Privacy

The short version

• We use your chosen name so your Christmas Countdown can recognise you and show your results.
• Your name and scores can be visible to other people taking part in the same quiz.
• We keep technical identifiers so you can return to your quiz, recover access and continue unfinished days.
• We do not ask players for an email address, home address, date of birth, telephone number or precise location.
• We do not use your quiz information for advertising or behavioural profiling.
• Quiz information is normally removed after the January archive period following the Christmas season.

Who is responsible for your information?

Christmas Countdown is an independently operated UK service using the Jingle Elf name. The individual who operates the service is the data controller for the information described on this page.

For privacy questions or requests, email privacy@jingleelf.co.uk.

What information do we use?

Depending on how you use Christmas Countdown, this can include:

• your chosen player or host display name;
• the quiz name and the quiz you belong to;
• daily progress, completed days, scores and final position;
• a recovery code and random player token used to restore and protect access;
• basic timestamps, such as when a player was created or last seen; and
• limited technical information generated by our hosting and database providers for security and operation of the service.

Why do we use it?

We use this information only to run Christmas Countdown: to recognise players, save and resume progress, prevent completed days being replayed, calculate results and leaderboards, provide recovery, support seasonal features and keep the service working securely.

Our lawful basis for this core processing is legitimate interests. Our interest is in providing and protecting the multiplayer quiz experience, while collecting only the limited information needed to do so. We give particular weight to children's privacy and apply the same high-privacy approach to all players.

Who can see your information?

People in the same Christmas Countdown can see information needed for the shared experience, such as player names and leaderboard scores. They cannot see your private player token. Recovery information is intended for the player who receives it and should be kept safe.

We use Supabase to store the quiz database and Netlify to host and deliver the application. These providers may process limited technical or security information as part of operating their services.

How long do we keep quiz information?

Christmas Countdown is seasonal. The live Christmas season is followed by a January archive period so players can revisit their Christmas Countdown. The season's quiz, player, progress and result records are normally eligible for controlled deletion from 1 February following that season.

Limited technical or security records may remain for a short additional period within our hosting providers' systems according to their own operational and security retention arrangements.

Cookies and storage on your device

Christmas Countdown uses a per-quiz cookie containing a random player token so the server can recognise you when you return. The main identity cookie is HTTP-only, which means ordinary page scripts cannot read it.

The application can also use browser storage for convenience features such as remembering a display name, temporary quiz hand-off information, audio preferences and protection against opening the same quiz in multiple tabs. These are used for the game experience, not for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Children's privacy

Christmas Countdown may be used by families, community groups and schools. We therefore use privacy-friendly defaults for everyone. Players are encouraged to use a first name or nickname, and we do not ask for age simply to decide how much privacy protection somebody should receive.

If you are a child and anything on this page is unclear, you can ask a parent, carer or teacher to help you, or they can contact us using the privacy email above.

Your choices and rights

Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you rights over your personal information, including asking for access, correction or deletion, or objecting to some uses of it. To make a request, email privacy@jingleelf.co.uk and tell us which Christmas Countdown you are asking about. We may need enough information to make sure we are dealing with the correct player.

You can also raise concerns with the UK Information Commissioner's Office if you are unhappy with how your personal information has been handled.

Changes to this notice

We will update this page if the way Christmas Countdown uses personal information changes. This version was last updated on 18 September 2026.