MnemocracyOn This Day in History

Privacy

Last updated 2 October 2026

Mnemocracy (this website, and the Mnemocracy app on the web and on phones) is made by Andrei Tchernoivan, The Heights, Triq Ta’ Grunju, Qala QLA 2132, Gozo, Malta, who is responsible for your data (the controller). Write to contact@wattsfor.ai with any question about it.

In short

  • No account, no ads, no cookies, and nothing that follows you from site to site.
  • What you save in the app (favourites, settings, quiz results, challenges) stays on your device.
  • Only the Sunday tournament, and Plus if you buy it, keep data about you on a server, and only what they need (see below); what we publish about the tournament is totals, never a group of fewer than 5 players. For Plus in the app, RevenueCat, our in-app purchase service, keeps a record for anyone who opens the Plus screen, even without buying, and Apple and RevenueCat also keep the record of your purchase.
  • This website counts visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, without cookies; we see only totals (see below).

This website

This website sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not follow you from site to site. It is hosted by Cloudflare, which handles your connection, including your IP address, to deliver the site and protect it from attacks; we keep no log of visits. Cloudflare may also receive reports of network errors from your browser, to keep the site working. In your browser, the home page asks Wikipedia for today’s highlights (the Wikimedia Foundation receives your IP address, as for any visit to Wikipedia, under its own privacy policy) and asks the tournament server when the next game is, and the results page asks it for the results. Your browser sends these services your IP address and the usual browser information; the tournament server uses the address for about a minute to limit requests, and stores nothing. The share and calendar buttons are plain links: nothing from WhatsApp, Facebook or Google loads on this page, and they receive only what you send when you tap one. We rely on our legitimate interest in delivering the website and keeping it safe (GDPR art. 6(1)(f)).

We also count visits to this website with Cloudflare Web Analytics, Cloudflare acting as our processor. It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device, and Cloudflare says it does not fingerprint visitors or follow them across sites. When a page loads, a small script from Cloudflare sends it the page’s address, the address of the page that linked to it, your browser and device type and how quickly the page loaded, with your IP address as for any connection; we see only totals, such as visits per page and per country. We rely on our legitimate interest in knowing how the website is used (art. 6(1)(f)).

Reading in the app

The app reads the day’s entries, articles and pictures directly from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, which receive your IP address as for any visit to Wikipedia. With a daily reminder on, the app also asks Wikipedia, in the background about once a day, for the next day’s featured anniversaries; it keeps only the line the reminder will show. Your favourites, notes, settings, quiz results, the days you read, and your XP, level, credits and what you bought with them are stored only on your device (in your browser, for the web version), only because the app needs them to work, and are gone when you delete the app or clear the site’s data. We receive none of it.

The day list’s “Near you” map goes by your device’s time zone. If you tap Use my location, the app asks your device for its approximate location, uses it only on the device to find the day’s events nearest to you, and keeps the last one there, rounded to about a kilometre, until you tap Stop. It is never sent to us or to anyone else. You can also turn the permission off in your device’s settings.

When you challenge a friend, the link itself carries what the challenge needs: the date and language of the quiz, which Wikipedia entries the questions are about (as numbers), the sender’s answers and score, the round and running score between you, which questions each of you got right in the round just played (when the link reports one), and a name only if the sender chose to add one. The part of the link after “#” is never sent to our servers, so we never see it, and nothing about a challenge is stored on a server: we only count that a challenge link was opened, as described above. The messaging app or service you send the link with sees it, as it sees any message. The receiving device gets the entries from Wikipedia. Each device keeps a short record of the challenges it sent or played (which questions, and who got each one right) for up to 60 days, so that it can recognise your own challenges and show the result of one you already played instead of playing it twice, and keeps the name you chose for your challenges until you change it, so that you aren’t asked again; we receive none of it. Scores in a link are not checked, and there is nothing to win.

Ask the AI and For you

These features are optional. When you use them, what you ask about (the entry, and for For you the profile you filled in) is sent to the app’s server, then through OpenRouter (a US service) to OpenAI’s GPT-6 Luna, run by Microsoft Azure in the EU, which keeps nothing (zero data retention). The app’s server keeps nothing of it. Sending your request is needed to give you the answer you asked for (art. 6(1)(b)). To limit how often the AI can be asked, the server uses a random identifier of your installation and your network address for a short time, without storing them, in our legitimate interest in preventing abuse (art. 6(1)(f)); with Plus, the app also sends your licence key so the server can check that Plus is active (art. 6(1)(b)); the check keeps only a count of requests per licence per day, never what you ask.

