Privacy policy

The short version

• A username and a password, nothing else. No email, real name or age. Our server stores your password only as a hash, never as you typed it.

• The game saves your password on your device. That is how it logs you back in. Use a password you don't use anywhere else.

• Your profile is public in the game. Name, flag, rank, stats, kit and trophies, plus anything you write in chat.

• Replays are not private. Anyone on the server can watch your matches for 14 days.

• Your flag comes from your IP address. We keep the country, not the address, and you can pick your own flag instead.

• Logs, chat included, stay 14 days on the server. A private archive of them currently has no end date.

• The Android app shows ads from Google. Google's AdMob serves them and collects data to do so; where the law asks, you choose whether ads are personalised. The Windows game has no ads.

• Real-money purchases aren't open yet. When they are, Google Play or Steam takes the payment and we never see your card details. We keep a record of what you bought.

• No data sold, no cookies on this site. We don't sell your data or use it for advertising ourselves. The site counts visits itself, without cookies, and the count doesn't record who you are.

• Delete your account in the game, under Settings > Account, or ask us. Want a copy of your data? Ask us.

Who we are

Karoball is made by an independent developer, who publishes it under the name Karoball. In this policy "we" and "us" mean that developer. We decide what data the game collects and what it is used for, so we are responsible for it (the "controller", in data protection law).

Who

An independent developer, publishing as Karoball

Covers

The Karoball game for Windows and its launcher, the Karoball app for Android, the game servers and this website, karoball.net

Contact

The Karoball Discord, or email support@karoball.net

What we collect

Here is everything the game and its servers handle about you.

Your account

To register, you choose a username and a password in the game. That is all registration asks for: no email address, no real name, no date of birth.

• Your username is public. Other players see it everywhere in the game.
• Your password is never sent as you typed it: the game hashes it first, and the server hashes that again and stores only the result. The hash the game sends is not a strong lock, though: anyone who gets hold of it can log in as you, and a short or common password can be worked out from it.
• The game remembers your username and password on your own device, in its save folder, so it can fill in the login screen and log you back in after a dropped connection. It saves them every time you log in, as you typed them, without encryption. On a shared PC, delete the file called login in %APPDATA%\Karoball when you are done (logging out doesn't remove it). On Android they are in the app's private storage, which other apps can't read; uninstalling the app, or clearing its storage, removes them.

You can also play as a guest: you only pick a name, and the game makes a guest account for you. It is an account like any other, stored the same way on our server, with your game record on it; other players see a small GUEST mark next to your name. Instead of a password, our server makes a random key for it, which the game keeps on your device in a file called guest, with a copy of your name, rank, gold and record to show on the login screen. Whoever has that file can play as your guest, and if you lose it (another device, a reinstall), you lose the way back to the guest. Registering it, from the play menu or Settings > Account, gives the same account a password of your choosing and keeps everything on it; the guest file is then removed.

Your game record

Playing builds up a record that we store with your account, so your progress follows you to any PC:

• your Elo rating and rank, and your matches played, won, drawn and lost, and goals;
• your gold, the kit and items you own, the kit you wear, your class and the classes you have unlocked;
• your challenge progress and best scores, your cup trophies and titles, and the title and badge you picked to show next to your name;
• your kit presets (the three lockers).

Your settings, such as controls, sound and graphics, stay on your device. They are never sent to us.

Your country flag

Players show a flag next to their name. Unless you pick one, the server sets yours each time you log in by looking up your IP address in a country table kept on the server. No outside service is asked, and only the country is saved, not the address.

Other players see the flag, so by default they can see which country you connect from. To change it, open your profile and press Change (or Add your flag). You can pick any of 256 flags, or No flag. A flag you pick stays until you change it.

Friends and parties

• Your friends list and friend requests are stored until you or your friend remove them. Only the two of you see them.
• Party membership is kept while you are in the party. Party invitations expire after 2 minutes.
• Friends, your party, and anyone who opens your profile can see whether you are online and where: on the play menu, in which town, in a match or a challenge, or watching a match. Your profile also shows whether you are in a party, and how big it is.

Chat

There are four kinds of chat, and each reaches different people:

Every chat line, of every kind, is also written to the server logs with your name and account number, so it is kept as long as the logs are (see How long we keep it). Treat chat like talking in public. Moderators can mute players in every chat. There is no word filter or report button in the game: if someone is bothering you, tell us on Discord.

Replays

Every match is recorded on the server: Quick Play, games against bots, cups and the town's pitches. Challenges, matches called off before kick-off and anything under 20 seconds are not. A replay holds what a spectator would see: names, teams, kits, flags, every movement, goals, celebrations and quick chat.

