The short version
- We show adverts from Google. In the UK and EU, Google asks for your consent before using advertising cookies.
- You can play without an account and without giving us your name or email.
- Your score, progress and streak stay in your own browser.
- When you vote, we store your guess against a random ID that does not identify you.
- If you sign up for the weekly Real or AI? email or the weekly scams email, we store your email address until you unsubscribe.
What is stored in your browser
The game saves a few things in your browser’s local storage: a random ID used to make sure each browser votes once per picture, your answers for each round, and your streak. These are not cookies, and the site sets no cookies of its own. Google’s advertising may set cookies; see Advertising below. You can delete them at any time by clearing the site data for anotherailie.com in your browser; your streak will start again.
Votes
When you choose Real or AI, your browser sends us the round, the picture number, your guess and the random ID. We store these to count the results. We do not store your IP address with your vote, and we cannot tell who you are from it.
Our emails
If you sign up, we store your email address and the date. We send you one message asking you to confirm; if you do not confirm, you get nothing further. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops the emails straight away. We use your address only to send the emails you chose: the weekly Real or AI? round, the weekly scams email, or both. Both go out on Fridays. We do not sell or share it.
The free check
When you run a free check, the text you paste, or the words read from a screenshot you upload, is sent to our AI provider, OpenAI, so that its claims can be separated and checked against public web sources. We ask OpenAI not to store checks; under its API terms, OpenAI may keep request data for a limited period to detect abuse. We do not keep what you submit after the check.
Scam messages often contain names, phone numbers or account details, so please remove your own personal details, passwords, one-time codes and card numbers before you submit.
Website age. If what you check contains a website or email address, our server asks the official domain registry when that web address was first registered, using the public RDAP service. Only the website name (for example, example.com) is sent, not your message or your IP address.
Links to posts. If you submit a link to a post on X, YouTube, TikTok or Instagram, our server looks the post up through that platform’s public embed service to get basic public information such as the account, the caption and the date. The platform receives the post’s address from our server, not your IP address or the rest of your submission. A caption found this way may then be sent to OpenAI for the check.
Reporting options. When a result shows where to report a scam, your browser suggests a country from your device’s time zone and language settings. This happens in your browser. If you change it, your choice is saved in your browser’s local storage; it is not a cookie and is not sent to us.
Limits. To stop the checker being overloaded, our server keeps a short-lived count of how many checks have come from each connection. It stores a scrambled code made from your IP address and browser type, not the address itself, and the count resets after ten minutes.
Who processes the data for us
- OpenAI reads and checks what you submit to the free check.
- Supabase hosts the database that stores votes and email sign-ups.
- Google receives the limited, cookie-free analytics described below.
- GoDaddy hosts the website and sends our email. Like all web hosts, it keeps standard server logs, which include IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting.
- Google provides our analytics (Google Analytics) and our adverts and consent message (Google AdSense).
Embedded posts
Some item pages show a post from another platform, such as X, using that platform’s own embed. When such a page loads, the platform receives your IP address and may set its own cookies, under its own privacy policy. Most pictures and all videos in the weekly round are served from our own site.
Analytics
We count visits ourselves, without cookies. For each page view we record the page address, the date and, if you followed a link from another website, that website’s name. We do not record your IP address or anything that could identify you or your device.
We also use Google Analytics. Unless you agree to cookies, it runs in a mode that sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. In that mode Google receives limited information that a page was viewed, such as the time, the page address and an approximate region worked out from your IP address, but nothing that lets it recognise you on a later visit. We do not send your votes, your checks, your random ID or your email address to Google.
Advertising
We show adverts from Google AdSense to keep the site free. The adverts are chosen by Google, not by us, and we do not share your votes, your checks, your random ID or your email address with Google.
In the UK, the EU and Switzerland, Google shows a message asking for your consent before any advertising or analytics cookies are used. If you agree, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to show and measure adverts, including adverts based on your interests, and Google Analytics may use cookies to count return visits. If you do not agree, Google may still show adverts that are not based on your interests, without storing anything on your device for advertising. You can change your choice at any time using the privacy and cookie settings link that Google adds to the page.
Elsewhere, Google may use cookies for advertising under its own rules. You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and turn off personalised adverts at adssettings.google.com.
How long we keep things
Votes are kept as part of the permanent results for each round; they contain no personal details. Email addresses are kept until you unsubscribe, and unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 30 days.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how we use it. In practice the only personal information we are likely to hold is your email address, if you signed up. Contact support@anotherailie.com. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).
Children
The game is suitable for a general audience, but our emails are intended for people aged 16 and over.
Changes
If we change how we handle information, we will update this page and the date at the top.