Warlords — Privacy Notice
Version 1.0 · Effective date: 30 October 2026
1. Who we are
Warlords ("the Game") is developed and operated by Howlerz Games, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom ("we", "us"). We are the data controller for the personal data described in this notice.
Contact for anything in this notice, including data protection requests: support@howlerzgames.com.
This notice forms part of the Warlords Service Agreement and Terms & Conditions (the "Terms"), which you accept in the Game on first launch.
2. What this notice covers
It covers the Game software, the online services that go with it (multiplayer matches, the social lobby, chat, leaderboards, player profiles, ranks and the in-game economy — the "Online Services"), this website, and our support mailbox. It does not cover services run by other companies, such as Steam or Discord; their own privacy policies apply to them (§10).
3. The data we collect
When you launch the Game and accept the Terms
- A randomly generated install identifier created on your PC the first time you launch the Game. It is how your player profile is recognised. It is not derived from your hardware and contains no personal details.
- The display name you choose.
- Your Steam ID, when the Game is launched through Steam and Steam sign-in is live, together with a one-time Steam sign-in ticket that we check with Valve and do not keep. Steam's name for you is offered as your default display name and reaches us only if you keep it. Steam also tells the Game your country and the nearest Steam network location, which we use to pick a nearby server for you, including deciding when to start or stop a server in your region; your last region is kept with your account (§7).
- The Terms acceptance record: which version of the Terms you accepted and when (UTC). When this is recorded against your account rather than only on your PC, it includes the IP address it was accepted from.
While you use the Online Services
- Your IP address and connection records: the address your account last connected from, a list of the addresses your account has signed in from (when each was first and last seen, and how often; used only by a person for support and fair-play checks), when you were last seen, which region and servers you connect to, sign-in sessions, and your online status (offline, online, in the lobby, in a match, in a minigame). Our servers read your IP address from the connection itself. Separately, each time you launch it the Game asks a public echo service (ipify, or Amazon Web Services if ipify is unavailable) for your own public IP address; that answer stays on your PC and is used only to recognise the developer's machine and to build a lobby invite code (§6).
- Gameplay records: matches you take part in, results, scores, rank and rating changes, battle statistics, and the state of matches in progress (so the lobby can show them).
- Economy records: your in-game wallet balance (gold, silver, copper and tickets), a log of rewards paid into it, and the exchanges and transfers that change it. Items and unlocks you own are kept in your profile on your PC. There are no real-money purchases in the Game.
- Profile records: your avatar look, roles (for example VIP or admin), and private-match room codes.
- Chat messages sent through the Game's chat systems pass through our servers to the other players. Our servers relay them live and do not keep a copy. A message is kept only if someone includes it in a report.
- Reports you make about other players, and reports made about you, with the reason given and any messages or screenshots included. Today reports are made by email; in-game reporting may be added later.
- Moderation records: temporary and permanent bans applied to an account, with the reason, the dates and who issued it. Where known, the record also keeps the IP address and Steam ID the account was using when the ban was issued, so that we can recognise a banned player who comes back under a new account.
- Technical logs: our account service, the web proxy in front of it and the game servers record the events needed to run, secure and debug the Game (requests and connections, errors, performance figures). These can include your IP address, display name, install identifier and the time and kind of each request.
When you contact us
- Your email address and the content of your message, at
support@howlerzgames.com.
What we do not collect
- No real names, postal addresses, dates of birth, payment details or government identifiers. Purchases of the Game itself are handled entirely by Steam; we never see your payment details.
- No voice recordings. The Game has no voice chat today.
- No data from your PC beyond what the Game needs to run, and no tracking of you outside the Game.
- This website sets no analytics or advertising cookies.
4. Why we use it, and our lawful basis
| Purpose | Data | Lawful basis (UK GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Running the Online Services: recognising your profile, matchmaking, saving your progress, wallet and rank, showing leaderboards | install identifier, Steam ID, name, gameplay, economy and profile records, online status | Performance of a contract (the Terms) |
| Choosing a nearby server for you | Steam-reported country and region | Performance of a contract |
| Keeping the Game fair: detecting cheating, exploits, economy manipulation and account sharing | IP addresses, connection records, gameplay and economy records, server logs | Legitimate interests (fair play and the integrity of a shared economy) |
| Moderation: investigating reports, enforcing the Terms, keeping banned players out | messages included in a report, reports, moderation records, IP addresses, Steam ID | Legitimate interests (player safety and a usable service); legal obligations where they apply |
| Proving you accepted the Terms | the acceptance record | Legitimate interests; legal obligations |
| Keeping the servers running and fixing bugs | technical server logs | Legitimate interests |
| Answering your emails | your email and message | Legitimate interests; performance of a contract |
Where we rely on legitimate interests we have weighed them against your rights, and you can object (§8).
