Loot Hole Privacy Policy

Effective: 10 November 2026. Version 1.4.

This policy explains what personal data the game Loot Hole handles, why, and what your rights are. It covers every version of the game: the web game on game portals and on our website, the Steam and Epic Games Store versions (Windows, macOS, Linux and Steam Deck), the Meta Quest version, and the iPhone, iPad and Android apps once they are available. Where versions differ, the section says which version it is about.

In every version, the game shows this policy's address under Settings > Credits, licences and privacy. The Epic Account Services sign-in screen and each store page link to it too.

1. Who is responsible

The controller is Yilmaz Kiymaz, trading as Salted Caramel Games, Sonninstr. 7, 20097 Hamburg, Germany ("we", "us"). Salted Caramel Games is a sole trader, not a company.

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com. Other questions about the game: support@saltedcaramelgames.com. Our legal notice (Impressum): https://saltedcaramelgames.com/legal/impressum/.

We have not appointed a data protection officer, because the law does not require one for a business of our size and kind. Wherever you live, you can contact us directly at the addresses above.

2. The short version

• Loot Hole has no accounts of its own. Steam and Epic co-op use your store display name; co-op in the apps and on our website lets you type a display name. We do not ask for your real name, email address, age, location or payment details to play.
• Your progress and settings are saved on your device. We run no cloud saves of our own; stores and portals may keep a cloud copy (section 4.2), co-op shares what section 4.8 describes, and a crash dump from a computer can contain pieces of your progress (section 4.3).
• When the game fails, it asks you once whether to send us error reports (and, on computers, crash dumps) so we can fix the problem; nothing is sent unless you say yes, and you can change your answer in the settings. Section 4.3 explains what they hold and what a crash dump can contain.
• Optional online co-op shows the other players in your room your display name, your character, what you do and what you write in chat. On Steam, the Epic Games Store and in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps it runs over Epic Online Services (Epic Games); on our website over Poki's connection services. On Steam, Epic and in the apps, if a player reports another, the report sends us the players' ids and names and the room's recent chat (section 4.8).
• The stores and portals you play through (Steam, Epic, Meta, Apple, Google, Poki, CrazyGames, Playgama) run their own accounts, payments, ads and analytics under their own privacy policies.
• We set no cookies. Apart from the ads in our phone and tablet apps (next point), we use no advertising or analytics service of our own.
• Our iPhone, iPad and Android apps show ads through AppLovin MAX and the ad networks it works with; they are personalised only if you agree when the app asks, and you can change your answer (section 4.5). Purchases in the apps go through Apple or Google, who handle the payment (section 4.11).
• Loot Hole is meant for players 13 and over.

3. Which version you play

Every version: sections 1 to 3 and 4.12 onwards.

4. What we handle, and why

4.1 Your progress and settings (every version)

The game saves what you dig, find, sell and buy, your coins, tools, collection, yard builds, character look, daily rewards and the times they happened, and your settings (language, sound, controls, graphics). The save holds no name, email or text you typed. On the Steam and Epic Games Store versions and in the apps, a list of players you blocked in co-op (their co-op player id and the name they had) is also kept on your device.

The game keeps this on your device: in your browser's storage on the web (section 9), or in the game's data folder on other devices (on Windows, %LOCALAPPDATA%\LootHoleNative\), apart from the cloud copies, co-op sharing and possible crash-dump contents described in sections 4.2, 4.8 and 4.3. We do not receive your save. When you start a new dig, the game keeps up to two older copies of your progress on your device, in case you change your mind.

We use your progress and settings to provide the game and settings you ask for (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Keeping a blocked player's co-op player id and name serves our and the players' legitimate interest in preventing unwanted contact and keeping co-op safe (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; you can object, section 8). Storing all of this on your device is strictly necessary for the game and the safety features you ask for (section 25(2) no. 2 of the German TDDDG).

