Privacy

Updated 29 October 2026

MaxBarbu uses essential account cookies and saves game records so you can play, reconnect and review your games. Your email stays private. We do not use advertising or third-party analytics trackers. We collect limited first-party usage statistics as described below.

Account data

MaxBarbu uses Google sign-in to recognize returning players. We store your Google account identifier, Google name, verified email address, chosen player name, and account creation time. We do not store your Google profile picture. We never receive your Google password and do not request access to your Gmail, contacts, or Drive.

Your chosen name is visible in the lobby and at tables. If you choose an alias, your Google name is not included in those public game responses. Player names are unique and cannot be changed once chosen, but are not proof of a real-world identity. If an older duplicate name needs replacing, we retain a private migration record and preserve the account.

You can instead create an account with a username and password, without Google. New accounts require an email address. We store your email, username, chosen player name and a salted Argon2id password hash, never the password itself. Emails are private and are not shown in the lobby, at tables, in chat or in replays. When email recovery is enabled, password-account users can confirm a recovery address and request a single-use password-reset link. Existing accounts can continue signing in without adding an email. Your username stays private unless you use it as your player name. Google and username accounts are separate and are not automatically linked by matching names or email addresses.

Games and chat

Game state, seat reservations, scores, and table chat are stored on our Railway server to support play and reconnecting. Each new table has its own chat, which continues from waiting into play. When a game finishes or is ended, its results, recorded deals, participant history and room chat are retained for game history. Published Multiplayer ladders combine externally supplied results with eligible completed rated games that started on MaxBarbu after ladder activation on 18 October 2026. Historical standings remain available. Any account-to-historical-name association requires administrator confirmation. Incomplete and Social games do not count toward the Multiplayer ladder. Players and kibitzers at the same table can read its chat. Players and kibitzers can send messages. Replay downloads after a game ends contain completed deals, player names, bids, cards, and scores. They may be shared by players who download them.

Games in progress appear in the public lobby with player names, scores, the current deal and contract. Kibitzers enter with no cards visible and can choose one hand or all four hands live. Their entry, view selections and departure are announced in table chat. Closing the page removes their presence, with a short timeout if the browser cannot notify the server. Closing the last player page releases the seat after a short refresh grace; a lost connection has a 60-second fallback. A vacancy pauses play until a human joins or remaining players unanimously allow a bot. We retain original seat ownership, actual participant changes and card-exposure history. Kibitzers may substitute immediately even after viewing hands. Original players may reclaim their seat from a substitute, or watch only their own hand. Ordinary players can remove another player when the administrator enables that setting. Booted active players remain as kibitzers of their former hand. Admin removals block taking a seat again until reinstated. Changes are announced in table chat. Replay record names use the original roster; private archives retain actual replacements.

Rated solo play requires an account. You can keep one rated and one casual game in progress. Completed solo games, scores, deal records, replay data and bot/version information are retained permanently. Rated solo results determine your continuous rating and monthly/yearly ladder standings. Your chosen player name, rated scores, statistics and completed rated replays are public. Casual results are private to your account or original guest browser and do not affect ratings. Private account details and unfinished hands are not published.

Daily and Duplicates retain saved attempts, completed scores, fixed game definitions, bot/version information and replay records. Ranked player names, ranks and comparison points appear on public standings and profiles. Daily practice and late attempts stay private; other players can review a ranked Daily replay only after finishing that same Daily. Duplicates comparisons and replays require completing that same deal. Unfinished cards, source games and private account details are not published. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and continuous Duplicates standings use eligible completed hands; older results remain saved.

Site activity

Site administrators can see recent visitors and whether they are browsing the site, in the lobby, at a table, kibitzing, choosing a solo game, playing solo or using replay. Signed-in visits show the chosen player name; anonymous visits do not identify the person. Solo status includes the deal and called contract, not private cards. This presence list is kept in memory, expires after 90 seconds without contact and resets when the server restarts. It does not keep browsing history, IP addresses or email addresses.

We also measure signed-in site use for a private administrator dashboard: estimated active time, game mode, coarse device class (phone, tablet, desktop or unknown), and completed human-associated hands. A page is eligible for active time only while visible and recently interacted with; hidden pages and automatic game actions do not renew that allowance. Overlapping pages and devices are combined per account. These are estimates, not proof of attention. Activity before collection began is not reconstructed.

The usage signal contains page visibility, focus and the age of the last interaction. It does not include typed text, key values, click coordinates, cards, chat, screen recordings, full URLs, raw user-agent strings, emails or IP addresses. Usage records are linked privately to the existing account identity, including explicitly combined accounts. Administrators can filter the site owner's account from usage reports. Usage statistics are not published as an online counter.

Cookies and providers

Essential cookies keep you signed in and connect you to your game. Account sessions expire after 30 days; signing out revokes the current session. Your four-color deck, last-trick visibility, card spacing, easy-read cards and chat name color preferences are stored with your account. Theme and some replay preferences are stored in your browser. We do not use advertising or third-party analytics trackers. We collect limited first-party usage statistics as described below. Google processes sign-in under its own privacy policy.

Retention and backups

Lobby chat is public to visitors and keeps the latest 100 messages. Table chat is separate: its display shows the latest 100 messages, while the complete chat for new games is saved with the finished-game archive. Earlier games may have only their last 100 messages available. Accounts and finished-game archives have no scheduled application expiry. Reconnect saves may be removed after 30 days of inactivity. The hosted service uses Railway storage and private database backups in the site owner’s Dropbox app folder. Backups may include accounts, game records and chat, and currently have no automatic deletion schedule. When enabled, account verification and password-reset emails are delivered through Resend. Resend processes the destination address and email content, including the temporary link. The website stores a hash of each recovery token, its expiry, its purpose and the account/address it belongs to. Rate-limit counters retain hashed request identifiers temporarily. Email delivery does not include your game records. Hosting administrators can access stored data to operate the site and resolve problems.

Detailed usage intervals are retained for up to 90 days and expired through bounded periodic cleanup. Compact completion totals and collection-health metadata may be kept with game records. Application expiry does not delete older private backup copies. Existing game records, accounts and backups keep the retention described above.

Your account and data

For privacy and account-data requests, email support@maxbarbu.com. Include your player alias or account reference and describe your request. Do not send your password or recovery links.

Self-service account deletion and full account-data export are not available yet. You can download completed game TXT files from My games.

Administrators can view registered accounts and their last recorded signed-in activity, correct player names, sign accounts out on all devices, suspend accounts and reinstate them. Last-active time is recorded at most once per minute while you visit signed in; older activity was not recorded. This does not retain a browsing history. Administrative changes are logged for accountability.