Privacy Policy

Effective date: April 17, 2025

Thank you for using Words.com, a new word game website brought to you by the creators of Dictionary.com! Our games are designed to be playable by anyone, anywhere, anytime. To support and maintain the Words.com website as a fun, free space for word game enthusiasts everywhere, we show you personalized services and ads that we think will be relevant based on the information we collect from you and third parties.

We recognize the importance of protecting your personal information. We wrote this Privacy Policy to describe how we collect, use, and share your information in connection with your use of the Words.com services, including the Words.com website, located at Words.com (the "Website") as well as any other online services provided under the Words.com name (collectively, the "Words.com Services").

When we mention "Words.com", "we", "us", or "our", we are referring to the company that owns and operates Words.com, Dictionary Media Group, Inc., a division of IXL Learning.

By using the Words.com Services or submitting any personally identifiable information to us, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy.

If you have any comments regarding this policy, please let us know by contacting us at [email protected].

Table of Contents

• How We Collect Information
• How We Use the Information
• How We Share Information
• Choices You Have About Information
• Links to Third Party Sites
• Advertising
• Children
• Communications
• Security
• International Data Transfer
• Explicit Notice
• Do Not Track Signals
• Sensitive Personal Data
• Modifications to This Privacy Policy
• Contact Us

How We Collect Information

In order to offer the Words.com Services, we rely on the ability to collect, store, and analyze basic information about how people interact with our website. We also engage in agreements with third party partners who help us to provide our services, analyze our data, and deliver a customized and high-quality user experience. As such, we and our third party partners may collect and store personal information about you when you use Words.com Services. This information can come from technical information that is shared with us or from third party information that is shared with us, each of which we describe below.

Technical Information that we Collect

When you use the Words.com Services, subject to your preference settings, we collect certain technical information automatically. This information includes:

1. Log data: When you use the Words.com Services, our servers record information ("Log data"). This may include your IP address, searches, browser type and settings, the data and time of your request, how you used Words.com, Cookie data, and Device data.
2. Device data: In addition to log data, we collect information about the device on which you’re using the Words.com Services, including the type of device, operating system, settings, unique device identifiers and crash data that helps us understand when something breaks. Whether we collect some or all of this information often depends on what type of device you’re using and its settings. For example, different types of information are available depending on whether you’re using a Mac or a PC, or an iPhone or Android phone. To learn more about what information your device makes available to us, please also check the policies of your device manufacturer or software provider.
3. Cookie data: We, and third parties with whom we partner, may use cookies, web beacons, scripts, local storage, flash cookies, advertising identifiers (including mobile identifiers such as Apple’s IDFA or Google’s Advertising ID) and similar technologies ("Cookies") in connection with your use of Words.com Services. Cookies may have unique identifiers, and reside, among other places, on your computer or mobile device, in emails we send to you, and on our web pages. Cookies may transmit information about you and your use of Words.com Services. For example, we use Cookies to store your language preferences or other settings so you don‘t have to set them up every time you visit Words.com. Cookies may be persistent or stored only during an individual session. Some of the Cookies we use are associated with your Words.com account (including information about you, such as the email address you gave us) and other Cookies are not. It may be possible to disable some (but not all) Cookies through your device or browser settings, but doing so may affect the functionality of the Words.com Services. The method for disabling Cookies may vary by device and browser, but can usually be found in preferences or security settings. For example, iOS and Android devices each have settings which are designed to limit forms of ad tracking. You can find more information about Cookies and how they work, what Cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them at www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.com/uk. Please note that changing any of these settings does not prevent the display of all advertisements to you. For more information on the types of Cookies we use and their purposes, please review the table below:

Third Party Information We Collect

We may also obtain information about you and your activity outside Words.com from our affiliates, advertisers, partners and other third parties we work with, or other publicly available sources. For example, online advertisers or third parties may share information with us to measure or improve the performance of ads on the Words.com Services, or to figure out what kinds of ads to show you. This includes information about your visits to an advertiser's site or purchases you made from them, or information about your interests from a third party service, which we might use to help show you ads.