• Replays are kept on the server for 14 days, or less if the server's replay space fills up (the oldest go first).
• Replays are not private. Any player on the same server can watch any replay, from the Recent list or by typing its number.
• If you press Save, a copy stays on your own PC until you delete it. Copies other players have saved are on their PCs, out of our reach.

Watching matches live

The play menu lists every match being played in your region, and any player can watch one from the stands while it's on, up to 20 people per match. That covers Quick Play, cups and games against bots with a person in them, but not challenges or the town's pitches. The list shows the players' names and the score (bots are counted, not named), and the players in the match can see how many people are watching. Your friends get a Watch button next to your name while you play. Nothing extra is stored for this, and someone watching sees the same as anyone in the stands of a cup match.

Server logs

Like most online games, the game server keeps logs, so we can fix bugs, see how many people play and deal with abuse. They record what happens in the game with player names and account numbers: logging in and out, queueing, match line-ups and results, shop purchases with gold, trades, purchases and every change to your Karos (once the store is open), chat, flag changes, challenge progress and moderator actions. They never contain passwords.

• The log files stay on the game server for 14 days.
• A copy of every log line also goes into a private archive, kept on the server and on the developer's own computer. This archive currently has no end date. A private dashboard made from it, which only the developer can open, shows player counts, match history, logins and chat history. When an account is deleted, its name is taken out of the archive and the dashboard automatically (see Deleting your account).
• Separately, the database keeps counts with no names in them (players online, matches, server load) for 30 days.

IP addresses and connection data

Your IP address reaches our server whenever you connect; no online game can work without it. For normal play:

• it is held in the server's memory while you are connected, and not written to disk;
• it sets your country flag, as above, and only the country is kept;
• short-lived counts per address, also kept in memory only, limit how often one address can contact the server and how many guest accounts it can make (5 an hour).

There are three exceptions:

• attempts to log in as a moderator are written to the logs, and so to the log archive, with the IP address they came from, so that someone guessing the moderator password can be locked out;
• when a moderator bans someone while they're playing, the IP address they were playing from is kept with the ban for as long as it lasts, 7 days at most, and no account can log in from that address in that time, so they can't come straight back on a new account;
• on Android, each rewarded video you are offered is recorded with the IP address and install ID it was offered to, for 90 days, so that the daily limits on rewards can't be dodged (see Ads in the Android app).

When it connects, the game also tells the server which version it is (Windows or Android, and its version number) and a random ID it made the first time it ran (kept in its save folder). That ID is not read from your device's hardware, and it is not the advertising ID. The Android app also says the phone's maker and model and where it was installed from (Google Play or elsewhere), so we can fix problems on particular phones. The logs keep the platform and where it was installed from with your login; the model and the random ID stay in the server's memory, except in the rewarded video records above.

What the game keeps on your device

On Windows the game's save folder is %APPDATA%\Karoball; on Android it is the app's private storage. It holds:

• login: your username and password, as typed;
• guest: if you play as a guest, its name, its key and a copy of what it has (removed when you register it or delete it);
• resume: a one-time code that logs you straight back in after a dropped connection (it stops working 15 minutes after you leave);
• device: the random install ID;
• your settings, the server list, saved replays, screenshots and crash reports.

The launcher keeps the downloaded game files in %APPDATA%\Karoball Launcher. Deleting both folders removes all of this; see how to uninstall. On Android, uninstalling the app removes it all. Uninstalling doesn't delete your account: it stays on the server until you delete it.

Crash reports

If the game crashes, it writes a report to the crashes folder on your device and keeps the last 20. A report holds the game version, the time, your operating system, your graphics card and driver, what the game was doing and the error. It does not include your username. Nothing is sent automatically. The crash screen has a Copy report button; if you send us a report, we use it only to fix the bug.

The launcher and downloads

The launcher comes from our page on itch.io, and it fetches the game and its updates from our download storage at dl.karoball.net, or from a backup copy if that fails. It sends nothing about you and has no tracking. As with any download, the storage provider sees your IP address, that the request came from the Karoball launcher, and which files were fetched.

Purchases and Karos

The game has a store where you'll be able to buy Karos, the game's premium coin, with real money and spend them in the Club Shop: through Google Play on Android, and through Steam on the Steam version when that comes out. The store isn't open yet, so none of what's below is collected today. Once it opens:

• Google or Valve (Steam) take the payment, under their own privacy policies. We never see your card or bank details, your billing address or your Google or Steam login.
• The first time you buy, the game asks whether you're 18 or over (under-18s have a lower monthly limit) and asks you to agree to the store's terms. We keep your answer and when you agreed. We don't check your age.
• For each purchase we keep what you bought, how many Karos it gave, the price and currency, the store's order number, whether it was paid or refunded, and the dates. On Google Play we also keep the purchase token Google gives the app, which our server sends back to Google to check the payment is real.
• On Steam we link your SteamID to your Karoball account once, and keep the currency, country and account status Steam tells us, so prices show in your currency.
• We keep your Karos balance, how many you bought this month, a log of every change to your Karos (bought, spent, refunded or earned by winning matches), your wins towards the weekly Karos goal, the pieces your purchases gave you, and whether you have the Supporter badge, no forced ads, or a lock on buying or trading after a refund or chargeback.

