I've designed my games and the Sidequest Ninja website in as privacy-conscious a manner as I can. I take care of my own privacy online - I have various privacy plugins installed in my browser, I block cookies by default, and so on. And so I'm keen that my own work be very respectful of your privacy. Here's how Sidequest Ninja stuff behaves:

Hexahedra Leaderboards

The first time you finish a puzzle in Hexahedra, you'll be asked whether you'd like to compete in the global and/or friends leaderboards. By default you're opted in (since none of the data stored by the stats server can be used to identify you), but you can opt out from that screen, or at any time from the Options menu. Data already submitted will remain in the system.

The global data is tracked by Hexahedra's stats server. The server uses your Steam ID to uniquely identify you, however the Steam ID is not stored directly, but is encrypted using a one-way, irreversible hash (much like the way passwords are stored). This means I cannot get the Steam IDs back out from the database. But when your copy of the game wants to retrieve your stats, it can resend the Steam ID, which can be encrypted again and compared with the values stored in the database to get the right set.

The friends leaderboards are powered by Steam's leaderboard system. When you submit stats and you're opted into the friends leaderboards, the stats are also sent to Steam. The Hexahedra stats server doesn't know who your friends are — when the friends leaderboards are displayed in-game, this data is retrieved by your copy of Hexahedra using the Steamworks SDK. If you stay opted into the friends leaderboards, any friends who also play Hexahedra will be able to see that you're playing it.

You can opt not to send any data to the stats server at all, however this will prevent you earning many of the Steam achievements.

Bug Tracking and Discord Bot

If you've played Hexahedra, you may have spotted the in-game bug tracker. If you encounter a bug in the game, I'd be delighted if you'd use the tool to report it. Here's how data is handled by the tracker:

• No personally-identifiable data is automatically collected by the tool. The tool collects some data about your PC using Unity's SystemInfo stats dump. By default this does include some information that could be used to identify you (such as your PC name). This is stripped out before it's sent to the bug tracker.
• Once the bug has been submitted, you'll be shown a code that you can, if you wish, use to claim the bug on the Sidequest Ninja Discord server — this allows you to compete in the Bug Hunting Leaderboard of the most profilic bug reporters. The top 10 places on the leaderboard are visible in Discord and the game's credits. In order to link the bug to your Discord account, the bug tracker stores your Discord ID in its database. By claiming the bug, you are giving me your consent to store this information in order to comply with your claim request. If you'd like to have your Discord ID removed from the database, see the Right To Be Forgotten section.
• When you fill in the bug title and description, I recommend not putting in any personally-identifiable information, as this will be stored in the database. Again, if you are sending me this information you are naturally giving me your consent to store it. If you have sent personal info, and you'd like it removed, see the Right To Be Forgotten section. I'll keep the bug reports themselves around, it's very useful to have that information, but the personal information will be stripped out.

Website

• I don't set any cookies at all. If I ever added parts to the website that needed cookies to function, I'd do that (and I'd make it clear why and what data is stored), but I'm not running around adding cookies to track you purely for the sake of tracking you.
• I don't have any JavaScript tracking or tracking pixels. There's no Google Analytics integration. There is JavaScript on the site, but it's purely to make the browsing experience smoother.
• What I do have is a self-hosted analytics package called Matomo (previously called Piwik). I feed it the logs generated by each request when you visit the site. This lets me see how many visitors I have, and the path people take through the site when they visit. Matomo is set to partially anonymize visitor IP addresses. This lets me see roughly where visitors are located in the world, but makes it harder to uniquely identify people, so in general it can't spot repeat visitors. "Anonymized" data can usually be linked back to an individual with enough effort, but I've no interest in doing so, and I won't share the data with anyone else — because I'm using a self-hosted system, no-one else needs access to the data. The raw logs themselves are purged at intervals.
• The logging system respects the Do Not Track setting in your browser if you've turned it on. You won't appear in the Matomo analytics at all if you've requested not to be tracked.

Mailing List

If you sign up for the mailing list, you'll be giving me important pieces of personal information: your email address, and optionally your name. Here's how that valuable info gets handled:

• Entering an email address into the sign-up form triggers a confirmation email. This prevents anyone signing up an email address they don't control.
• Every newsletter will have an "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom. If you ever change your mind about receiving the newsletter, click that and you won't receive them in future.
• I'll only ever email you about the games I'm making. Right now that's Hexahedra, once it's been released and I'm working on something new, I'll be in touch about that, too.
• I won't share your details with anyone. The mailing list is administered by Mailjet, so they're the ones storing your details.
• I've disabled Open Tracking and Click Tracking within Mailjet, so they won't receive any info about whether you've opened the newsletter or clicked on any links.
• Because the images and links within the newsletter are hosted on my website I will be able to tell how often an email is opened or a link clicked, but not in a personalized way - there are no tracking pixels or unique links, so I can't tie a read email or a clicked link to a particular email address.

Contests

If you enter any contests I run (terms available here) then any data gathered will only be used for the purposes stated in the contest's terms.

GDPR legislation gives the right of erasure, also known as the "right to be forgotten". If you want to have your personal data stored on Sidequest Ninja systems deleted, get in touch either on Discord or at privacy@sidequestninja.com. There are limited circumstances where it may be necessary to retain your data — if this is the case I'll let you know, but otherwise I'll be happy to comply.