Privacy Policy

Version 2.3 · Last updated 2026-10-19

In short

• No ads, no selling. We do not sell or rent your data and show no advertising.
• Only what the game needs. Your account, your saves and scores, and the questions, product catalogs and quotes you choose to upload.
• Analytics only with your consent. Google Analytics and Vercel's cookieless statistics run only if you press “Accept analytics”; nothing is loaded before you choose. Change this anytime under “Cookie preferences” in the footer.
• Service providers. Vercel (hosting and cookieless statistics), Turso (database), Resend (account emails) and, only with your consent, Google (Tag Manager and Analytics).
• You stay in control. Download all your data as JSON or delete your account at any time from your profile.

1. Who is responsible

The controller for the processing described in this policy is:

Write to this address for any question about your data. More about the operator is in the Imprint.

This policy follows the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where they apply, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for players in the EU/EEA and the Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD, Law 13.709/2018) for players in Brazil.

2. What we store and why

• Account. Username, name, email address and whether it is verified, country, avatar choice, the dates you accepted the Terms and this policy, and when the account was created and the password last changed. Optionally your company name and LinkedIn link, with your choice whether to show each on rankings. Used to run your account.
• Password. Never stored in readable form, only as a salted scrypt hash.
• Sign-in session. A random token kept in a cookie; the server stores only its SHA-256 hash with its creation and expiry time.
• Email links. For address verification, password reset and undoing an email change we store only a hash of each link, the address it was sent to and when it expires.
• Game progress. Your solo save (board, money, progress) and, during multiplayer, the temporary room state with the usernames, avatars and actions of the players in it.
• Playing without an account. A guest save is linked to a random, signed ID in the fde_guest cookie and to a keyed hash of your IP address (never the address itself), used only to limit how many guest saves one connection can create.
• Match results. Points per match with mode (sales or technical), category, room code and date, which feed the rankings.
• Fair-play records. Short-lived records of which questions were issued to and answered by a player, and a keyed hash of each room member's IP address so that rooms whose players all share one connection are not ranked.
• Security counters. Rate-limit and failed-sign-in counters keyed by your account, a hash of your email address, or your IP address.
• Questions you upload. Your question sets and questions (text, answer options, correct answer, explanation, category).
• Product catalogs and quotes you build. Your catalogs (product names, options, sizes, connections, extras, costs, currency label and price scale) and quote scenarios (customer request, correct configuration, budget tolerance, optional discovery question, explanation), entered in the quote editor or imported as JSON or CSV.
• Organisations (company packs). Organisation name, its members with role (owner, admin or member) and join date, invite codes (stored only as hashes, with expiry and number of uses), and the organisation's question sets, questions, catalogs and quotes, including which member created each item.
• Technical access data. When you open the site, Vercel processes your IP address, browser user agent, the requested URL and the time, to deliver the page, block attacks and keep short-lived logs.
• Usage and performance statistics. See section 4.

Legal bases

• Contract (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b), LGPD Art. 7 V). Everything needed to provide the game you signed up for: account, saves, rooms, rankings, uploaded questions, catalogs and quotes, organisations and account emails.
• Legitimate interests (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f), LGPD Art. 7 IX). Security, abuse prevention and fair play (security counters, IP hashes, fair-play records, logs). We keep this data minimal and short-lived; you can object at any time (section 10).
• Consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a), FADP, LGPD Art. 7 I). Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights, and Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics with their cookies (withdraw under “Cookie preferences”), and showing your company name and LinkedIn link on public rankings (withdraw in your profile). Withdrawal applies to the future.
• Swiss FADP. We process data lawfully, in good faith, proportionately, for the purposes stated here and transparently, as Art. 6 FADP requires.

3. Cookies and browser storage

Essential cookies and browser storage are needed for the game to work and are always on. Analytics cookies from Google are set only after you press “Accept analytics”. We use no advertising cookies. Local and session storage stay in your browser and are not sent to our servers.

4. Analytics and performance measurement

Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights (cookieless)

Only after you press “Accept analytics” in the cookie banner does the site load Vercel Web Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights; before you choose, and after “Essential only”, neither loads. Fragments (the part after #) and token, invite or code parameters are removed from the reported page URL. Neither sets cookies or stores anything on your device, and we only see aggregated figures.

