Privacy policy

Short version

Indie Game Radar (indiegameradar.online) is the companion site of the @IndieGameRadar YouTube channel. You can read every page without an account. The site counts visits with its own first-party cookie and never stores your IP address. Google AdSense shows ads on the site and sets its own cookies. Your email address is stored only if you sign up for the digest, set a price alert or use the contact form.

What is collected

When a page loads, the server records:

• the page address and the page you came from (the referrer);
• your browser's user-agent string, and the device type, browser and operating system read from it;
• your browser language;
• a country, worked out from your browser time zone or, failing that, your language setting. No IP-to-location lookup is done;
• two one-way hashes made from your IP address and user agent, used to count unique visitors. The IP address itself is not stored.

While you read, the page sends small usage events: time on the page, how far you scrolled, links you follow to stores, searches you run on the site, and which features you use (wishlist, reactions, votes, filters). These carry the igr_vid cookie ID and nothing else that identifies you.

Things you choose to do are saved against that same ID: games on your wishlist, reactions on game pages, and votes in the community poll.

Bots, link-preview fetchers and the site's own admins are not counted.

Cookies and browser storage

A session value (igr_since) also lives in your tab's session storage and is gone when the tab closes. Blocking cookies does not break the site: wishlist, reactions and votes stop being remembered, and the "New" badges stop working.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

The site shows ads through Google AdSense, which pays for running it.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your earlier visits to this site and other websites.
• Google's advertising cookies let Google and its partners serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet.
• You can turn off personalised advertising in Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of other vendors' cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info (or youronlinechoices.eu in Europe).
• How Google uses data from sites that show its ads: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland may be asked for consent by Google before ad cookies are used.

Other services the pages load

Loading a page also makes your browser contact these services, which receive your IP address and user agent as part of any web request:

• Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com): the site's typefaces.
• Steam and Epic Games image servers: game artwork and screenshots.
• YouTube (i.ytimg.com for thumbnails; www.youtube-nocookie.com for embedded videos, in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode). Playing a video is governed by Google's privacy policy.
• jsDelivr (cdn.jsdelivr.net): only when you press play on a Steam trailer your browser cannot play by itself.

Store links take you to Steam, Epic Games Store, GamerPower or the developer's page. Those sites have their own policies. Links to stores are not affiliate links.

Email digest and price alerts

If you subscribe to the weekly digest or set a price alert on a game, your email address is stored with the genres you picked. Sign-up is double opt-in: nothing is sent until you click the link in the confirmation email. Every digest and alert email has a one-click unsubscribe link. A one-way hash of your IP address is kept with the sign-up to stop mass sign-ups from one connection. Email addresses are never sold or shared.

Browser notifications

If you turn on free-game notifications, your browser gives the site a push address (a URL at your browser maker's push service, such as Google or Mozilla) and keys to encrypt messages. These are stored so notifications can be sent. Turning notifications off in the site or in your browser stops them.

Contact form

Messages sent through the contact form store your name, email address, the topic and the message, plus a one-way hash of your IP address to limit spam. They are used only to reply to you.

How the data is used

• to run the features you use (wishlist, alerts, digest, notifications, votes);
• to see which pages and games people read, so the site and the channel can cover more of what people want;
• to keep spam and abuse out;
• to show ads, through Google AdSense as described above.

The site does not sell personal data and does not share it with anyone except the services listed on this page.

How long it is kept

Visit and usage records are kept while the site runs its statistics. Email addresses are kept until you unsubscribe or ask for deletion. Contact messages are kept until they are no longer needed to answer you. Cookies expire after the periods in the table above, or when you clear them.

Your choices and rights

• Cookies: block or clear them in your browser settings.
• Ads: turn off personalised ads in Google Ads Settings.
• Email: use the unsubscribe link in any email.
• Access or deletion: send a request through the contact form (topic "Privacy or data deletion request"). Include the email address you used. Data tied only to a cookie ID can be found if you include the value of your igr_vid cookie.

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in Europe, the UK GDPR, India's DPDP Act or California's CCPA), you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal data and to object to its use. Requests are answered through the contact form.

Children

The site is not aimed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their personal data. If you think a child has sent their email address, use the contact form and it will be deleted.

Changes to this policy

When the site starts collecting something new, this page changes and the date at the top moves. Questions go through the contact form.