Privacy policy
Last updated 29 October 2026
This explains what OriginForge Connect keeps about you, why, and what you can ask us to do with it. The game is made by OriginForge Studio Ltd (company number 17250692, registered office 16 Marston Drive, Irlam, Manchester M44 6DU), which is the "controller" of your data. Contact us at contact@originforgestudio.co.uk.
What we keep, and why
| What | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your sign-in: your email address (or your Google account's email, if you sign in with Google), and a password if you make one (stored only as a secure hash by Google Firebase) | To let you sign in and keep your account safe, and to email you about your account | Contract (running the game you signed up for) |
| Your date of birth, kept private: no other player sees it | To check your age: chat, messages, friends, spells on other players and duels are for 18 and over | Contract, and our legal duty to keep children safe online |
| Your player name, look and profile, including any projects and links you add | To show you in the game. These are public to other players | Contract |
| What you do in the game: progress, bag, coins, skills, quests, home, farm, duel record, friends | To save your game so it's there on any device | Contract |
| Chat and private messages | To deliver them, and to keep the game safe (the word filter, and checking reports) | Contract, and our legitimate interest in a safe community |
| Where you are in the game, and what you're wearing | So nearby players see you. This is your character's position in the game, not your real location | Contract |
| Payments: whether you're a member or have booked an advert, until when, and the payment provider's customer and subscription reference | To give you what you paid for, and keep records the law requires | Contract, and legal obligation (tax records) |
| Analytics, only if you allow it: visits, and which screens and billboards are opened or clicked | To see how the game is used, and tell advertisers how many people saw their billboard | Your consent, which you can take back any time |
Guests (playing without an account): your progress stays only in your own browser, and we don't receive it.
We don't sell your data, we don't use it to show you adverts, and we don't make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.
Payments
Payments are handled by Stripe or Dodo Payments. They collect your card and billing details directly; we never see or store your card number. Where Dodo Payments handles your payment, it acts as the seller of record (the "merchant of record") and is responsible for that payment, its tax and its records. Each has its own privacy policy: Stripe and Dodo Payments.
Who else handles your data
- Google Firebase (Google LLC) runs the game's sign-in, database and website hosting, and Google Analytics if you allow it. The game's database is stored in the United States.
- Stripe and Dodo Payments, for payments.
When your data is stored or handled outside the UK, it's protected by the UK's approved safeguards: the UK–US "data bridge" where the company is certified under it, or the UK's standard contract terms (the International Data Transfer Addendum).
Cookies and your browser
- Needed for the game: your browser keeps your sign-in and your settings (music, zoom, map and the like) so the game works as you left it. These don't need your consent and aren't used for anything else.
- Analytics cookies: only after you click "Allow" on the bar at the bottom of the game. Google signals and ad personalisation are switched off. Change your mind any time in the game: press ? for Help, then Privacy and cookies.
- This website (the pages outside the game) doesn't set any cookies.
How long we keep it
- Your account and game data: for as long as you have an account. When you close it, we delete it within 30 days.
- Your chat and private messages are kept until your account is closed, so we can look into reports.
- Payment records: six years after the end of the tax year they're in, as UK law requires.
- Analytics: detailed data is deleted after 2 months (Google Analytics' standard setting).
Children
Players under 18 can explore, quest and build, but town chat, private messages, friends, spells on other players and duels are switched off for them. If you're under 13, you need a parent or guardian's permission to make an account. If you think a child has given us their data without permission, email us and we'll delete it.
Your rights
You can ask us to: see a copy of the data we hold about you; correct it; delete it (close your account); restrict or object to how we use it; or give it to you in a format you can take elsewhere. Email contact@originforgestudio.co.uk from the email address on your account and we'll reply within one month. It's free.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll tell you in the game before it applies. The date at the top shows the latest version.