Privacy Policy

We are a small independent game studio. This website exists to tell you about our studio and our game. We keep data collection to a minimum. We do not run advertising trackers, we do not sell your information, and we do not set marketing cookies, so there is no cookie consent banner to click through.

The only personal information you actively give us on this site is what you type into our contact form (your name, email, and message) or the email address you enter if you sign up for our newsletter. Behind the scenes, our hosting and security providers see standard technical data such as your IP address, the same way every website works. The contact form is not delivering messages yet, so nothing you type into it is stored today; the newsletter signup is live and works the way the newsletter section below describes. That is the whole picture. The rest of this policy explains it in more detail.

Raven Watch Studios LLC is the company responsible for this website and for deciding how the information described here is handled. Under data protection laws such as the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are the "data controller."

This policy covers the Raven Watch Studios website at ravenwatchstudios.com and any direct email you send us.

It does NOT yet cover our video game or its online features. Our game (working title Iron Latitudes) is still in development and is not for sale. When the game ships, it will be sold through a storefront such as Steam, and it will have its own separate agreements and privacy terms, and that storefront will handle account creation, payment, and its own data practices under its own policies. We will update this policy, or publish a separate game privacy notice, before the game collects any player data.

Contact form. The form on our Contact page is not connected to a mailbox yet. When you press send, what you typed (your name, email address, and message) is transmitted to our form handler on Cloudflare, checked for completeness, and put through the automated security check described under "Cookies and similar technologies" below. Because there is no mailbox connected, the handler answers by asking you to email us directly instead. Your name, email address, and message are not stored anywhere, are not written to any database, and are not delivered to any inbox. They exist only for the moment the request is being handled, and then they are gone. The form also carries a hidden anti-spam field that real visitors never see and never fill in. When we do connect the form to a mailbox, we will update this policy first, and from that point we will collect the name, email address, and message you enter, and use them only to read your message and write back to you.

Newsletter signup. If you enter your email address in the newsletter signup, it goes to Buttondown, our newsletter provider, which sends you a confirmation email. You are only subscribed if you click that confirmation link; if you never click it, you will not be sent anything further. Once subscribed, your address is stored with Buttondown so we can send you occasional updates about the studio and the game, and every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link. You can also ask us to remove you at any time.

Email you send us directly. If you email one of our published addresses (for example our press or business inbox), we receive whatever you choose to put in that email.

Like almost every website, when you visit ours our hosting and security providers automatically process some standard technical information so the site can load and stay secure. This includes your IP address, basic browser and device information (such as browser type and operating system), the pages you request, and the date and time of the request. This is used to deliver the site, keep it secure, prevent abuse, and understand aggregate traffic. We do not use it to build a profile of you or to track you across other websites.

Website analytics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is a privacy-focused, cookieless analytics tool. It gives us aggregate counts (for example how many people visited a page) without cookies and without tracking individual visitors across sites.

For visitors in the European Union, the measurement script is not loaded at all, so no analytics run for them.

We do not knowingly collect any more than the above. We do not ask for your date of birth, physical address, phone number, or any sensitive information on this website. We do not take payments on this website. We do not use advertising networks, and we do not sell or rent your information to anyone.

This website is built to run with as little tracking as possible.

Because we do not use tracking or advertising cookies, we do not display a cookie consent banner. If we ever add technologies that require consent, we will update this policy and ask for your consent first.

Do Not Track. Some browsers can send a "Do Not Track" signal. Because we do not track you across websites in the first place, our practices do not change based on this signal.

Some pages embed video hosted on YouTube, a Google service. Nothing from YouTube loads until you press play on a clip. Until then you see a still image served from our own site. When you press play, your browser connects to YouTube in its privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), which is designed not to store tracking cookies before playback; Google may still receive your IP address and set cookies once the video plays, and Google's privacy policy applies to that connection. YouTube may also store a device identifier in your browser's local storage, and it may show its own ads inside the player; we do not earn from them and they are not personalized to you. If you would rather not connect to Google at all, every clip has a downloadable transcript and a written description you can read without playing anything.

If you are in the EU, the UK, or another region governed by GDPR or a similar law, we rely on the following legal bases:

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising (as those terms are used under California law). We do rely on a small set of trusted service providers who process data on our behalf so the website can function. Each one only handles what it needs to for its job, and only under our instructions.

We may also disclose information if required to do so by law, to respond to lawful requests from authorities, or to protect our rights, safety, or property or those of others.

We do not currently sell or transfer this website's data to Valve or Steam. When our game is published, a storefront such as Steam will handle the sale and any related account and payment data under its own agreements and privacy policy, and we will describe that separately at that time.

We are based in the United States, and our service providers may process and store data in the United States and in other countries. If you are visiting from outside the United States, including from the EU or the UK, your information will be transferred to and processed in countries whose data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

The providers named under "Who we share it with" above are the recipients of any such transfer, and Google is one of them only when you play an embedded video. If you never press play, nothing about you is transferred to Google.

We keep information only as long as we need it for the purpose we collected it, and then we delete it or keep it in a limited form where the law requires.

Depending on where you live, you have some or all of the rights below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising them.

If you are in the EU, the UK, or a similar region (GDPR): you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time (for example, for the newsletter). You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

If you are a California resident: California law gives you the right to know what personal information we collect about you and how we use and disclose it, the right to request access to and deletion of that information, the right to correct it, and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share your personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you may still make these requests.

Everyone: you can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in any newsletter email, or by contacting us.

How to exercise your rights: email us at the privacy contact above. We may need to verify your identity before we act on a request, and we will respond within the timeframe the applicable law requires.

This website and our studio's content are intended for a general adult and teen audience interested in video games. They are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Our game contains mature themes and combat and is not designed for young children.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it. For visitors in regions where a higher age of digital consent applies (for example, 16 under GDPR, or a different age set by an EU member state), the newsletter signup is intended for people who meet that age.

We take reasonable measures to protect the information we handle. Our site is served over encrypted connections (HTTPS), the contact form is protected against automated abuse, and we limit access to the inboxes and accounts that hold your messages. No method of transmission or storage is ever completely secure, so we cannot promise absolute security, but we work to keep your information safe.

Our site may link to other websites and services that we do not control, such as a game storefront (for example Steam), social media, or video platforms. This policy does not cover those sites. When you follow a link off our site, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of wherever you land.

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we add a feature or change a service provider. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top, and for significant changes we will make the update reasonably clear. Your continued use of the site after an update means the updated policy applies to your visit.

If you have any questions about this policy or about how we handle your information, or if you want to exercise any of your rights, please contact us at the privacy contact listed under "Who we are" above. If you are in the EU or the UK and you are not satisfied with our response, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.