The short version
Read this first, especially if you are a teenager.
- You can play every demo without an account, and the demos send nothing about you to us.
- An account needs your email, a hero name, your hero's look (with the colours you pick), your country, and the month and year you were born. What you study is optional, and we only ask after you join.
- Under 13, you can't make an account yet. If you are younger than the age for your country in this table, a parent or guardian says yes by email first. We keep only their email and their answer.
- We never ask for your real name, a photo, your school's name or where you live.
- Your hero name and your account are not public before the game opens.
- Signed in? The demos show your own hero. They load your hero's look and send nothing about how you play.
- Your account comes with our emails about MindQuest: one when the game opens, and updates about the game. That is what the account is for, so the box for them is part of signing up. Only news about MindQuest itself, and each of these emails has a one-click stop that never touches your account.
- You can download or delete your account whenever you want, on your account page.
- We don't sell your data, and the site has no trackers. Today we don't use it for advertising, except the builder kit news if you ask for it (see The builder kit list). If ads or sponsors ever come, we update this policy first.
- The builder kit list is separate and optional: news about the tools and code we make MindQuest with, for people 16 and over. If you ask on /workflow, nothing is added until you confirm by email. See The builder kit list.
- Questions? Write to hello@mindquest.org. A real person (Ari) answers.
Who we are
MindQuest is a study game made by Ari Horesh. This policy covers the website mindquest.org: the demos, the build log, accounts and the emails we send.
The data controller (the one responsible for your data) is Ari Horesh (individual entrepreneur), Via Francesco Orsi 27, 27100 Pavia (PV), Italy. VAT number: IT02865360180.
Write to hello@mindquest.org about anything in this policy. A real person (Ari) answers. We have no data protection officer, because the law doesn't ask for one for a service like ours.
Playing the demos
The home page, /try and every demo work without an account. They use no analytics, no tracking pixels, no third-party scripts and no advertising cookies, and anyone of any age can play. Like every website, our host briefly logs each visit to keep the site running and safe (see How long we keep things).
The demos remember a few choices in your own browser, like the exam you picked, whether motion is on, or your best result in a demo. That never leaves your device (see Cookies and browser storage).
If you are signed in, the demos show your own hero: your browser asks our server for your hero's look, with your sign-in cookie. Nothing about how you play (your answers, scores or times) is sent to us or saved.
What an account keeps, and why
When you make an account on /join, we keep only what we need to hold your hero name and look, and to email you about MindQuest: when the game opens, and updates about the game.
| What | Why we keep it | Needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address | To send your sign-in codes, and the emails your account is for: when the game opens, and updates about the game | Yes |
| Your hero name | To hold it for you until the game opens | Yes |
| Your hero's look: skin tone, hair style, outfit, the colours you pick for hair, eyes, top, bottoms and shoes, and your name colour | So your hero looks the same in the game | Yes (you pick it) |
| Your country | To apply the right age rule, and later to show the universities in your country | Yes |
| Your birth month and year (never the day) | To check your age, to know if a parent needs to confirm, and to know when you turn 18 | Yes |
| A parent's or guardian's email address, and their answer | To ask them to confirm your account, and to show that they did | Only if you are younger than the age for your country in the table |
| What you study: stage, year, exams, subjects, study languages, university | To get the right material ready for you in the game | No, and only asked after you join |
| Your choices and when you made them: accepting the Terms, the under-18 agreement, a parent's answer, the emails box at sign-up, the builder kit box if you tick it, and any email you switch off or back on | To show that we asked you properly (the law asks us to keep this) | Yes |
| When you joined, last signed in and last changed something, and a dated log of account events (like "name changed" or "parent confirmed"): never your email, name or IP address | To run your account, fix problems and show what happened. The log is in your download, and it goes when you delete the account | Recorded as you use your account |
| Where you came from: the demo or link tag that brought you (for example "energy-loop" or "x"), the campaign tags in that link, and the name of the website that sent you (like "t.co") | To learn which demos and posts bring people to MindQuest. We only ever look at totals | Recorded with your sign-up |
| Game sign-in records and a receipt of the name, look and study preferences you confirmed for the game | To use the same account at play.mindquest.org, check that your Alpha access is still valid and avoid making your character twice | Only when you ask to enter the game |
If you leave out a detail marked "Yes", we can't make the account. We use this data only to run your account, the waitlist and the emails you asked for. We don't sell it, we don't use it for advertising (except the builder kit news, if you ask for it), and we don't build profiles of you.