4.2 Copies of your progress kept by a store or portal

• Portals: the game puts a copy of your progress into the portal's own storage (Poki's, CrazyGames', Playgama's), so your progress can follow you when you are signed in to the portal. On Playgama, if you sign in, the game shows the account name Playgama gives it, on your screen only.
• Steam Cloud: if you have Steam Cloud switched on, Steam keeps a copy of your save tied to your Steam account and brings it back on another computer. If two copies differ, the game asks which one to keep.
• Epic Games Store cloud saves: if cloud saves are available for the game and switched on in the Epic Games Launcher, the launcher copies the game's save folder to Epic's cloud and back.
• Google Play Games (the Android app): if you are signed in to Google Play Games, the app keeps a copy of your progress in Play Games' saved games, tied to your Play Games account, so it can follow you to another Android device.
• iCloud (the iPhone and iPad app): if you are signed in to iCloud, the app keeps a copy of your progress in your own iCloud storage (the app's private iCloud database, which only your Apple account can read), so it can follow you to another iPhone or iPad.
• In the apps, when another device's copy differs from the one on your device, the game asks which one to keep; it never replaces your progress without asking.

We hand your progress to these services to provide the cloud copy you use (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). The copies are kept by the portal or store under its own privacy policy; we cannot see them. You can switch Steam Cloud and Epic's cloud saves off in Steam's and the launcher's settings, Play Games' saved games by signing out of Google Play Games, and the iCloud copy in your device's iCloud settings.

4.3 Error reports and crash reports (every version except Poki's)

When the game hits an error it did not expect, or crashes, it writes a report so that we can find and fix the problem. This includes the public web game on our website.

Your choice: a report is sent only if you agree. The first time a report is ready, the game asks you ("Send an error report?") over its menu, with Send and Don't send. Until you answer, reports wait unsent: on the web in the browser tab's session storage (gone when the tab closes), on other devices in the game's data folder. If you say yes, the waiting reports and later ones are sent; if you say no, the waiting ones are deleted unsent and no more are written. The game remembers your answer, and you can change it at any time with the Send error reports switch under Settings > Credits, licences and privacy; switching it off deletes reports still waiting and stops new ones.

What an error report holds: the error message and where in the game's code it happened; the game's version and which version of the game it is (which portal or store, which device type); your operating system or browser (the browser's user-agent), your graphics card and its driver; the language and graphics level the game uses; how long the game had been running; on the web, the address of the game's page without anything after a "?". We do not put your name, an account or player id, your save, your location or anything you typed into these fields.

Crash dumps (Windows, macOS, Linux, Steam Deck and PC VR only): when the game crashes outside its own error handling (for example in a graphics driver), it also writes a crash dump: a snapshot of the memory the game's code was using at that moment, the list of program libraries loaded, your operating system's version and your processor type. A crash dump is not filtered. Depending on what the game was doing, it can contain pieces of your progress, names shown in a co-op room, chat lines, your store display name or account id, or folder names on your computer (which may include your computer user name). When we import a dump, our error tracker reads from it only the type and place of the crash, the crashing code's call stack, your operating system and processor type; the dump itself is kept with the report so we can examine it if needed, and deleted as section 7 says.

How they travel: reports are sent over HTTPS to our server at saltedcaramelgames.com (hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany, our processor), then moved within half an hour to an error tracker we run ourselves, on our own computer in Germany. No other company receives them. Your IP address reaches our server with the report, as with any connection: the server uses it only in memory, for a few minutes, to stop one device from flooding us, and does not store it; the error tracker also removes IP addresses. On the web the game writes at most 10 reports per visit and each distinct error once. On other devices, at most 20 reports wait, none older than 30 days, and a crash's report is sent the next time the game starts. The Poki version writes no reports of its own (Poki's page does not allow it).

Why: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, and section 25(1) of the German TDDDG for reading the information from your device). You can withdraw it at any time with the switch above; the game plays the same whatever you choose. Withdrawing doesn't make earlier processing unlawful; it stops further reports and deletes those still waiting on your device. For reports we already received, we stop using them and erase what we can identify as yours: to help us find a report, write to privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com with the game's version, roughly when it happened and what went wrong.

Other players in a crash dump: a crash dump another player sends can incidentally contain your co-op display name, co-op player id or chat lines, from that player's device. For that incidental information we rely on our legitimate interest in diagnosing and fixing the crash (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), not on the sending player's consent; we use it only to investigate the fault, and you can object (section 8).

The stores also collect their own crash data under their own policies: Google Play (Android vitals), Apple (crash reports from people who share analytics with developers) and Meta (Quest crash analytics).

4.4 The portals' own analytics

A portal's software records what it needs itself (for example that the game loaded, when play starts and stops, the ads it shows and the purchases started), under the portal's own privacy policy and the consent choices its page shows.

