Privacy Policy

The short version

• You can play Strata War without an account. Then nothing we keep on our servers says who you are. Your progress stays on your own device.
• If you sign in, we keep a random account number, the name your sign-in provider shares with us, which provider you used, your levels and a copy of your progress, so you can play on with it on another device. We never ask for your email address or a password.
• We keep records of matches — the orders, the map and the results, never your name — to find bugs and balance the game: every online match, and the skirmishes you play unless you turn Send my matches off.
• There is no advertising, no tracking of any kind, and no analytics company. The only statistics are the ones we count ourselves from those matches. We don’t sell or share your data.
• Apple, Google or Stripe take your payment. We never see your card.
• You can delete your account in the game at any time.

Who we are

Strata War is made by Nieuw Solutions, LLC, through its game studio nieuw.games. We are responsible for the data described here (in European law, the “controller”). You can reach us at any time at play@nieuw.games.

This policy covers the website stratawar.com, the game in your browser, the Strata War apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, and the versions of the game on game sites such as itch.io.

What stays on your device

The game keeps your campaign progress, stars, levels, settings, key bindings, recent matches, your last replay, maps you are drawing in the editor and the name you play online under in your browser’s storage (in the apps, in the app’s own storage). It is not sent to us, with two exceptions: a finished skirmish’s replay, unless you turn Send my matches off (see Matches we keep), and, if you sign in, your levels and your progress (see If you sign in). Clearing your browser’s data for stratawar.com, or removing the app, deletes it from the device; a copy kept with your account is not touched.

The browser also keeps a copy of the game’s files so that it can start without a connection.

If something goes wrong, the game shows a card with what happened. It keeps the last few errors in memory on your device only, and forgets them when the page closes. They reach us only if you copy them and send them to us yourself. The copy holds the game’s version, your browser’s name and version, the screen you were on and the errors. It holds no name, account or address.

The Telemetry switch in the game’s settings shows live performance figures (such as frames per second) beside the battlefield. They are shown to you and never sent anywhere.

Playing online

When you play online, your device connects to our match service. It receives the name you chose to play under, your orders in the match and, for a private room, the room’s code. Your name is shown to the other players in your match. If you list a room in the lobby, your name is shown to people looking at the lobby. If you don’t want to be recognised, don’t use your real name.

Like any server on the internet, the match service sees your device’s IP address while you are connected. It doesn’t write it down. When a match ends, it passes the match’s orders, map and results to our account service, which keeps them as described in Matches we keep; your name and your address are not part of them, and the match service itself keeps nothing. Its log notes events such as “a room was made” or “a match started”, with room codes and counts, and nothing that identifies you.

If you are signed in, the game gives the match service a ticket from our account service as the match starts. When the match ends, the match service tells the account service how it ended for each side, with that ticket, so your online level counts the match. The ticket says only which account it is for and when it runs out. Your name and the other players’ names are not part of it.

Matches we keep

We keep records of matches so that we can watch them again to find bugs, and count which factions, maps and units are played, to keep the game balanced. A record is the match’s replay — the map and every order given, which is enough for the game to play the match again — and a summary: the map, each side’s faction, whether a person or the computer played it, how it ended, how long it took, and what each side built and researched.

• Online matches: every match played through our match service. The record holds no names and no account numbers.
• Matches against the computer: a skirmish is sent when it ends, unless you turn off Send my matches (in the settings gear, under Game, and in Your record on the main menu). Campaign missions are not sent. If you are signed in, your account number is kept with it; if not, nothing in it says whose it is.
• Only our own team can open the records, on a page that answers only the accounts we have listed on our server. They are never published and never shared.
• Each record is deleted after 90 days, or sooner when the archive is full.

Maps you publish

If you publish a map from the editor for other players, we keep the map, the name and the few words you gave it, and when you sent it, with your account. Other players see the map, its name and words, and a short code that stands for you (such as “player 7KQ2M9XA”), never your name or account. We look at each map before it is public.

