Privacy policy

In short

• There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no tracking in the game or on this website.
• The AI that plays the leaders runs on your own computer. What you say to them, and your saved games, never leave it (unless your store copies your saved games to its cloud, see The store you buy from).
• When the game runs into an error or crashes, it sends us a crash report so we can fix it. Reports never name you. You can turn them off in the game under Settings > Gameplay > Send crash reports.
• This website uses no cookies and keeps nothing in your browser.
• If you preregister for launch news, we keep your email address to tell you about the launch, until you unsubscribe.
• We never sell your data or share it for advertising.

Who we are

Global Conflict Simulator is made by Epic Dragon Pty Ltd (ABN 91 635 341 052), Queensland, Australia. We decide how the data described here is used, so under the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we are its controller.

For anything about your data, including the rights below, email us:

The game

The game needs no internet connection and no account with us. Everything it needs, the AI included, is installed with it, and it keeps what you make on your computer:

• your saved games, which include your conversations with the leaders;
• your settings, key bindings and achievements;
• a local log of the game's errors and warnings (at most five files of about 1 MB each, the oldest replaced first), which helps the crash reports below.

We cannot see any of this. To remove it, delete the game's data folder after uninstalling: %APPDATA%\Global Conflict Simulator on Windows and ~/.config/Global Conflict Simulator on Linux. The demo uses a folder named Global Conflict Simulator Demo in the same place.

Crash reports

When the game hits an error or crashes, it sends a report to Sentry, the service we use to collect them, so we can find the problem and fix it. Reports are on unless you turn them off: in the game, open Settings > Gameplay and turn off Send crash reports. Turning them off also stops any reports still waiting to go.

What a report contains

• the error: its message and where in the game's code it happened;
• for a crash, a minidump: a snapshot of the crashed part of the game at that moment, with the program files it had loaded and where they are installed, and part of its memory;
• the last 64 KB of the game's local log and the game's recent steps (for example, its window opening or going to the background);
• the game's version and edition (full game or demo);
• your computer's operating system and its version, processor, memory, graphics card and its driver, screen size, language and time zone, and how long the computer and the game have been running.

While reports are on, the game also tells Sentry when it starts and stops, and whether it crashed in between, so we can see how often it crashes. This record carries nothing about you.

What a report never contains

No name, email address, account, store account ID, IP address, saved game or screenshot. Before a report leaves your computer, the game removes your user folder and your store account number from its text. Your IP address reaches Sentry's servers when the report is sent, as with any connection on the internet, but the game tells Sentry not to store it.

The game does not send your conversations with the leaders. A report could, by chance, include a fragment of in-game text if that text was part of the error or in the memory captured by a minidump. We use reports only to fix the game and never try to find out who sent one.

When reports go

Only when your computer is online. Reports made offline wait on your computer (at most 30 of them, for up to 30 days) and go the next time the game starts online. Besides crashes, one session sends at most 10 reports, each about a different error. If Sentry cannot be reached, the game carries on as if nothing happened.

The store you buy from

The store you get the game from runs your account, your purchase and any cloud saves under its own privacy policy. It gives us sales and player figures for the game, but not your name, email address or payment details.

The game reads your store account number on your computer to keep each account's saved games apart. When the store's cloud saves are on, the store copies your saved games, with your conversations, to its servers so you can continue on another computer. You can turn cloud saves off in the store's settings.

This website

The website is a set of plain pages. It uses no cookies, keeps nothing in your browser's storage, and has no analytics, trackers, ads, social media buttons or embedded content from other companies. Its fonts and pictures come from the site itself. Sentry is not used on the website. The only time a page sends anything to another company is when you preregister for launch news (below).

The site is served by Amazon Web Services (Amazon CloudFront). To deliver a page, their servers receive what any website receives: your IP address, the page asked for and what your browser tells it about itself. We do not keep logs of visits.

The Can I play? page reads the name of your graphics card from your browser to suggest the game's AI quality. The check runs in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere. The Codex search also runs in your browser: it downloads the Codex's index from this site, and your search stays in the page's address so you can share it.

Launch news

On the preregistration page you can leave your email address to hear about the game's launch. That is all we ask for: the rest of the form is a fixed message, the same for everyone.

When you press Preregister, your browser sends the form to Web3Forms, a form service, which emails it to our inbox. Like any website, Web3Forms also receives your IP address and what your browser tells it about itself. It keeps a copy of each form it sends us for three months, then deletes it.

We use your address only to email you about the launch: for example the launch date and the launch itself. We never share it for marketing, and our emails do not track whether you open them.

You can unsubscribe at any time by replying to one of our emails or writing to contact@epicdragon.com.au, and we will delete your address. Otherwise we delete the list within 12 months after the game launches.

When you email us

We use your email address and what you write only to answer you, and keep them as long as we need to deal with your message, and no longer than two years after the last email.

Why we may use your data

The GDPR allows us to use personal data only for a reason it recognises. Ours are:

We do not make automated decisions about you or build profiles of players.

Who else handles it

Only our studio's team can read crash reports, preregistrations and emails. These companies handle data for us, under contracts that bind them to our instructions:

• Sentry (Functional Software, Inc., United States) receives and stores crash reports (privacy policy).
• Amazon Web Services (Amazon Web Services, Inc., United States) serves this website (privacy notice).
• Web3Forms receives the preregistration form and emails it to us (privacy policy).
• Google (Google Workspace) hosts our email, so it stores the emails you send us and the preregistrations we receive (privacy policy).

The store you buy the game from handles your account and purchase for its own purposes, as its privacy policy describes. We give data to nobody else, unless the law requires it.

Data outside Europe

We are in Australia, Sentry stores crash reports in the United States, and Web3Forms and Google may handle data in other countries. Where data from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland goes to a company outside it, the transfer is covered by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK's addendum) in that company's data processing terms, or by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the company takes part in it. You can ask us for a copy of these safeguards.

How long we keep it

• Crash reports: Sentry deletes them automatically after at most 90 days. We may delete them sooner.
• Visits to this website: not kept.
• Launch news: until you unsubscribe, and at most 12 months after the game launches.
• Web3Forms' copy of a preregistration form: three months.
• Emails: as long as we need to answer you, and at most two years after the last one.
• What the game keeps on your computer: until you delete it.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us:

• for a copy of the personal data we hold about you (access);
• to correct it (rectification);
• to delete it (erasure);
• to use it only in limited ways for a while (restriction);
• to give it to you, or to another company, in a common format (portability).

You can also object to our use of data based on legitimate interests. For crash reports, the quickest way is to turn them off in the game's settings.

Where we rely on your consent (launch news), you can withdraw it at any time, without affecting what we did before.

To use a right, email contact@epicdragon.com.au. It costs nothing, and we answer within one month. Crash reports carry no name or account, so we usually cannot tell which are yours: if you want us to find them, tell us roughly when the game crashed, which version you played and on which operating system, and we will do our best.

If you think we have mishandled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, such as the one where you live or work (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office).

Children

The game collects nothing that names anyone, at any age, and we never knowingly collect personal data from children. Launch news is for people aged 16 or older; younger players can ask a parent or guardian to preregister for them. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, for example by email or by preregistering, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When the game or this website changes how it handles data, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change means the game sends something new, we will say so in the game's update notes.