Starfights

Privacy

Controller Frederik Borck, c/o IP-Management #9109, Ludwig-Erhard-Strasse 18, 20459 Hamburg, Germany Email: kontakt@midnightsyntax.games

What data is processed Account: your game account is created when you first sign in through the Midnight Syntax player portal. The game receives an account identifier, your username and your language preference from the portal; your email address and password stay in the portal. The game also stores your chosen race and your entire game state (planets, fleets, messages, alliance membership). Sign-in: when completing the sign-in, the game counts requests per IP address for one minute to throttle guessing. Admin area: for signed-in admin sessions the system stores IP address and browser identifier. Access log: the shared web server on the IONOS server, in front of the application, logs every request with time, IP address, protocol, method, host name, path (without query parameters), status code, duration and size. Browser identifier, cookies, content, credentials and other request headers are not logged. Error logs: application errors are logged and may contain IP addresses. In your browser: access token and display preferences live in your device’s local storage. They are not transmitted to us and can be cleared in your browser settings. Reports and moderation: if you report a player, the game stores the chosen reason, your free text, your account identifier and that of the reported player, and a piece of evidence – a copy of what you reported, such as the message or the name. The game's moderators see the report; the reported player does not learn who reported them. If a moderator decides on a warning, the game stores the warning. For a report of a pattern against a person, the evidence consists of the contacts between both accounts in the round – number and times of messages (without content), attacks and espionage – plus figures on how often the reported player dealt with other players, without their names.

What the game reports to the player portal Activity: for each day on which you played, the game reports your portal identifier, the day and the basis (an action in the game or just a request) to the player portal. Nothing more – no times of day, no content. Suspension: if a moderator decides to suspend you from Starfights, the case and what it rests on go to the portal – the report, the evidence, your warnings still in force and the history. An admin there decides on your appeal; the names of those who reported you are not transmitted. A suspension applies to Starfights only, never to your whole account.

Purpose and legal basis To operate the game and perform the user relationship, including signing in through the player portal (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). To prevent abuse and attacks, for operational security and troubleshooting — sign-in throttling, access and error logs — based on the legitimate interest in a secure, working game (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Reports, warnings and suspension requests serve to enforce the game rules and to protect other players; transmitting a suspension to the portal serves the appeal procedure (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR). The activity report serves the operation and development of the games and the figures in the player portal, based on the legitimate interest in these (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Recipients Hosting: IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Str. 57, 56410 Montabaur, Germany, as processor. Every request to the game passes through Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, USA). Cloudflare processes your IP address and the transmitted content; the encrypted connection terminates in their network. The transfer to the USA is based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, under which Cloudflare is certified. Messages to kontakt@midnightsyntax.games pass through Cloudflare Email Routing and are forwarded to a mailbox of the operator. Player portal: activity and suspension cases go to the Midnight Syntax player portal. It has the same controller as the game; it is not a third party. No other data is shared with third parties; there is no advertising and no behavioural analysis.

Retention Account data is kept as long as the account exists. A game round ends when the operator ends it and is then reset. The access log is deleted automatically after 14 days and only analysed in case of a security incident. Application error logs are cleaned up manually when needed. A warning expires after 30 days and is then deleted together with the report behind it. Dismissed reports are deleted 30 days after the decision. A report that led to a suspension stays in the game until the portal has taken over the case and is then deleted under the same periods. In the player portal the activity report is kept for 400 days, a suspension case for the duration of the suspension plus 30 days.

Your rights You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection. Write to kontakt@midnightsyntax.games. You may also lodge a complaint with any data protection supervisory authority, for example the one where you live. The authority competent for us is the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HmbBfDI), Ludwig-Erhard-Str. 22, 20459 Hamburg, Germany, mailbox@datenschutz.hamburg.de.

Deleting your account You delete your account in the player portal. The game then removes your name and personal details and unlinks the portal account; the game state of the current round remains, without reference to you, until the round ends. An informal message to kontakt@midnightsyntax.games is enough as well.