Privacy policy

SettleUp is a free card game. Use a nickname instead of your real name. All money and properties in the game are pretend.

When you play with friends

Our game database stores your nickname, player choice, room, game moves, cards and the chat messages you send. Other players in your room can see your nickname, public cards and chat messages. Your hand is private. Each room has its own link; anyone who opens it can see the nicknames of players waiting in that room before the game starts, and can watch the game unless the host makes the table players only. People watching see the table and the face-up cards, never anyone’s hand, and can’t read the chat. The settleup cookie keeps your seat in the one room you’re in for up to 30 days. A room, its chat messages and its game log are deleted when its last player leaves, or once nobody has been in it for 30 minutes (2 hours if a game was started). Expiry of the cookie does not delete a room.

While a room or a game you’re watching is open, your browser checks in with SettleUp every few seconds. We keep only the time of your last check-in, so the table can show who is online, count down for a player who has disconnected, and know when a room has been left empty.

The numbers on the home page

The home page shows how many games have been played, how many players are online and how many games are being played right now. These are counts only: the total of games is a single number that goes up each time a game is dealt, and the other two are worked out from the check-ins above. They never include nicknames or anything else about you.

On your device

Local storage remembers your nickname, player choice, sound on or off, volume and contrast preferences. Practice progress, and whether you are watching a table, stay in this tab’s session storage. Clearing this site’s browser data removes these settings and your access to a saved seat; it doesn’t delete the room from the server.

Donations

Donating is optional. You pay on the service you choose (Razorpay, Stripe, Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi), under that service’s own terms and privacy policy. SettleUp never sees your card, bank or UPI details.

The service tells SettleUp about each donation. We keep only what the supporters board needs: the name you chose to show, your message, the amount and currency, which service it came from, its payment ID (so the same donation isn’t counted twice, and refunded donations leave the board) and when it arrived. We don’t keep your email address or phone number, even when the service sends them. If you choose to stay anonymous, we keep no name, and your donation is only counted.

The home page shows the board to everyone: each supporter’s name, amount and newest message. Messages appear only after we approve them. We can take any name or message off the board.

Fonts and recording

Fonts are served by SettleUp. The app includes no ads, session-replay or advertising tracker, marketing-email sender, or paid subscription checkout.

Service providers

Vercel hosts the deployed app and Neon stores multiplayer data and the supporters board. Hosting providers process connection information such as IP addresses and may retain service logs. The game uses short-lived hashes of IP addresses to limit repeated requests.

This page describes the current app’s data use. Last updated 23 October 2026.