Privacy Policy
Effective [EFFECTIVE DATE]
The short version: we collect what we need to run Forge Comms: your account details and what you post. We don't sell your information, show ads or use analytics trackers. We can technically access messages, including direct messages, because they aren't end-to-end encrypted. Voice calls aren't recorded by Forge Comms.
1. Who we are
Forge Comms is run by [OPERATOR LEGAL NAME] ("we" or "us"). This policy explains what we collect through the Forge Comms website, web app and Windows desktop app, and what we do with it.
2. What we collect
- Account details: your username, your email address and a securely hashed version of your password. We never store your actual password.
- Profile: your profile picture, banner, status and status text, and your privacy settings.
- Messages and posts: server messages, direct messages, replies, reactions, profile feed posts and images you upload, along with when they were sent and whether they were edited.
- Connections and activity: your friends, friend requests and blocks, the servers you belong to, your roles, and whether you are online. Actions in a server, such as joining or changing settings, are saved in that server's history.
- Servers you create: names, images, descriptions, channels, settings and any social links you add.
- Connection information: like any website, our servers receive your IP address and browser or device details when you connect, in order to respond. Forge Comms doesn't save these to your account.
- Voice: your audio passes through our voice service so others in the channel can hear you. Forge Comms doesn't record it.
- What you send us: your support requests and our replies, your feedback, and anything in the emails you send to support or feedback. Deleting your account deletes your support requests. Your feedback stays, without your name. If we add something you asked for, we may credit your username in the change log.
We don't ask for your real name, phone number, payment details or precise location.
3. How we use it
- To run Forge Comms: logging you in, delivering messages and voice, and showing your profile and servers.
- To keep Forge Comms safe: enforcing our Terms of Service, looking into reports, and preventing abuse.
- To fix problems, improve Forge Comms and answer you when you contact us.
- To follow the law.
If you live in the EU, UK or a similar region, our legal grounds are: providing the service you signed up for, our legitimate interest in keeping it safe and working, legal duties, and your consent where we ask for it.
4. Who can see your information
- Other users: your username, profile and status are visible to others, depending on your privacy settings. Server messages can be seen by anyone with access to that channel. Direct messages can be seen by the people in that conversation.
- Server owners and admins: they can see and manage their server's content, members and activity history.
- Us: messages are protected in transit but aren't end-to-end encrypted, so we can access them when needed, for example to investigate a report. Please don't share anything on Forge Comms you need to keep completely secret.
5. Who we share it with
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for advertising. We share it only in these cases:
- Google Fonts: Forge Comms' pages load their fonts from Google, so Google receives your IP address and browser details when a page loads.
- Our hosting and voice providers: companies or software that help us run Forge Comms, only as needed to do so. [LIST ANY HOSTING OR VOICE COMPANIES]
- Apps you link: if you authorize linking your Forge Comms account to another app, such as the IGS website, we send it your user ID, username and email address. You will see a consent step first.
- Legal reasons: when the law requires it, or when needed to protect someone's safety or to protect Forge Comms against fraud or abuse.
- A change of ownership: if Forge Comms is sold or reorganized, your information may move with it, and this policy will continue to apply until we notify you of any change.
6. Data stored on your device
Forge Comms keeps you logged in by saving login tokens in your browser or in the desktop app's storage, and these are removed when you log out. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, and Forge Comms' login doesn't depend on cookies.
7. How long we keep it, and deleting your account
We keep your information while your account is active. You can delete your account in Settings under My Account. If you own any servers, you need to delete them first.
- Deleted when you delete your account: your account details, profile, profile picture and banner, privacy settings, friends list, login sessions, and the messages you wrote in servers and direct messages.
- Deleting a single message: this removes its text and shows "[deleted]" in its place.
- What can stay: a server's activity history can keep an anonymous ID for your past actions. Copies in backups are removed as those backups expire, [BACKUP PERIOD, e.g. within 30 days]. Anything other people copied or quoted isn't within our control.
We may keep information longer where the law requires it, or when we need it for a safety investigation.
8. Security
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hash passwords, and only let a person use a server or channel they have access to. No online service can be perfectly secure, so please use a unique password. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you as the law requires.
9. Your rights
You can change your profile and privacy settings at any time and delete your account in Settings. To ask for a copy of your information, or to have it corrected or deleted, email support@forgegaming.gg. We will verify that the request is really from you first.
Depending on where you live, including the EU, UK and states such as California, you may also have the right to object to or limit how we use your information, to receive it in a portable format, and to complain to your data protection authority. We won't treat you differently for using these rights.
10. Children
Forge Comms isn't for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, email us and we will delete it.
11. International users
Forge Comms is run from [COUNTRY], so your information is stored and processed there, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live. Where the law requires it, we use appropriate safeguards for these transfers.
12. Changes to this policy
If we update this policy, we will change the date at the top and, for significant changes, give notice on Forge Comms or by email before they take effect.
13. Contact
[OPERATOR LEGAL NAME], [MAILING ADDRESS]
Email: support@forgegaming.gg