On Playgama the game also sends Playgama's analytics short play events, as Playgama asks of its games: each is a category, an item and an action, such as a tutorial step started or completed, a trip down and back up, a sale, a new layer or upgrade reached, a Watch ad offer shown or tapped, or a purchase that didn't go through and the reason (not signed in, checkout closed, no price, an error). They carry no name, no text you typed and no id of our own. Playgama's software adds its own session and player references and keeps the events as part of its analytics, under its own privacy policy. We see them in Playgama's developer tools as totals and as pseudonymous sequences per session, and use them to find where players get stuck and what to fix. The game sends Poki and CrazyGames no play events of its own.

Why: our legitimate interest in improving the game and its shop (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); you can object (section 8).

4.5 Ads

On portals, ads (optional rewarded ads and short ads between rounds of play) are shown by the portal's own software. We do not call any ad network ourselves and pass no personal data to the ads. The portal and its ad partners may use cookies or device identifiers inside the portal's page; the portal shows its own consent choices and is responsible under its own policy.

In the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, the same kinds of ads (never in the tutorial or the first minutes of play) are shown by AppLovin's MAX software, which we build into the apps, and by the ad network MAX picks each ad from: Google (AdMob and Ad Manager), Meta Audience Network, Unity Ads, Liftoff (Vungle), Mintegral, InMobi and DT Exchange (Digital Turbine). When the app first starts, AppLovin's consent screen asks whether ads may be personalised, and on iPhone and iPad Apple also asks whether the app may track you (App Tracking Transparency); you can change your answer later: under Privacy choices in the game's settings (shown where your region's privacy law gives you that choice), and for tracking in your iPhone's or iPad's Settings. What the ad software receives from your device: its model, operating system, language and settings, your IP address (and the approximate location it shows), the app's and the ads' events (an ad requested, shown, clicked, or watched to the end), and, only if you allow it, the device's advertising identifier.

Why: personalised ads only with your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, and section 25(1) TDDDG for reading the information from your device); ads that aren't personalised on our legitimate interest in funding a free game (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Storing or reading information on your device for those ads also needs your consent (section 25(1) TDDDG): if you don't give it, the ad networks may still show limited ads that use no cookies or device identifiers. AppLovin and most of the ad networks decide what they do with this data, as independent controllers under their own policies (AppLovin's: https://www.applovin.com/privacy/). InMobi's terms make it a joint controller with us for the ads it shows: InMobi is responsible for its own processing, its policy (https://advertising.inmobi.com/privacy-policy) says how it handles your data, and you can use your rights with InMobi or with us. Digital Turbine (DT Exchange) processes the data for us, as our processor, under its contract with us. The No Ads purchase stops the ads. The Steam, Epic Games Store and Meta Quest versions show no ads.

4.6 Steam

Steam is run by Valve Corporation, which handles your Steam account under its own privacy policy (https://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/). The game uses these Steam features:

• Your SteamID (your Steam account's number) names the game's save folder on your computer, so each Steam account on a computer has its own save, and ties the Steam Cloud copy to you (section 4.2).
• Your Steam display name is your name in co-op rooms (section 4.8).
• Achievements and statistics: when you earn an achievement, the game tells Steam which one, and it reports your progress towards achievements as Steam statistics. Steam shows them on your profile under your Steam privacy settings.
• Rich presence and invites: while you are in a co-op room, the game tells Steam the room's code so that your Steam friends can join you from their friends list; Steam's overlay lets you invite friends.
• Chat filtering: Steam's own text filter is applied to names and chat you see, according to your Steam settings.
• Steam Input maps your controller.
• Co-op sign-in: to use co-op, the game asks Steam for a sign-in ticket and gives it to Epic Online Services (section 4.8), which checks it and links your co-op player id to your Steam account. You do not need an Epic account.

Why: the save folder, the Steam Cloud copy, the co-op sign-in, invites and the filter provide the Steam version and the features you use (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Reporting achievements and their progress to Steam is in our legitimate interest in offering Steam's achievement features (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); you can object (section 8), and Steam's privacy settings decide who sees them.

