recorded. PostHog stores identifiers in your browser and processes this data on servers in the United States; see the PostHog privacy policy.

Cookies

A single session cookie, set only after you sign in, keeps you logged in (plus a short-lived cookie used during the sign-in handshake). Our analytics provider PostHog also stores identifiers in your browser to measure usage and link session recordings. We show no ads and set no advertising cookies.

Where data lives

Account, stats, and leaderboard data are stored in a private database on our server in Germany. Payments are handled by Stripe. Email — sign-in codes, reminders and challenge notices — is sent through MailerSend. Usage analytics and session recordings are processed by PostHog on servers in the United States. Painting images load directly from museum and Wikimedia servers in your browser.

Public player profiles

If your profile is public, it has a page at an address like artstudyfun.com/player/your-name-ab12. It shows the display name you chose in ArtStudy, your account photo from your sign-in provider, and your game statistics: Daily rounds played, your average and best score, how many paintings you recognised, your streak, and the painters you recognise best and most often miss. Profiles are listed on the players leaderboard and may be indexed by search engines. They never show your email address.

New profiles are public by default. To change yours, open Profile and switch Public profile off. A private profile has no page and shows no name anywhere: it stays on the leaderboard as a ranked row carrying only a position and a score, shown under a stand-in name and picture that are generated by us — not yours, and not any other real person’s — and its page stops loading for everyone immediately; search engines drop it on their next visit. Deleting your account removes the profile too.

Your choices

You can play without an account and sign out at any time. To permanently delete your account and its associated data held by ArtStudy, sign in, open the menu under your avatar (top-right corner) and choose Delete account. If your account has a billing record, self-service deletion is currently blocked: cancel through Manage subscription on /pass and contact support@artstudyfun.com. Before deletion can proceed, any subscription must actually have ended, any unfinished Checkout session must have expired, and we must verify the billing status. Scheduling cancellation for the end of a period is not enough. Account deletion does not automatically cancel a subscription. Once permitted, deletion is immediate and irreversible; Stripe’s retention described above may continue. For any other privacy question, write to support@artstudyfun.com.