YoYo Games Privacy Policy

Last updated: 08 December 2020

INTRODUCTION

Hello! This document explains how we (YoYo Games Limited) collect, store and use information from you and how we will protect your privacy rights. It covers: (1) any of our websites, including gamemaker.io the GameMaker Community and any of our forums or sub-domains; (2) any of our products or services, including but not limited to GameMaker  and GameMaker: Marketplace; and (3) any of our products or services (including support services) which may be accessible via a web application, mobile application, third party platform or social networking service. We will call them together our "Services". By using our Services, you acknowledge, understand and agree to this policy, and that both we and any of our group companies, as well as any partners and subcontractors will process your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, including for the purposes set out in section 7 below. If you do not wish to provide your Personal Information on the basis set out in this Privacy Policy, you should not enter the relevant information on any of our websites, or otherwise provide us with your Personal Information. However, if you do not provide your Personal Information, you may not be able to use all of the Services. If you have any queries, please contact us at [email protected]. Please see our Cookie Policy for information about our use of cookies and similar tracking technologies.

1. WHO WE ARE

We are YoYo Games Limited (company number 05260718) of Ground Floor, Mid-City Place, 71 High Holborn, London WC1V 6DA, UK.

2. ABOUT THIS PRIVACY POLICY

  • 2.1. We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy (together with any applicable legal documents for the Services) sets out the basis on which we will process information we collect from you or that you provide to us. This may include Personal Information (meaning information which, on its own or in combination with other information, can be used to identify you, including your name, email address, home address, telephone number, and date of birth), and non-personal information. In general, we will only collect the personal information we need from you, in order to offer you our Services and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
  • 2.2. We recognise we have a special obligation to protect personal information obtained from children. Legally you must be at least 13 years old to use the Services (but this might be older depending on whether or not a particular Service has a required minimum age rating) as per our User Agreement. We do not knowingly collect personal information from any child under the age of 13 without consent from their parent or guardian. If you are a parent or guardian and are concerned about the transfer of personal information about your child, please contact [email protected].

3. INFORMATION WHICH WE COLLECT

  • 3.1. The information we collect about you can include information which, on its own or together with other information, can be used to identify you as an individual. We also collect other information which does not personally identify you. All of this can include:
    • Your name;
    • Your date of birth;
    • Your home address;
    • Your email address;
    • Any user name (such as a forum user name) used to identify yourself in any Services;
    • Details of your digital platform account regarding our games (such as your YoYo Games user account);
    • Any other information with which you supply us via the Services (and for the avoidance of doubt this may include collection of non-personally identifiable information collected via use of games or products made using our Services and which are distributed outside of our Services, e.g. on iOS);
    • Technical or other details about any device which you use to access the Services, including, but not limited to: Internet and/or network connection (including your IP address); your Media Access Control (MAC); any device Unique Device Identifier (UDID) or equivalent; your operating system, browser type or other software; your hardware or mobile device details (including your mobile device type and number and mobile carrier details), if applicable; or other technical details. This is technical data about our users and their actions and patterns, which we do not believe identifies any individual to any third parties;
    • Details of your use of our Services including, but not limited to: metrics information about when and how you use the Services; traffic data; certain information from third party services such as social networks, strictly in accordance with the applicable networks' terms and conditions (and with your prior explicit consent) and your geographical location data;
    • Other personal or business information you give us in order to help you with any queries or support matters via our forums or customer support service.

4. HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION:

    We may collect and process information about you through the following means: (1) information that we collect via any of our Services; (2) information given when you contact us or report a problem with any of the Services; and (3) we may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them. We may collect this information via our Services or third party services connected with them.

5. COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

  • 5.1. We collect information through "Cookies" and other similar technologies (e.g. pixel tags or links). This helps us to remember you when you visit the websites and to improve your experience.
  • 5.2. We also use information collected through "Cookies" and other similar technologies to detect any fraudulent behavior, improper transactions and/or abuse of our websites and Services, and to help verify your identity by registering and remembering your device information.
  • 5.3. To find out more about "Cookies" and similar technologies please see our Cookie Policy.