4.7 Epic Games Store

The Epic Games Store version is started by the Epic Games Launcher, which signs you in with your Epic account through Epic Account Services. The game asks Epic for your account's basic profile, online presence and friends list, and uses:

• your Epic display name: shown in the game (Settings > Account says "Signed in with Epic Games as …") and used as your name in co-op rooms, where other players see it and where a player report can include it (section 4.8);
• your Epic account id: to keep a separate save folder for each Epic account on your computer (on Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\LootHoleNative\epic\<id>\), and to sign you in to co-op;
• the language the launcher uses, as the game's language unless you choose another.

The game does not write your Epic display name or account id into your save, and its error reports' fields don't include them, although a crash dump can (section 4.3). A co-op player report can send us your Epic display name and your co-op player id, which EOS links to your account, with the room and chat information described in section 4.8. The game does not read your email address or your other linked accounts.

Friends and invites: to let you invite your Epic friends into a co-op room and join theirs, the game uses your friends list and presence through Epic's overlay. The overlay shows your friends list; the game itself does not receive, store or send us who your friends are. While you are in a co-op room, the game sets your Epic presence to say that you can be joined, with the room's code, so your Epic friends can see in their friends list that you are playing and join you; it clears this when you leave the room. Epic shows your presence to your Epic friends under your Epic account's settings. When you invite a friend, accept an invite or join a friend, Epic tells the game which room to join (its code), and the room works as described in section 4.8.

Achievements: when you unlock an achievement, the game sends its identifier for your Epic account to Epic through Epic Online Services, and at each start it sends again the achievements your save holds. Epic acts as an independent controller for achievement data under its achievements terms.

This version also includes Epic's overlay (friends and notifications). For Epic's own processing of your account, achievements, overlay and store, including its purposes, retention and international transfers, please read Epic's privacy policy: https://www.epicgames.com/site/privacypolicy.

Why: signing you in, keeping your save apart, showing your name and offering invites through your presence and friends list provide the Epic version and co-op (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); sending achievements is in our legitimate interest in offering Epic's achievement features (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; you can object, section 8). To ask for access to or deletion of Epic-related data processed by us or on our behalf, write to privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com: we handle the request for our own records (for example player reports) and instruct our processors where needed. We also act on deletion requests Epic forwards to us. Requests about Epic's own account services go to Epic.

4.8 Online co-op (Steam, Epic Games Store, the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, and our website's web game)

Co-op is optional: you can play the whole game alone without it. When you play together (a friend's invite, a room code, "Find an open yard", or a Neighbours race), the following happens.

What the other players in your room receive: your display name (on Steam and Epic your store display name; in the apps and on our website a name you type, up to 16 characters, "Digger" and two digits by default); how your character looks, where it is and where it looks, the tool you hold, how deep you have dug, your emotes and chat messages (up to 120 characters); what you dig, the finds you pick up, coins you send and your answers to the shared request board. If you host, the players who join also receive your yard (its layout, what has been dug, your house and yard builds). If you make your yard open, your display name, the number of players and the connection delay are listed to anyone looking for an open yard.

Player ids in a room: the other players' games also receive your co-op player id. On Steam, Epic and in the apps this is the persistent EOS co-op player id described below, so it is the same in every room; a player on Steam may also get your Steam account id from EOS, where it's linked, to apply Steam's filter to your name and chat. These ids aren't shown on screen, but their games receive them. A player who blocks you keeps your co-op player id and the name you had on their device (section 4.1).

Your IP address: in rooms you join by invite or room code, players may connect directly to each other, so the other players' devices can see your IP address. Rooms open to strangers ("Find an open yard") connect through a relay, so strangers do not see each other's addresses.

Epic Online Services (Steam, Epic Games Store and the apps): co-op runs over Epic Online Services (EOS), provided by Epic Games. To use it, the game signs in to EOS with your Steam sign-in ticket, your Epic account, or in the apps an id EOS makes for your device (kept in the device's secure storage; the game gives it no name of yours and no device model), and EOS gives you a co-op player id. This id is persistent and linked to your Steam or Epic account, or in the apps to that device's id: it is pseudonymous personal data, not anonymous, and it stays the same from room to room. The apps play in rooms of their own, apart from the Steam and Epic versions'. EOS carries the room: its code and settings, the players in it and the game's messages between them, through Epic's relays when needed. To apply Steam's chat filter and show Steam names, the game may ask EOS which Steam account belongs to another player's co-op player id. EOS's software also reports to Epic technical data about how the service is working (a random session id, how many requests were made, how long they took and whether they worked, and in the apps the device's operating system version). If a co-op connection fails, the game reads Epic's public status page (status.epicgames.com, run for Epic by Atlassian's Statuspage) to tell you whether Epic's service is down; that request carries only your IP address and your system's usual web request information.