How We Use the Information

We use the information we collect to provide the Words.com Services to you. Specifically, and subject to your preferences, we use the information to:

• Provide the Words.com Services you request, including, for example, keeping track of your audio preferences during game play or saving your game progress.
• Better Understand our Users, including, for example, conducting research on user preferences, usage patterns, pain points, and interests so that we can improve the Services.
• Protect the Rights of Words.com and others, including, for example, using personal information as we believe is necessary or appropriate to protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of the Services, its employees or agents, or other users and to comply with applicable law.
• Deliver Targeted Advertising, including, for example, using personal information to deliver targeted ads, promotions, and offers to you, on behalf of ourselves and advertisers, on and off the Words.com Services.
• Recommend Relevant Content, including, for example, suggesting content from our partner sites in Dictionary Media Group that may match your interests.
• Provide Customer Support, including, for example, responding to messages that we receive and troubleshooting issues that arise on the site.

For these reasons, we have a legitimate interest in using your information in these ways, as it is fundamental to the nature of the Words.com Services we provide.

How We Share Information

As part of providing Words.com Services to you, we may share information with third parties, which can include:

1. Advertisers: We may partner with third party advertisers to provide a customized ad experience on the site that is relevant to your individual interests. In order to identify and deliver personalized advertising, we may share certain information with these partners, including hashed personal information. Likewise, our third party advertising partners may rely on information collected using Cookies on your browser to deliver relevant ad content when you visit the site.
2. Service Providers: We may rely on third party providers to support or provide or perform certain services for us in connection with your use of the Words.com Services, such as communications and hosting services, network security, technical and customer support, tracking and reporting functions, quality assurance testing, payment processing, our own marketing of the Words.com Services, and other functions. We may share information from or about you with these third party providers so that they can perform their services or complete your requests. These third party providers may share information with us that they obtain from or about you in connection with providing their services or completing your requests. Third party providers may also share this information with their subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control. Some of our web pages utilize framing techniques to serve content to you from our third party providers, while preserving the look and feel of Words.com Services. In such cases, please note that the information you provide is being provided to the third party.
3. Business Partners: We may share information with other third party companies and individuals that we work with to process information on our behalf. For example, we may share data with security consultants to help us better identify spam. Some information we acquire may be collected by third parties on our behalf.
4. Affiliates: We may share information from or about you with our parent companies, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Policy. If another company acquires Words.com or all or substantially all of our assets, that company will possess the same information, and will assume the rights and obligations with respect to that information as described in this Privacy Policy.
5. Other Disclosures: We may investigate and disclose information from or about you if we have a good faith belief that such investigation or disclosure (a) is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process and law enforcement instructions and orders, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, judicial proceeding, or other legal process served on us; (b) is helpful to prevent, investigate, or identify possible wrongdoing in connection with Words.com Services; or (c) protects our rights, reputation, property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public, such as disclosures in connection with our Consumer Alerts program.

Choices You Have About Information

Please note that we may need to retain certain information for record keeping purposes. We will retain Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

You also have choices available to you through the device or software you use to access the Words.com Services. For example:

• The browser you use lets you control Cookies or other types of local data storage
• Your mobile device lets you choose how and whether your location, advertising identifiers and other data is shared with us.

To learn more about these choices, please see the information provided by your device or software provider.

In addition, we will endeavor to honor opt-out preference signals sent by Global Privacy Control ("GPC") within the browser. Due to technical limitations, the GPC signal is only honored within the particular browser.

Links to Third Party Sites

Words.com may contain links to unaffiliated third party services. When you click on a link to any other website, you will leave the Words.com Services and go to another site and another entity may collect personal information from you. Except as described in this Privacy Policy, we do not share your personal information with them, and have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on or applicable to all such third party services.

Advertising

We may use other companies to serve third-party advertisements when you use Words.com Services. These companies may collect and use click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over during your visits to Words.com and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use Log data, Cookie data, and device data to collect this information. Other companies' use of their tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one.

Third parties may be able to associate the information they collect with other information they have about you from other sources. We do not necessarily have access to or control over the Cookies they use, but you may be able to opt out of some of their practices by visiting the following links: Network Advertising Initiative, Omniture, and Digital Advertising Alliance.

Please note that opting out does not prevent the display of all advertisements to you. Additionally, we may share non-personally identifiable information from or about you with third parties, such as demographic data or advertising identifiers. You can limit our sharing of some of this information through your mobile device settings, as described in the section on managing Cookies above.