• Web Analytics. Counts page views with page URL, referrer, approximate location (country, region, city), browser, operating system and device type. Visits are told apart by a hash of the request that Vercel discards after 24 hours, so you are not followed across days or across websites.
• Speed Insights. Measures how fast pages load (Core Web Vitals such as LCP, INP and CLS) together with page URL, network speed class, browser, operating system, device type and country.
• Your choice. Both scripts load only after “Accept analytics”; “Essential only” keeps them off in that browser, and you can change it anytime under “Cookie preferences” in the footer (a script already running stops at the next page load). Legal basis: your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a), FADP, LGPD Art. 7 I).

Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics (only with consent)

• When. Only after you press “Accept analytics”. Before that, nothing is loaded from Google.
• What. Google Tag Manager loads Google Analytics 4 as configured in our container. Google Analytics sets the _ga and _ga_<ID> cookies to recognise your browser across visits and records page views and, depending on the configuration, interactions such as scrolling or clicks on outbound links, together with referrer, device, browser, operating system and approximate location.
• Page URLs. We pass Google only the page address without its query string or fragment (the parts after ? and #): Google Analytics page views and the value we hand to Google Tag Manager carry just our domain and the page path, so one-time links and parameters are never recorded.
• IP addresses. According to Google, Google Analytics does not log or store the IP addresses of users in the EU, Switzerland or the UK; it uses them only to derive an approximate location and then discards them.
• No advertising. Consent Mode keeps ad storage, ad user data and ad personalisation switched off. We use the data only for aggregated statistics to improve the game.
• Legal basis. Your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a), FADP, LGPD Art. 7 I).
• Withdrawing. Open “Cookie preferences” in the footer and choose “Essential only”. Google stops loading from the next page load; to remove cookies already set, delete the _ga cookies in your browser settings.

More from Google: Analytics privacy controls ↗ (opens in a new tab) · Analytics cookies ↗ (opens in a new tab) · How Google uses data from sites that use its services ↗ (opens in a new tab) · Browser add-on to opt out of Google Analytics ↗ (opens in a new tab)

5. Service providers

These providers process data on our behalf, only on our instructions and under data processing agreements:

Apart from Google Tag Manager after your consent, nothing is loaded from third parties: fonts, 3D models, avatars and all other scripts are served from our own domain, with no Google Fonts, social media plugins or ad networks. External sites such as LinkedIn or scientific publishers are only contacted if you click a link to them. We disclose data to authorities only when the law requires it.

6. International transfers

Our providers are based in the United States or belong to US groups, so data can be processed there or wherever their infrastructure runs. The safeguards are:

• Vercel. States that it is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Its data processing agreement also includes the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Resend. States that it is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension. Its data processing agreement includes the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the adjustments for transfers from Switzerland.
• Google. Google states that it relies on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for transfers from the EEA and, in certain circumstances, on the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, with Standard Contractual Clauses otherwise.
• Turso. Provides a data processing agreement that is concluded in the customer account; the database itself is stored in the region selected for the service.
• Players in Brazil. The transfer is necessary to provide the service you asked for (LGPD Art. 33 IX together with Art. 7 V) and is covered by the providers' contractual safeguards above.

7. Who can see your data

• Everyone, on public rankings. Username, avatar, country and match points per mode and category. Company name and LinkedIn link only if you switched them on.
• Players in your room. Username, avatar and in-game actions during the match. Rooms that use a company set are open only to members of that company.
• Your organisation. Members see each other's username, avatar and role, and the names and sizes of the organisation's sets, never their answers; the owner manages members, invites and the organisation's questions, catalogs and quotes.
• The operator. Accesses the database only when needed for operation, support or security.