When you delete your account, the purchase records and the Karos log aren't deleted, because tax law needs a record of what was sold. Your account number, the Google purchase token and your SteamID are taken out of them, so nothing left in them points back to you (see Deleting your account).

Ads in the Android app

The Karoball app for Android is free and shows ads, served by Google AdMob. The Windows game shows none.

• The ads are a banner at the bottom of the menus (never during a match), an occasional full-screen ad after a finished match (at most every third match, and at least 10 minutes apart), and videos you can choose to watch for gold.
• To show ads, measure them and prevent fraud, Google's ads software in the app collects your IP address (which gives an approximate location), your device's advertising ID, information about your device and the app, and how you interact with the ads. Google uses it as its privacy policy says (see also how Google uses information from apps that use its services). We never receive your advertising ID or what Google collects.
• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland the app asks, through Google's consent form, whether ads may be personalised for you, and you can change your answer at any time under Settings > Privacy options. Elsewhere you can turn off personalised ads, or reset or delete your advertising ID, in your phone's settings (usually Settings > Google > Ads, or Settings > Security & privacy > Privacy > Ads). Ads in Karoball are never aimed at children.
• When the app offers you a video for gold, our server records the offer: your account number, the time, the platform, the install ID and your IP address. When you finish a video, Google tells our server so (with your account number and a transaction number, never your advertising ID), and we pay the gold. These records are kept for 90 days, so that the daily limits on rewards hold and no video is paid twice. Gold from videos can't be traded to other players.

What other players see

Any logged-in player can open your profile, from the leaderboard, the chat, their friends list or in town. Here is what that shows, and what stays between you and us.

Why we use it

Data protection law asks us to say which legal reason covers each use. In plain words:

• To run the game you asked to play. Your account, game record, flag, friends, parties, chat, replays and connection data are what the game is made of. Without them it can't work. The same goes for your purchases and Karos once the store opens: we need them to give you what you paid for.
• To keep the game working, fair and safe (our "legitimate interests"). That covers the server logs and their archive, limits on how often an address can connect, the log of moderator login attempts, mutes, kicks and bans, the records of rewarded videos, and crash reports you send us. We use these only for that.
• To pay for the Android app with ads (our legitimate interests, and your consent where the law asks for it before ads can be personalised). Google handles the ad data as described above.
• To answer you. When you message us on Discord, we use what you send to reply.
• To see how this website is used (our legitimate interests). The visit count tells us which pages people read and which links bring them here, and we don't use it for anything else.
• When the law requires it. Tax law is why purchase records stay after an account is deleted, and we would only hand data to anyone else if we were legally required to.

We don't use your data for advertising ourselves, we don't build profiles of you for anyone, and we never sell it. The ads in the Android app come from Google, as above. Nothing in the game makes decisions about you with legal or similar effects: the closest thing is your Elo rating, which decides who you are matched with, how teams are split and your place on the leaderboard.

How long we keep it

Who else handles it

A few companies run parts of Karoball for us, and handle data to provide that service. Each card says where.

You get the launcher from [itch.io](https://itch.io/docs/legal/privacy-policy), and the community, support and announcements live on [Discord](https://discord.com/privacy). They are separate companies with their own privacy policies (linked), and anything you do on their sites is covered by those, not this one.

A few trusted players help run the game as moderators. In the game they can see who is on the server and where, mute players and remove them from the server. To put problems right, they can also change a player's gold and Elo, give them items, lock or unlock their classes, change their challenge progress and make another player a moderator. Once the store is open they can also look up a player's Karos and purchases, give or take Karos, and refund a purchase. Every such change is logged with the moderator's name. Their tools don't show passwords, IP addresses or the logs.

When fixing bugs or counting players, the developer sometimes uses software tools that read the server logs, including an AI coding assistant, Claude, made by Anthropic. What the assistant reads is sent to Anthropic to be processed.

The game server is in the UK and the database in Germany, and the UK and the EU each recognise the other's data protection as adequate. Some of your data can go further, outside the UK and EEA:

• if the launcher falls back to the Backblaze backup, your download request goes to the United States;
• Google handles the Android app's ad data, and Google Play payments, in the United States and elsewhere;
• Valve handles Steam payments in the United States;
• Cloudflare may handle your connection details, and store the dashboard's data, in any country its network reaches;
• what the AI coding assistant reads may be processed by Anthropic outside the UK and EEA;
• the developer's own computer, which holds a copy of the logs and the log archive, may be outside the UK and EEA too.

