Privacy Policy
The protection of your privacy and data is important to us. We only collect as much data as we need to improve the website and our services, provide highscores and other game-related functionalities, and to handle transactions. We do not and will never sell the data we collect to anyone. This privacy policy was written to help you understand how and why we collect data, and also, because we’re legally obliged to do so.
HypnoticOwl.com (“this website”) and its games are operated by Hypnotic Owl Entertainment UG (haftungsbeschränkt) (“Hypnotic Owl”). When this policy says “we” or “our” it is referring to Hypnotic Owl Entertainment UG (haftungsbeschränkt).
This privacy policy is a part of the terms of service of any of our websites (“ToS”) and the End User License Agreement of our games (“EULA”). By agreeing to our ToS or EULA you also agree to this privacy policy. If you don’t agree with this policy, you may not be able to use our websites or parts of them and you may not be able to play our games or use certain features in them.
The Data We Collect
When you register on our website or for our newsletter, donate or buy one of our games, you may be asked to provide some information about yourself, such as your email address. Using other parts of our website, or games, or when you contact us, you may also provide additional information about yourself, such as your name. Lastly, when you use our website and some of our games, we collect data about your visit. This includes:
- IP address
- Time and date
- Email address
- Game-related data, incl. (nick)names
- General usage statistics collected by Google Analytics and Google Adsense
- Usage statistics collected by Unity Analytics
Transactions such as donations or other payments on our website are made through PayPal and handled on their servers. Personal data made available to us after transactions include:
- Name
- Email address
- Country of residence
Storage and Security of Your Data
Data transmitted over the internet is never 100% secure. We try to do our best to protect your personal data, but we can’t guarantee that the data you send to us is completely safe. Although we use strict security measures to protect your data to the best of our knowledge, for example via SSL encryption, the possibility that someone manages to get unauthorised access to your data cannot be ruled out.
Data that is collected for usage statistics via Google Analytics and through Adsense is stored on Google servers outside the EU. You can read their privacy policy here. IP addresses are anonymized by Google Analytics.
Usage statistics collected via Unity Analytics is stored on Unity servers outside the EU. You can read their privacy policy here.
Data we collect during transactions or use of our games is stored on Hetzner Online GmbH‘s servers in Germany. It can not be guaranteed that transmitted data isn’t passing through servers outside the EU, though.
All data collected is stored indefinitely unless stated otherwise. It is collected solely for internal analysis and to provide security and functionality of our website and games. No personal data will be made available to third parties.
If you wish your personal data to be deleted, please contact us at privacy@nullhypnoticowl.com.
Use of Cookies
We use internet cookies to collect information (like statistics) about your visit. Internet cookies are small files saved to your device’s hard drive that track, save, and store information about your interactions and usage of the website.
Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their devices hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.
We uses tracking software provided by Google Analytics to monitor the visitors of this website to better understand how they use it. The software will save a cookie to your devices hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. Please read Googles privacy policy for further information.
If you wish, you may opt out of Google Analytics by changing the cookie settings (the gear icon on the left bottom), or install the opt-out addon provided by Google here.
Other cookies may be stored to your devices hard drive by external vendors when we use referral programs, sponsored links or adverts on this website. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected. Embeds may also set cookies for their own analysis and tracking.
Contact & Communication
If you contact us, you do so at your own discretion and provide any personal details requested at your own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the Data Protection Act 1998. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form to email submission process but we want to advise users using such form to email processes that they do so at their own risk.
We use any information submitted to provide you with further information about the products and services we offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to any email newsletter program the website operates, but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting any form to email process. Your details are not passed on to any third parties.
Email Newsletter
We operate an email newsletter, used to inform subscribers about our games, services, and development progress. You can subscribe through an online automated process should you wish to do so, but you do so at your own discretion.
Our newsletter may contain tracking facilities within the actual email. Subscribers’ activity may be tracked and stored in a database for future analysis and evaluation. Such tracked activity may include: the opening of emails, the clicking of links within the email content, times, dates and frequency of activity (this is by no means a comprehensive list). This information is used to refine our newsletter. No personal details are passed on to third parties nor shared with companies or people outside of Hypnotic Owl.
External Links
Although we only look to include quality, safe, and relevant external links, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links.
We can’t guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website despite our best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
Adverts and Sponsored Links
Our websites and games may contain sponsored links and adverts. These will typically be served through our advertising partners, who may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve. You can find Google’s Privacy and Terms page here.
Clicking on any such adverts will send you to the advertiser’s website through a referral program which may use cookies and will track the number of referrals sent from our games or website. This may include the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your device’s hard drive. Users should therefore note they click on sponsored external links at their own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
Social Media Platforms
Communication, engagement, and actions taken through external social media platforms that we participate on, such as Hypnotic Owl on Twitter or Hypnotic Owl on Facebook, are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.
Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate and engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. We will never ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and we encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact us through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email.
We may use social sharing buttons on our website or games which help share content directly to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.
Shortened Links in Social Media
We may share links through our social media platform accounts to relevant web pages. By default some social media platforms shorten lengthy URLs. Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by us. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published, many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, we may change the privacy policy from time to time, so please check back here every once in a while to stay updated. Major changes will also be announced on our website and through the newsletter.