When you enter the game at play.mindquest.org, it uses your existing account number. It receives your reserved hero name, look and study preferences to prepare your character. When you enter, and while you stay connected, it checks that you are still signed in here and that your account is active, has a confirmed email address and belongs to someone aged 18 or over. Your email, birth month and parent or guardian details do not cross this sign-in bridge.
What we never ask for
- Your real name, a photo, your phone number, or your city or address
- The name of your school
- Your exact birthday (only the month and year)
- Your gender
- Anything about your health
- Your friends' emails or your contacts
- Your parent's name (only their email, and only when it is needed)
- Free-text answers about yourself
Please don't use your real name as your hero name.
Ages, and when a parent confirms
Anyone can play the demos. To make an account, you need to be 13 or older.
Each country sets the age at which you can agree to an online service on your own. If you are younger than that age, a parent or guardian confirms your account by email first:
| Age to join on your own | Where you live |
|---|---|
| 13 and over | Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States |
| 14 and over | Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Italy, Lithuania, and Spain |
| 15 and over | Czechia, France, Greece, and Slovenia |
| 16 and over | Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and every country not listed here |
| 18 and over | Brazil and India |
Under 13: no account anywhere. From 13 until the age in this table, a parent or guardian confirms by email first.
We ask for your country first, then the month and year you were born. If you are under 13, we keep nothing: no email, no answer, no record. A small cookie (mq_agegate) stops the form from coming straight back until you close your browser.
If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, or that a parent's confirmation was not real, we delete the account. Parents can write to hello@mindquest.org.
If a parent or guardian confirms
You fill in /join as usual and type the email address of a parent or guardian.
We send them one email that explains what MindQuest is and exactly what your account keeps, with a Confirm button (it carries a one-time code) and a Decline link.
Until they confirm, your account and your hero name stay on hold. You can ask us to send the email again.
If they decline, or don't answer within 7 days, we delete the sign-up: your details, the held name and their email address (after a no, a scrambled code of both addresses stays 30 days, see below).
About the parent or guardian, we keep only their email address and when they confirmed. We never ask for their name. We use their email only for this account (for example, if they later ask us to delete it), and we delete it together with the account.
If they say no, we delete the sign-up straight away. For 30 days we keep a scrambled code of the teen's email and of theirs, so the same request can't reach them again at once. The email we send them also has a Don't email me again link: after that, we keep only a scrambled code of their address, so nobody can send them another request.
A parent or guardian can take the confirmation back at any time by writing to hello@mindquest.org from the email address they confirmed with. We then delete the account.
Why we are allowed to use it
Privacy law (the EU's GDPR) asks us to name a lawful reason for each use. Ours are:
- If you are 18 or older: we keep your account because you asked us to (to provide the service you signed up for, GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)). Ticking "I accept the Terms" is recorded as your acceptance.
- If you are under 18 and at least the age for your country in the table: we keep your account, and send its emails, only with your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 8, with art. 2-quinquies of the Italian Privacy Code). That is the extra box you tick on /join. You can take it back at any time: for the emails with the one-click stop or the switches in your account, for the account by deleting it. When you turn 18, your account simply continues.
- If you are younger than the age for your country: we keep your account only with the consent of a parent or guardian (GDPR Art. 8), which they give by email before the account starts. Their yes covers the account and its emails. Until then, nothing is active.
- A parent's or guardian's email address, and their answer: the law asks us to get a parent's consent for a younger teen and to be able to show that we did (GDPR Art. 8(2) and 7(1), a legal obligation under Art. 6(1)(c)). We use their address for nothing else.
- The emails your account is for (one when the game opens, and updates about the game, Alpha news included): if you are 18 or older, they are part of the service you sign up for, which is why the box for them is required on /join (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b); and, for emails about our own game to someone who signed up for it, art. 130(4) of the Italian Privacy Code). If you are under 18, they rest on consent instead: your own, or your parent's or guardian's (the points above). They are only about MindQuest itself: never advertising for anyone else and never a sponsor's offer (that would need your separate, optional consent first). Each one has a one-click stop, which also takes back the consent for them, and stopping them never deletes or locks your account.
- The age check: to follow the rules that protect children's data (GDPR Art. 8).