5. Automated decisions
Our servers apply automatic rules that keep the Online Services usable and the in-game economy fair: limits on how often your PC can call our account service, one live session per account, bounds on in-game currency exchanges, a rule that reverses last-minute resource gifting inside a match, a rule that pays no reward for an uncontested win, and a check that your copy of the Game is a build we know. None of these flag your account or ban you on their own; bans are issued by a person. Any decision that significantly affects you can be reviewed by a person: you can ask for human intervention, give your side of it, and contest the decision, as set out in Terms §8.4. We will tell you the outcome and the reason.
6. Who we share it with
We do not sell personal data and we do not use it for advertising. We share it only with:
- Google Cloud (Google Cloud EMEA / Google LLC), which hosts our database and game servers. The database and the main server are in London, United Kingdom. Match and lobby servers also run in the United States (and other regions as players appear), so the connection data for a match you play there is processed there. Google acts on our instructions under its standard data-processing terms and the UK's international transfer safeguards.
- Cloudflare, Inc., which fronts and protects our account service (
api.howlerzgames.com) and this website. Cloudflare sees your IP address in transit when the Game talks to the account service or you visit the website. Connections to the lobby and match servers themselves go directly to our Google Cloud servers. - Valve Corporation (Steam), when the Game is launched through Steam: Steam provides us your Steam ID (once Steam sign-in is live), the Game reports achievements to Steam, and Steam shows your friends which of our servers you are playing on so they can join you. Steam's own privacy policy applies.
- ipify and Amazon Web Services (public IP echo services): each time you launch it, the Game asks one of them for your own public IP address (§3). They receive your IP address and nothing else, and we receive nothing from them.
- Authorities, where the law requires it, or to establish or defend legal claims.
If we ever sell or reorganise the business, the data would pass to the new operator under this notice.
7. How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Your account, profile, wallet, rank and gameplay history | While your account exists, then deleted within 30 days of a closure request |
| The Terms acceptance record | Recorded on your PC today. Once recorded against your account: while your account exists, plus 6 years (the limitation period for contract claims in England) |
| Your last-seen IP address and region | Replaced each time you connect; deleted with the account. An address tied to a ban is kept with the ban |
| The list of addresses your account has signed in from | While your account exists; deleted with it |
| Sign-in sessions (once sign-in sessions are live) | Until the session expires (12 hours), then removed |
| Chat messages | Not stored by us (relayed live). A message quoted in a report is kept with that report. |
| Reports and moderation records, including bans and their evidence | For the life of the Online Services, so that a ban holds |
| Technical server logs | 90 days |
| Support emails | 2 years after the last message |
| Backups | Rolling backups are kept for up to 90 days; a deleted record may persist in a backup until it rotates out |
If the Online Services are ever shut down permanently, we keep a single final backup of the database so that progress can be restored if they reopen, protected and offline, and delete it if they do not reopen within 2 years.
8. Your rights
Under UK data protection law (and the EU GDPR if you are in the EEA) you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you (access);
- correct it if it is wrong;
- delete it (erasure) — we will delete your account and its data, except what we must keep for a ban, a dispute or a legal obligation;
- restrict how we use it while a dispute is resolved;
- give you your data in a portable form;
- object to processing based on our legitimate interests, including the anti-cheat monitoring (§4) — though we cannot then provide the Online Services, which depend on it;
- not be subject to a solely automated decision with significant effects without human review (§5).
Email support@howlerzgames.com. We will answer within one month. We may ask you to prove you own the account, for example by quoting your install identifier (we will tell you where to find it) or, once Steam sign-in is live, by writing from the Steam account linked to it. Deleting the Game from your PC does not delete your account; ask us.
You can also complain to a supervisory authority: in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk); in the EEA, your national authority.
9. Children
The Online Services are for players aged 13 or over (16 in parts of the EU, or with a parent's or guardian's acceptance), as the Terms set out. We do not knowingly collect data from younger children; if you believe we have, email us and we will delete it.
10. Other services the Game connects to
- Steam (Valve) — purchase, launch, friends and invites (your Steam friends can see which of our servers you are playing on), achievements, and a network measurement that tells the Game your country and nearest Steam relay: https://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/
- Discord — our community server: https://discord.com/privacy
- Player-hosted private servers (when available) — a private server runs on the host player's own PC. Data you send to it (your name, your play, your chat) is held by that host, not by us, and this notice does not cover it.
11. Security
Connections to our account service use HTTPS. Connections to the game servers themselves (lobby and match play, including chat) are not encrypted. Our servers and database are on Google Cloud, where stored data is encrypted at rest, with access limited to the developer and protected by two-factor authentication. Backups are stored separately from the live servers and are not reachable from the Game. No system is perfectly secure; if we discover a breach affecting your data we will tell you and the regulator as the law requires.
12. Changes to this notice
We will update this notice when the Game changes what it collects. The version and date are at the top. Material changes are announced in the Game, and the Terms require you to accept a materially changed version of the Terms, which includes this notice.
13. Contact
Howlerz Games · support@howlerzgames.com · postal address available on request.