Privacy

Short version: you can play right away without telling us anything. If you want your progress on other devices, you add your email. Your email is never shown to anyone or sold, and there is no ad tracking.

Last updated October 12, 2026 (new: AhaBulb memberships, paid through Stripe and Link; deck makers see who played their deck).

Playing as a guest

You can play the daily card game without signing up. We give you a random fun name (like "Lucky Otter 4821") and a random cartoon avatar, and keep your score, streak and learned cards for this device. Once a guest scores, that generated name, avatar and score can show on the public leaderboard. Nothing you typed is shown, and you can only pick your own name after signing in.

To recognize your device, we use a sign-in cookie and a device fingerprint: a one-way code made from your browser's settings (like screen size, time zone, language and how the browser draws text and graphics). We use the fingerprint only to find your guest progress again if the cookie is cleared. We don't use it for ads, don't share or sell it, and don't use it to track you on other sites. It never signs anyone into a real account. When you save your progress with your email, the fingerprint is deleted. Choosing "Start over" on your profile deletes the guest and everything in it.

Your AhaBulb account

To keep your progress on every device, you tick a box to say you're 13 or older and add your email address. We use your email for two things: to email you a 6-digit sign-in code (no passwords), and, only if you tick the box, to send you AhaBulb news now and then. You can turn news off anytime on your profile. We never show your email on the site and never sell or share it.

You can also use Continue with Google (13 or older). Google tells us only your email address and that Google has confirmed it; we don't keep your Google name, photo or anything else, and we can't see your Google account. Kids under 13 always sign in with the PIN a parent sets up.

Invites: your invite link carries a short code for your player. When a friend joins with it, we note which player invited them so we can add your +10 points. We don't email your friends: you share the link yourself.

You choose a player name and build a cartoon avatar. Those are public: they show on the leaderboard with your score and day streak. Pick a nickname, not your real full name.

We keep your score, streak and which cards you've learned so they follow you to every device. One cookie keeps you signed in on each device (it does not track you anywhere else). If you played as a guest first, your guest progress moves into your account. You can sign out on a device, or delete your account and everything in it, from your profile at any time.

If you like, add your birthday (month and day) on your profile and we celebrate it with a birthday bonus. A kid's birthday is never shown publicly.

Your courses

If you add courses (like Ham Radio or the Diabetic Edition), we keep the list with your player so it follows you to your other devices. Which courses you take is never shown to anyone: not on the leaderboard, not on any profile.

Daily Sprint and challenges

The Daily Sprint is a timed race on one test. We keep each run: the questions, your answers, how long each one took and your score. When you play a test's Daily Sprint, your player name, avatar and sprint score for that day show on that test's sprint board, so playing it shows that you play that test. Private tests (like the Diabetic Edition) never show anyone on a board. If you send a challenge link, anyone who opens it sees your player name, the test, your score and the names and scores of the people who took it. Challenge links stop taking new players after 48 hours. Kids only see their own family as friends on a board.

Certificates

When you learn every card in a test, you can get a certificate. We keep the name you choose to print on it, the test, the number of cards and the date, under a random code. Anyone who has the code can open its page to check it is real, so share the code only with people you want to see it. The page is hidden from search engines. We email the certificate to you; for kids under 13 it goes to the parent instead, and kids keep their AhaBulb name on it. Deleting your account deletes your certificates. Private health courses (like the Diabetic Edition) are different: their certificate is drawn on your own device only, with no code, and is never saved on our server or emailed. Print it if you want.

Printable cards and pre-orders

Downloading the free printable cards needs no email. If you pre-order expansion packs or a printed deck, we keep your email, optional name and note, and what you ordered, so we can email you when the cards are ready to collect payment and your address. We take no payment details on this site. We never share or sell your order.

Memberships and payments

AhaBulb memberships (Plus, Family, Teacher, Group and School) are paid through Stripe. Stripe sells them for us through its Link service ("Sold through Link"): Stripe and Link take your card or other payment details, work out and pay sales tax, send your receipts and handle payment support, under Stripe's privacy policy and Link's privacy policy. Your card number never reaches AhaBulb.

From Stripe we keep only what we need to run your membership: which plan you have, its status and renewal date, the founder offer or code you used, and Stripe's customer and subscription ids, tied to your AhaBulb account. Kids under 13 never see a checkout; a parent buys AhaBulb Family. Terms: Terms of service.

Game data

To learn which cards people miss and which jokes land, the game also records each answer, like, share and joke vote against the card number. For signed-in players, answers count toward your score.