- Keeping the site safe (rate limits, stopping abuse): our legitimate interest in protecting the service and the people who use it (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). We keep as little as possible, for as short a time as possible.
- The bot check on /join, /account and /workflow (Cloudflare Turnstile): our legitimate interest in stopping bots and fake sign-ups (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). To run its check, Cloudflare sees your IP address and details of your browser and device.
- Where you came from (the demo or link tag, the campaign tags and the website that sent you, saved with your sign-up): our legitimate interest in learning which demos and posts bring people to MindQuest (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). We only look at totals. You can object at any time: write to hello@mindquest.org and we delete it from your account or your builder kit sign-up.
- The builder kit list: only with your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a); art. 130(1) and (2) of the Italian Privacy Code), for people 16 and over. See The builder kit list.
We make no automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly important effects, and we don't profile you.
Emails
- Codes: a 6-digit code each time you join, sign in or delete your account.
- To a parent or guardian: one email asking them to confirm a teen's account, sent again only if the teen asks.
- Welcome: one email when your account is made.
- Goodbye: one last email when an account is deleted, or when a parent or guardian says no.
- When the game opens: an email when MindQuest (the Alpha) opens for you.
- Updates about the game: news about MindQuest itself, like new mini games and the Alpha. Not more than about once a month.
- Builder kit news, only if you ask for it (16 and over): if you ask on /workflow, one email to confirm your address and one to say you're on the list; then news about the builder kit. See The builder kit list.
- Later, when they apply (none is sent yet): at most two reminders to claim your hero name once the game opens, a reminder before we delete an Alpha account that was never used, and once a year a short "Still interested?" email with a one-click delete.
The opening email and the updates are what your account is for, so the box for them is required when you sign up. They are only about MindQuest: never advertising for anyone else.
Your choices: every email except a code and the one-time goodbye email (when an account is deleted or not opened) has a one-click stop link (it also works from your email app's own unsubscribe button), and your account page has a switch for each kind. Stopping them never deletes or locks your account, and you can switch them back on. We check our do-not-email list before every send. Emails come from hello@mail.mindquest.org.
The builder kit list
The MindQuest builder kit will hold what we use to make MindQuest with Claude: skills (SKILL.md files), Claude Code workflows, prompts, lessons, and MindQuest's own code, including the scripts that draw our art. It isn't out yet. You can ask us to email you about it on /workflow with only your email address, tick its box on /join, or switch it on in your account.
- What we keep: your email address, that you asked and agreed (the sentence you saw, and when), and where the link came from (the page or link tag and its campaign tags). No name and no account. If you have a MindQuest account, the choice is saved with your account instead.
- Why we're allowed to: the emails, only with your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a) and art. 130 of the Italian Privacy Code); you can take it back at any time, as easily as you gave it. Where the link came from rests on our legitimate interest instead, as described under "Where you came from" in Why we are allowed to use it; you can object to it at any time.
- Who can join: people 16 and over. If you have an account, we also check that you are old enough in your country to agree on your own.
- How we check it's you: on /workflow, we email you a link first. Nothing is added until you press the button on its page. If you don't, we delete the request 7 days after we sent the link. The box on /join and the switch in your account need no link: you have already proved your address there.
- On very busy days: if we can't email your link straight away, your request waits in a queue, holding only what is listed under "What we keep". We email the links in the order the requests came in, as soon as we can. If we still can't send yours within 30 days, we delete the request.
- What we send: if you ask on /workflow, one email to confirm and one to say you're on the list. Then news about the builder kit: when it's ready, how to get it, and what's new in it. Nothing from anyone else, and every one has a one-click stop.
- How long: until you leave the list. We also take you off it if your address stops working or marks our email as spam, and when you delete your MindQuest account.
- Who helps: Resend sends these emails, and Cloudflare Turnstile runs the bot check on /workflow, as it does on /join and /account (see Who helps us).
- Leaving, and your other rights: use the stop link in any builder kit email, switch it off in your account, or write to hello@mindquest.org (also to take back a request still waiting in the queue, or to see or delete what we keep).
