Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal data we collect through this website and when you play Virtual Hockey League online, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us to do with it. We have kept it short and specific rather than filling it with legal boilerplate.

The short version

• This website sets no cookies of its own and runs no advertising trackers. An embedded video you choose to play may set cookies from the video platform.
• We never sell your personal data or share it for marketing.
• When you play online, our servers record your in-game name and how you played each match. Those results are public on this website: that is what makes the leaderboards work.
• Your account identifier, your IP address and your connection details are never shown publicly. Your IP address is kept only in server logs, for up to 30 days.
• You can ask us, privately, for a copy of your data or to remove your profile.

Who we are, and how to reach us

Virtual Hockey League is developed by Icebound Interactive s.r.o., Kurzova 2222/16, 155 00 Praha - Stodůlky, Czech Republic (IČO: 19890885). We are the data controller for this website, for the game’s online servers and for the stats service behind the leaderboards.

For anything about your personal data, including requests for a copy or removal, email iceboundinteractive@gmail.com or write to us at the address above. Please do not post requests or personal details in public channels. For general questions you can also find us on our community server.

On this website

Visitor statistics

We use a cookieless analytics tool to count page views and see which pages people find useful. It does not build a profile of you and does not follow you to other websites. To count visits it uses a hash of your request that changes every day and is discarded after 24 hours. What we see is aggregated: pages viewed, referring site, country, browser and device type. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Technical logs

Our hosting provider processes your IP address and browser details to deliver the site and protect it from abuse and attacks, and keeps request logs for one hour. When you use the player search, your browser asks our stats service directly; it counts requests per address in memory to stop abuse and does not store your address. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in operating a secure, functioning website.

Playtest signup

If you sign up for playtests, we collect the community chat username and region you enter, your email address if you choose to add one (it is optional), and the date you gave consent. We use these details only to invite you to playtest sessions and to reach you about closely related development news. We do not use them for anything else and we do not pass them to advertisers. Legal basis: your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time by contacting us, or by using the unsubscribe link in any email we send you.

When you play online

When you play on our servers, the game server reports every match to our stats service. That is what lets us run ranked play, keep ratings, and show the leaderboards, player profiles and match pages on this website.

What is recorded

• Your account sign-in.Online play needs an account with the online-services platform the game is built on, and you sign in on that platform’s own page. It confirms to our game server who you are with an account identifier. We never receive your password or the email address of that account. The identifier does not contain your real name, but it recognises you across matches and name changes, so we treat it as personal data. If you play without signing in, where a server allows it, you play as a guest: we record you by your in-game name alone, and you get no career or rating.
• Your in-game name, the name other players see. It is your account’s display name unless you choose another one in the game’s settings. We also keep the names you have played under before, so that a player who renames keeps one career.
• Every match you play: the result and score, your team, whether you played in net, the statistics the game counts (such as goals, assists, saves, shots, passes, hits and time with the puck), and who scored and assisted each goal.
• Your rating and how each match changed it.
• Connection details for each match: when you joined and left, and your worst ping and packet loss.
• Server logs: when you connect, the game server writes your in-game name and your IP address to its log.
• The full match report exactly as the game server sent it, which includes the names and account identifiers of everyone in the match, so that we can correct the statistics if we find a bug.
• Moderation records: if we void a match or ban a player, we record what was done, who did it and why.

The game keeps your settings, your tutorial progress and a match history on your own PC. That stays on your PC and we never collect it.

What is public, and what never is

Public: your in-game name, your matches and their statistics, your rating, its history and your league, when you first and last played, and whether you are a verified player. They appear on the leaderboards, on your player profile and on the pages of the matches you played, which anyone can search by name. A rating is shown only after your first five counted matches; until then your profile says you are in placement. Matches where bots filled seats count in your own history but never on public leaderboards. Search engines may list these pages. The same public information is available through our public stats service, which other websites and apps can read.

Never public:your account identifier, your IP address, your connection details, the names you used before, and the reason for any ban. A banned player’s profile shows only that they are banned.

Why, and on what legal basis

We rely on our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). We have weighed each use against your privacy:

• Recording matches and keeping ratings is what playing a competitive online game consists of.
• Public leaderboards, profiles and match pages let every player check results and ratings for themselves, which is what makes a league fair, and let you find and share your own record. What we publish is limited to the name you chose in the game and how you played: never your account identifier, IP address or anything that identifies you outside the game.
• The public stats service gives the same public information, read-only, to community sites and tools. It adds nothing that is not already on this website.
• Connection details and server logs let us look into lag, disconnects, disputed results, cheating and abuse, and protect our servers from attacks. They are never public and we keep them only for a limited time (see below).