If you report a map, we keep the report: the map, the reason, anything you wrote, and when. If you are signed in, your account is kept with it so you can’t report the same map twice. Only our own team reads reports.

You can remove a map you published at any time in the editor. Deleting your account deletes every map you published, and the reports of them.

If you sign in

Signing in is optional. You sign in with an account you already have elsewhere, such as Google, Apple or Amazon (the game shows the ones it offers). That company checks who you are and tells us two things: a fixed id for you that it makes for our game, and the name you have with them, if they share it. With Apple you can choose not to share your name, and Apple tells us only on your first sign-in. From Amazon we ask for the id only, so Amazon tells us no name. In the Steam edition you can also sign in with Steam: Steam tells us your Steam account’s number (its SteamID), and the game sends your Steam name, which a new account takes as its name. Your SteamID is kept with your account so Steam signs you in to it again, and it is deleted with your account. We don’t ask for your email address, contacts, friends, picture or anything else.

We keep:

• your account: a random account number, your display name (which may be blank) and when the account was made;
• how you sign in: the provider, the id it gave us for you, when you first and last signed in with it;
• your sign-ins: on the website, a cookie holds a random session key, and we keep only a scrambled copy of it (a hash), when it started and when it was last used. In the apps, the sign-in is kept in your device’s keychain, and we keep only scrambled copies of its keys and of a random id for your device;
• your levels: experience, and matches played and won, against the computer (sent by your device) and online (counted from what our match service reports), and for each online match in the last 90 days which side you played, how it ended and the experience it earned;
• your progress: the campaign missions you have won, your stars and badges, the skills you have learned, the story pages you have seen, your campaign level and your keys, as your devices send them while you are signed in, with when it last changed. It holds no name;
• Premium Access, if you have it: see the next section;
• a security record: a short note each time you sign in or out, start a payment or manage your subscription, your Premium Access starts, ends or is refunded, or your progress kept with your account changes, with your account number and the time. It never holds your name, your IP address or any key.

We use this only to sign you in, to give you what you have paid for, to show and keep your levels (your online level may later find you fair opponents; your level against the computer is only for you, and may later suggest a difficulty), to keep your progress so you can play on with it on any device you sign in on, and to look into misuse of your account if you or we find any. Your progress also stays on each device you play on. Signing out leaves it there.

The sign-in companies have their own privacy policies, which cover what they do when you sign in with them: Google, Apple, Amazon, Steam, Microsoft, Discord, Facebook and X.

Premium Access and payments

Premium Access is an optional subscription. When it is on sale, you buy it from the store you play in, and that store takes the payment:

• On stratawar.com, Stripe takes the payment on its own page. Stripe collects your card details, email address and billing details, and handles tax. Stripe tells us the ids of your subscription, invoices and customer record, the product, its status and the date it is paid until. See Stripe’s privacy policy.
• In the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps, Apple takes the payment. Apple tells us the purchase’s transaction ids, the product, its dates and status, and your account number, which the app gives Apple so the purchase can be matched to your account. See Apple’s privacy policy.
• In the Android app, Premium Access is not on sale yet. When it is, Google Play will take the payment in the same way. See Google’s privacy policy.

We never see or keep your card number, and we don’t keep your email address. For each message a store sends us, we keep only a fingerprint (a hash) to tell it apart from the next, not the message itself.

What we don’t do

• No analytics or advertising companies, tracking pixels or “like” buttons, on the site or in the game. The match statistics described above are counted by us, on our own server.
• No scripts, fonts or images loaded from other companies. Everything comes from stratawar.com.
• No selling, renting or sharing of your data, and no profiles of you.
• No decisions about you made automatically.

Cookies. We use two cookies, and only when you sign in. __Host-strata_signin lasts ten minutes while a sign-in is under way. __Host-strata_session keeps you signed in, for at most 30 days. Both are needed for sign-in to work, so we don’t ask for consent to them. There are no other cookies.

