How the North Pole website uses AI and information.

Chat with Santa

Santa’s replies are created with artificial intelligence.

When someone types or speaks a free-form message, the current message and up to the 12 most recent complete chat exchanges are sent through Santa Oliver’s server to Anthropic. Anthropic’s Claude service creates Santa’s reply.

The Santa Oliver app does not put chat messages in its browser storage or a Santa Oliver chat database. The conversation is held in the open page so Santa can follow along. Anthropic processes the messages as the AI service provider under its own service terms and data practices.

Microphone & Santa’s voice

Speaking and listening use two different services.

If the microphone button is available and used, the web browser on the visitor’s own phone, tablet, or computer uses its built-in speech service to turn the visitor’s audio into text. The company that provides that browser, operating system, or device may process the audio as part of speech recognition. Santa Oliver receives the resulting text transcript, not the original microphone recording, and sends that text through the same AI chat flow described above.

When Santa’s voice is turned on, only Santa’s generated reply text is sent to a third-party voice service to create spoken audio. A child’s typed or audio message is never sent to the voice service. Frequently reused Santa audio may be cached as MP3 files on Santa Oliver’s server; the cache is not publicly browsable. Some fixed greetings and answers are prerecorded and play locally without contacting the voice service.

Microphone access requires browser permission. Typing always remains an option, and Santa’s voice can be muted with the speaker button.

Write a Letter to Santa

Letters are real submissions, not a pretend game.

Sending a letter transmits the letter text, the child’s first name, and an optional grown-up email address through Google-hosted form and email services so it can be delivered to Santa Oliver. If a grown-up email is supplied, Santa may use it to write back.

Those messages can remain in Santa Oliver’s email records until they are deleted. Ask a grown-up before sending. Do not include a last name, home address, school, phone number, password, photo, or details about when a child is home.

Book Santa

Booking information is for arranging a visit.

The adult booking form sends the selected package, requested date and time, event type, city and venue, attendance details, alternate date, name, email, optional phone number, and notes to Santa Oliver’s booking system. The system uses Google-hosted calendar and email services for scheduling and correspondence.

Adult marketing and booking pages use Google Ads conversion measurement to tell whether an ad led to a completed booking. That measurement may use browser storage, cookies, page URLs, and ad-click identifiers. The Google Ads tag is not installed on the child-directed North Pole games and activities, ad-personalization signals are disabled, and booking form contents are not sent to Google Ads by this tag.

Booking form contents are not sold or used to build advertising audiences. Please include only details needed to arrange the visit. Avoid placing sensitive child information in the notes field.

What stays on this browser

Games remember progress with local browser storage.

The Elf Training Academy stores activity progress and preferences on the device so a visitor can continue later. This can include map stars and collectibles, coloring progress, found reindeer and best times, the daily star, saved snowmen, sound and voice settings, a first name used on a printable reindeer certificate, and up to six saved Elf IDs. An Elf ID stores only its generated elf name, title, appearance choices, and optional accomplishment stamps; an entered first name or birthday month is not kept in the Elf ID.

This local game data is not uploaded by those activities. It remains in that browser until the visitor clears the site’s browser data. The short Academy entrance animation also uses temporary session storage so it does not replay unnecessarily.

Chat messages, letter text, and booking form details are not saved in this local game storage.

One narrow exception, added so a child does not lose a letter to an accidental refresh: a letter that is still being written is held in the browser tab's temporary session storage. It never leaves the device, and it is discarded as soon as the letter is sent or the tab is closed.

Anonymous North Pole analytics

We measure which activities are enjoyed without keeping visitor IP addresses.

Santa Oliver records anonymous activity counts such as which game or North Pole feature was opened, focused play time, and audio or video playback time, completion, stalls, and errors. The analytics do not record chat messages, Letter to Santa text, names, email addresses, advertising identifiers, browser fingerprints, or precise device location.

Santa Oliver does not ask for location permission for analytics. If location permission has already been granted in the browser or device settings, the site may read that existing permission, round the coordinates to roughly city scale before they leave the device, and use a local city database to estimate country, state or region, and city. If permission is not already granted, the analytics code does not call browser geolocation and does not show a permission prompt.

Otherwise, when an analytics event reaches the Santa Oliver server, the server briefly uses the connection IP address with local geolocation and network databases. Browser timezone may be used to check whether the network location is plausible, and network ownership may be used to recognize mobile-carrier, VPN, proxy, or cloud egress. Conflicting or low-confidence signals are reduced to broader geography instead of being treated as an exact city.

IP address, browser timezone, network/ASN information, and browser coordinates are decision inputs only. They are discarded after the lookup and are not written to the analytics database, not hashed into a visitor identifier, and not sent to a runtime geolocation service. Only approximate country, state or region, city, location source, and confidence may be retained with the anonymous usage event.

The analytics collector is excluded from the web server’s visitor access log. Anonymous session and run identifiers are random and stored only as salted hashes. Analytics events are retained for a limited period.

Choices & questions

A grown-up stays in control.

• Children can enjoy the local games without using chat, microphone, letters, or booking.
• Use typing instead of the microphone, mute Santa’s voice, or deny microphone permission in the browser.
• Do not submit a letter or booking request if you do not want that information sent.
• Clear Santa Oliver’s site data in the browser to remove locally stored game progress and preferences.
• Close or refresh the Academy page to end the in-page chat history.

Questions or a request about information already submitted? Email yoursanta1951@gmail.com.