This explains what Dark Future stores about you, why, and what you can do
about it. It is written to be read rather than to be got past.
1. What is collected
Account details. Your username, your email address, and
your password. The password is stored only as a one-way hash: it
cannot be read back, by anyone, including the operator.
Things you choose to add. Gender, city, and a profile
picture if you upload one.
What you write. Shoutbox lines, private messages,
suggestions and bug reports.
Game progress. Rank, cash, stats, vehicles, and the
timestamps that make cooldowns work.
Technical records. Your IP address and the time,
recorded against security events: logins, failed logins, blocked
attempts, registrations, and refused attempts to reach the staff
panel. Ordinary page views are not logged.
Anything you send through the contact form. Your
message, the name and reply address you choose to give, and your IP
address, which is attached so abuse of the form can be traced. You
do not need an account to use it, and nothing is required except the
message itself.
Token purchases, if you make any. Which pack, how many
Tokens, the price, when, and Stripe's reference for the payment, so
a refund or a dispute can be matched to it. Your card details are not
among them: they go to Stripe and never reach this site.
A Token balance at the end of a version. When the world is
wiped, your balance is kept with your email address so it can go
onto your next account.
2. Why, and on what basis
To run your account and let you play, because that is the
service you asked for. Token purchases are kept for the same reason:
they are the record of something you paid for.
To keep the game secure and fair: spotting password guessing,
spam and abuse. This is a legitimate interest, and it is why IP
addresses are recorded at all.
To look into reports, cheating and abuse. Staff can read private
messages and crew chat when they do, and every time they read
the messages of a player it is recorded.
Your data is not sold, rented or shared for marketing. There is no
advertising on this site and no analytics or tracking service watching
you.
3. Cookies and browser storage
One cookie, the session cookie, which keeps you logged in. It is
strictly necessary, because without it there is no way to be logged
in, and it is not used to track you. The contact page sets
the same cookie even if you have no account, because it is what
proves the form came from this site and not from another one.
Reading these documents sets nothing at all.
Local storage in your own browser remembers small preferences: which
chat windows are open and how you arranged the menu. That stays on
your device and is never sent anywhere.
4. Who else is involved
Hosting. The site runs on a server rented from Hetzner Online
GmbH, in Falkenstein, Germany. Your data is stored there.
Google Fonts. Pages load a font from
fonts.googleapis.com and
fonts.gstatic.com. That means your
browser makes a request to Google when a page loads, and your IP
address is visible to Google as part of it. Nothing else is sent, and
no account information goes with it.
Stripe. Card payments for Tokens are taken by Stripe, on
Stripe's own page. Stripe is told your account number and username so
the Tokens reach the right account, and collects your card and email
itself. What Stripe keeps is covered by Stripe's own privacy policy.
Backups. Copies of the database are taken for recovery and
held by the operator outside the server. They contain the same data
described above and are not shared with anybody.
5. How long it is kept
Account data, for as long as the account exists.
Security records, including IP addresses, for 30 days, then
deleted automatically.
Token purchase records are kept after the account is gone, and
through every wipe, as the record of a real payment.
A Token balance kept at the end of a version, until it goes onto
your next account.
Backups are kept for a limited period for recovery, so data can
survive there for a short while after deletion.
6. Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask for a copy of what is
held about you, ask for it to be corrected, ask for it to be deleted,
object to how it is used, or ask for it to be handed over in a portable
form. To do any of that, send a message through the contact form.
There is no self-service delete button yet. Ask, and the account and
everything attached to it will be removed. Be aware that messages
you sent to other players may remain in their inboxes.
If you think your data has been handled badly, you can complain to the
Information Commissioner's Office at
ico.org.uk.
7. How it is kept safe
Traffic is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are hashed and never stored in
readable form. Database access is restricted to the application, queries
are parameterised so player input cannot become part of them, and uploads
are checked to be genuine images before they are saved. No system is
perfect, and this one is a hobby project, so do not reuse a password
here that you use anywhere important.
8. Children
This site is not for anyone under 13. If an account belongs to a child
under 13, tell the operator and it will be deleted.
9. Changes
This policy can change. The date at the top says when it last did.