Under every answer you can tap Report this answer, for example if it is offensive or wrong. The app then sends our AI server that answer, which entry and day it was about, the feature and the reason you chose: not your profile, your licence key or anything that identifies you. A For you answer may mention something from your profile; it is sent only if you report it, with your explicit consent (art. 9(2)(a)). We keep reports for 30 days in Cloudflare’s EU jurisdiction to review them and correct the AI, a legitimate interest (art. 6(1)(f)), then delete them.

OpenRouter is based in the United States, so your request passes through the US on its way to Microsoft Azure in the EU. You can ask us at contact@wattsfor.ai which safeguards cover this transfer, and for a copy of them.

For you only works after you give your explicit consent (art. 9(2)(a)), because a profile can say something about your origins or beliefs. The profile stays on your device. You can withdraw your consent and delete the profile at any time on the For you screen or in the settings; this does not affect what was sent before.

Mnemocracy Plus (buying in the app)

In the Mnemocracy app for iPhone, Plus is sold by Apple through the App Store. Apple (Apple Distribution International Ltd. for buyers in the EU) takes the payment and handles your purchase, refunds and withdrawal as a separate controller under its own privacy policy; we never see your Apple Account, name, email address or payment details.

The app uses RevenueCat, Inc. (United States), our in-app purchase service, as our processor. The first time you open Plus, and from then on when the app starts, the app sends RevenueCat a random identifier made for this installation (not linked to your name or to other apps), a device identifier Apple gives our apps on your iPhone (the identifier for vendor, the same for every app of ours on it), your phone’s model, the app’s version, your phone’s system, language and country, and the App Store’s record of your purchases in this app (product, dates, price, currency and the store’s transaction numbers), so that it can confirm what you bought and give us totals of sales and subscriptions. RevenueCat also receives your network (IP) address, as for any connection. If you never open Plus, the app doesn’t contact RevenueCat. RevenueCat keeps these records for us under its data processing terms and the EU standard contractual clauses, until we delete them: 24 months after your last purchase ends, or sooner if you ask us to.

Our billing server asks RevenueCat whether Plus is active and keeps only: RevenueCat’s number for your purchase; your plan; its status and end date; the date of purchase; whether it was a test purchase; and a scrambled (keyed hash) form of your licence key. It doesn’t keep the installation identifier. Like the tournament server, the billing server uses your network address for about a minute to limit requests, and stores nothing.

Your licence key is kept on your phone, and in any browser where you enter it. When you use Ask the AI or For you, the app sends it with the request so our servers can check that Plus is active; the check isn’t linked to what you ask. To apply the fair-use limit, the billing server counts how many AI requests each licence makes per day (only the number) and deletes the count after two days.

We use this data to provide Plus under our terms (art. 6(1)(b)), and to prevent misuse of licence keys, apply the fair-use limit and know how Plus sells, our legitimate interests (art. 6(1)(f)). Plus records are stored in Cloudflare’s EU jurisdiction and deleted 24 months after a licence ends.

The Sunday tournament

The tournament rules are an agreement between you and the organiser: we use your data to run the tournament under them (art. 6(1)(b)), and to prevent cheating and abuse, a legitimate interest (art. 6(1)(f)). If you join, we keep your nickname (shown on the leaderboard), a random identifier of your installation, when you joined, which version and language of the rules you accepted, the country (and US state) you said you live in, and for residents of Slovakia their agreement to receive the rules in English; your answers, answering times, the connection allowance applied to each answer (measured from short test messages, as the rules explain), score and rank; and, if you are disqualified or lose a prize, that decision and its reason. With your entry, a code derived from your network address (not the address itself) is kept to limit entries per connection. These are deleted 90 days after the tournament. With your entry, the server also keeps a second code derived from your installation’s identifier, the same in every tournament, so that it can count how many players also played one of the four tournaments before (for the statistics below); it is deleted with the entry. If you report a nickname in the results, the server keeps which nickname, the reason you picked (if any) and when, with a code derived from your installation’s identifier (not the identifier itself, and different in each tournament) so that each installation’s reports count once and can be limited, but not your IP address, which is used only for about a minute to limit reports; if the organiser hides a nickname, it is shown as “Player” and a number instead, and that decision is kept, as is when the organiser reviewed a reported nickname; all of this is deleted 90 days after the tournament. Your IP address, and the country it is read as, are checked when you join and while you play, to make sure you connect from the country you declared and to set the cap on your connection allowance, and are not stored. You need a nickname to take part.

