Privacy Policy
This policy explains what information Throne of the Grey Tide (“the game”) collects, what we use it for, who can see it, and how you can access, correct and delete it. We only collect what we need to run the game. We do not sell your information or use it for advertising.
What we collect
- Account information: your display name. If you sign up with email: your email address and password — the password is stored only as a salted hash (PBKDF2), never in plain text. If you sign in with Google or Facebook: the user identifier that service gives us, and the email address it chooses to share (we don't ask for your friends, photos or anything else).
- Game data: your lords, cities, lands, resources, troops, battle reports, scouting intel, alliance membership, the messages you post in alliance chat, and a ledger of in-game actions (used to reconcile resources and investigate problems).
- Technical information: your IP address is used briefly in memory to limit excessive requests and prevent abuse; IP addresses and request records may appear in server and network logs, kept for at most 30 days. When you sign in we store your browser identification (the start of its User-Agent string) so you can tell where your account is signed in. When a new account is created we count its browser’s preferred language per day (only how many new accounts use each language, never linked to your account) to decide which languages to translate the game into. We also record on which days each account visits (the date only) to count how many people play each day and whether new players come back.
- Forum: the topics and replies you post on the forum (with your account's name and the time of posting), which topics you upvoted, and your reports. A topic posted with the in-game Feedback button also carries your world, the game day, your lord's name, age, interface language, screen size and browser identifier (User-Agent), to help us track down problems.
- Purchases: when you buy something we record what you bought, its list price and currency, when you ordered and paid, whether it was refunded or charged back, and Paddle's order number, as well as which cosmetics your account owns and wears. The payment itself is handled by Paddle.com (the merchant of record), which collects your name, billing address and payment method under its own privacy policy; we never receive your card number.
- Browser storage: the game site uses your browser's local storage to keep your sign-in token and a few preferences (language, map coloring, which tips you have seen). We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. The website and the game pages use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits and measure how fast pages load (aggregated by country and browser; no cookies, no IP addresses stored, no tracking across sites), so we can tell whether the game loads quickly for players everywhere. Only when you open the account dialog, and only if we have enabled Google or Facebook sign-in, are their sign-in scripts loaded from their servers; they may set their own cookies under their own privacy policies.
- Email: we only send you verification codes (to confirm your email or reset your password). We do not send marketing email.
What we use it for
- Providing the game and your account: saving your progress, letting you sign in on other devices, showing your lands, reports and alliance;
- Running the forum: showing your topics and replies, investigating the problems you report, and handling reports and content that breaks the rules;
- Purchases: delivering what you bought, handling refunds and disputes, bookkeeping and taxes;
- Security: preventing account theft, request flooding, cheating and abuse, and troubleshooting;
- Contacting you: sending verification codes and answering your messages;
- Improving the game: counting how many people play and where new players stop (looking only at aggregated numbers);
- Complying with legal obligations.
Where laws such as the GDPR apply: we provide the game, your account and what you buy to perform our agreement with you; keeping purchase records is also required by accounting and tax law; security, abuse prevention and the statistics we use to improve the game rest on our legitimate interests; Google and Facebook sign-in are used only if you choose them.
Who can see it
- Other players can see your display name, the public facts about your lands and cities (age, approximate strength, alliance, people), the titles and cosmetics you wear, and what you say to your allies in alliance chat. Forum topics and replies are public (including to visitors who are not signed in and to search engines); the details attached by the Feedback button are visible only to you and the administrators, and reports only to the administrators. Your email, sign-in methods and purchases are never shown to other players.
- Service providers: our hosting provider, email delivery provider and our payment provider Paddle.com, who process information only on our instructions or to complete your payment;
- Google and Facebook, only when you choose to sign in with them;
- Authorities, where the law requires it.
We do not sell your personal information. Our servers may be located outside your country.
How long we keep it
- Account information is kept until you delete your account. Guests have no sign-in method — their token lives only in their browser. Signed-in sessions expire after 60 days without use.
- Verification codes expire and are deleted after 15–30 minutes.
- The record of which days each account visited is kept for 90 days and deleted immediately when you delete your account.
- Forum topics and replies are kept until you delete them, or we delete them under the Terms of Service; deleting removes them from our servers. When you delete your account, your topics and replies stay on the forum with the author shown as “A departed player” (no longer linked to you), while the details attached by the Feedback button and your upvotes are deleted immediately. To remove your posts as well, delete them before deleting your account, or write to us.
- Purchase records are kept as long as accounting and tax law requires (5 to 10 years in most places). When you delete your account, your orders are unlinked from it (no longer tied to you), and the items you own and wear are deleted immediately.
- When you delete your account, your email, Google and Facebook sign-ins and all sessions are deleted immediately. Your lord remains in the game world (other players' games depend on it) under the name “Departed lord” and leaves its alliance. We replace your name in battle reports and alliance chat where it is stored, though a few historical snapshots may still contain the name used at the time.
Your rights
You can view and correct your information (click your name at the top of the game to open your account), delete your account at any time (see Data deletion), or write to support@example.com to request a copy of your data, object, or make another request. We reply within 30 days. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.
Children
The game is not directed at children under 13; in the European Economic Area, players under 16 need a parent's or guardian's consent. If you believe a child has signed up without consent, contact us and we will delete the account.
Security
The site uses HTTPS throughout. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes and verification codes only as keyed hashes; your sign-in token is given only to your browser, and the server keeps only its hash. No system is perfectly secure — if a security incident affects you, we will tell you promptly.
Changes
If this policy changes in an important way, we will update the effective date here and, where appropriate, tell you in the game.
Contact
Kun Zou · support@example.com