Sauropod Studio

Published: 2019-06-30

Last updated: 2019-06-30

Introduction

Hi, and welcome to Sauropod Studio's Privacy Policy. The purpose of this policy is to help you understand how Sauropod collects, processes, uses, share and store your personal and non-personal data.

Here at Sauropod, we are aware that your personal information and data is sensitive and should be handled in the most respectful manner. The information you share with us is meant to help us improve our games and our services, as described in the present policy.

This policy is applicable to all of Sauropod's websites, applications, games and services as well as any site that links directly to this policy, including but not limited to Sauropod's website (www.sauropodstudio.com), Castle Story's website (http://www.castlestory.net), Mirador's website (https://www.miradorgame.com), and our games; Castle Story and Mirador, further referred to as "Our Services"

In accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Data controller is Sauropod Studio inc., with its headquarters at 5605 ave. de Gaspé, suite 605 Montréal, Québec H2T 2A4, Canada.

Definitions

To help you understand what exactly we are talking about in this policy, here are a few definitions of specific terms used herein.

1. Personal Data: This refers to any information relating to an identifiable living person. This can be, but is not limited to, your name, address, email, phone number, IP address, etc. It also applies to any other information or combination of information that can be traced back to your identity.

2. Processing: This is any operation or set of operations, which can be automated or manual, that is done with your data. This can be as simple as collecting and storing your data, but can also mean any other action of sorting, analysing or recording that would allow us, for example, to understand and draw conclusions from the collected data.

3. Pseudonymization: This means that your personal data is processed automatically and given a different identifier, so that it can no longer be traced back to a specific individual, unless we use additional information that is stored separately from the data.

4. Data Subject: This is the person whose data is being processed

Our data protection principles

1. We will process personal data in agreement with the laws and policies in place

2. We will only collect data in ways that are deemed reasonable and for reasonable reasons, both of which we will always disclose and be honest about.

3. We will only use the data we collect for the specific disclosed reason it is collected

4. We will limit the processing of data to the minimum needed, no more than that.

5. We will always make sure that the data we process is accurate and adequate,

6. We will keep the collected data only for the time frame in which it serves a purpose and not keep it any longer than needed.

7. We will always protect, to the best of our capacity, any data that we collect, and keep it secure.

8. We will process data with respect and consideration for the players and users of our games and services

When do we collect personal data?

1. When you play our games

2. When you visit our websites

3. When you create an account on our websites

4. When you subscribe to our newsletters

5. When you subscribe to a playtest or a beta test

6. When you create and share content in our games

7. When you contact us to get information or support

8. When you interact or create content on our sites wiki, forums, and other such services

9. When you share or interact on our social media

How and why we process personal data

1. When you play our games

Game purchase, activation and usage

As you purchase our games through online stores, the platform will collect some of your personal data, including anything you provide them when creating an account and your payment information. You can read the stores’ privacy policy for more information.

The information you provide to these platforms is not shared with Sauropod Studio, as they manage all the payments and user information. As you launch the game, enter our servers and play, an automated process will verify that your account has legitimately purchased the game and is allowed to access it. Therefore, our servers will know your store’s user ID, such as your Steam ID or others. This information is only collected for security and identification, and is erased after 24hours.

When you play the game, an account will be created that collects your login history with the game. This account collects your Store’s user ID, the date and time of your last login and the IP address used to access the game. An IP address, is a unique identifier that allows to recognize which device was used to connect to other systems through the internet. The reason we collect this information is to assure control over the game data and usage, as well as for security and support purposes. Your account information will be kept in our records for as long as you play the game and have an account. In the eventuality that you would request to have your account erased, we can delete it in our active database, though it will take up to one month for your records to be erased from our backups.

Game analytics

We also will be collecting your in-game data whenever you play our games. This data can take a variety of forms and shapes, for example, but not limited to, your game scores, the time you spend in different game modes, the items you use, unlock, collect and sell in-game, and basically, any other data that would help us understand how you play the games.

These analytics are collected to help us understand our users needs, and improve our games in a way that will serve the players. Our goal is to provide you with the best gaming experience you can have in the universe we created for you. We will therefore analyse the data and process it in ways that will help us understand how we can implement the right feature enhancements and performance improvements through game updates.

