Hexiles on X

Data Protection · GDPR / DSGVO

Privacy Policy

How we handle personal data on hexiles.com and in the game Hexiles. Compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR/DSGVO) and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG). Last updated: 27 October 2026.

1. Controller

The controller responsible for personal data processed on this website and in the game within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR is:

ODY Technologies e.U.

Oliver Greil, sole proprietor

c/o RA Matutis

Fürstenstraße 5

5400 Hallein

Austria, European Union

contact@odytechnologies.com

Full legal disclosure: Imprint.

2. Scope

This policy applies to hexiles.com, the website of Hexiles: Settle, Sail, Siege, and to the game itself at play.hexiles.com. There are no user accounts, forms, comments, or analytics on the website. The only personal data processed there is the technical request data that is automatically generated by visiting any website on the public internet.

The game is in development. Sections 6 to 11 describe it: your settler and your island, accounts and the ways to sign in, what happens to guest players, fair play and moderation, purchases in the shop, and the services the game uses (hosting, bot check, emails).

3. Hosting & Server Logs

This website is hosted on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). When you load any page, Cloudflare's edge servers automatically receive standard web request data:

  • your IP address (used to route the response and detect abuse);
  • the URL you requested and the HTTP referrer (if any);
  • your browser's User-Agent string;
  • the date and time of the request.

Purpose. To deliver the website, protect against DDoS and abuse, and maintain technical operations.

Legal basis. Legitimate interest in operating a secure and reliable website (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Retention. Cloudflare typically retains edge access logs for a short rolling window (days, not months) for security and operational purposes. See Cloudflare's privacy policy for the current schedule.

International transfer. Cloudflare is a US-based provider with servers worldwide, including in the EU. Transfers to the United States are covered by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Cloudflare is certified) and supplementary Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable.

4. No Third-Party Content

All fonts, images, and scripts on this website are served from our own host. We do not embed Google Fonts, content delivery networks, social media plugins, videos, or maps from other providers, so visiting this website does not make your browser contact any third party. The moving sea in the background is drawn by your own browser.

5. Cookies & Tracking

This website does not set any cookies and uses no tracking, analytics, or advertising pixels. If you switch the language manually, we store your choice in your browser's localStorage under hexiles.lang, so the language persists across pages. This value never leaves your browser, and you can delete it at any time in your browser settings. It is strictly necessary to provide the language setting you requested (§ 165 (3) TKG 2021). For the cookies of the game, see Section 7.

6. The Game: Your Settler and Your Island

  • Your player: when you enter the game, we create a player with a random player number, the name and the look you chose for your settler, and the time.
  • Your island and everything on it (fields, buildings, settlers at work, goods) is stored on our server, so it keeps going while you are away.
  • Who sees it: at the moment, your island is shown only to you. Others see the name and look of your settler through your link and next to what you write in the chat (Section 10).
  • Your link: when you share a link to your settler for the first time, we give your player a random code for it. Whoever opens the link sees a page with the name and a picture of your settler, which our server draws from its look; the app in which the link is shared (for example WhatsApp, iMessage or Telegram) fetches this page and picture itself to show a preview. The link stays the same and always shows your settler as it is now. Once you delete your game, it no longer shows your settler.

Legal basis. Providing the game you signed up for (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR).

Deleting. In the settings of the game (Account) you can delete your game or your account at any time. We then delete at once your island, your settler, your account with all its ways to sign in, your devices and codes, and when you were last there.

7. The Game: Accounts, Signing In and Devices

  • Session cookie: to recognise your browser, the game sets a cookie hexiles-session with a random token (one year, renewed with each visit); our server keeps only a one-way hash of it. For each device we store a rough label derived from your browser's User-Agent string (such as “Safari · iPhone”), when it signed in and when it was last there, so that you can see your devices and sign them out; for your player, when you last opened the game.
  • Email address and password: if you secure your island with an email address, we store the confirmed address and the language of our emails, and a password you set only as an Argon2id hash. To confirm an address, change it or reset a password, we email you a 6-digit code, which we store only as a hash; it is valid for 15 minutes and deleted after an hour.
  • Breached passwords: when you choose a password, our server checks whether it appears in known data breaches, using the Pwned Passwords service of Have I Been Pwned. It sends only the first five characters of a hash of the password; the password itself and your IP address never leave our server.
  • Google: if you sign in with Google, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) tells us a unique ID of your Google account, its email address and whether Google has confirmed it. A confirmed address that no other account uses becomes the address of your account. We do not request your name or picture.
  • Steam: if you sign in with Steam, Valve Corporation (Bellevue, Washington, USA) confirms your Steam ID to us, a number, and nothing else.
  • Passkeys: if you add a passkey, its private key stays on your device or in your password manager, and your fingerprint or face never leave your device. We store the public key and ID of the passkey, whether it is synced, and when you added and last used it.
  • Starting with Google or Steam: if you sign in with one of them before you have a settler, we remember the sign-in for 15 minutes in a cookie hexiles-pending and attach it to the settler you then create. While you sign in with Google or Steam, short-lived technical cookies protect the way back to the game against forgery.
  • Another device: to continue on another device, the game shows you a code of six characters (valid for 10 minutes, once). The app on the home screen of an iPhone or iPad receives a longer code in its start address (valid for 7 days). We store codes only as a hash; signing out, signing out the other devices, a new password and deleting discard them.
  • In your browser: the game keeps your settings (language, text size, graphics, sound), the settler you are designing until you enter, and small notes (such as whether a hint was already shown, which announcements you have read, or that a guest played here, Section 8) in your browser's localStorage and sessionStorage under names beginning with hexiles.. They never leave your browser.