Children

Children under 13 are not allowed to use Words.com Services. Words.com is intended for general audiences and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, please contact us at [email protected]. If you are based in the European Economic Area, you may only use Words.com Services if you are over the age at which you can provide consent to data processing under the laws of your country.

Security

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or via mobile device, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

International Data Transfer

For users residing in the European Economic Area (EEA), please note that the personal data information we obtain from or about you may be transferred, processed and stored outside of the EEA for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including in the United States of America. We take the privacy of our users seriously and therefore take steps to safeguard your information to create an adequate level of data protection in accordance with EEA standards. For the purposes of UK and EU data protection legislation, Dictionary Media Group Inc., a division of IXL Learning, a California corporation with a principle place of business at 777 Mariners Island Blvd., Suite 600, San Mateo, CA 94404, USA is the "data controller".

Users residing in the EEA and other jurisdictions also have certain rights related to the collection, storage, use, and retention of your personal information. For example, you may choose to restrict our ability to collect, process, and share your personal data, and you may choose to withdraw consent to the collection, processing, and sharing of your personal data. To opt out of the sharing of your personal information on this device, or to change your privacy preferences, please click here. You may also request access, correction, editing, or erasure of your personal data. If you wish to contact us pursuant to these rights, whether to request access, correction, editing, or deletion of your personal information, to opt out of the use of non-essential data processing, or to withdraw consent previously provided related to your user data, please contact us at [email protected]. To submit a complaint to a data protection authority regarding our use of your personal information, please contact your local data protection authority directly.

Specific US States Rights

Users residing in the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia are advised that we may collect limited personal information, and share this information with our partners, including our advertising partners, when you use Words.com Services. (For detailed information regarding the specific types of information we collect, the sharing of this information, and your rights regarding this information under US law, please read this Privacy Policy in its entirety.)

As a user, residents of certain US States have the additional right to opt out of the “sale” or “share” (as defined by applicable privacy law) of your personal information to third-party partners. When opt-out selections are tracked at the device level, if you access Words.com Services from multiple devices and wish to exercise your right of opt-out, you must complete the process separately from each relevant device. Please note that opting-out of the “sale” or “share” of your personal data does not mean that you will no longer receive ads when you visit Words.com Services, including some interest-based ads. Furthermore, should you choose to opt out, you may continue to receive targeted advertisements based upon personal information that either predated your opt-out selection or was collected from external sources from which you have not opted out.

To opt out of the sale of your personal information on this device, or to change your privacy preferences, please use the banner at the bottom of the page or call the below mentioned Toll Free number. In accordance with applicable law, we will honor this selection for a period of twelve months or until you clear your cookies on this device, after which point you may renew your opt-out preferences by repeating the normal opt-out process.

Finally, please be advised that we do not disclose your personal information to third parties for the purpose of directly marketing their services to you unless you first agree to such disclosure. However, please be aware that downstream participants may re-sell personal data that has been sold to them with your consent. To opt out of the re-sale of your personal information by a downstream participant, you may use the opt-out links provided here. If you have any questions regarding our policies, you may contact us via email at [email protected].

Do Not Track Signals

Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” signals to the websites with which the user communicates. There currently is no consensus among industry participants as to what "Do Not Track" means in this context. Therefore, like many websites and online services, we do not alter their practices when we receive a "Do Not Track" signal from a visitor's browser. To find out more about "Do Not Track," please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

Sensitive Personal Data

We ask that you not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive personal data, which may include, for example, social security numbers, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership. If you send or disclose any sensitive personal data to us, you consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal data, you must not send us such content.

Modifications to This Privacy Policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most current version of the Privacy Policy will govern our collection, use, and disclosure of information about you. We will notify you of changes by posting changes here, or by other appropriate means. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will become effective when the updated policy is posted here. Your use of Words.com Services or your provision of personal information to use the Words.com Services following such changes indicates your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]

Tel. (855) 255-7700
© Dictionary Media Group, Inc. 2025
777 Mariners Island Blvd., Suite 600, San Mateo, CA 94404, USA

Last revised: April 17, 2025