6. WHERE AND HOW WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

  • 6.1. The information that we collect from you may be transferred to, stored and processed at a destination outside the European Economic Area. This includes, but is not limited to UK, EU and USA. By submitting your personal information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. Where we transfer your personal data outside of the EEA, we will put in place adequate measures to ensure that your Personal Information is kept secure. If the data protection standard in a country is not deemed to be adequate, we do ensure that data protection is guaranteed by other measures, for example standard contractual clauses of the European Commission for the protection of personal data, certificates, or recognised codes of conduct. Please contact our Data Protection Officer if you would like to find out more information on this.
  • 6.2. If you have a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Please don't share it with anyone. We recommend you avoid generic passwords (e.g. 1234 or password) and change this at least once every 3 months.
  • 6.3. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our servers via any of our Services; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

7. USES MADE OF YOUR INFORMATION

  • 7.1. In accordance with data protection laws, we will only process your Personal Information where we have a lawful basis for doing so. In respect of your Personal Information, this includes: (i) where it is necessary to provide services to you under the performance of the contract we have with you; (ii) where we are required to do so in accordance with legal or regulatory obligations; (iii) where you have given your consent; and, (iv) where it is in our legitimate interests to process your Personal Information, provided that none of these prejudices your own rights, freedoms and interests.
  • 7.2. The following are a list of the "Purposes" for which we (including any of our agents, group members, sub-contractors and/or employees) process your Personal Information, and the lawful basis on which we carry out such processing:
PurposeLawful Basis
To set-up, administer and manage your account and recordsNecessary for the performance of a contract
To provide and personalise our ServicesLegitimate interests to provide to our Customers the best possible experience in using our Services
To receive and respond to your communications and requestsNecessary for the performance of a contract where such communication relates specifically to our Services, otherwise consent
To ensure that content from our Services is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer or other device from which you access the ServicesNecessary for the performance of a contract
To notify you about updates to our websites and ServicesNecessary for the performance of a contract
To ensure that we are able to fulfil our regulatory obligations regarding your account, including by verifying the accuracy of any information you provide usNecessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
To comply with our obligations under Applicable Laws and to regulators in jurisdictions where we and members of our group are basedNecessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
To investigate, and assist with the investigation of, suspected unlawful, fraudulent or other improper activity connected with our websites and Services (including, the sharing of information and disclosure to such authorised entities)Necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
To carry out market research campaigns and surveysLegitimate interests so that we can better understand the products and services that our customers most enjoy
To improve or modify the Services, for example based on how you use our Services;Legitimate interests so we can understand the use of, and therefore improve, our websites and Services.
To prepare statistics relating to the use of our websites and Services by you and other customersLegitimate interests so we can understand the use of, and therefore improve, our websites and Services
To calculate conversion rates and other elements of Services' performanceLegitimate interests so we can understand the use of, and therefore improve, our websites and Services
To provide you with information about, and support for, our Services, including changes to our Services, technical updates for the websites and changes to the Terms & Conditions (including this Privacy Policy)Necessary for the performance of a contact and necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
To keep you informed of products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, educational materials relating to our Services, provided that you don't "opt-out" from this optionLegitimate interests so we can send you information about our Services (and promotions and offers) that you may be interested in
To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Services, when you choose to do soNecessary for the performance of a contract
To support any other purpose necessary for performance of our contractual obligations or specifically stated at the time at which you provided your Personal InformationNecessary for the performance of a contract
To prevent you from using our websites and Services if you have requested that we do soNecessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
For general marketing purposes, offers and promotions, but only where you have provided your express and informed consentConsent
To use your name, image, username or location in publicity and marketing, but only where you have provided your express and informed consent for us to do soConsent