Purpose and legal basis. Providing the game you signed up for and the ways to sign in you chose (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR); for the check against breached passwords and the protection of the way back, our legitimate interest in secure accounts (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). We consider these cookies and the storage in your browser strictly necessary to provide the game you requested (§ 165 (3) TKG 2021).

Google and Steam. You sign in on their own pages; what they process there is governed by the privacy policies of Google and Valve.

Retention. Your account and its data for as long as it exists; a device until you sign it out or delete your account.

8. The Game: Guests

You can play as a guest, without an account, for as long as you keep coming back; your player is then tied to this browser. If you do not open the game for 7 days, your island sinks: we delete your guest player together with all data belonging to it, as when an account is deleted. A guest who never founded their main house is deleted after 3 hours without a visit. If this browser comes back afterwards, the game tells you what happened. Once you secure your island with an account (a confirmed email address, Google or Steam), it stays until you delete it.

Legal basis. Providing the game you signed up for (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR).

9. The Game: Fair Play, Moderation and Logs

  • Measures: if you break our Terms, we may mute you in the chat, ban you from the chat or suspend your account. We store the measure with its kind, reason and duration, who took it and when, and show it to you in the game (Art. 17 DSA). All actions of our moderation are logged with the name of the person who took them. These records refer only to the player number and are kept as the record of our decisions, also after an account is deleted.
  • Protection against abuse: to slow down automated attacks, our server counts requests per network (derived from your IP address) and failed sign-ins per email address, only in its working memory and for at most an hour.
  • Server logs: when something goes wrong in the game, our server records what happened: the time, the kind of error and where in our code it occurred, and the player number concerned, never email addresses or passwords. We use these records only to run the game and fix errors. The running output of the server is overwritten continuously once it reaches a fixed size.
  • Statistics: for our overview of operations we count, without any personal reference, how many players there are, how many played today, this week and this month, and how the server is doing.

Purpose and legal basis. A secure and fair game and the record of our decisions: our legal obligations under the Digital Services Act and our legitimate interest in a safe game that runs reliably (Art. 6 (1) (c) and (f) GDPR).

10. The Game: Chat

  • Messages: what you write in the chat (text, replies, reactions and whom you mention) is stored with your player number, the name your settler had when you wrote it, its current look and the time, and shown to everyone who reads that channel: the world, the official channel of our team, and once enough players come from there, a region or country. Only accounts secured with a confirmed email address, Google or Steam can write. Messages are kept for 30 days; one you delete yourself disappears for everyone at once, and we keep its text for 7 more days in case it was reported. When your settler arrives on the islands, the world may read a short line with its name.
  • Your country: to open channels for regions and countries once enough players come from there, we store the country that Cloudflare derives from your IP address when you first play (only the two-letter country code, never your IP address or city), and the place you choose in the chat. Your country is never shown to other players.
  • Read status and mutes: for each channel, the last message you read (so the game can mark what is new, on all your devices), and the players you muted.
  • Reports: if you report a message, we store the report with its reason, your note, the reported text, your player number and a one-way hash of your network (derived from your IP address), so that several accounts from one network count only once. Reported messages are kept until our moderation has decided; decided reports, with their message, for 6 months as a record of the decision.
  • Notices: if our moderation removes one of your messages, mutes you or bans you from the chat, you receive a notice in the game with the reason and the rule (Art. 17 DSA). We keep it until you delete your account.
  • Notifications: if you turn on notifications in the settings, your browser gives us the address of its push service (Google, Apple, Mozilla or Microsoft, depending on your browser) and keys for it; we store them with your player number and the language of the game. When someone mentions you in the chat, or our team posts in Officials, while you are not looking at the game, our server sends an encrypted notification there, at most one every 5 minutes; the push service only passes it on to your device. Whether the game is visible on your device is known to our server only while it is open. Turning notifications off, or deleting your account, deletes this data.

Purpose and legal basis. Providing the chat you use (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR); reports, moderation and their records: our legal obligations under the Digital Services Act and our legitimate interest in a safe chat (Art. 6 (1) (c) and (f) GDPR).

Deleting. When you delete your game or your account, we delete your messages, reactions, read status, mutes, your country, your own reports, your notices and your devices for notifications at once. Only messages with open reports stay until our moderation has decided.

