Who we are: 4thewords is made by Reboot CR, S.A., a small independent company in Costa Rica. In this policy, "4thewords" and "the Service" mean the website at 4thewords.com and app.4thewords.com, the browser extension, and any companion apps we release.
The short and sweet above is a plain-language summary; where it and the sections below differ, the sections below control. "Every single word you write on 4thewords is yours, forever" means you own your writing, not that any copy stored on the Service will always be available. What we do and don't promise about availability, backups, and liability is set out in the Terms of Use.
We collect the personal information you share with us: your name, email, and profile details (favorite color, favorite monster: the important stuff). If you subscribe, our payment providers process your payment details (credit card, billing address, PayPal); we keep only what we need to manage your subscription. When you contact us by email or elsewhere, we may keep that conversation to help you better next time.
None of this is ever sold, to anyone, for any reason.
We do share what's needed with the service providers who help us run 4thewords: our payment processors, the hosting and infrastructure providers that store your data, and the email service we use to reach you, and the analytics and advertising tools described below. They act on our instructions, under contract, and only for the job we hired them for. Beyond that, we disclose information only where the law requires it, or where we need to protect the Service and the people using it. If the company is ever sold, see "If 4thewords changes hands or closes" below.
We use the information we collect to provide 4thewords and to communicate with you about your account. If you give us information for a specific reason, we use it for that reason. For example, if you email us a question, we use your email to answer it.
The website uses cookies, local storage, and log files to keep you signed in and make the site work. We also use third-party analytics and advertising tools, including Google's, on our public marketing pages, and product analytics inside the app, so we can see how 4thewords is used, improve it, and reach writers who might like it. Those tools set their own cookies and receive standard request data like your IP address. We don't sell what they collect, and nothing you write is ever part of it. You can turn them off in your browser's cookie settings, or through Google's own ad settings. None of this runs inside the browser extension (see below).
If you use sharing or collaboration features, the people you invite can see what you share with them (and teachers can read their students' classroom writing; see Children and classrooms below). Sharing is always your choice, per your settings.
Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Extension access credentials are stored hashed or encrypted at rest on our servers, and your local extension data lives in Chrome's sandboxed storage. We take real measures to protect your account and content, but no security is perfect and we can't guarantee the impossible. Please use a strong password and log out of shared computers. Unauthorized reading or sharing of user content is forbidden to everyone at 4thewords; it would violate this policy and what we stand for as a company.
If a breach ever does affect your personal data, we'll notify you and the relevant authority as the law requires. Beyond that, liability for the Service, including for lost or unrecoverable data, is governed by ยง12 of the Terms of Use and by whatever your local law does not let us limit.
Where GDPR-style laws apply, our legal bases are simple: we process your data to perform our contract with you (running the game you signed up for), with your consent for the optional parts (like by-site tracking, withdrawable anytime), and under our legitimate interest in keeping the Service fair, secure, improving, and known to the writers who'd want it. We don't make automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects, and we don't profile you beyond the writing stats you can see yourself.
Depending on where you live, you have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal data, to object to or restrict our processing of it, and to withdraw any consent (like by-site tracking) at any time. Email developer@4thewords.com and we'll take care of it. We may verify your identity first, and we will never treat you worse for exercising a right. If you're in the EU, EEA, or UK, you can also complain to your local data-protection authority.
Deletion: to delete your 4thewords account and its data, email developer@4thewords.com with the subject "Account and Data Deletion". Uninstalling the extension removes everything it stored on your device; you can also disconnect it anytime from your account's linked devices.
Deletion isn't instant in every place at once. Your account and its contents leave the live Service right away, and remaining copies age out of our routine backups shortly afterward. We keep only what a law requires us to keep, such as payment records for tax purposes. Export anything you want to keep before you ask us to delete it, because once it's gone we can't bring it back.
