Privacy and advertising
What stays on your device, what the host sees, and how optional Google advertising works on flowpuzzlesolver.net.
This notice covers all of flowpuzzlesolver.net, including the puzzles, lessons, help pages and the solver at /solve/.
Puzzle images and processing
Images you choose, photograph or paste into the solver are processed in your browser. The site downloads the software needed to detect and solve boards, and it never uploads your images or the contents of your boards to a solving server. Puzzle pages and lessons don't ask for images at all.
Saved puzzles and reports
The solver's library uses browser storage on this device. Saved puzzles and locally saved problem reports stay there until you remove them or clear this site's data. Reports are limited to 50 entries and 5 MB in total, and reports older than 30 days are removed when the local inbox is opened. Before saving or downloading a report you can preview exactly what it contains and choose whether to include a resized copy of the image. Reports are never sent automatically.
Exported puzzle and report files are saved wherever you choose. If you later share a file or post an issue, its contents go to the person or service you send it to. Don't include personal or sensitive information in public issue reports.
Hosting
Cloudflare delivers this site and its software downloads. As with any website, serving a request involves network information such as your IP address, browser details, the address requested and the time of access. Puzzle images you select in the solver are not part of these requests. See Cloudflare's privacy policy for how it handles service data.
Advertising
The site may show Google AdSense advertising on individual lesson, help and about articles and on individual puzzle pages. The home page, the section index pages, this privacy page and the solver never load Google advertising code.
At the moment the site uses a consent-first setup. On a page with ad space, a short Advertising preferences box appears, and no Google code loads until you select Allow advertising on that page. Keep off dismisses the box without contacting Google. The choice is not remembered, so the next page starts with advertising off again. After you allow advertising, Turn off ads reloads the page without it (any choices you made in Google's consent message are kept), and Privacy choices reopens Google's consent message when Google makes it available. Whether an ad appears also depends on site approval and ad availability.
Once advertising is allowed, Google and its partners may use cookies or similar technologies and receive information about your browser, device and page visit to deliver, measure and, where permitted, personalize ads. Google's consent message handles regional consent and opt-out choices. You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services and manage your Google advertising preferences in My Ad Center.
After the site is approved for advertising, it may switch to loading ads when you arrive on those same article and puzzle pages, with Google's consent message still handling regional consent. This notice will be updated when that happens.
Advertising is always labeled and kept separate from puzzle processing. Reading a lesson, seeing a hint or solution, or using the solver never requires viewing or clicking an ad, and declining consent doesn't block any of them. The site never sends your puzzle images, board contents or reports to advertisers.
Your choices
You can use everything on the site without an account. Remove saved puzzles through the solver's library, or clear this site's data in your browser to remove all local storage. Export puzzles first if you want to keep them. Blocking third-party advertising doesn't stop anything on the site from working.
Questions
For questions about this notice or the site, see the contact page.