Privacy Policy

Who we are

WarSquads (warsquads.com) is a fan project. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by BULKHEAD or Team17. For anything about your data, email [email protected].

What we collect

• Account details: your email address and password (stored only as a one-way hash), or the Discord or Steam account you sign in with. You don't need an email address if you use Discord or Steam.
• Profile: your display name, picture (from Discord or Steam), bio, region, timezone, languages, playstyles, voice and intensity preferences, and class levels. Only the name is required.
• Linked accounts: your Discord ID, username and avatar; your Steam ID, name and avatar; and, from Steam, whether you own WARDOGS and your playtime (only readable when your game details are public).
• What you post and do: squads and groups you create or join, chat messages (including direct messages), ratings you give, reports you file, players you block, and your settings.
• Activity and devices: when you were last online; the IP address and browser of each device you're signed in on; and server logs of requests, which include IP addresses (but leave out sign-in codes, search terms and invite codes).

Cookies

• ws_session keeps you signed in. It's essential, and lasts until you sign out, or up to 30 days after you last use the site.
• ws_oauth_state lasts a few minutes while you sign in with Discord or Steam, to stop forged sign-ins.

There are no advertising or tracking cookies, and nothing follows you across other sites. Cloudflare, which protects the site, may set its own security cookies.

How we use it

• To run WarSquads: accounts, profiles, squads, groups, chat and notifications.
• To keep it safe: verifying WARDOGS ownership (each Steam account can back one WarSquads account), rate limits, spam and scam-link filters, handling reports, and enforcing bans. A ban records the banned account's Steam and Discord IDs and a one-way hash of its email address, so it can't simply sign up again. A Steam account that's disconnected, or whose WarSquads account is deleted, can't back another account for 30 days, so we keep its Steam ID for those 30 days.
• To email you: address verification, password resets, and notices about changes to your account.

We don't sell your data, use it for advertising, or send marketing emails. If you're in the EU or UK, our legal bases are providing the service you signed up for, our legitimate interests in keeping it safe and fair, and legal obligations where they apply.

What other players see

• Your profile: name, picture, bio, preferences, class levels, whether you own WARDOGS and your playtime, public groups and rating totals (never who rated you). Your Discord or Steam name shows only if you choose.
• Squads and public groups are visible to everyone; private groups and members-only squads only to their members.
• Your online status and last-seen time, to the people your privacy setting allows. Who can message you is your choice too (Settings → Account → Privacy).
• Your email address is never shown to other players.

Who we share it with

• Services that run the site for us: Amazon Web Services (hosting, database and email delivery) and Cloudflare (network security and delivery). They handle data only on our behalf.
• Discord and Steam, when you choose to sign in with or connect them (they learn you used them to sign in).
• Authorities, where the law requires it or to protect someone's safety.

No one else: no data brokers and no advertisers.

How long we keep it

• Your account and profile: until you delete your account.
• Chats: squad chats are deleted 7 days after the squad closes, and group chats 7 days after the group is disbanded. Direct messages stay until their sender deletes them. Messages you delete are blanked straight away.
• Signed-in devices: until you sign out, or up to 30 days after you last use the site on them.
• Server logs: 30 days, and some network logs up to 90 days. Database backups: 7 days.
• The IDs and email hash a ban records: as long as the ban. Reports and moderation records are kept to deal with repeat abuse.

Your choices and rights

• Download your data at any time: Settings → Account → Your data.
• Change your profile, privacy settings and linked accounts yourself.
• Delete your account in the same place. That erases your email, password, profile, linked accounts, ratings and blocks; messages you sent stay in their chats as from “Deleted player”. Backups clear within 7 days.
• Or ask us, at [email protected], to access, correct or erase your data, or object to how we use it. We'll answer within a month.
• If you're in the EU or UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority.

Children

WarSquads is for people 13 and older. In the EU and UK, players under 16 need a parent's or guardian's consent where their country's law requires it. If we learn an account belongs to someone under 13, we'll delete it.

Where your data is stored

On servers in the United States (Amazon Web Services). If you're outside the US, your data is transferred there, and our providers protect those transfers with the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Security

Connections are encrypted, passwords are hashed with Argon2id, session tokens are stored only as hashes, and the database isn't reachable from the internet. No system is perfect, though: if you think someone else used your account, change your password, use “Sign out everywhere” in your account settings, and tell us.

Changes

When this policy changes we'll update the date at the top, and for significant changes we'll tell you on the site or by email.

Contact

[email protected]