8. SHARING YOUR INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES

  • 8.1. We may, for the Purposes specified above, disclose your Personal Information to any of the following recipients:
    • 8.1.2. any third party which assists us in providing our Services, including (but not limited to) payment processors, customer services representatives and chat moderators;
    • 8.1.3. any third party which can assist us in verifying the accuracy of your Personal Information,
    • 8.1.4. any third party which assists us in monitoring use of our Services, including the detection and prevention of fraud and collusion,
    • 8.1.5. any contractors or other advisers auditing any of our business processes or who have the need to access such information for the purpose of advising us;
    • 8.1.6. any law enforcement body which may have any reasonable requirement to access your Personal Information;
    • 8.1.7. any regulatory body or authorised entity which may have any reasonable requirement to access your Personal Information; and
    • 8.1.8. any potential purchaser of our business or any investors in it or in any company within our group (including in the event of insolvency)
  • 8.2. If at any time you wish us to stop processing your Personal Information for the above Purposes, you should contact us and we will take the appropriate steps to stop doing so. Please note that this may mean that your account will be closed.
  • 8.3. We may share your non-personal information with third party partners who work with us to provide the Services to you in order to support, improve or amend any Services. We may also share your non-personal information with data analysis services.
  • 8.4. We will not share your information with third party advertisers except with your consent.
  • 8.5. We do not disclose Personal Information about identifiable individuals to advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate and/or anonymised information about our users to help advertisers reach the kind of audience they want to target. We may make use of the information we have collected from you to enable us to comply with our advertisers' wishes by displaying their advertisement to that target audience.
  • 8.6. We may share your information with developers using the YYG Platforms, but this will only be provided in aggregate or alternatively in comparative absolute values, and shall be provided only as long as it shall be presented in the YYG Platforms in an anonymized manner that does not expose or indicate the users' identity (including, without limitations, any personal or device identifiers) to any third parties.
  • 8.7. Please remember that any communications you have via our Services may reveal your screen name, other details about you and the content of any communications by you to other users. We are not responsible for the activities of other users or other third parties whom you choose to provide your information to or otherwise interact with (whether via our Services or otherwise).
  • "YYG Platforms": means any YoYo Games platforms and website (including the GameMaker Showcase, GameMaker Learn, GameMaker Marketplace and GameMaker Community features) and the GameMaker software, in each case as updated, replaced or expanded from time to time.

9. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

    Our Services may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites or services of partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites or services may have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies, nor do we endorse such websites or services. Please check before you submit any personal information to these third parties.

10. MARKETING PREFERENCES

  • 10.1 Neither we nor any company in our group will send you unsolicited information regarding any third party's products or services.
  • 10.2 As part of the account registration process, you will have the opportunity to choose whether or not to receive information on our offers and promotions.
  • 10.3 Unless you have informed us that you wish to receive promotional information and emails, we will not send you such communications.
  • 10.4 You may update your marketing preferences at any time by accessing our Preference Centre.

11. EDUCATION PRIVACY POLICY

  • 11.1. Notwithstanding anything express or implied herein to the contrary, YYG does not collect and/or process any Personal Information or any personally identifiable data from Educational Institutions' students, pursuant to or in connection with an Educational License, and thus students remain entirely anonymous to YYG. For the avoidance of doubt, despite the fact that we do not collect any Personal Information from Educational Institutions' students, we do collect and process Personal Information from Authorised Representatives of Education Institutions (e.g. teachers) in the course of opening an account with YYG for use of the YYG Platforms. For more information, please see sections 3.11 - 3.14 of our User Agreement.

