Privacy Policy

The Auldmere Chronicles is a product of Novara Consulting Group, LLC ("we," "us," "our"). This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

It covers all of the following together:

• the website at auldmere.com;
• the game itself, whether you play through our apps or by connecting with a terminal client;
• the Auldmere apps for iPad and Apple Watch;
• the store, where we sell books, digital media, and in-game items.

The short version: we collect what the game needs to work, we do not run advertising, we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we do not sell your information to anyone.

Your account

• Character name and password. Your password is stored only as a cryptographic hash. We cannot read it, and neither can our staff.
• Email address, if you give us one. It is used to recover a lost password and to reach you about your account. Password reset codes are themselves stored only as hashes, expire within minutes, and work once.
• A permanent account identifier. A random value that identifies your account for purchases and entitlements even if you change your name. It is not derived from anything about you.
• Sign in with Apple, if you use it. We receive a stable identifier for your Apple account and, if you allow it, an email address, which may be one of Apple's Hide My Email relay addresses, in which case we never see your real one. We never receive your Apple password.

Playing the game

• Your characters and their world. Levels, inventory, location, quests, clan membership, achievements. The state of your characters is the game, and we store it so it is there when you return.
• Things you write to other players. Channel messages, private tells, in-game mail, bulletin-board posts and clan communications are transmitted to the people you send them to and stored so they can be read. Treat them as you would any message to another person: they are not private to you alone.
• Connection information. Your IP address is processed when you sign in, to rate-limit failed attempts and to protect accounts from being broken into, and it appears in our server logs. We use it for security and diagnostics, not to profile you.
• Moderation records. If you are reported, warned, muted or banned, we keep a record of the action and its reason. This is how a rule is enforced consistently rather than by memory.

Playing by terminal, and what that means

Auldmere is a MUD, and like the MUDs it descends from it can be played with a plain terminal client. We think that matters and we intend to keep it. But you should know what it costs, because most privacy policies would leave this out:

A plain telnet connection is not encrypted. Anyone able to observe the network between you and us, such as the operator of a public Wi-Fi network, can in principle read what passes over it, including the password you type at the login prompt. This is a property of the protocol, not of our server, and it is true of every MUD you can reach this way.

Our apps do not have this problem: they connect over an encrypted (TLS) connection. If you prefer a terminal, use a client that supports TLS where one is available, and avoid signing in over networks you do not trust.

On your device

A good deal of what the app knows about you never leaves your iPad:

• Your saved password is held in the device Keychain, so a dropped connection puts you back in the world instead of at a login screen. It is stored by iOS, not by us.
• Your settings, including theme, text size, keyboard shortcuts, macro buttons and trigger rules, are stored on the device.
• Transcripts. If you turn on transcripts, each session is saved as a text file on your iPad so you can read it back. Transcripts are never uploaded to us. They are yours; you can share or delete them from within the app.
• Notifications raised by your own trigger rules are generated on the device. The app does not register for push notifications and there is no device token for us to hold.

Deleting the app removes all of it.

The store: books, digital media, and in-game items

• Orders placed on this website. We store your name, email address, billing details and order history, so we can deliver what you bought, support it, and meet our tax and accounting obligations. Card details are handled by our payment processor, Stripe, and are never stored on our servers.
• Purchases made inside the apps are processed by Apple. We are told what you are entitled to; we are not given your card details.
• Entitlements. What you have bought is recorded against your account identifier so it is available to your characters wherever you play.

The website

• Forms. When you contact support we collect the name, email and message you send, in order to reply.
• Newsletter. If you subscribe, we store your email address and what you opted into.
• Technical data. Our web servers log IP addresses and basic request information for security and diagnostics.
• Preferences. Accessibility preferences such as contrast and text size are stored on your device.

We use only the cookies needed to operate the site and to remember your accessibility preferences. We do not use advertising cookies.

Who else is involved

We use these providers as service providers, to deliver things you asked for. We do not sell your information to them or to anyone else.

• Apple: Sign in with Apple, and purchases made in the apps.
• Stripe: payment processing for store orders on the website.
• Our hosting and email providers: to run the servers and to send account email such as password resets.

We do not use advertising SDKs, we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we do not give your content to third-party AI systems to train their models.

How long we keep things

Account and character data are kept while your account exists. Server logs are kept only as long as they are useful for security and diagnostics. Order records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require. Anything stored on your device stays there until you delete it or remove the app.

Deleting your account

You can close your account at any time from within the app, or by contacting us. Because deleting a character you have played for years is not a thing anyone should be able to do by accident or on a borrowed tablet:

• we ask for your password to confirm it;
• the account is locked immediately, so it cannot be played;
• everything is permanently deleted fourteen days later, and signing in before then cancels the deletion as though you had never asked.

Two things deliberately survive. Enforcement records for a banned account are kept, because otherwise deleting an account would be a way to shed a ban. Payment and order records are kept as long as tax and accounting law requires. Nothing else about you is retained.

Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, including under the EU/UK GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CPRA), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or port your information, and to object to or restrict certain processing. We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for cross-context behavioural advertising. To exercise a right, contact us below; we will not treat you differently for asking.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your information: passwords are stored hashed and never in a readable form, app connections are encrypted in transit, and backups of player data are encrypted. No system is perfectly secure, so we also limit what we collect in the first place. Please also read the section above on playing by terminal.

Children

Auldmere is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age where you live), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

International players

We operate from the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for international transfers.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we make material changes we will update the effective date above and, where appropriate, give notice in the game.

Contact us

Questions or requests about this policy or your data? Email privacy@novaracg.com, or use the support page.

The Auldmere Chronicles is a product of Novara Consulting Group, LLC.