11. The Game: Purchases and Payments (Stripe)

If you buy Diamonds in the game, the payment is processed by Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. (1 Grand Canal Street Lower, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, Ireland). The payment form comes from Stripe and is shown inside the game. Stripe receives the data it needs to take the payment and to meet its own legal obligations:

  • your payment details (card, PayPal, Klarna, EPS, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Link);
  • your name and billing address, as far as the payment method requires them;
  • your email address for the receipt;
  • your IP address and device and browser data, which Stripe uses to prevent fraud;
  • the amount, the currency and our order reference.

We never see or store your payment details. They are entered directly into fields hosted by Stripe and never reach our servers. We keep an order record: your player number, the pack, the Diamonds and the price, when you ordered and paid, Stripe's references for the checkout and the payment, the email address for your purchase confirmation, your request for immediate delivery with the acknowledgement that you lose your right of withdrawal (time, language and version of the wording), and a log of what happened to the order (paid, credited, refunds, chargebacks). Diamonds you buy and spend are recorded on your account like the ones you receive in the game.

Purchase confirmation. We email you a confirmation with the order details and your waiver of the right of withdrawal, to the address entered at checkout or that of your account.

Purpose. To process your purchase, credit your Diamonds and confirm it to you, to handle refunds and chargebacks, to prevent fraud, and to meet accounting and tax obligations.

Legal basis. Performance of a contract (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) for the purchase and its confirmation; legal obligation (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR) for keeping accounting records; legitimate interest (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR) for fraud prevention and handling chargebacks.

Stripe's role. Stripe acts as our processor for handling the payment and as an independent controller for fraud prevention and its own regulatory duties, described in the Stripe Privacy Policy. If you pay with Link, Stripe's service for saving payment details, your Link account is held directly with Stripe, which is the controller for it.

International transfers. Stripe Payments Europe is based in Ireland; data may be transferred to Stripe, Inc. in the United States under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Retention. Order records are kept for the statutory retention period under Austrian tax law (currently seven years, § 132 BAO), also after an account is deleted. Stripe applies its own retention periods to the payment data it holds.

12. The Game: Hosting, Bot Check and Emails

To run the game, we and your browser use the following services. Each receives only what it needs for its task. Fonts and images of the game come from our own server; your browser contacts Google or Steam only when you choose to sign in with them.

  • Hosting: the game runs on our own server at Hetzner Online GmbH (Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany) in a data center in the EU; our backups are kept at Hetzner as well. Requests reach the server through Cloudflare's network (Cloudflare Tunnel, Cloudflare, Inc., Section 3), which receives the same request data as for this website. Our web server notes each request with your IP address, the time, the address requested within the game without its parameters, and the status, size and duration of the answer, in a log of fixed size that is overwritten continuously.
  • Bot check: when you create your settler, when we send a code to your email address (securing your island, adding or changing an address, resetting a password) and after several wrong attempts at signing in or entering a code from another device, the game asks Cloudflare Turnstile (Cloudflare, Inc.) whether a person or a program is at work. Turnstile receives your IP address, your browser's User-Agent string and technical characteristics of your connection (Turnstile Privacy Addendum). Cloudflare acts as our processor for the check and as an independent controller for improving its bot detection.
  • Emails from the game (codes, and purchase confirmations once the shop is open) are sent via SMTP2GO (Sand Dune Mail Ltd, 96-106 Manchester Street, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand), which receives your email address and the message and keeps its headers for 35 days. SMTP2GO stores personal data of users in the EEA within the EEA.

Purpose and legal basis. Providing the game you signed up for (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) and our legitimate interest in a secure and reliable game that is protected against automated abuse (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Roles. Hetzner, Cloudflare and SMTP2GO process the data on our behalf.

International transfers. For Cloudflare, Section 3 applies. For New Zealand, where SMTP2GO is based, the European Commission has issued an adequacy decision.

Retention. Our access log as described above; the services apply their own retention periods.

13. Your Rights

Under the GDPR you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

  • Right of access (Art. 15): confirmation of whether we process your data and a copy of it.
  • Right to rectification (Art. 16): correction of inaccurate data.
  • Right to erasure (Art. 17): deletion of your data, also known as the "right to be forgotten".
  • Right to restriction (Art. 18): pause processing in disputed cases.
  • Right to data portability (Art. 20): receive your data in a machine-readable format.
  • Right to object (Art. 21): object to processing based on legitimate interest.
  • Right to withdraw consent (Art. 7 (3)): without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

You can delete your game or your account yourself at any time in the settings of the game (Section 6). To exercise any of these rights, email contact@odytechnologies.com. We will respond within one month.

14. Right to Lodge a Complaint

If you believe our processing of your personal data violates the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The competent authority for us is the Austrian Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde):

Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde

Barichgasse 40-42

1030 Wien, Österreich

www.dsb.gv.at

15. Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR. Automated limits against abuse (Section 9) only slow down or hold back requests for a short time, and reports from three established accounts in different networks hide a message only until our moderation has decided (Section 10); a person decides on any measure against a player.

16. Children

The game is intended for users aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child without parental consent, we will delete it.

17. Changes to This Policy

We will update this policy as the game evolves and new processing comes online. Material changes will be announced on this website and in the game before they take effect.

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