12. OUR STATUS IN EU DATA PROTECTION LAW

    In relation to our provision and administration of the Services, we are the data controller under the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act 2018. In other circumstances (for example regarding Publisher Property) we may be a data processor. We respect your right to privacy and will only process personal information you provide to us in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and other applicable privacy laws. Please be aware that we are subject to various laws and we may be required to release personal information to comply with law enforcement or other legal requirements. "Publisher Property": means third party products or services created using the GameMaker software which can be licensed or accessed via the YYG Platforms and/or other third party platforms. This can include (but is not limited to): (i) software created to facilitate the development of interactive entertainment products; (ii) content (like graphics, sounds, videos music, text, screenshots and images) which are intended to be integrated with interactive entertainment products; and/or (iii) services (such as graphic design or audio engineering) offered to Customers.

13. YOUR RIGHTS

  • 13.1. You have the following rights in relation to your Personal Information:
    • 13.1.1 a right to access your Personal Information as held by us;
    • 13.1.2 a right to receive certain Personal Information in machine-readable format;
    • 13.1.3 a right to object to processing where the lawful basis is that it is in our legitimate interests, but please note that we may still process your Personal Information where there are other relevant lawful bases or where we have compelling grounds to continue processing your Personal Information in our interests which are not overridden by your rights, interests or freedoms;
    • 13.1.4 a right to have inaccurate Personal Information rectified;
    • 13.1.5 a right to have certain Personal Information erased where it is no longer necessary for us to process it, where you have withdrawn your consent pursuant to paragraph 13.1.8, where you have objected pursuant to paragraph 13.1.3, where your Personal Information has been unlawfully processed, or where erasing your Personal Information is required in accordance with a legal obligation;
    • 13.1.6 a right to request an explanation of the logic involved where we make decisions about you solely through automated means;
    • 13.1.7 a right to complain to your national data protection regulator;
    • 13.1.8 where we have specifically requested your consent to process your Personal Information and have no other lawful conditions to rely on, you have the right to withdraw this consent; and
    • 13.1.9 a right to object to direct marketing, which can be done by opting-out of direct marketing either through your account or by opting out via the communication itself. You also have a right to object to any profiling to the extent that it relates to direct marketing only.
  • 13.2. If you are unsure about your rights or are concerned about how your Personal Information may be processed, you should contact your national data protection regulator.
  • 13.3. We have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who is responsible for all requests relating to the privacy of your Personal Information. If you would like to exercise any of your rights then you can do so by contacting us as at [email protected]. Please be aware that while we will try to accommodate any request you make in respect of your rights, they are not absolute rights. This means that we may have to refuse your request or may only be able to comply with it in part.
  • 13.4. Where you make a request in respect of your rights we will require proof of identification. We may also ask that you clarify your request. If we receive repeated requests, or have reason to believe requests are being made unreasonably, we reserve the right not to respond.

14. RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

    We will retain your Personal Information for the period necessary for us to provide you with our Services. Accordingly, your Personal Information might be retained for up to 3 years. However, in certain cases we may be obliged to retain your Personal Information for up to 9 years. If you have any questions or wish to request that your account be deleted, please contact us at [email protected]. Where it is no longer necessary for us to process your Personal Information or if you request that the information be deleted, we will delete it. Please note, however, that we may be subject to legal and regulatory requirements to keep personal data for a longer period, in particular pursuant to any applicable statutory limitation period.

15. SECURITY

  • 15.1. We use a number of methods to ensure that all customer information remains confidential. Transferred information is sent using advanced encryption methods and, once stored in our servers, is protected by the most up-to-date firewall technology available to protect data from being misused and/or lost.
  • 15.2. The Website is protected by industry-standard SSL (Secured Socket Layer) encryption. This technology encrypts all personal data transferred between you and us.

16. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

    We may change this privacy policy at any time: please take a look at the "LAST UPDATED" date at the top of this page to see when this privacy policy was last revised. If so, we will make the revised version available online and make reasonable efforts to inform you of changes. It will become legally binding on you once we post it online. If you do not agree to the new version, you must stop using the Services completely - in order to make the Services work properly we need to have everyone using them under the same rules instead of different people having different rules.

17. CONTACT US

    We welcome any questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy, which should be directed via [email protected].