For co-op, Epic processes this data for us as our service provider, under the Epic Online Services developer agreement, and may process it in the United States and other countries where it operates. How long Epic keeps the co-op account link and its service records is decided within Epic's service; write to us (section 8) for what we can find out, or to have data processed for us deleted.

Our website's web game uses Poki's Netlib signalling service (netlib.poki.io) to arrange rooms and connections: it receives your IP address, a random connection id and the room information. Relayed connections go through Poki's relay (turn.rtc.poki.com), which runs on Cloudflare's network and carries the relayed game traffic. Google's STUN service (stun.l.google.com) receives your network address only, to tell your device its public address; the game sends it no room code, name or chat. Quick-join rooms always go through the relay. The signalling service and the relay are run by Poki B.V. (Netherlands), on Cloudflare's network, and provided under Poki's own terms: we have no separate agreement with Poki for them, and how long Poki keeps connection records is up to Poki (its privacy policy is linked on poki.com). Google provides the STUN service as an independent provider under its own privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy).

Chat: chat is shown and then disappears; the game does not save a chat history and we do not receive chat, except in a report (below). On Steam, Epic and in the apps, each player's game keeps the room's last 40 lines in memory while the room is open, so that a report can include them. Names and chat lines with listed offensive words are masked. Do not put personal information in your name or in chat.

Safety tools and reports: you can mute a player (every co-op version), and on Steam, Epic and in the apps also block a player (kept on your device, section 4.1), remove a guest from your own yard, and report a player. When a player reports an incident, we receive from that player's game: the reported player's and the reporter's co-op player ids and names, the host's co-op player id, the room code, the players in the room (ids and names), and the room's recent chat (up to 40 lines, who wrote each and how long ago), plus the game's version and the reporter's language. This can include you even if you did not report or were not reported. We use it only to look into the report and keep co-op safe. A player report is sent when Report is pressed, whatever the Send error reports switch says (the switch is for error and crash reports only); it uses the same HTTPS transport and servers as error reports and is kept as section 7 says.

Why: providing co-op, which you choose to use (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); name and chat filtering, blocking and player reports serve our legitimate interest, and the other players', in keeping co-op safe (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Room activity and chat exist only while you play together; the co-op player id, block lists and reports are kept as described above and in section 7.

4.9 Our website

The web game at saltedcaramelgames.com/loothole/ and this policy's page are served by our web server at Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany, our processor. For each request the server receives your IP address, the time, the page requested, your browser's user-agent and the page you came from, and keeps them in access logs for up to 30 days, to keep the site secure and find faults (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Error reports are not written to these logs. The game's page sets no cookies and loads no analytics. This policy covers Loot Hole and its pages; the rest of saltedcaramelgames.com is outside it.

4.10 Meta Quest

The Meta Quest version uses Meta's platform software to check that you own the game (an entitlement check) and to record achievements on your Meta account; it also reads your existing Loot Hole achievement progress from Meta, on the headset, to know which are already unlocked. Meta handles your Meta account under its own privacy policy (https://www.meta.com/legal/privacy-policy/). The entitlement check provides the version you bought (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); without it the game does not run. Reading and recording achievements is in our legitimate interest in offering Meta's achievement features (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; you can object, section 8). The game does not use your microphone, cameras, hand tracking or location, and it has no co-op on Quest today. It sends error reports as section 4.3 says (no crash dumps).

