Privacy Policy

Who Is Responsible

The controller under the GDPR for the game Hidden Roof at roof.hidden.haus is Hidden Haus, operated by Georgios Gorchev, an individual developer based in the country of Georgia (“we”). Contact: roof@hidden.haus.

What We Process

• On your device: the game keeps its own state on your device in localStorage (your settings, last nickname and progress, such as which hints you have already seen), so that the game works and shows you relevant hints, and a random device id with the first and last day you played, until you clear the site’s data; while you are in a multiplayer session, its code, a rejoin token and your nickname in sessionStorage, deleted when you leave or close the tab. The device id also lets you take your seat back in a session. Save and Upload work with files on your device only.
• In multiplayer: your nickname, the session code, your position, view, tool, color and movement (about 20 times a second), the tools you carry, your paint and stepladder, and, when you host, the level and starting paint. Everyone in the session sees your nickname, avatar and paint. Do not put personal data in them.
• Usage statistics: about once a minute while the game is open, it sends the device id (as the page loads), the first and last day you played, your browser, system and graphics card, load times, frame rates, settings, errors, what you do in the game (such as tutorial steps, pickups, time playing) and, in multiplayer, your connection’s quality. We keep counts by hour and day. The device id and your IP address are kept only as pseudonymous hashes (with a key that changes every month, the old key deleted at once), with the country found from the IP address; in a session, the server also holds the device id in memory for as long as the session lasts.
• Page load: each time the main page opens, whether or not you play, it asks our web server for a small file, and that request says what you got: the game, or the page about it because there is no mouse or the window is too small; if the game could not start, why (no WebGL2, or it did not load); and whether the page’s script came from your browser’s cache. The web server logs it like any request and we count it with the visitor’s pseudonymous hash (see below), with no device id and nothing stored on your device.
• On the server: your IP address with each connection, and the browser’s user agent with each request. The web server’s access log records the time, IP address, user agent, page and referring site of each request; we count page views and visitors from it, each visitor kept only as a pseudonymous hash of the IP address and user agent, with a key that changes every month, and the country. The game server’s log records the time, session code, nickname, IP address and event (joined, left, dropped, turned away, error); a separate list of these events keeps the nickname but no IP address.

Why, and on What Legal Basis

• To run the game you ask for (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR): settings, session data and multiplayer.
• Our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR): IP addresses and logs to keep the server secure, limit connections per address, block abuse and fix faults; bans, to protect other players and the game from abuse; usage statistics to see how the site and the game are used and how they run, and to make them better; and recordings to promote the game (next section).
• Legal obligations (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR): answering lawful requests from authorities.

The main page says how it loaded, the game sends usage statistics while it is open, and multiplayer cannot work without a nickname and a connection. We make no automated decisions about you.

Recordings

We may publish screenshots and video of multiplayer sessions to promote Hidden Roof and Hidden Haus, on our websites and on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, which process them under their own policies. They can show your nickname, avatar and paint. You can object at any time (see below).

How Long We Keep It

• Private sessions exist only in the server’s memory. A dropped player’s place is kept for 3 minutes; a session and its paint are deleted when the last player leaves or 3 minutes after the last one drops. An ended session’s code alone is kept for 1 hour.
• Public sessions are saved on the server with their paint and the nicknames of who painted, for as long as the session runs, with older copies up to about a week back.
• The game server’s logs lose IP addresses and nicknames after 14 days and are deleted after 60 days; its list of events is deleted after 30 days. The web server’s access and error logs are deleted after 14 days.
• Usage statistics: hashes (from the game and from page visits) and hourly counts are deleted after 91 days; counts with no hash in them (such as daily totals, and new and returning players by country) are kept.
• Bans: when we ban a player for abuse, the server keeps a hash of their IP address (for IPv6, its first half) and of their device id, with their nickname, the reason and when the ban ends, until it ends or we lift it. Anyone from that address or device can’t play multiplayer while it lasts.
• Recordings stay published; if you object, we remove your nickname from new material and, where we reasonably can, from our own posts (see below).
• Copies others make, such as a paint file a player saves or a recording of a session, are theirs, not ours. Our deletion does not reach them.

Who Receives It

Other players in your session; our hosting provider, Hetzner Online GmbH, which runs the server in Nuremberg, Germany; the platforms where we publish recordings; and authorities where the law requires it. The data is stored on the server in Germany; we read logs and statistics from the country of Georgia, which the EU has not found to offer adequate protection. Players outside the EU receive your game data because it is needed to provide the game you asked for (Article 49(1)(b) GDPR). The country comes from a database on our own server (IP Geolocation by DB-IP, CC BY 4.0): your IP address is not sent to anyone for it.

Your Rights

You may ask for access to, correction, erasure, restriction or a portable copy of your data (Articles 15 to 18 and 20 GDPR), and complain to a data protection authority, for example in your EU country or the Personal Data Protection Service of Georgia. We have no accounts, so to find your data (Article 11(2) GDPR), tell us the date and time with time zone, the nickname and, if you can, the session code and your IP address. We answer within one month.

Your Right to Object

You may object at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests (Article 21 GDPR), including the use of your nickname in recordings. Email us the nickname and, if you can, the recording. We will keep it out of new material and, where we reasonably can, remove it from our own posts. We cannot remove copies that others have made or shared. Usage statistics and page loads have no switch. If you object to them, email us your IP address and browser: we delete what we can still find (hashes within the month their key lasts, access log lines within their 14 days) and tell you the result. Counts with no hash in them stay. We keep no id, so we cannot recognise your next visit: it is logged and counted again. Clearing the site’s data removes the device id and the days you played from your device, but the game makes a new one when you play again.

Age and Changes

The game is for people aged 18 and over. Before it processes anything this page does not describe, we will update this page and announce it in the game.