Privacy Policy

1. What this covers

This policy explains what information The Mob Way ("we", "us") collects when you use the game and its website, why, and what you can do about it. It goes with our Terms of Service.

2. What we collect

You give us

• Account details: your email address, account name and password. Your password is stored scrambled (hashed); nobody, not even staff, can read it.
• Character details: the names, nicknames, pictures and profile text you choose. Every uploaded picture is checked automatically for nudity on our own server; it isn't sent to anyone else. A refused picture is thrown away, and we keep a note that it was refused.
• What you post: forum posts, chat messages, mail and attachments, and anything else you write in the game.
• Support tickets: what you send us and the email you send it from.
• Reports: when you report something, what you picked and wrote. The player you reported is never told who sent it.
• Payments: if you buy an extra, the payment provider gives us a receipt (what you bought, when, and the last four digits of the card). We never receive or store your full card number.
• Your choices: settings, and whether you want update emails.

The game records

• Gameplay: every action your characters take and its result, with the time. This is how the game works, and how staff check reports.
• Technical details: your IP address, browser and device type, and when you log in and out.
• Staff records: any warnings, mutes, suspensions or bans on your account, and notes staff add.

3. How we use it

• To run the game: create your account, keep your characters, deliver mail and messages, and show you what's happening.
• To keep it fair: spot cheating, bots, extra accounts and real-money trading. Matching IP addresses and devices between accounts is part of this.
• To keep it safe: protect accounts, look into reports, and enforce the Terms and Game Rules.
• To talk to you: password resets, security notices, answers to tickets and, only if you said yes, news about updates and events.
• To improve the game: understand how features are used and fix problems.
• To follow the law and handle legal claims.

We don't use your information for outside advertising, and we don't sell it.

4. Who sees what

Staff are the owner and the admins and moderators the owner appoints. What each staff role can see is limited to what that role needs.

5. Who we share it with

• Service providers who help run the game (hosting, email delivery, payment processing), only as much as they need and only to work for us.
• The law: if we're legally required to, or to protect someone from serious harm, including real-world threats made in the game. Child sexual abuse material is reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as US law requires, with the account details of whoever posted it.
• A new owner: if the game is ever sold or transferred, your information goes with it under the same protections, and we'll tell you.

That's it. No data brokers, no advertisers.

6. Cookies and browser storage

We use cookies and your browser's storage to keep you logged in, remember your settings, and keep the game running smoothly. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies. If you block them, logging in and some features won't work.

One cookie is a random browser mark. It holds nothing about you; it only lets us tell when the same browser logs in to different accounts (see "To keep it fair" above). We keep only a scrambled copy of it.

7. How long we keep it

• Your account: while it's open. After you close it (Settings, or by asking us), we delete or anonymize your personal details within 30 days.
• Support tickets: until the issue is handled, and never more than a year. A closed account's tickets go when its details are deleted or anonymized.
• Reports: a copy of what was reported is kept until staff deal with it, then deleted; the report itself goes a year later. When something has to be reported to NCMEC or the police, the copy and the poster's account details are kept for 1 year from that report, as US law requires, even if the account is closed in the meantime.
• Dead characters: their name, rank and death stay in the game's history (obituaries and rankings), with no link to your email.
• Posts and mail: they may stay in the game where other players can see them, shown under the character's name.
• Security and enforcement records (bans, the staff log, payment receipts): kept as long as needed to stop banned players returning and to meet legal and tax duties.
• Login records (when you log in and out, the connection's IP address and the browser mark): 30 days, then deleted automatically. Only the owner sees them, and only to look for one person running several accounts. Nothing happens to an account because of them on their own: a person looks first.
• Backups: deleted information can stay in backups for up to 90 days before it's overwritten.

8. Security

We use encrypted connections, hashed passwords and limited staff access, and every staff action is logged. No system is perfectly secure, though, so use a strong password you don't use anywhere else. If we learn of a breach that affects your personal information, we'll tell you without unreasonable delay, as New York's data breach law (the SHIELD Act) and any other law that applies requires.

9. Your choices and rights

• See it: download a copy from Settings, or ask us for one. It holds your account, your characters as you see them, your Ledger entries, your mail, your posts and your purchases. It doesn't include the game's hidden mechanics (hidden stats, scores and how the game works them out), other players' information, or our security and anti-cheat records, which are kept back to keep the game fair.
• Fix it: change your email and settings in the game, or ask us to correct anything else.
• Delete it: close your account in Settings, or ask us to close it and delete your personal information (see section 7 for what stays).
• Stop emails: turn off update emails in Settings, or use the unsubscribe link in any of them. Security and account emails still come.
• Depending on where you live, you may have more rights (for example under the GDPR or California law), including to object to some uses or to complain to a regulator. We honour them.

Send any request to support@themobway.com from the email on your account. We'll answer within 30 days.

10. Adults only

The game is only for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 18, we close it and delete its information.

11. Where it's stored

The game's servers are in the United States. If you play from somewhere else, your information is sent to and stored in the United States.

12. Changes

We may update this policy. The date at the top shows the latest version. For important changes we'll give notice in the game or by email first.

13. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: support@themobway.com.