4.11 iPhone, iPad and Android apps (once available)

The apps send error reports as section 4.3 says (no crash dumps), show ads as section 4.5 says and offer co-op as section 4.8 says (over Epic Online Services; not on phones that Epic's software doesn't support, such as 32-bit Android devices). Besides that:

• Purchases go through Apple's or Google's store, which takes your payment. The app receives which item you bought and the store's code for the purchase, gives you the item, saves it with your progress, and then tells the store it was delivered; we receive none of it.
• Reminders (your free spin is back, the appraiser has opened your chest) are scheduled on your device, only if you allow the app's notifications; nothing about them leaves the device.
• Your progress is part of your device's own backup (Android's backup to Google, Apple's iCloud backup) where you have it switched on, under Google's and Apple's policies, and the apps keep a cloud copy in Google Play Games or your iCloud as section 4.2 says.
• Achievements: the Android app signs you in to Google Play Games and the iPhone and iPad app to Apple's Game Center, where your device is set up for them. When you earn an achievement, the app tells Play Games or Game Center which one, and it reports your progress towards the counted ones. They show your achievements under your Play Games or Game Center profile and its privacy settings. Google and Apple act as independent controllers for this data. Reporting achievements is in our legitimate interest in offering the platforms' achievement features (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); you can object (section 8), or sign out of Play Games or Game Center on your device.
• The app may ask you to rate it through the store's own prompt, and the Android app may offer the store's update.

Before our apps are offered, we make sure every third party that receives personal data from them protects it at least as this policy describes and Apple's App Review Guidelines and Google Play's policies require. Apple and Google handle your store account, downloads, payments and their own crash data under their own privacy policies (https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/, https://policies.google.com/privacy).

4.12 When you contact us

If you write to us, we use your email address and what you write to answer you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where it is about the game you play, otherwise our legitimate interest in answering, Art. 6(1)(f)), and keep it as section 7 says. When you use your data protection rights, we process what we need to check and handle your request to meet our legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c) with Arts. 12 to 22 GDPR). Where German tax or commercial law requires us to keep correspondence (for example section 147 of the German Fiscal Code), that retention is based on Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR.

4.13 What we do not do

We do not use our own cookies, fingerprinting, analytics services or social plug-ins, nor an advertising service apart from the apps' ads (section 4.5). We do not use your microphone, camera or location, and we do not read your contacts or files. We make no decisions about you by automated means and do no profiling. We do not sell personal data. In the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, letting the ad networks show personalised ads (section 4.5) may count as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising under US state privacy laws; players there can opt out under Privacy choices in the game's settings (section 11). Apart from that we do not share personal data for cross-context behavioural advertising. Our game code does not track your activity over time across other websites or services, so browser "Do Not Track" signals do not change what it does; portals and their ad partners may track across services under their own policies, and how a portal's page responds to those signals is up to the portal.

5. Who receives data

Our email (privacy@ and support@saltedcaramelgames.com) is hosted by Google Workspace (Google Ireland Limited, as our processor), which receives your address, your message and its attachments so that we can read and answer it. Google may process it outside the EU: transfers to Google LLC in the United States within its EU-US Data Privacy Framework certification rely on the European Commission's adequacy decision (and the UK Extension for UK transfers), and other transfers on the Standard Contractual Clauses in Google's Cloud Data Processing Addendum (https://cloud.google.com/terms/data-processing-addendum). The portals', stores' and services' own privacy policies explain what they do; on a portal, its policy is linked on its site (CrazyGames: https://www.crazygames.com/privacy-policy).

6. Transfers outside the EU and EEA

We keep the data we receive (error, crash and player reports, website logs) in Germany. Epic may process co-op data for us outside the EU, including in the United States (section 4.8). Where we start a transfer, we remain responsible for it. For the website's co-op we chose Poki's connection services (Poki B.V., in the EU), whose relay runs on Cloudflare's network, and Google's STUN service; Cloudflare, Inc. and Google LLC are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Valve, Meta, Apple, Google and the portals, as independent controllers, transfer data under their own safeguards, described in their policies. The apps' ad partners (section 4.5) receive data outside the EU: AppLovin, Google, Meta, Unity and Liftoff in the United States, InMobi in Singapore and Mintegral in Singapore, China or the United States. Each relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in its terms with us, and Google and Meta also on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Digital Turbine (DT Exchange) handles the data for us from Germany or Israel, which the European Commission has found to protect personal data adequately; where it uses another country, the Standard Contractual Clauses in its contract with us apply. You can ask us for information about the safeguards, including a copy, at privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com.

7. How long we keep data

8. Your rights

Under the GDPR (and the UK GDPR) you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict its processing, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw any consent you gave.

Right to object: you may object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing based on our legitimate interests (sections 4.1, 4.3, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10 and 4.12). We then stop that processing unless we can show compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms, or we need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, and we tell you our decision.

