Your privacy

Wi, Nou Ka Palé Kwéyòl (jwekweyol.com) is a free website for learning Saint Lucian Kwéyòl through games and lessons. It is run by an individual based in Saint Lucia. This page explains, in plain language, what information the site uses, why, and the choices you have. If anything here is unclear, email info@jwekweyol.com.

The short version

• You can play as a guest with just a first name or nickname. We never ask for your phone number or real full name. Adding an email to an account is optional. We use it to send password reset links and, only if you ask for it, a daily Word of the Day email.
• We use a small number of cookies to keep you signed in and to keep the site secure. We don't use any analytics or tracking tools of our own.
• The site is set up to show ads from Google AdSense. Google may use cookies to show and measure those ads. You can control this in your Google ad settings.
• We don't sell your information.

Information you give us

• Name, avatar and country. When you start playing, you choose a display name. Picking an avatar and a country is optional.
• Account details. If you create an account, you also choose a username and password. Your password is stored in scrambled (hashed) form, so we can't read it.
• Email address (optional). Account holders can add an email address when signing up or on the My account page. We use it to email you a link to reset your password when you ask for one. If you tick "Email me a Kwéyòl Word of the Day" (at sign up or on My account), we also send one email each morning with a Kwéyòl word, an invitation to the Daily Challenge and the previous day's top Daily Challenge players by display name. That email is off unless you switch it on, and every one has a link to stop it. Separately, if you tick "Email me news and updates", we send occasional news about the site (new games, features and events). That is also off unless you switch it on, and every news email has an unsubscribe link. We never show your email to other players, and never sell it. Emails are sent through Brevo, an email delivery service. For news emails, your name and email are kept on a Brevo mailing list; they're removed from it when you switch news emails off.
• Game results. Your scores, times and levels are saved so you can unlock new levels and appear on the leaderboards.
• Home community (optional). If you choose one in My account, your Places game points are added to that community's district on the weekly district board. Other players only ever see district totals, never who chose which community. You can remove it at any time.
• Days you play. We note which days each player uses the site (just the date, not what you did or for how long), so we can count how many people play and come back.
• Colouring Book use. We count when a colouring page is opened, printed, saved or shared (and which app it was shared to), and how much of it was coloured, so we can see which pictures people enjoy. If you're playing as a player, the count is linked to your player profile.
• Device type and rough location. Once a day for each device you play on, we note whether it's a phone, tablet or computer, its system (for example Android or iOS) and browser, and the town, region and country your internet connection points to. We work out the town from your IP address using DB-IP's location database on our own server, then keep only the town, never the IP address. This tells us where Kwéyòl learners are and which devices to design for. Only the site's owner sees it, it's never shown to other players or shared, and it's deleted along with your player profile.
• Chat and voice notes. In multiplayer Domino and Ludo rooms, players can send chat messages, and Ludo players can send short voice notes. These are saved with the room so everyone at the table can see or hear them.

What other people can see

Leaderboards are public. They show your display name, avatar, country flag, score or time, and the date. Please don't use your full real name as your display name. In a multiplayer room, the other players (and anyone watching a Domino table) can see your display name, your moves and your chat messages, and can hear your voice notes.

If you tap Share or Challenge a Friend after a game, we create a public page for that result (a link starting jwekweyol.com/s/) with a picture card showing your display name, the game, your score and, for the Daily Challenge, your row of squares. Anyone with the link can see it, and it isn't listed in search engines. Email us if you'd like a shared result removed.

Ludo rooms also have an optional camera. Video only starts if you tap “Turn On Camera” and allow access in your browser. Video goes directly between the players' devices and is never recorded or stored by us. To help devices connect, your browser contacts a Google connection server (called a STUN server), which sees your IP address.

The Kwéyòl Look photo booth

The photo booth at jwekweyol.com/look works entirely on your own phone or computer. When you take a selfie or pick a photo, finding your face, cutting out the background, adding the madras pieces, downloading and sharing all happen on your device. Your photo is not sent to us or to anyone else, and the face finding software runs from our own website, not from Google or any other company.

The only time a picture leaves your device is if you tap "Set as my avatar". Then we upload a small square picture of your finished look (512 pixels, never your original photo), save it as your avatar, and remove any hidden information such as location. Photo avatars are for players aged 13 and over. Like other avatars, a photo avatar shows next to your name on leaderboards and in game rooms, and other players can report it if it breaks our rules. You can remove it at any time by choosing a different avatar in My account, which deletes the picture from our server.