The gameplay data we collect is processed through Google Analytics. The information collected through this system is given a pseudonym before being sent to Google, which means it is not linked to any of your personal information, and can't be traced back to you. In other words, the collected information can be linked together with one single user, though this single user is presented as an anonymous individual and won't be identified as you. To get further information on Google's collection of data, you should read their privacy policy.

If you participate in a playtest or a beta test with Sauropod Studio, know that there will be no options to opt out of this data collection, as the purpose of playtests is to collect such data to help with the game development. Therefore, if you have any reticence with us collecting data on your gameplay, you should refrain from subscribing to a playtest. If you do subscribe, some information might be requested from you at subscription, such as, but not limited to, your age, gender, region, name, store’s user ID, email address and more. This information may be used for sampling reason and analytic purposes, or to allow us to communicate with you about the playtest. We won’t keep the information further past the playtest, unless you actively consent to receive further communications from sauropod regarding playtests or other Sauropod related communication.

User generated content

Whenever you create and publish some content within our games, the content created will be linked to your game account and published with some of your personal information, such as a username or an avatar. The content may also be collected by Sauropod for further use, such as marketing material or other. Please act with caution, as Sauropod cannot be held responsible for any negative feedback or consequences related to the content you publish.

Opt-out options

You have the right and possibility to opt out of our game analytics through the game options. there are two ways to opt out:

1. You can agree to have game data collected but not show any interdependence between the data, which means we would receive different information that can not be linked together or to a single user

2. You can opt out completely and not have any data collected on your gameplay.

You should know that we don't use the information collected to do any profiling, to present you with targeted publicity or to get you to buy any game content or derivative products

2. When you visit our websites and use our services

Websites

When you visit our websites or use our online services, we will use cookies for logins and identification purposes. Cookies are a single text file that is stored on your computer that can be used to personalize your experience. You can choose to refuse the usage of cookies through the settings of your browser, though, this might result in a lesser experience while visiting our sites, as some functionality may not be working if you deactivate the cookies.

While visiting our sites, we will also be collecting some information through Google analytics to help us understand the behaviours and interests of our users, and therefore improve our services to better suit your needs. As explained in the game analytics section, the collection of analytics data is collected through a pseudonym and therefore is not linked back to your personal identity.

If you create an account on our sites, you will be asked to provide a username, password and email address. This will allow to authenticate you if you want to publish, interact create content, or any other action taken on our forums, wiki, or other part of our site where you could be in contact with other users. We will also keep information on your login history, such as the last time you were connected, the number of times you logged in, and other similar data. This helps us to assure a certain control and enforce security measures over the content our users may publish on our sites, and will allow us to offer support if you ever need it. However, know that if you don't want to create an account on our sites, you will still be able to view, read, and browse the sites, without being allowed to publish any content in the forums or wiki pages.

Newsletters

If you subscribe to our newsletters, you will be asked for your email information, to which we will be sending the newsletter and required communications. If you choose to unsubscribe, your email information will be erased from our records.

Support

If you contact us for support, we might need to obtain some personal data from you, such as, but not limited to, your email address, store’s user ID, name, surname, phone number, country of residence, IP address, or any other information that we would need in order to identify you, contact you, or help resolve the issue for which you requested support. The necessary information will be kept for the duration of the support provision, and will be kept no further when we receive confirmation that the support is no longer needed. We might keep some information in our records or documentation about the issue that was addressed during support, without keeping it linked to any of your personal information.

Legal bases

Sauropod Studio collects your personal data only when necessary, on the following legal basis:

1. Contract: to allow you to use our services as intended, some personal data is necessary, like your authentication information through your store’s user ID, to make sure you are trying to access our servers legitimately. In certain circumstances, if we don't have access to the necessary data to provide the services, we won't be able to provide the complete user experience that our games can offer. For example, if we don't keep a user account with your store’s user ID and login history, we won’t be able to authenticate you on our servers, let you access your game data or provide support if needed.

2. Legitimate interest: We collect data like in-game data analytics and metrics so we can understand our user's needs and improve our games. It is in Sauropod's legitimate interest to gather this information, so we can improve our services and offer our users the best experience possible.

3. Consent: For the provision of other services that require personal information that is not linked to contract or legitimate interest, we ask for your explicit consent from you before we process your data. Where consent is given, it can also be withdrawn at any time.