From these data the server works out statistics for each tournament: how many joined and played, how many had a perfect run, whether the consolation prize was awarded (and, for the organiser only, how many shared it), the average score, how many answered each question correctly and how fast, how many came from each country, and how many had also played one of the four tournaments before; and, for the organiser only, how many entries were disqualified or erased and how many joins were refused. Only these totals are kept after the 90 days, together with the questions and their answers. We publish them, on mnemocracy.com/results and elsewhere, without nicknames and only for groups of at least 5 players: a smaller group is shown as “fewer than 5” or counted with other countries. For these statistics, and the second code they use, we rely on our legitimate interest in understanding the tournament and showing how it goes (art. 6(1)(f)).

For a winner, we also keep the full name, email address and country (and US state) given to claim the prize, and the amount and date of the payment. We ask by email, never in the app, for the bank details for the transfer and for any proof of eligibility needed; without these the prize cannot be paid. Before paying, we check the winner against the EU sanctions lists (a legal obligation, art. 6(1)(c)) and the US (OFAC) and, for Swiss residents, Swiss (SECO) lists (our legitimate interest in making a US-dollar payment lawfully, art. 6(1)(f)). The tournament server deletes the name, email address and country one year after payment, and proof of eligibility is deleted once it has been checked. The record of the payment itself (payee, account, amount and date) stays in the organiser’s bank and accounting records for as long as the law requires (art. 6(1)(c)).

The tournament’s data is stored and processed in the EU (Cloudflare’s EU jurisdiction). Your connection reaches it through Cloudflare’s network, which handles it in a data centre in or near your country, which may be outside the EU. To pay a prize, the winner’s name and account go to the organiser’s bank in Malta, to the banks that route a US-dollar transfer, which may be outside the EU, including in the United States, and to the winner’s own bank, wherever it is; this is necessary to pay you (art. 49(1)(b)). The server scores and ranks the answers automatically under the rules; you can ask us to review a result, a disqualification or the loss of a prize. The tournament rules say more.

Emails

If you write to us, we keep your email as long as needed to answer it, and emails about a prize as long as the payment records. They are stored by our email provider.

Who else handles your data

  • Apple (Apple Distribution International Ltd. for buyers in the EU) sells Plus in the app as merchant of record and handles its payments, refunds and withdrawals, as a separate controller under its own privacy policy.
  • RevenueCat, Inc. (United States) confirms purchases made in the app for us, as our processor, under its data processing terms and the EU standard contractual clauses.
  • Cloudflare, Inc. hosts this website, the app, the AI server, the tournament server and the billing server for us, as our processor, under its data processing terms. The tournament’s and Plus’s data are stored in Cloudflare’s EU jurisdiction.
  • OpenRouter, Inc. (United States) and Microsoft (Azure, in the EU) handle Ask the AI and For you requests, as described above.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation, for everything your device reads from Wikipedia, as a separate controller under its own privacy policy.
  • Our bank and the banks that route a prize transfer, and our email provider, Google (Google Workspace).

Our processors are bound to protect your data at least as well as this notice says; Apple and the Wikimedia Foundation act under their own privacy policies.

Your rights

You can ask to see your data, have it corrected or deleted, restrict its use, object to it, or receive the tournament data and your Plus records you gave us in a machine-readable format, by writing to contact@wattsfor.ai. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to Malta’s Information and Data Protection Commissioner (idpc.org.mt) or to the data-protection authority of the country where you live.

If you live in Japan

The organiser named at the top of this page (Andrei Tchernoivan, The Heights, Triq Ta’ Grunju, Qala QLA 2132, Gozo, Malta) handles your personal information. How we keep it safe: the tournament’s data is stored only in the EU and reached only over encrypted connections; player tokens and installation identifiers are stored only as one-way hashes, and network addresses only as keyed codes; the organiser’s tools need a secret key; the servers keep no request logs; and data is deleted on the schedules above. Where it is handled: in Malta and other EU countries, where the GDPR applies (a comprehensive data-protection law with independent supervisory authorities); in the United States, by Cloudflare, Inc. (our host), OpenRouter, Inc. (for Ask the AI and For you requests), Google (our email provider) and the banks that route a US-dollar prize, where there is no general federal data-protection law but sector-specific and state laws apply; also in the United States, by RevenueCat, Inc. (for Plus bought in the app); and in Ireland, by Apple Distribution International Ltd. (for App Store purchases, as a separate controller, which may also transfer data to other countries under its own policy); and in Cloudflare’s data centre nearest you, which may be in Japan. You can ask us to disclose, correct, add to or delete your data, or to stop using it or giving it to others, by writing to contact@wattsfor.ai.

If you live in New Zealand

The organiser, Andrei Tchernoivan, is the privacy officer for the tournament under New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020. If a privacy breach that is likely to cause serious harm affects you, we will tell you and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. You can also complain to the Privacy Commissioner (privacy.org.nz).