What This Policy Covers

This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use our website (animalcrossingcommunity.com).

Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at support@animalcrossingcommunity.com.

Information We Collect

We only collect information about you if we have a reason to do so – for example, to operate our website, to communicate with you, or to make our website better.

We collect information in two ways: if and when you provide information to us, and automatically through operating our website.

Information You Provide to Us

It’s probably no surprise that we collect information you provide to us. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information.

• We ask for basic information from you in order to set up your account. You need to provide a username, email address and date of birth. If you are under 16, you may also need to provide the email address of your parent or guardian. We need this information to operate the website (for example, to confirm your identity when you log in); to help us identify accounts that violate our terms of service; to contact you regarding the website or violations of our terms of service; and to comply with relevant law. By default, your email address and date of birth are not public.
• If you have an account with us, we collect the information that you provide for your public profile, such as your real name, location, picture, interests, and usernames on other services. If you indicate that you wish to make your email address or birth date public, they also become part of that public profile. Your public profile is visible to everyone with an account on our website, so please keep that in mind when deciding what information you would like to include.
• Depending on how you use the website, you may also provide us with information about you in your forum posts. For example, if you write a post that includes biographic information about you, we will have that information, and so will anyone with access to the Internet. This might be obvious to you… but it’s not to everyone!
• Some features of our website also allow you to provide information that is only available to certain members – for example, Private Threads and Friend Codes. You can control which members you give access to this information. However, remember that we may disclose this information to current and future staff, as described below.

Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect some information automatically:

• Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. We collect log information whenever you use our website.
• We may collect information about your usage of our website. For example, we may collect information about the actions that members perform on our website – in other words, who did what and when (e.g., [username] posted [thread] at [time/date]). We may also collect information about what happens when you use our website (e.g., page views, button clicks) along with information about your device (e.g., screen size).
• We use cookies to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our website.

How We Use Information

We use information about you as mentioned above and as follows:

• to operate our website – for example, to set up and maintain your account;
• to further improve our website – for example, by adding new features that we think our users will enjoy;
• to fulfill our legal obligations;
• to monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with our website, which helps us improve our website and make it easier to use;
• to monitor and protect the security of our website and enforce our terms of service.

Sharing Information

How We Share Information

We do not sell our users’ private personal information.

We share information about you in the following limited circumstances:

• Some of our staff members – Administrators, Moderators and Developer Team Leads – may be given access to any information we hold about you, including your email address (or past email addresses), birth date and the contents of your Private Threads, to allow us to enforce our terms of service or to help operate the website or to process the information on our behalf. All our staff members are independent volunteers, whom we require to follow this Privacy Policy when working with any personal information that we share with them.
• We may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us. Specifically, we may share information about you with our hosting providers Heroku (a subsidiary of Salesforce) and Hetzner. For details on how these vendors have agreed to process information about you, see the Salesforce Data Processing Addendum and the Hetzner Data Processing Agreement. Our colocation provider DotBlock (a subsidiary of HostRocket) may also have access to information about you that we hold, though they do not process it on our behalf.
• We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
• We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Animal Crossing Community, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
• We may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about how people use our website.

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is disclosed publicly. That means, of course, that information like your public profile and posts are all available to others. Public information may also be indexed by search engines or used by third parties. Please keep all of this in mind when deciding what you would like to share.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so.

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you.

• If you have an account with us, you can choose not to provide optional information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our website – for example, Friend Code Requests – may not be accessible.
• You may opt out of receiving promotional messages from us. Just follow the instructions in those messages. If you opt out of promotional messages, we may still send you other messages, like those about your account and legal notices.
• You can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using the website. Note that certain features may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

At this time, Animal Crossing Community does not respond to “do not track” signals sent by your browser.

Other Things You Should Know

Transferring Information

Animal Crossing Community is a worldwide service. By accessing or using the website or otherwise providing information to us, you consent to the processing, transfer, and storage of information in and to the United States and other countries, which may have rights and protections that are different from those in your home country.

Erasure

You have the right to have your personal information erased, as long as there are no overriding legitimate grounds for us to process it. For example, we can’t delete an account altogether because we need to keep some information, such as your birth date and in some cases your email address, to fulfill our legal obligations or to monitor and protect the security of our website and enforce our terms of service. However, you are able to remove most other information from your profile yourself, and if you encounter any problems we are happy to help. Requests for erasure should be directed to support@animalcrossingcommunity.com.

Services Provided by Others

If you send us an email or perform a monetary transaction with us, our email provider (Gmail) or one or both of our payment providers (PayPal and Stripe) may collect information about you in accordance with their own privacy policies.

Attribution

We adapted the text of this Privacy Policy from one produced by Automattic, Inc.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Animal Crossing Community may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to this Privacy Policy. If we make changes, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the homepage. If you have an account, we may also send you an email or Private Thread alerting you to these changes. Your continued use of the website after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your consent to such change.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 26th November 2022.