Cookies and browser storage
MindQuest uses no advertising or analytics cookies, so there is no cookie banner. This table lists everything the site stores in your browser. Each item either does something you asked for, like keeping you signed in or showing a demo's best score, or remembers a setting you chose:
| Name | Kind | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| mq_session | Cookie, only after you sign in | Keeps you signed in to your account. It holds a random key, never your email. | 30 days after you last use it, or until you sign out |
| mq_agegate | Cookie | Stops the sign-up form from coming straight back after a too-young answer. It holds only the number 1. | Until you close your browser |
| mq.join | Session storage | Keeps what you typed on /join while you switch to your email app to find the code. | Until you finish, start over or close the tab, and at most 24 hours |
| mq.joinbar | Session storage | Remembers that you closed the "Create your account" banner. | Until you close the tab |
| mq.ask | Session storage | Remembers that a demo already invited you to make an account, so it asks only once. | Until you close the tab |
| mq.exam | Local storage | Remembers the exam you picked, so the sample questions follow it. | Until you clear it |
| mq.motion | Local storage | Remembers whether you turned motion on or off. | Until you clear it |
| mq.acct | Local storage, only after you sign in | Remembers that someone signed in on this device before, so /account and the demos look for your hero first. It holds only the number 1, never who you are. | Until you sign out or clear it |
| mq.try.<demo>.best | Local storage | A demo's best result on this device (for example your fastest Slime Guardian win), so it can tell you when you beat it. Each demo keeps its own. | Until you clear it |
| mq_oidc_session | Cookie, when you enter the game | Keeps the website-to-game sign-in process together. It contains a random reference, never your email. | Until you close the browser; the server record lasts at most 24 hours after use |
| mq_oidc_session.sig | Cookie, when you enter the game | Checks that the corresponding game sign-in cookie was issued by MindQuest and has not been changed. | Until you close the browser; the server record lasts at most 24 hours after use |
| mq_oidc_interaction | Cookie, while entering the game | Links the sign-in interaction to the browser that requested it. | 10 minutes, or until the interaction finishes |
| mq_oidc_interaction.sig | Cookie, while entering the game | Checks that the corresponding game sign-in cookie was issued by MindQuest and has not been changed. | 10 minutes, or until the interaction finishes |
| mq_oidc_resume | Cookie, while entering the game | Returns that browser to its game sign-in request after website sign-in. | 10 minutes, or until the interaction finishes |
| mq_oidc_resume.sig | Cookie, while entering the game | Checks that the corresponding game sign-in cookie was issued by MindQuest and has not been changed. | 10 minutes, or until the interaction finishes |
Session and local storage stay in your browser and are never sent to us. You can clear them at any time in your browser's settings.
On /join, /account and /workflow only, Cloudflare Turnstile runs a short check in your browser to tell people from bots (see Who helps us).
On the public HTTPS site these game sign-in cookie names begin with __Secure-. They are required only when you ask to enter the game, are restricted to mindquest.org and are not shared as domain cookies with play.mindquest.org. The game keeps its own separate sign-in cookie.
Who helps us, and where your data lives
A few companies help us run the site. They handle data only on our instructions, under data processing agreements:
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosts the website and runs the sign-up server | The server runs in Frankfurt, Germany (EU); pages are delivered from servers near you |
| Neon | Keeps the accounts database, a database used only by MindQuest | Frankfurt, Germany (EU) |
| Resend | Sends our emails | Sends from Ireland (EU); keeps delivery logs in the USA |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Checks that the sign-up forms are used by people, not bots (only on /join, /account and /workflow). To do that, it sees your IP address and details of your browser | Cloudflare's global network |
All four are US companies. Where data reaches the USA, it is protected by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the company is certified, and otherwise by the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses.
Your MindQuest account lives in its own database, separate from EnterMedSchool's accounts and mailing lists, and we never add people from other lists.
We don't give your data to anyone else, unless the law makes us (for example, a court order).
When the Alpha opens, the game will run on servers we host ourselves. Before any account data moves there, we will update this policy and tell you.
Ads and sponsors
MindQuest is 100% free to play. To keep it that way, the site or the game may show ads or sponsored content in the future.
If that happens, we update this policy before it starts, and we email you if it changes what happens to your data. An advertising cookie or tracker would always ask for your permission first, and we will never sell your data.
