Privacy policy

Who we are

SteamSpice (steamspice.com) is a catalogue and completion tracker for adult games on Steam. SteamSpice is responsible for the personal data described here. For anything about your data, write to privacy@steamspice.com.

The short version

• We do not sell your data, show ads, or use third-party analytics or tracking.
• Our analytics are our own and set no tracking cookies.
• If you have an account, we use your library, lists, ratings and the games you look at to recommend games to you.
• You can delete your account, and the data that goes with it, from your account settings.

What we collect

Your account

When you sign up we store your email address, your username and a hashed version of your password (we never store the password itself). We also store what you choose to add: the games in your library and their status, your ratings and reviews, your lists, who and what you follow, the tags you vote on, and your email notification settings.

Sign-in sessions

Each time you sign in we record the IP address and browser (user agent) of that sign-in, so that a session can be recognised and ended. A session's record is removed when you sign out.

Visits

When anyone opens a page, signed in or not, we record a visit: a shortened IP address (the last part is removed before it is stored, so it identifies a network rather than a device), the browser, the operating system and device type, the page the visit started on, the site that linked to us, and any campaign tags in the link. Visits are grouped by that shortened address and browser for up to four hours. If you are signed in, the visit is linked to your account.

Activity

We record a few events: signing up, signing in and following something. If you are signed in, we also record each game page you open, each link from a game page to a store or a patch that you click, and each game you click in "Recommended For You". These are linked to your account. We do not record any of this for visitors who are not signed in. Pages your browser fetches in advance, before you click, are not counted.

Why we use it

• To run your account: signing you in, keeping your library, lists and reviews, and sending the emails you asked for. We need this to provide the service you signed up for.
• To recommend games: once a day we look at what signed-in members have shown interest in: the game pages they opened, the store and patch links they clicked, the games in their library (except ones marked dropped), the games they own, put in lists or reviewed. Games rated 2 stars or less, and games dismissed with "Not interested", are left out. From that we work out which other games you are likely to want, shown as "Recommended For You". Other members never see your activity, and we never show you who else showed interest in a game. We count which recommendations get clicked to check how well they work.
• To understand and improve the site: counting visits, which pages people arrive on and where they come from.
• To keep the site secure: recognising sessions and spotting abuse.

Recommendations, analytics and security rely on our legitimate interest in running a useful and safe site. You can object to any of them by writing to privacy@steamspice.com.

Cookies

We set only the cookies the site needs to work:

• session_id: keeps you signed in, until you sign out.
• _agdb_session: carries short-lived messages and where to return after signing in. It ends when you close your browser.
• age_verified: remembers that you confirmed you are 18 or over, for 30 days.

None of them are used for tracking or advertising, and there are no third-party cookies.

Who else handles it

• MailPace sends our emails, so it receives your email address and the message.
• DigitalOcean Spaces stores the game images we show.
• Steam: a few older game images are still loaded from Steam's servers, so your browser contacts Steam when it shows them. Links to Steam, VNDB and other stores take you to sites with their own privacy policies.

We do not share your data with anyone else, except where the law requires it.

How long we keep it

• Account data: until you delete your account.
• Sign-in sessions: until you sign out or delete your account.
• Visits and activity: two years, then deleted automatically.
• Recommendations: rebuilt every day, and deleted with your account.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account from your account settings. Deleting it removes your account, your library, ratings, reviews, lists, follows, tag votes, sessions, recommendations, the games you marked "Not interested" and the activity linked to you. Visits that were linked to your account are kept for site statistics, but the link to you is removed. Tags you added to games stay on the games, without your name.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to limit how we use it, or to object to how we use it. Write to privacy@steamspice.com and we will reply within a month. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Age

SteamSpice is only for adults. Do not use it if you are under 18.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update it here and change the date at the top.