Privacy

Last updated November 14, 2026

The Lobbyist is made by Blynk Studio, a sole proprietorship in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. This page covers the game, this website and The Lobbyist apps for iPhone and Android. The short version: free games need no account, rooms delete themselves, and your answers are wiped after every round and never used for ads.

When you play

• Your name, symbol and score. Everyone in your room sees them. The room keeps them, with award totals and round results, until it closes.
• Your answers, roles and votes. Held in the room's memory during a round. The room also keeps a locked copy that only the phones at your table can open, so a server restart can't cut the round short. Both are wiped after the reveal, along with the key, so no copy can ever be read. Never tied to an account.
• Room settings. The decks, the heat level and who agreed to each content warning.

Headcount, the daily game

If you play Headcount, this device keeps a random player number and your recent results (lobbyist:daily). We keep that number with your guesses, scores and streak, and a made-up name such as Teal Quorum 27 for the daily and weekly boards. To keep the boards fair, we also keep a scrambled form of your network address with each play for up to two days. If you play while signed in or sign in to save your streak, we save your progress and streak to your account so you can pick up in the app or browser. The boards show your made-up name. Email me the daily stays off unless you tick it. We keep that choice and when you made it, and you can untick it or delete your account to stop. We delete daily plays after 12 months.

Bribe a friend

Bribe a friend gives free weeks of every deck, in the web game only. If you start a table on the web, open Bribe a friend, or come to the game for the first time by a friend's invite link or at a friend's table, we set a cookie holding a random number for this browser. We keep a scrambled form of that number, which is your invite code, with the invite code that brought you (if one did), whether you've started the week it came with, when your free week ends, how many weeks you have banked, when a table you started earned your friend their week, and when you last used any of this. A table shows its host's invite code to the phones that join it. None of it includes your name, email or network address. Your browser also remembers which free weeks it has already told you about (lobbyist:pass). We count how many invites are sent and how many weeks are started and earned, with nothing that identifies you. Clearing this site's data removes the cookie, and any free weeks with it.

Saved on your phone

Your browser remembers a few things so the game works better:

• A rejoin code that puts you back in your seat if your phone sleeps. Tapping Leave removes it.
• Your sound setting, whether you've seen How to play and the newest deck, whether we've asked how you found us, and that you said you're 16 or older.
• The last 300 questions you were dealt, so you get fresh ones. Rooms you join get these as question numbers only, and use them to count how many phones at the table have played before. That count has nothing that identifies you.
• Whether European or US privacy rules apply to you, so the right privacy link shows.

Clearing this site's data in your browser removes all of it.

The iPhone and Android apps keep the same things in the app, plus RevenueCat's random purchase ID (see If you buy something). They also remember when you dismiss an update prompt, so they wait a day before asking about that version again. Deleting the app removes its local settings.

For in-app updates, Google Play uses device information, the app version and installed app modules to check availability and download size.

Anonymous counts

We count things like rooms opened, how many joined a room and how long it stayed open, how many phones at a table had played in another room before, games started and finished, decks picked, how rounds turned out (including which question it was and how many picked each side), and whether you liked a question, from the scores. Counts from one room share a random number the room makes for itself, so we can tell which counts belong to the same game. It isn't the room code, and no phone is ever sent it. If you opened the game from a link in one of our posts, the room you open also counts which site the link was on, like Instagram or X. If you host a game and the lobby asks how you found us, we count the answer you tap. These counts have no names, emails, account IDs, room codes, IP addresses or device IDs, so they can't be tied to you. Counts from the apps also say whether it was the iPhone or the Android app, and which version of the app. When you try to buy in an app, we also count whether it went through, was cancelled, is waiting for approval or failed, with the store's error code.

Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page visits without cookies: the page, the site that sent you, browser, rough country and load speed.

Google Analytics also counts page visits on the website, so the ad company we work with can check our numbers. It counts the front page, the guide pages and a few screens in a game: the lobby, the debate, the points, the scores and the end. Each is sent under a fixed name, like "debate". Google is never told the room code, your name, your answers or your votes. It does see your IP address and browser, and it sets cookies that tell one visit from the next for up to two years. We have turned off ad personalization and Google Signals for these counts, and Google keeps the detailed records for two months. The iPhone and Android apps don't use Google Analytics at all.

In Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Turkey and Quebec, Google Analytics stays off unless you say yes when the lobby asks, or turn on Google Analytics cookies in the game's menu or at the bottom of a guide page. You can turn it off again in the menu or on a guide page, which also removes its cookies. Everywhere else it is on, except in browsers that send a Global Privacy Control signal. Saying no never stops you from playing.

When you send feedback

The Feedback button and the question at the end of a game send us what you write or tap. With it come the screen you were on, the round, how many phones were in the room, whether you were the host, the deck, why a room closed on you, whether you play from your home screen, your browser and screen size, the game version and, from the apps, whether it was the iPhone or Android app. Never your name, room code, answers or votes.

Your email is saved only if you type it in, so we can write back. Each written note is also emailed to our inbox.

If you make an account

We keep your email address, an account ID and how you sign in. With Google or Apple sign-in, we keep only your verified email and your Google or Apple ID. If you choose Hide My Email with Apple, we get Apple's relay address instead, so that sign-in makes an account separate from your own email. Email sign-in codes come from signin@mail.thelobbyistgame.com and expire after five minutes. On the web, a secure cookie keeps you signed in for up to 60 days. In the apps, a sign-in token does the same, kept in your phone's secure storage (the iPhone Keychain, or encrypted by Android).