You can object at any time, and we will stop unless we have a compelling reason to continue, for example an open investigation into cheating. If you object to your record being public, we can remove your profile as described under “Your rights”.

Who else is involved

These providers handle personal data for us. Where they act on our behalf, they do so under contract and may not use it for their own purposes:

• Website hosting provider (United States): hosts this website and provides its cookieless visitor statistics.
• Domain name (DNS) provider (United States): answers the lookups that point your browser to our servers. Page traffic does not pass through it.
• Server provider (Germany): runs the game servers and the stats service, in data centres in Germany.
• Online-services platform (United States): provides the account sign-in and the online services the game is built on (the server list, parties and lobbies), under its own terms and privacy policy for your account.
• Form provider (United States): runs the playtest signup form.
• Video platform (United States): receives data only once you press play on a video, under its own privacy policy.
• Community chat platform (United States): hosts our community server, under its own privacy policy.

If you would like to know exactly which companies these are, contact us and we will tell you.

Transfers outside Europe

Several of these providers are based in the United States, so personal data they handle may be processed there. Where that happens, the transfer is covered by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework for companies certified under it, or otherwise by the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses. Our game servers and the stats service run in Germany. You can ask us which safeguard applies to which provider, and for a copy of the relevant clauses.

Embedded video and outside links

Videos on this site are embedded from an external video platform in its privacy-enhanced mode and do not load until you click play. Before that, nothing is requested from the video platform: the preview images are served from our own site. Once you press play, the video platform receives your request and may store data in your browser, and its own privacy policy applies. Links to our community server, our video channel and other services take you to third-party websites that we do not control and that are governed by their own policies.

Cookies

This website sets no cookies of its own, for analytics, advertising, tracking or anything else, which is why you are not being asked to dismiss a cookie banner. Playing an embedded video may cause the video platform to store data in your browser under its own terms.

How long we keep it

• Your profile, match history, statistics and rating: as the record of the league, for as long as Virtual Hockey League runs, unless you ask us to remove them.
• Full match reports: 12 months, then deleted. The statistics already taken from them stay.
• Connection details (join and leave times, ping, packet loss): 12 months, then deleted. After that, a year-old match is no longer worth investigating.
• Server logs with IP addresses: up to 30 days. If we copy a log to look into a specific problem, we delete the copy when the problem is solved, and at the latest 90 days after we made it.
• Moderation records: as the record of how the league is run, for as long as it runs. They are never public. If your profile is removed, the records about you are anonymised with it.
• Playtest signup details: until you ask us to remove them, or until we end the playtest programme, whichever comes first.
• Website request logs: one hour at our hosting provider. Visitor statistics are kept only as aggregated counts.

Deleted data can remain in our backup copies for up to 30 days, until those copies are replaced.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, or transfer it elsewhere. That includes your match history: you can ask for a copy of everything the stats service holds about you. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting anything done beforehand.

Removing your profile

If you ask us to remove your profile, this is what happens:

• Deleted: your in-game name, the names you used before, your account identifier, your rating and rating history, your connection details and any past bans, and the stored full report of every match you played. Your profile page stops existing.
• Kept:the matches themselves, with your statistics shown under “removed player”, because other players’ results, ratings and match pages depend on them. People who played in a particular match with you may still recognise it.
• Moderation records about you are anonymised: they keep only that an action was taken, when, and by which of our team, not who it concerned or why, and your name is taken out of the records about matches you played.
• Server logs are not edited: they expire within 30 days. Backups are replaced within 30 days; if we ever restore one before then, we remove your data again.

Making a request privately

Email iceboundinteractive@gmail.com with your in-game name and what you would like. To make sure the request really comes from the player behind the profile, we will ask you to prove it without sending any documents, for example by joining one match under a one-off name we give you. We respond within one month.

If you believe we have handled your data improperly, you have the right to complain to the Czech data protection authority, the Office for Personal Data Protection (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů).

Children

This website and our online play are not directed at children under 15, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has given us their details or has been playing on our servers, contact us and we will delete their data.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal data, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change materially affects people on the playtest list, we will say so by email.