Voice answers and AhaBulb Drive mode

When you answer out loud (AhaBulb Drive mode at /drive/, or the 🎤 button in the game), your browser's own speech recognition turns your voice into text on your device or with its maker (Google on Android, Apple on iPhone). AhaBulb never receives or keeps any sound. Only the answer you picked is sent, the same as a tap.

If you turn on the voice timing log in AhaBulb Drive mode (it is off unless you switch it on), each question also sends us a short text record to help us fix voice problems: the words the phone heard, when the microphone started and stopped, and your browser's name and version. Never sound. Turn it off any time on the same screen.

Ask AhaBulb and search

Searching the cards (the search box and ahabulb.com/search) runs on our own server. We keep the words searched, with no name or contact details, so we know what people look for.

• Your question is cleaned first. Before anything else happens, we automatically remove anything that looks like a name, email address, phone number, web link or long number. Please don't type personal information anyway.
• Who reads it. To write the short answer, the cleaned-up question and the text of the AhaBulb cards and help pages that match it go to DeepSeek, an outside AI service. It answers only from our own cards and help pages. It never gets your name, your email or anything about your account.
• We keep the questions (cleaned, with no name or contact details) to improve the site: to see which cards and help pages people need, and what to explain next. Topics you suggest go on our list of ideas.
• "Still stuck?" messages go to the AhaBulb team by email. If you send one, your question, what you typed and your email go to the AhaBulb team so a person can write back. If you're signed in, we use your account's email (for a kid under 13, the parent's). These messages never go to DeepSeek.

Make a Deck

At ahabulb.com/make a signed-in player can upload a study guide (photos of the pages, or a PDF) and we turn it into a card deck anyone can play. Here is what happens to what you upload.

• Your upload stays private. The file you upload is stored on our own server, in a private folder that nobody can reach from the web. It is never published and never shown to other players.
• We delete it. We delete the uploaded file (and any small picture of a line we asked you to check, which only you can see) 30 days after your deck goes live. If we can't use it (for example it has no answer key, or it breaks the rules below), we delete it right away. What we keep is the cleaned-up text of the questions and answers and the cards made from it.
• We take out personal information first. Before anything else happens, our own computers remove names, signatures, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, student ID numbers, grades and scores, and school, class and period details. If a question itself is about a real person you know (like "What did Jayden bring to class?"), we drop that question. If personal information is all over the page, we don't make the deck at all.
• Who reads it. We use three helpers, and only these three:
  • Our own AI models, which run on our own computers in our own lab. They read the pages, find the questions and answers, and remove personal information. Nothing they see leaves our systems.
  • DeepSeek, an outside AI service. It helps write the cards and double-checks that a guide is OK to share. It only ever gets the text after personal information has been removed. It never gets your file, your pictures, your name or your email.
  • kit-search, our own search tool that we run ourselves in our lab. It looks for outside sources (like encyclopedias and government science sites) that agree or disagree with each answer. It only gets the question and answer text, with no personal information, and it doesn't send anything about you to anyone.
• Your name is never on it. A deck you make never shows your name, player name, avatar or email. It just says "Made by an AhaBulb player." Only the AhaBulb team can see who made it, so we can reach you about it.
• Decks are public. When you upload, you agree that the deck will be public: anyone with the link or code can play it, it is listed on ahabulb.com/guides, and search engines like Google can find it. You can unpublish it at any time from your deck's page.
• Who we email. We email you when your deck is ready, needs something from you, or was flagged. If you are under 13, we email your parent instead, never you.
• No points. Playing a deck doesn't change anyone's score, streak or leaderboard spot, so we don't record it there. Like the rest of the game, we count answers, likes and joke votes per card so we can tell which cards work.
• The maker sees who played. When you play a deck someone made, its maker (and the AhaBulb team) can see your AhaBulb player name (never your email), when you last played, and how many cards you answered and got right. If you play without an AhaBulb account, you show up only as "A visitor", with no name. A kid plays under their AhaBulb name (like "Speedy Otter 42"), never their real name.

Rules for decks you make

By uploading a study guide you agree to these rules.

