Ethibyte | Privacy Policy

Summary

The following are the key takeaways. The full policy below still applies.

We collect only what our services need to work and to stay secure.
We never sell your data or use it for advertising.
In-game chat is never stored.
Other players never see your email address or your IP address.
You can delete your account, and your personal details with it, at any time.

Who we are

Ethibyte LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) runs ethibyte.com, the Ethibyte™ account, the Ethibyte Launcher, and the online services our games use, such as lobbies, friends, match history, and in-game feedback. This policy covers all of them.

Ethibyte LLC is responsible for your data. You can reach us through the Contact Page, or by mail at 5900 Balcones Drive STE 100, Austin, Texas 78731, United States.

Your account

When you create an account and sign in, we keep:

your username and email address
your password, stored only as a one-way hash
the date you joined, the IP address you signed up from, and when you agreed to the Terms of Service
the games your account owns, and when you got them
your signed-in sessions, each with your browser's user agent

While you sign up, we also keep your unfinished sign-up and the codes we email you. Linking the Ethibyte Launcher records the IP address and user agent of the request. When you change your email address, we keep the old one for 7 days, so its owner can undo the change.

Friends and online play

When you play online, we keep:

your friends, friend requests, and blocks
your Ethibyte Launcher sign-ins, each named for its device, with when you were last active and which game you are playing
each time you start a game, which game it was, when it started, how long it ran, the platform it ran on, and the country your IP address places you in, to track your playtime
the lobbies you host or join
your match history, statistics, and achievements

In-game chat travels encrypted between players and is never stored by us.

Feedback and messages

In-game feedback keeps what you write, your ratings, and the game details the form attaches, such as the build, level, and match time. A copy is sent to our inbox with your Ethibyte ID.
The contact form sends your name, email address, message, IP address, and browser user agent to our inbox. The site itself stores none of it.
The newsletter keeps your email address.

Security and suspensions

To keep our services safe, we log:

the IP address, user agent, page, and referring page of each visit
sign-in events
addresses blocked for abuse

If your account is suspended, we keep the reason and the length. If it is deleted while suspended, we keep the suspension, a one-way hash of its email addresses, and its username until the suspension ends.

On your device

The Ethibyte Launcher keeps its sign-in, your username and join date, and a copy of your library on your device, so your installed games open offline. Each game keeps its own settings. All of it stays in your user data folder until you delete it.

Cookies

The website sets one cookie: your session, which also holds your cart. It is needed for signing in and checking out, and it is never used for tracking. Cloudflare may add a security cookie that tells people from bots. We use no advertising cookies and no third-party analytics.

Why we use it

To run the services you asked for: your account, your library, downloads, friends, and online play.
To send the emails that come with them, such as sign-in codes, security notices, and notices about your account. These are part of the service and separate from the newsletter.
To keep our services secure and fair, through security logs, rate limits, and suspensions. This is our legitimate interest.
To improve the games, using feedback and match records.
To meet legal obligations, and only where the law requires it.
With your consent, to send the newsletter, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.

What other players see

Everyone sees your username in lobbies, friend lists, and match results.
Players in your lobby also see your Ethibyte ID, the date you joined, and your match records.
Your friends see when you are online, when you were last seen, and which game you are playing.

Online matches transmit data through our relay servers. This prevents other players from seeing your IP address. Your email address is kept private and not shared with other players.

Who handles it

A few service providers handle data for us, only to run our services:

Cloudflare carries traffic to the website and services, and runs the bot check on our forms, which receives your IP address.
DigitalOcean hosts our servers and databases.
Mailgun sends our emails.
Proton hosts our inbox, which stores contact form and feedback messages.
Stripe processes payments. Card details go straight to Stripe and never reach our servers.

We never sell your data or use it for advertising, and we disclose it beyond these providers only where the law requires it. Sites we link to, such as third-party social media companies, have their own privacy policies.

Where it is stored

Our main server is in Singapore. Online matches pass through relays in the regions players choose, which hold only the connection details of a match while it runs. Ethibyte LLC is based in the United States, and our service providers may process data in other countries. Where the law requires it, those transfers are covered by our providers' data processing terms, including standard contractual clauses.

We protect your data with encryption, hashed passwords, and access controls. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep yours safe.

How long we keep it

For good: Match records and feedback, stored under your Ethibyte ID, and messages in our inbox.
Until you delete your account: Account details, library, friends, statistics, playtime, achievements, and suspension history.
Until you unsubscribe: Your newsletter email address.
Until a suspension ends: The suspension, email hash, and username of an account deleted while suspended. Permanent suspensions are kept for good.
90 days: Sign-in events.
30 days: Visit logs, addresses blocked for abuse, and usernames of deleted accounts.
30 days of inactivity: Ethibyte Launcher sign-ins.
7 days: Your previous email address after a change.
1 day of inactivity: Browser sessions.
24 hours: Unfinished sign-ups and emailed codes.
Minutes: Ethibyte Launcher link requests, and lobbies after they close.

Deleted data may remain in our backups for a limited time, until those backups are replaced.

Your rights

You can see and correct your details, including your username, email address, and password, from the account page.
You can delete your account from the account page. This immediately removes your account, sessions, library, friends, statistics, and achievements from our database, and removes you from any lobby. Your match records and feedback remain stored under your Ethibyte ID, without your name, so other players' match history is unaffected. Your username will be reserved for 30 days before anyone else can take it.
You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time through the link at the bottom of each email.
For anything else, such as a copy of your data in a portable format, a request to limit or stop how we use it, or a question about it, send a privacy request through the Contact Page. We answer as promptly as we can.

If you have contacted us and are not satisfied with our answer, depending on where you live, you may have the right to raise it with your local data protection authority.

Children

Our services are not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If we find that an account belongs to someone below the permitted age, we delete it.

Changes to this policy

For significant changes, we email account holders at least 30 days before they take effect. Other changes take effect when they are posted here. You can visit this page at any time for the most up-to-date version, and the rules for using our services are in the Terms of Service.