AI portraits

AI Kwéyòl Look portraits at jwekweyol.com/look/portrait work differently from the free photo booth, because making them needs an AI service. They are for adults aged 18 and over, and you choose to use them.

• Your selfie: when you ask for a portrait, we resize your selfie, remove hidden information such as location, and send it with the look you chose to Google's Gemini AI, which makes the portrait. We delete the selfie from our server as soon as the portrait is made, or straight away if it fails. It is never shown to anyone and never used for anything else.
• Google: Google processes the photo to make your portrait, under Google's terms for its paid Gemini API. Portraits made with Gemini carry Google's invisible SynthID watermark, which marks them as AI made.
• Your portrait: we keep it for 30 days so you can download it, then delete it. Anyone with its web address can open it, so only share the link with people you want to see it. If you set it as your avatar, it shows like any other avatar.
• Credits: we keep a record of the credits on your account (bought, given, used and refunded) so your balance is right.
• Payments: credit packs are paid through PayPal. You pay on PayPal's own page, so we never see or store your card or bank details. We keep PayPal's order and payment numbers, the pack and the amount, to add your credits and handle any refunds. PayPal's own privacy statement covers what PayPal does with your information.

Only use a photo of yourself, or of another adult who has agreed to it.

Cookies

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. We use these:

The first two are essential: without them you can't sign in or play. You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings, but the games won't remember you if you do.

Advertising

To keep the site free, it is set up to show ads from Google AdSense. When ads are shown:

• Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to show ads based on your previous visits to this site or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies lets it and its partners show you ads based on your visits to this and other sites on the internet.
• You can turn off personalized ads in Google Ad Settings. You can also opt out of some other companies' personalized ads at aboutads.info.
• You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

If you visit from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you'll be asked for your consent before personalized ads are shown.

We never ask you to click ads, and ads are kept away from game buttons.

Other services the site loads

To work, pages load a few files from outside services, which can see your IP address when your browser requests them:

• Google Fonts for the site's lettering.
• Cloudflare's cdnjs for the sound engine (Tone.js) that plays game sounds.

Server logs

Like almost every website, our server keeps standard access logs: your IP address, the page you asked for, the time, and your browser type. We use these only to keep the site running and secure, and they are deleted after 14 days. We also use your IP address for a short time to slow down anyone trying to flood the sign in form.

Visitor counter

The visitor count at the bottom of each page counts each person once per day. To tell visitors apart without cookies, we turn your IP address and browser type into a scrambled code that can't be turned back into your IP address, and that changes every day. We store only that code and the date, and nothing else about your visit. Your browser also keeps a note (in its own storage, not a cookie) that it has already been counted today, so it doesn't send the count again. The total also includes 144 people who played before the counter started.

How long we keep things

• Your sign in cookie lasts 30 days.
• Player profiles, accounts and scores are kept so leaderboards and level progress keep working.
• An email address stays on your account until you remove it on the My account page or ask us to delete it. Password reset links stop working after 1 hour, or as soon as they're used.
• Multiplayer rooms, including their chat and voice notes, are currently kept on our server. We're working on clearing old rooms automatically.

You can ask us to delete your player profile, account, scores or a room you played in at any time. Email info@jwekweyol.com with your display name or username (and the room code, if it's about a room) and we'll remove it.

Children

This site is made for learners of all ages, including children. If you are under 13, please ask a parent or guardian before you play, and:

• play as a guest using only your first name or a nickname,
• don't use the chat, voice notes or camera in multiplayer rooms,
• use the photo booth to download your picture, and pick a ready made avatar instead of setting a photo avatar.

If a child under 13 has an account, only a parent or guardian should add an email address, using their own address. We don't knowingly collect more than a display name from children under 13, apart from a parent's email added this way. If you're a parent and think your child has shared personal information here, email info@jwekweyol.com and we'll delete it.

Your choices

• Play as a guest instead of creating an account.
• Leave avatar and country blank.
• Leave the email blank, or remove it at any time on the My account page.
• Leave the Word of the Day email off, or stop it with the link in any of those emails or on My account.
• Use the photo booth without uploading anything: download or share your picture straight from your device.
• Turn off personalized ads in Google Ad Settings.
• Ask us to see or delete the information we hold about you.

Changes to this policy

If we change how the site uses information, we'll update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Questions or requests: info@jwekweyol.com. See also our Terms of Use.