Reboot CR, S.A. operates from Costa Rica, and data is stored on our infrastructure providers' servers in the United States. If you use 4thewords from elsewhere (including the EU, EEA, or UK), your data travels to the United States. Where the law requires a safeguard for that transfer, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in our contracts with the providers who host it. Your writing, counts, and stats are kept for as long as your account exists; delete your account and they go with it.
If 4thewords changes hands or closes. If the company is merged, acquired, or sold, your data may transfer to the new owner as part of that deal, and this policy (or one at least as protective) will keep applying to it; we'll tell you before anything about the handling of your data changes. If we ever shut the Service down, we'll give reasonable notice so you can export your writing first, then delete what we hold.
4thewords and the extension are not directed at children under 13. If you're under 13, please don't create an account outside a school classroom. Outside of classrooms we do not knowingly collect children's data, and if we learn we have, we delete it. The exception is our classroom feature: teachers and schools can create student accounts for their classes, and by doing so the school or teacher confirms it has obtained any consents the law requires (including parental consent for minors). Student accounts collect only what the classroom needs, and their data is used only for the classroom's educational purpose, never for advertising, marketing, or anything else. Teachers can read their students' classroom writing (that's the point of the feature), along with their activity and progress. Student accounts can also have social features restricted by the classroom's settings.
The 4thewords extension counts the words you type on other websites so your writing anywhere can power your battles, streaks, and stats. It is built around one rule: word counts, not content. Counting happens on your device: the extension looks at what you type only long enough to find the word boundaries, then lets it go. What reaches us is numbers.
What it counts. On sites you have allowed, the extension counts words and characters (typed, pasted, deleted) and measures active writing time and pauses. A small starter list of writing sites (like Google Docs) is on by default; you can add or remove any site. On every other site the extension counts nothing at all.
Where you wrote is one single opt-in. By default, synced data is numbers only: the names of the sites you write on stay on your device. If you turn on "Word counting by site", your synced data also includes the site name, the document's title on supported editors, and a scrambled document identifier so you can see where your words went. The identifier is one-way hashed on your device with a random per-install key before sending: our servers can tell "same document" from "different document", but can never recover the actual document or its address. Turn the toggle off and identity stops leaving your device immediately.
What the extension never collects:
Notifications. The extension can show local, on-device system notifications for things like a battle ending or your streak goal, never for marketing. No data leaves your device to send them, and you can turn them off anytime.
Anonymous mode. You can use the extension without an account. All of your writing data (counts, local streaks, starter battles) stays on your device; none of it is sent to us or anyone else. The extension may still fetch things to your device, like game artwork or community-event announcements; those requests carry no account and none of your writing data. There is also an Offline mode that stops all syncing even while connected.
Because anonymous data never reaches us, we cannot see, back up, or restore it. Clearing your browser data or uninstalling deletes it for good, and there is no copy on our side to recover it from. If your anonymous counts and streaks matter to you, connect an account so they sync.
No analytics, no ads, no trackers. The extension has no third-party analytics, ad networks, or trackers, and its interface fonts are bundled inside it, so opening the popup doesn't call out to anyone else. Here's what does leave it:
Checking for the desktop app. If you've installed a 4thewords desktop app, the extension asks your own computer whether it's running, so the two don't count the same words twice. That question and its answer stay on your machine, nothing about it is sent to us, and if you don't have the app the check simply comes back empty.
Chrome Web Store disclosure. Our use of information from browser permissions follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements: data is used only to provide the extension's writing-game features, is never sold, is never used for advertising, and is never read by humans except with your permission, for security, or where required by law.
Companion apps. If we release other companion apps (for example, desktop apps), the same principles apply to them: counts, not content; identity behind a single opt-in; no analytics, ads, or trackers. We'll update this policy with anything specific to a new app before it launches.
We may update this policy from time to time; we'll post changes here and, for material changes, let you know on the site, in the extension, or by email before they take effect, including any change to how the extension handles data after you installed it. Continuing to use 4thewords after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.
Questions? developer@4thewords.com. A human will answer.