Cloudflare's and Backblaze's data protection terms with us include the standard contractual clauses, the safeguard UK and EU law provide for sending data abroad.

How we look after it

Karoball is a small independent game, so here is plainly what is in place and what isn't:

• Passwords are stored on our side only as a hash, never as you typed them.
• Access to the server, the database, the logs and the dashboard is limited to the developer.
• Downloads come over HTTPS, and the launcher checks every file against a list we sign before it runs anything, so a damaged or tampered download is never used.
• Game traffic is not encrypted. The connection between the game and our server is built for fast real-time play, and what travels over it (your username, the hash of your password, chat and gameplay) is not encrypted. Someone who can watch your network, for example on public Wi-Fi, could read it, and could use the hash to log in to your account.
• The password saved on your device is not encrypted either.

So give Karoball a password you don't use anywhere else, and keep private things out of chat. If something ever goes wrong that puts players' data at risk, we will say so on Discord and on the updates page.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (UK and EU data protection law, for example), you have the right to:

• see the data we hold about you and get a copy of it;
• correct it if it is wrong;
• delete it;
• object to a use based on our legitimate interests, or ask us to limit how we use it;
• take it with you, in a common format;
• complain to a data protection authority, such as the ICO in the UK or the authority in your EU country. We'd like the chance to put things right first.

How to ask

You can delete your account yourself in the game (below). For anything else (a copy of your data, a correction, or deleting an account you can no longer log in to), ask us:

1. Message the developer on the Karoball Discord or email support@karoball.net. Say what you want and give your in-game username. Never send your password.
2. Accounts have no email address, so before we change or hand over anything, we will agree a way for you to show the account is yours.
3. We do it by hand and reply within one month.

Deleting your account

In the game, on the play menu, open Settings > Account, type your password and press Delete my account. It works the same on Windows and Android. A guest has no password: its button says Delete this guest and asks you twice, and the guest file goes with it. If you can't log in any more, ask us as above. The Delete your account page has the steps too.

Deleting your account at once removes your account and game record (name, password hash, Elo and record, gold, items, kit, classes and challenge progress), your kit presets, your friends and friend requests, your trophies and highscores, your play-menu chat lines, any chat mute, the records of your rewarded videos, your Karos, your age answer and your Steam link. Your name in your teammates' trophies becomes "(deleted player)", and the game forgets the login it saved on that device.

Some things go a little later:

• Server log files aren't edited; they are deleted after 14 days as usual.
• In the log archive and the dashboard, your name is taken out automatically, usually within minutes and at most within 30 days.
• Replays of your matches expire by themselves within 14 days.
• Cup brackets you played in keep your name on the game server until 8 newer cups have finished.
• Purchase records and the Karos log stay, without your account number, purchase token or SteamID (see Purchases and Karos).
• Backups our database host keeps hold deleted data until they are replaced.
• Copies on other players' devices, such as replays they saved, are out of our reach.

Anyone can then register your old name. Deletion can't be undone: your progress and kit are gone for good.

Children

Karoball is not made for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. The game doesn't ask your age, and its ads are not aimed at children. Global chat lets players talk to people they don't know; it has moderators but no word filter.

If you are a parent or guardian and think a child under 13 has made an account, contact us through the Karoball Discord or at support@karoball.net and we will delete it.

This website

karoball.net is a set of plain pages.

• There are no cookies or tracking, and our pages store nothing in your browser.
• We count visits ourselves, to see which pages people read and which links bring them here. When a page opens, it sends one small message to karoball.net with the page's address, the site you came from (without anything after a ? in that link) and a ref or utm_source tag if the link you followed had one. Our server adds your country, your system (Windows, Android and so on) and whether you're on a phone, tablet or computer.
• To count each person once a day, the server mixes your IP address and browser details with a random value that changes every day and is deleted after it, and keeps only the result. Your IP address itself is never saved, and the result can't be turned back into it or matched with another day.
• Single visits are kept for 30 days, then only the daily totals stay. Only the developer can see them, on the private dashboard.
• If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, the page sends nothing and you aren't counted.
• Nothing loads from other sites. Fonts, images and scripts all come from karoball.net, so visiting doesn't tell any other company about you. Links to Discord and itch.io are ordinary links: those sites only see you if you click one.
• Cloudflare delivers the site. Like any web host, it processes connection details such as your IP address and browser to send you the pages and protect the site from attacks. If it ever needs to check that a visitor isn't a bot, it may set its own short-lived security cookie for that, and nothing else.

Changes to this policy

When the way Karoball handles data changes, this page changes with it, along with the date at the top. For bigger changes we will also post on the updates page and on Discord.

Contact

Questions about your data, or a request? Message the developer on the Karoball Discord, or email support@karoball.net. Please keep passwords and other private details out of public channels.

Join the Discord