How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your account | Until you delete it. If you are invited to the Alpha and never sign in, we delete it 12 months later (we remind you first). Once a year we also ask if you are still interested, with a one-click delete. |
| An unfinished sign-up (the code was never entered) | 24 hours |
| A teen's sign-up waiting for a parent or guardian | 7 days. Then we delete all of it: the details, the held name and the parent's email address (only the account number and when and why it ended stay, as in the row "After you delete your account"). |
| A parent's or guardian's email after they confirm | As long as the account exists, then deleted with it |
| After a parent or guardian says no | The sign-up is deleted at once. Scrambled codes of both email addresses stay 30 days, so the request can't be sent again straight away. |
| A parent's or guardian's "Don't email me again" | A scrambled code of their address stays on our do-not-email list |
| Codes | 10 minutes, or until used |
| A hero name held while you look for your code | 10 minutes (as long as the code works) |
| Your hero name after you delete your account | Blocked for 30 days so nobody can grab it straight away, then freed |
| Rate-limit counters (made from a scrambled form of your IP address) | 24 hours |
| Error counts (no personal data) | 30 days |
| Server logs at Vercel (IP address, browser, page) | A short time, to run and protect the service. We never log what you type into forms. |
| Backups | Deleted data can stay in database backups for up to 7 days |
| After you delete your account | Only your account number, when it was made, and when and why it was deleted (so the number is never given to anyone else). A one-way scrambled code of your email stays on our do-not-email list for 30 days, then it is deleted too. If you entered the Alpha, website deletion immediately revokes your game access and queues removal of game data. That removal remains pending until the operator completes a verified maintenance run. We retain the opaque account number and request date to finish it, then a count-only completion receipt for 30 days. Restored game backups must apply the deletion suppression record before players reconnect. A separate permanent suppression marker holds only the retired account number, deletion request number and date to prevent an old game backup from restoring deleted data. Game backups are private files retained for at most 7 days. |
| A builder kit request you didn't confirm | 7 days after we email you the link, then we delete it |
| A builder kit request waiting in the queue (only on very busy days) | Until we can email you the link, at most 30 days, then we delete it |
| Your place on the builder kit list | Until you leave it. We also take you off it if your address stops working or marks our email as spam, and when you delete your MindQuest account. |
| Game sign-in protocol records | A sign-in interaction lasts at most 10 minutes and an authorization code 60 seconds; game access and provider session records last at most 24 hours. Expired records are removed by the next daily cleanup. Deleting your account removes its linked protocol records. |
| Game request replay checks | Valid for 2 minutes, then removed by the next daily cleanup; they hold a random request number, not your account details. |
| Your game character claim receipt | Until you delete your account. It preserves the name and look you confirmed, so a repeated request cannot create a second character. It is included in your account download. |
| Requested game data downloads | The request remains until processed or account deletion. A prepared game snapshot is kept privately for 24 hours, then deleted; the download states when the snapshot was captured. No partial website-only download is supplied while game data is pending. |
Your rights
You can do most of this yourself, at any time, on your account page:
- See and download everything we keep about you, as one file you can take elsewhere.
- Change your hero name, look, study profile and email settings.
- Delete your account. We send a fresh code to confirm, and then it is gone.
- Stop emails with the one-click link in the email (all our emails have one, except codes and the one-time goodbye email), or with the switches in your account. Your account stays as it is.
- If you used the Alpha, your data download can show that game data is still being prepared. Try the same download again after the operator processes it. Deleting the website account stops game access immediately; the confirmation clearly says if saved game data removal is still pending. You can contact hello@mindquest.org about a pending request.
You also have the right to ask us to correct or explain how we use your data, to limit it, to object to it, and to take back any consent. Write to hello@mindquest.org; we answer within one month. Parents and guardians can use these rights for their child.
You can complain to Italy's data protection authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, or to the authority where you live.
How we protect it
- Everything travels over HTTPS.
- Sign-in uses one-time codes, so there is no password to steal. Codes are stored scrambled and expire after 10 minutes.
- Your session is a random key, and we store only a scrambled copy of it.
- We don't store IP addresses in our database. Rate limits use a scrambled form that is deleted after 24 hours.
- The sign-up forms are protected against bots, and the site loads no scripts from other websites, except the bot check on /join, /account and /workflow.
- Only Ari opens accounts, and only to run the waitlist and answer your requests. Our rule for the AI assistants that help him build MindQuest: we don't give them access to account rows, only to totals (like how many people joined today).
- If something ever goes wrong, we tell the Garante within 72 hours when the law requires it, and we tell you if your data is at real risk.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy, we update its version and date at the top. If a change matters for your account, we email you before it applies.
Contact
Email hello@mindquest.org, or write to Ari Horesh, Via Francesco Orsi 27, 27100 Pavia (PV), Italy.