To use your rights, write to privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com. Because we hold almost nothing tied to a person, it helps to tell us which version you play and, for co-op reports, your display name and roughly when; we may ask for information to confirm a request is yours. We answer within one month.

Deleting what is on your device: on the web, clear the game's site data in your browser. On other devices, uninstalling may leave the game's data folder in place: delete the folder (on Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\LootHoleNative\, with its backups); write to support@saltedcaramelgames.com if you need the folder for your system. A cloud copy (Steam Cloud, Epic, Google Play Games, iCloud, a portal) can restore a deleted save: delete or switch off the cloud copy in that service too. Uninstalling an app deletes its data, but the co-op device id that EOS keeps in an iPhone's or iPad's keychain can outlast it, so the app signs in with the same co-op player id if you install it again; write to us (section 8) to have what is linked to it deleted. Achievements and other records held by a store are deleted through that store.

You can also complain directly to us about how we handle your personal data, at privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com or at our postal address (section 1); this includes your right to complain under section 164A of the UK Data Protection Act 2018. We acknowledge a complaint within 30 days, look into it properly, keep you informed and tell you the outcome without undue delay. This does not affect your right to complain to a data protection authority.

You may complain to a data protection authority, in particular in the EU country where you live or work. The authority responsible for us is the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Der Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit), https://datenschutz-hamburg.de. In the United Kingdom you may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

What you must provide: no law obliges you to give us personal data. The store versions need the sign-in, account id or entitlement information described in their sections, or they cannot run; co-op needs a connection, a co-op player id and a display name, and without them you can still play alone; our website necessarily receives connection information; and if you write to us, we need a way to reply.

9. Storage on your device and cookies

We set no cookies. The web game stores the following in your browser to work. What it holds is also used for the cloud copies and co-op described in sections 4.2 and 4.8; we do not receive these entries ourselves (a crash dump from a computer can contain pieces of what is in memory, section 4.3):

Storing these is strictly necessary for the game you asked for and for keeping your choice about error reports (section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG); the error reports waiting for your answer stay on your device and leave it only with your consent (section 4.3). The portal's own page may use cookies and storage of its own under its policy. The other versions keep their files in the game's data folder.

10. Children

Loot Hole is meant for players 13 and over and is not directed to children. We do not ask anyone's age and do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13 (or under the age of digital consent where you live, if consent would be needed). The apps' settings with each ad network say they are not directed to children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, for example in a player report, write to privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com and we will delete it.

11. United States

Depending on the version and features you use, the personal information described in this policy includes: identifiers (store and co-op account ids, display names, IP addresses, and your email address if you write to us); internet or other electronic network activity (website requests, error and crash reports you agree to send, co-op activity, and in the apps the device and ad data of section 4.5, with the advertising identifier only if you allow it); and communications (your emails to us, and chat included in player reports). Website logs keep IP addresses for up to 30 days. We get this information from you and your device, from the store or portal you play through, and from other players who send a report. Sections 4, 5 and 7 say why we use it, who receives it and how long we keep it.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. In the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, personalised ads (section 4.5) may count as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising: the apps ask players in US states with such laws whether ad partners may use their data this way, and you can opt out at any time under Privacy choices in the game's settings. The apps also honour a Global Privacy Control signal where the ad software receives one. Apart from these ads we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. Whatever law applies to us, you can ask us at privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com to know, correct or delete the personal information we or our processors hold about you, and to get a copy. We may verify your identity, and an authorised agent's authority, in a proportionate way. We will not discriminate against you for using your privacy rights, and where the law gives you an appeal, you can ask for one at the same address.

12. Security

Our website and the error, crash and player reports sent to us use HTTPS. Co-op uses the EOS or WebRTC connection services described in section 4.8. Our error tracker can be reached only through our own private network. Your progress and settings are stored on your device, so their security also depends on your device's.

13. Changes

When this policy changes we update the date at the top. For a significant change we will also tell players in the game or on the store page before it applies. Earlier versions are available on request.

14. Contact

Yilmaz Kiymaz, Salted Caramel Games, Sonninstr. 7, 20097 Hamburg, Germany. Email: privacy@saltedcaramelgames.com. Legal notice (Impressum): https://saltedcaramelgames.com/legal/impressum/.