8. How long we keep it

• Account and profile. As long as your account exists; erased immediately when you delete it.
• Unactivated sign-ups. An account whose activation link was never opened is deleted automatically 7 days after sign-up, together with its email links and security counters.
• Sessions. End after 14 days without use and at most 30 days after sign-in, or earlier when you sign out, use “Sign out of all other devices” or change your password.
• Email links. Verification links expire after 24 hours, password-reset links after 45 minutes and the link to undo an email change after 7 days. Expired links, and used links after one day, are deleted automatically.
• Saves. Every saved game (guest or account, running or finished) is deleted 7 days after its last update.
• Multiplayer rooms. Deleted automatically after 2 hours without activity.
• Match results. Kept while your account exists, because they make up the rankings.
• Fair-play records. Needed for 10 to 30 minutes and removed by automatic clean-ups after about one day.
• Security counters. Rate-limit counters are removed two days after their time window started, failed sign-in counters one day after the last attempt or at the next successful sign-in.
• Questions, catalogs, quotes and organisations. Until you (or, for an organisation, its owner) delete them, or the account is deleted; the delete-all button on My questions removes all your questions, catalogs, quotes and sets at once. A multiplayer room keeps a copy of the host's set until the room is deleted (2 hours without activity); the correct answers and solutions in that copy are removed as soon as the match ends. Invite codes expire after 1 to 7 days. During the beta the owner is an organisation's only admin, so when an owner deletes their account the organisation and all its content are deleted; items you created for an organisation that continues stay there without your name.
• Providers. Vercel keeps request logs only briefly, depending on the plan (by default between one hour and a few days), and discards the analytics visitor hash after 24 hours. Resend keeps sending logs according to its own privacy notice. Google Analytics keeps event data for the retention period set in our Analytics property (at most 14 months); the _ga cookies expire after 2 years unless you delete them.

9. Security

• Encryption in transit. HTTPS only, with HSTS.
• Hashing. Passwords with scrypt; session, email-link and invite tokens only as SHA-256 hashes.
• Cookies. httpOnly, Secure and SameSite, with the __Host- prefix for the session.
• Request protection. CSRF checks on every state-changing request, rate limits, progressive delays after wrong passwords and a bot check at sign-up without third-party scripts.
• Strict Content Security Policy. Scripts, styles, fonts and images are loaded only from our own domain, plus Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics after your consent.
• Data minimisation. IP addresses appear in readable form only in short-lived security counters; elsewhere only as keyed hashes. Email links carry their token after the # sign, which browsers do not send to servers.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, the law gives you these rights:

• Switzerland (FADP). Information about your data (Art. 25), a copy in a common electronic format (Art. 28), and correction, deletion, blocking or objection to processing (Art. 32).
• EU/EEA (GDPR). Access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), portability (Art. 20), objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21) and withdrawal of consent at any time (Art. 7(3)).
• Brazil (LGPD Art. 18). Confirmation and access, correction, anonymisation, blocking or deletion of unnecessary or excessive data, portability, information about who we share data with, and withdrawal of consent with deletion of the data processed on that basis.

Most of this you can do yourself in your profile:

• Download my data. A machine-readable JSON copy of everything tied to your account, including saves, matches, rooms, uploaded questions, your catalogs and quotes (with their solutions) and organisation memberships.
• Edit. Change your profile, email address (the new address is verified first) and password at any time.
• Withdraw consent. Switch off showing your company name or LinkedIn link on rankings in your profile, and change your analytics choice under “Cookie preferences” in the footer.
• Sign out of all other devices. Ends every other session at once.
• Delete my account and data. After confirming your password, erases your profile, sessions, email links, saves, match history, rooms, uploaded questions, catalogs and quotes, and the organisations you own with their content, immediately and permanently.
• Anything else. Email us at the address in section 1. We answer within 30 days and may ask you to confirm that the account is yours.

You can also complain to a data protection authority:

• Switzerland: Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) ↗ (opens in a new tab)
• EU/EEA: the data protection authority of your country (list by the EDPB) ↗ (opens in a new tab)
• Brazil: Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados (ANPD) ↗ (opens in a new tab)

11. Content you upload

Questions, catalogs, quotes and organisation content should be training material you are allowed to share. Do not include other people's personal data, customer names or data, or confidential company information such as non-public prices; use the price scale and invented names instead; you are responsible for what you upload, and we may remove content that breaks this rule or the Terms.

12. Children

Field Device Empire is a professional training game and is not directed at children under 16. Please do not create an account if you are under 16; if we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the game or the services we use change. The version and date at the top show which text applies. Material changes will be pointed out in the game before they take effect.