If you buy something

Link, part of Stripe, runs checkout and collects your payment details. Checkout opens inside our page, so Stripe's own script loads there when you start a purchase, and Stripe may use it to collect device and browser details to prevent fraud. We never see your full card number. We send Stripe your account email and what you're buying, and we keep the order references, amounts, dates and status needed to unlock your decks and handle refunds.

You can also buy without an account. Your phone then gets an anonymous ID, kept in a secure cookie, that holds what you buy on that phone. We send Stripe no email for it. Stripe asks for one at checkout to send your receipt, and only the phone that paid sees it again. We keep that address only in a scrambled form that can't be turned back into it, and use it for one thing: when you later sign in with that same email on any phone, by the code we send you or with Google or Apple, your purchases move to that account. Until then nothing is saved to an account. The scrambled form is deleted with that phone's purchases.

In the iPhone and Android apps, Apple or Google sells decks and VIP and takes your payment. We never see your payment details or your Apple or Google account. RevenueCat, our purchase service, gets the store's receipt and keeps it under a random ID the app makes on your phone, with no name or email. When that phone owns something, starting a room sends the random ID to our server, which asks RevenueCat what it unlocks. We don't keep the ID: the room keeps only which decks it can deal.

If you sign in in an app, RevenueCat keeps that phone's store purchases under your account ID instead, so they show on your other phones and on the web. Our server then asks RevenueCat what your account owns when you open a room or your account. RevenueCat never gets your email.

Ads

The game itself shows no ads. Google ads can appear on our guide pages, like How to play and the guest decks, and VIP players don't see those either. The iPhone and Android apps show no ads.

Google and its ad partners may use cookies, your IP address and device information to show and measure ads and to stop fraud. In Europe, the UK and Switzerland, Google asks for your consent first. In US states with privacy laws, you can opt out of personalized ads, which those laws can count as selling or sharing your data. Where these rules apply, the game's menu and the bottom of each guide page show Privacy choices or Do not sell or share my personal information, so you can change your mind any time. Google also respects Global Privacy Control signals where they apply. Saying no never stops you from playing.

We never give advertisers your name, email, account, room code, answers or votes. Read how Google uses data from sites like ours and Google's ad information.

Logs and safety

We use your IP address to stop spam, like one connection opening hundreds of rooms. Cloudflare keeps basic request logs (IP address, rough location, browser, page and room code) for up to 7 days so we can fix problems. Cloudflare Turnstile checks sign-ins, and buying without an account, for bots. When you have no account, it loads as soon as you open a deck's offer, so Buy goes straight to checkout.

Why we use it

To run the game and your account, which you asked for. To keep the game safe and working, which is our legitimate interest. For ads, only as your consent choices allow.

How long we keep it

• Rooms, with every name and score: deleted 20 minutes after play stops, or 6 hours after opening. Backups clear 30 days later.
• Your account and purchases: until you delete your account. Backups clear on Cloudflare's normal schedule.
• A phone's anonymous ID: deleted after 7 days if it never reached checkout, or once its cookie expires if it reached checkout without paying. Once it has bought something, it stays until you forget its purchases or delete the account you saved them to.
• Payment references: may stay after you delete your account, so refunds and payment records still match up. They contain no name, email, address or card details.
• App purchase records at RevenueCat: kept so Restore purchases keeps working, until you ask us to delete them. Deleting your account deletes the ones kept under your account ID. Apple and Google keep their own records.
• Feedback: deleted after 12 months, from the game and from our inbox. Ask and we'll delete yours sooner.
• Bribe a friend: your invite code and free weeks are deleted after 400 days without use. The cookie lasts up to 400 days.
• Request logs: up to 7 days.
• Anonymous counts: kept, since they can't be tied to you.

Who else is involved

• Cloudflare hosts the game, accounts and data, sends sign-in emails and runs Turnstile. Read Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Google handles Google sign-in, if you choose it, ads, and Google Analytics on the website. Read Google's privacy policy.
• Stripe and Link handle payments. Read Link's privacy policy.
• Apple handles Sign in with Apple, if you choose it. Apple and Google sell purchases in the iPhone and Android apps. Read Apple's privacy policy; Google's is linked above.
• RevenueCat keeps track of what each app has bought. Read RevenueCat's privacy policy.
• Hostinger hosts our email inbox, where feedback notes and your emails to us arrive. Read Hostinger's privacy policy.

If you email us, we use what you send to help you.

Your choices

Sign out or delete your account in Menu, then Account, on the web or in the apps. Deleting ends a VIP pass bought here and removes your decks. Deleting in the iPhone app also ends its Sign in with Apple link, and you can remove that link yourself in your Apple ID settings. A phone that bought without an account can forget its purchases there too, which ends a VIP pass bought on it. It doesn't delete your Google, Apple or Link account; ask Link support about payment records.

App purchases belong to your Apple or Google account. Cancel VIP or ask for a refund there. Deleting your account here doesn't cancel a pass billed by Apple or Google.

You can ask what we hold about you, or ask us to fix or delete it, by emailing play@thelobbyistgame.com. If you're in Europe or the UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Age

The Lobbyist is for players 16 and older. Before a 16+ deck opens in the apps, the app asks your phone for your age range (Apple's Declared Age Range on iPhone, Google Play's age signals on Android). The answer stays on your phone. Under 16, the 16+ decks stay closed. With no answer, the app asks if you're 16 or older instead. If a younger child has played and you want something removed, email us and we will.

Changes

If this page changes, the date at the top changes too.

Contact

Blynk Studio, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
play@thelobbyistgame.com