Privacy Policy

1. What we collect, and why

1.1 Newsletter

If you sign up for updates, we collect your email address, the time and IP address of your sign-up request (for an IPv6 address, only its first half, which identifies your network and not your device), and the time you confirmed it.

We use double opt-in. After you sign up we email you a link, and you are only on the list once you click it. This stops anyone signing up an address that is not theirs. Until you click, your address is marked "pending" and we delete it after 7 days. We use your address to send you news about Macabre, such as playtests, patches and updates. Our legal basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time (section 6).

Some subscribers signed up on our earlier website, which was built on Wix. When we moved to this Site we brought across your email address, the date you signed up and whether you were subscribed. We did not bring across names, phone numbers, addresses or anything else that website held. Anyone who had unsubscribed, or whose address had stopped accepting our emails, came across marked as unsubscribed, so that we never email them.

1.2 Contact form

If you write to us through the contact form, we collect your name, email address and message, and we store the IP address that sent it so we can deal with abuse. We use these to read your message and reply to you. The message is also emailed to our team mailbox. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in answering the people who contact us, and in keeping the form free of spam.

1.3 Key claim (Kickstarter backers)

When you backed Macabre on Kickstarter and completed your Pledgebox survey, we received your name, email address, Kickstarter backer ID, Pledgebox order number and the keys allocated to you.

To get your keys, you enter your email address, backer ID and Pledgebox order number. We show keys only if all three match one record, so nobody else can see yours. We record how many times each record has been claimed, and when it was first and last claimed.

Every lookup is also logged with the IP address it came from and a one-way hash of the email address that was entered (not the address itself). For a successful lookup, the log notes which backer record matched. We use this log to limit repeated guessing and to spot misuse. Our legal basis is delivering the rewards you backed, and our legitimate interest in stopping people from claiming keys that are not theirs.

1.4 Staff sign-in

Our staff sign in to a password-protected admin area. It shows sign-up counts, contact messages and key claim status. Failed sign-in attempts are logged with the IP address they came from.

1.5 Page counts

We count how many times each page of the Site is viewed, so we know what people read and where they come from. We do this ourselves, with no cookies and no analytics service. When a page loads, your browser sends our server a short message saying which page you opened and, if you followed a link from another website, that website's name (for example "google.com", never the full address or what you searched for).

Our server adds one to a daily total for that page and that website, and keeps nothing else from the message. What we store: the date, the page (one of the Site's own pages, or "other"), the referring website's name, and the number of views. What we do not store: your IP address, a cookie or any other identifier, your browser or device details, or a record of any individual visit. We cannot tell whether two views came from the same person, and we cannot follow anyone from page to page. We do not count visits to our staff area, and we leave out visits from bots (the browser's user agent is read to spot them and is not kept).

To stop one device flooding the counter, the server also keeps a short log of these requests. In that log your IP address is replaced by a one-way fingerprint made with a secret key, so it cannot be turned back into your address. The log is deleted after 30 days (section 5). Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in understanding how the Site is used and keeping it running. If you would rather not be counted, you can block the request with your browser or an ad blocker. The Site works the same without it.

1.6 Hosting logs

Our hosting provider, Netlify, processes technical information when your device asks for a page, such as your IP address, the page requested, the time and your browser type. It does this to deliver and secure the Site, and it does so for every request, including the page count message above.

2. Cookies

The Site does not set any cookies for visitors. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, or third-party analytics. Our own page counts (section 1.5) use no cookies, local storage or other identifiers.

The only cookie the Site sets is a signed session cookie when our staff sign in to the admin area. It is strictly necessary for that sign-in and expires after 12 hours.

Fonts and images are served from the Site itself, so loading a page does not contact any third party.

If you follow a link to Steam, Discord, Kickstarter or Pledgebox, those services handle your information under their own policies.

3. Who we share it with

We share information only with service providers that process it on our behalf, under contract, for the purposes above:

1. Netlify hosts the Site and keeps server logs.
2. Neon hosts the database that holds newsletter sign-ups, contact messages and key claim records.
3. Resend sends the emails the Site sends, such as the sign-up confirmation and your contact message to our team. It receives the recipient address and the content of each email. If we later send newsletters using a different email service, we will update this policy.
4. Google (Google Workspace) hosts our team mailbox, where contact messages arrive.

We never sell personal information and we do not share it for advertising. We may disclose it if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our players or the security of our services.

4. International transfers

We are based in Australia, and our service providers operate in several countries, including the United States. Your information may therefore be processed outside the country where you live. Where the law requires it, for example for information from the EU, the UK or Switzerland, we protect these transfers with safeguards such as the standard contractual clauses approved for that purpose.

5. How long we keep it

1. Unconfirmed newsletter sign-ups: deleted after 7 days.
2. Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe. After that we keep only your address, marked as unsubscribed, so that we do not email you again. Ask us if you want it deleted completely.
3. Contact messages: deleted from our database after 12 months. Emailed copies stay in our mailbox for as long as we need them to deal with your message.
4. Key claim, sign-in and email-sending logs (IP address and hashed email): deleted after 30 days.
5. Page count request log (the one-way fingerprint of your IP address, section 1.5): deleted after 30 days.
6. Page counts (date, page, referring website's name and number of views): kept for 2 years, then deleted. They are totals and are not linked to any person.
7. Backer records (details, keys and claim counts): kept for as long as backers may need their keys or help with them, then deleted. You can ask us to delete yours sooner.
8. Staff sign-in cookie: expires after 12 hours.
9. Hosting logs: kept by Netlify under its own policies.

6. Unsubscribing

You can leave the newsletter at any time using the unsubscribe link in our emails, or by sending us a message through the contact form at macabregame.com/contact. We will stop emailing you straight away.

7. Security

The Site uses HTTPS. The confirmation link in a sign-up email is stored only as a one-way hash, the admin area is password protected and rate limited, and only people at WEFORGE STUDIO PTY LTD who need the information to run the Site can see it. No system is completely secure, so we cannot promise that information will never be accessed without permission.

8. Children

Macabre is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, or under the age at which a child can consent to data processing where they live (for example, 16 in some EU countries). If we learn that we have, we will delete it. If you are under that age, please do not use the newsletter or contact form.

9. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it, and you can withdraw your consent to emails at any time. Send us a message through the contact form at macabregame.com/contact, using the email address you gave us, and tell us what you want. We will reply within 30 days, and we will not treat you differently for using your rights.

Depending on where you live, you also have the rights described in section 9.9 of the EULA. These include:

1. Australia: access and correction under the Australian Privacy Principles.
2. EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland: access, correction, erasure, restriction, data portability, and objection to processing based on legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect processing before you withdrew it.
3. Brazil, South Korea, California and other places with privacy laws: the rights those laws give you, as set out in the EULA.

If you are not happy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (https://www.oaic.gov.au) or to the data protection authority where you live or work, for example the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Site changes. When we do, we will change the date at the top.

11. Contact