How long we retain personal data

We will be keeping the personal data collected for no longer than the need for it is prescribed. The prescribed time for each type of data is described in the up section on when and how we process your data.

Basically, for anything that is required for the provision of services or game usage, we will keep your information as long as you have an active account with us. If you choose to delete your account, the information will be deleted from our active database but might be still existing for a maximum period of one month in our backed-up databases.

For other types of data for which you provided consent, we will keep it as long as you don't withdraw your consent or until the purpose of the data is outdated or no longer needed.

For the analytics we collect, once we process it through a pseudonym, it can no longer be linked back to your personal identity and therefore is no longer considered as personal data, but if you ask that we no longer collect such data, we won't collect it any further.

In other words, we will only keep your data as long as necessary to process it according to this Privacy Policy. We might require a certain period of time needed going up to one month to ensure the data as completely been erased from our records.

In some specific circumstances, it may happen that Sauropod Studio will retain and use your information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our policies, or whenever required by law.

Third parties with whom we share personal data

Sauropod Studio does not share, sell of transfer the personal information collected by us to third parties, unless we get your explicit consent to do so.

However, as we require the intervention of service providers to either collect data or provide our services, those providers will be collecting your information for us or on our behalf.

1. The platform through which you purchased our games. We do not manage user identification, account management, transactions and other such operations ourselves. Therefore, in order to purchase our games, you need to provide the required information through the online store’s platform we sell our game on. You can read the store’s privacy policy for more information.

2. Google analytics allows us to collect information on your gameplay behaviour, or your usage of our websites and services. This information is given to us through pseudonyms, which means we don't link it to your personal identity. In this transaction, Google may collect a variety of informations. To get further information on Google's collection of data, you should read their privacy policy.

International Transfers of Personal Data

Sauropod Studio's headquarters are located in Montreal, Canada. That is where most of the data processing is being done, no matter what region it is collected in. We don't have any affiliated studios or partners outside Canada, therefore don't transfer data across countries.

It may however happen for our game servers, which are operated by a third party, to be located in other parts of the world, depending on your region. these servers will receive your store’s user ID in order to authenticate you whenever you play our games, and will know what region you are from, to connect you to the closest servers for better performances. This information will be deleted upon 24 hours of your connection.

We also require the services of companies that hold their headquarters in the United States, such as, but not limited to, Google or Steam, meaning some of the data processing could be done in the U.S.

What are your rights?

Regarding your personal data collected or processed by Sauropod Studio, you have the following rights:

1. The right to access, update or delete the information we have on you, which means you may request to see the complete picture of your personal data we possess. This includes that you have the right to data portability, which requires us to present the information to you in an intelligible way. You can also request that we update or correct some of the information we have that you consider erroneous, or have some or all of it erased from our records

2. The right to erasure, or the right to be forgotten, which means that you may request that we completely erase all of the information we have on you.

3. The right to restrict processing, to object or to withdraw consent, which means you can choose to not want your personal information processed any further by us, in which case, we will comply with your request in the best of our capacity. You should know that though it is your right to object to the data processing, in some circumstances, it may limit the level of services we are able to provide to you, in accordance to the present policy.

To exercise these rights, you can visit our game options to opt in or out of certain in-game data analytics collection, or contact us through the following channels:

1. The contact section of our websites

2. Our contact email: contact@sauropodstudio.com

3. Our postal address: Sauropod Studio, 5605 ave. de Gaspé, suite 605 Montréal, Québec H2T 2A4, Canada.

Sauropod Studio will answer your request within a month following the receipt of your demand. We reserve the right to extend this delay to up to three months, if we think it is necessary, regarding the complexity of the demand, the volume of requests we receive or any other reason we judge reasonable. If this happens, we will inform you of the delay within a month of the receipt of your demand. You may be required to provide additional information in order for us to be able to complete your request.

You may also address any complaint to the national supervisory authority of your country.

Changes to this policy

As life evolves and things change in a constant manner, it may happen that we update this policy from time to time. We suggest that you visit it regularly if you are sensitive to this subject, in order to stay up to date with the way we process your personal data.

With every update, we will change the "last updated" information at the top of this policy and make sure we send a memo through our newsletters and news sections of our sites.