Your world. Your progress.

Playing and saving

Settings, saved rounds and guest practice progress use browser storage. Online play stores issued rounds, answers, timing and assistance to validate results and preserve history. Guests receive an essential random HttpOnly cookie; database ownership uses a hash. Clearing that cookie disconnects the browser from previous guest records. Offline-only rounds remain on that device and do not become ranked records.

Independent accounts

WorldIslands accounts use Better Auth, verified email and server sessions. The account database stores your email, display name, password hash, verification records and session information. Passwords are never stored as plain text. Resend delivers requested verification, recovery and deletion-confirmation emails. Optional Google sign-in is available only when configured. ChatGPT authentication headers do not establish an independent account. An explicitly enabled private staging preview can instead use the trusted Sites account identity, with the hosting platform handling sign-in.

Linking guest progress requires a verified account and proof from this device’s guest cookie. Moving legacy account history requires a short-lived, single-use ownership proof and matching verified email. Historical scores and ranked eligibility are preserved. Shared boards use pseudonymous Explorer labels rather than your email.

Results and analytics

Personal charts, difficulty scores, standard practice lists and review reminders are free with an account. New gameplay recorded while you are signed in builds these records and earns island rewards. Guest and previously uncollected historical play are not retrospectively profiled. Deleting your learning data removes its observations; replaying an old submission does not recreate them. Essential game receipts remain available for scoring, history and leaderboard integrity. The playing timer pauses when the page loses focus or is inactive. Signed-in gameplay records can include the pause reason, duration and preceding active time; guests do not supply this additional activity summary. We do not collect browsing history, other sites you visit, the content of other apps, or pointer coordinates. A focus change alone cannot establish cheating. Ranked eligibility uses the original account/history minimum and, where account gameplay evidence exists, a weighted recent-evidence threshold with recovery as honest evidence accumulates. Ranked timing uses server receipt rules; ordinary practice timing remains separate. Network rate limits use a daily hash rather than storing the raw address. Reviewers can inspect recorded competitive action ledgers and document decisions. A fast result alone is not proof of cheating.

Optional AI learning insights

Only an explicit Premium request to the librarian sends compact gameplay measurements and, for a custom list, your interest prompt and the country catalogue to the configured OpenAI API model. Do not include sensitive information in interest prompts. The app excludes email, account identifiers and raw geographic answer text from that request. Previous analyses are saved. Unchanged gameplay reuses cached results. Daily, monthly and global spending limits apply; generation remains disabled in staging until credentials and quality checks are complete. These are practice suggestions, not assessments of intelligence or health.

Your Island and visitors

Free account islands store your chosen island and place names, coastline, avatar, earned coins, trophies and resident quests. Residents are fictional characters; their individual hobbies are not claims about a country or culture. Coins are earned game rewards, not money. Sharing is off until you create an invitation. Only signed-in visitors with your current invitation can view the island; they cannot edit it or read your learning history, private quest counts or balance. You can turn visits off or replace the invitation. The separate private preview also requires the site owner to grant access.

Maps, pictures and news

Visible tiles, credited photographs, scientific layers and optional news pictures load from their providers, which receive normal web requests such as IP address and requested asset. Sources include OpenFreeMap, EOX, NASA and Wikimedia. Configured news uses attributed Guardian reporting under a required commercial agreement, cached by the server. News headlines and photographs stay hidden during concealed guessing. The app does not request your physical location.

Ads and payments

Unlimited gameplay has no watch-to-play advertising or video requirement. Approved direct sponsor placements may show labeled image or text ads between content sections. Sponsor images load from their configured host, which receives normal web requests; direct sponsorship does not load an advertising tracking SDK. Following an ad opens the sponsor’s site. Empty placements stay hidden.

When enabled after site approval, Google AdSense serves labeled display advertisements in content and sidebar spaces. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar storage, IP addresses, device/browser information and ad interactions to deliver, measure and personalize advertising. The app does not provide your account email, gameplay history or AI prompts to the ad integration. A Google-certified consent message manages applicable choices; you can reopen available controls from Settings → Ad privacy & cookie choices or the About dialog. Blocking advertising does not restrict gameplay. See how Google uses information from partner sites and Google ad settings. Ad serving remains disabled until the publisher account, site approval and consent setup are configured.

Stripe test Checkout and Customer Portal handle subscription details; the app stores opaque customer/subscription identifiers and billing receipts, not card numbers. Premium covers requested AI learning features; Your Island and learning analytics are free with an account.

Your controls

Log in, sign up and log out through the header. The account menu provides a full data export and email-confirmed account deletion. Deletion cancels provider subscriptions before removing account gameplay and sessions; aggregate financial, abuse-prevention and global cost records may remain without account attribution. Browser-only data is separate and can be removed through browser site-data controls. Do not enter personal information into geographic answer fields.