Who else handles data

• Our hosting company runs the server for the website, the match service, the account service and the match records (Oracle Cloud, with the server in Virginia, USA, run by Nieuw Solutions).
• The sign-in companies you choose to use, as above.
• Stripe, Apple and Google, for payments, as above.
• Game sites such as itch.io, when you play there. Their own privacy policy covers their page. Our game inside it keeps your progress in your browser as it does on stratawar.com, and adds no advertising or tracking of its own. Sign-in and Premium Access are not offered there.

Stripe, Apple and Google may handle data in the United States. They protect it under their own agreements, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

Your account

Until you delete it.

Your levels

Until you delete your account. The note of each online match is deleted after 90 days; the totals stay.

Your progress, if you sign in

Until you delete your account. Only the latest copy is kept.

A website sign-in

At most 30 days, and it ends after 14 days unused or when you sign out. The record is removed within a day after it ends.

An app sign-in

Each key at most 60 days unused, and at most a year in all. Removed within a day after it ends.

Match records

Each is deleted after 90 days, or sooner when the archive is full.

Maps you publish

Until you remove them or delete your account. A map we turn down or take down is deleted 90 days later, and so is a report once we have dealt with it.

Purchase records

After your account is deleted, kept without your account for seven years, for tax, accounting and refunds.

The security record

Each note is deleted after 90 days. When you delete your account, your account number is taken off the notes at once.

Your IP address on our services

Kept in memory for a few minutes to stop abuse (too many sign-ins from one place), and never written down.

Our services’ logs

Events and counts only, such as “a sign-in finished”. They hold no names, accounts, IP addresses or keys.

The web server’s access logs

Like most websites, our web server records each request: the IP address, the time, the page and the browser’s name. It keeps them for up to two months, for security and to fix problems.

Backups

We back up the account database before each update to it. A deleted account stays in these backups until they are deleted, after 90 days.

Deleting your account

In the game or the app, sign in, choose your name at the top right, then Delete account, and confirm. This deletes your account, your name, how you sign in, your levels, the copy of your progress kept with your account and every sign-in at once. If you sign in with the same Google or Apple account later, you start a new, empty account.

• A subscription bought on stratawar.com is cancelled for you.
• A subscription from the App Store or Google Play is not cancelled by deleting your account. Cancel it in your store first. The Support page shows how.
• Records of past purchases are kept without your account, as tax law asks.
• The security record keeps its notes without your account until they are deleted, at most 90 days later.
• Skirmishes you sent stay in the match records without your account until they are deleted, at most 90 days later.
• Your progress on your device is not touched. Clear your browser’s data or remove the app to delete it.

If you can’t sign in any more, write to play@nieuw.games. Tell us which sign-in you used, and we will help you prove the account is yours before we delete it.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of the data we keep about you, ask us to correct it or delete it, or ask us to stop using it. If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, these are your rights under the GDPR, which also gives you the right to take your data with you and to object to how we use it. Write to play@nieuw.games. We will answer within one month.

You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

In GDPR terms, we use your data: to provide the account, your levels and the subscription you asked for (performance of a contract); to keep purchase records (a legal obligation); and to keep our services safe from abuse, and to find bugs and balance the game from the match records (our legitimate interest — you can stop sending your skirmishes at any time with Send my matches).

Children

Strata War is for a general audience. It is not directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. Anyone can play without an account, which keeps nothing on our servers that says who they are. To sign in, you must be at least 13, or older if the law where you live says so (up to 16 in some European countries), or have your parent’s or guardian’s permission. If you think a child has signed in without permission, write to play@nieuw.games and we will delete the account.

Keeping it safe

Every connection to stratawar.com is encrypted (HTTPS). Session and sign-in keys are kept only as scrambled copies, so a copy of our database would not let anyone sign in as you. The account database is a database of its own, reachable only from our server.

Changes to this policy

When what we collect changes, we change this page first and update the date at the top. If a change matters, we will also say so in the game.