1. It's yours to share. You made it, your teacher handed it out to study from, or you otherwise have the right to share it. A graded test that came back to you is fine.
2. No secret or copied tests. Don't upload a test that hasn't been given yet, a take-home test, a publisher's test bank or teacher's answer key, a standardized or licensing exam (state tests, SAT, ACT, AP and so on), or anything marked confidential, "do not copy", or from work. We check for these and won't publish them.
3. Keep it friendly. No mean, hateful, sexual or dangerous questions, and nothing about real classmates, teachers or other people you know. Normal school topics are fine, even serious ones like history, health or biology.
4. Some decks need your check first. If a deck looks like it might be answers for a test that's still coming up, or something that isn't fit for everyone, we ask you to check every card yourself before it goes public.
5. Anyone can flag a deck. Every deck and every card has a "Flag this" button. If more than five different people flag a deck, it comes down while we look, and we email you (or your parent) the reasons. We never tell you who flagged it. If one person flags a card for personal information, we hide that card right away, and it stays hidden until someone on the AhaBulb team has checked it.
6. Fix it or appeal. If your deck is taken down, you can fix it (remove cards) and send it back, or ask us to look again (an appeal). The AhaBulb review team decides appeals, and the AhaBulb owners have the final say.
7. We can remove anything. We can take down or delete any deck at any time, for example if it breaks these rules, if a copyright owner asks, or if it isn't right for a family site. If three of your decks are taken down and stay down, you can't make new ones.
8. Copyright and takedown requests. If you think a deck copies your work, or you want something removed, email [email protected] with the deck's code or link, what it copies, and how to reach you. We'll take it down while we look and reply as soon as we can.
9. Limits. One new deck per person per week (AhaBulb members: one a day). Some months we hit our budget for making decks; then yours waits in line and we tell you the date it will be made.

Analytics we use

• Cloudflare Web Analytics: counts page views and page speed. It uses no cookies and doesn't track you across sites.
• Umami, which we host ourselves (analytics.keylinkit.net): counts visits, pages and referrers. It uses no cookies and stores no personal data.
• Google Ads: when you arrive from one of our ads, Google's tag lets us see that the ad brought a visit. It runs only on our home page, course pages, the games list, sign-up and the shop, never on the kids' course, the game or your account pages. Google may set cookies for this; you can turn off ad personalization at myadcenter.google.com.
• Our own game statistics: which cards are shown, the answer picked and how long it took, thumbs up or down, likes, shares, joke votes, opened sources and challenges, and which test is being played. Each event carries a random number made on your device (not a fingerprint, not your account) so we can tell repeat plays from new players. We use this only to improve the cards, the jokes and the AhaBulb board game, and never sell it.

Things other companies load

• YouTube: video pages show a thumbnail first. The video loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you tap play.
• Cloudflare delivers the site and protects it from attacks.
• DeepSeek (only for Make a Deck and Ask AhaBulb): an AI service that helps write the cards and the short Ask AhaBulb answers. It gets only the text of a study guide or a question after we have removed personal information, plus the text of our own cards and help pages. It never gets uploaded files, pictures, names or emails. Nothing loads from DeepSeek in your browser.

Kids

AhaBulb is family friendly, and kids under 13 play with a parent's OK. There are no comments or messages between players.

Signing up asks one question about age: a box to say you're 13 or older. A kid under 13 types a parent's email instead, and we send the parent one email with a 6-digit code and a notice saying exactly what we'll keep. We keep nothing about the kid at that point. At ahabulb.com/parent the parent enters the code, adds the kid's birthday and, if they like, the kid's own email address, says OK, and gets a 6-digit PIN for the kid. The kid signs in with that email (or the parent's) and the PIN. A kid's email is only their sign-in name: we never email kids, never send them ads or marketing, never show it and never share it. Kids play under a generated fun name (like "Speedy Otter 42") and a cartoon avatar. About a day later the parent gets a confirmation email with a link to remove the kid's account and delete everything. Any time, the parent can give the kid a new PIN or delete the account at ahabulb.com/parent. If a parent never sets the kid up, we keep nothing.

Kids who make decks

Kids can make decks too. A picture or PDF of a kid's worksheet often has the kid's name or handwriting on it, and that counts as personal information. Here is what we promise:

• We use it only to make the deck, nothing else.
• Our own computers remove the kid's name and other personal details before any outside service (DeepSeek) sees the text.
• Pictures never leave our systems. Only our own AI, on our own computers, ever looks at the pages.
• We never publish the upload, the kid's name or their handwriting. The deck says "Made by an AhaBulb player."
• We delete the upload within 30 days of the deck going live, or right away if we can't use it.
• We email the parent, never the kid, about every deck a kid under 13 makes: when it's ready, if it needs a check, and if it gets flagged or taken down.
• A parent can unpublish or delete their kid's decks, or ask us anything about them, at [email protected].

On their 13th birthday a kid's player becomes a regular account automatically: same score and progress, and they may choose their own name. We let the parent know, and we still never send them news unless they turn it on themselves. Parents can ask us about or delete their kid's data any time at[email protected].

Links and purchases

Some pages may link to products on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, AhaBulb earns from qualifying purchases. Amazon's own privacy policy applies on their site.

Questions

Email [email protected].