PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY

 Effective August 30, 2023

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we treat information that you provide to us or that we collect about you.

By “Personal Data”, we refer to data that relates to you as an identified or identifiable natural person. The term “Personal Data” may include your in-game name, your email address, your country, your language, your game preferences, for instance. Anonymous information, which we are not in a position to relate to you, does not qualify as “Personal Data”.

  1. CONTROLLER’S NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS

Controller in the sense of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data protection or data privacy laws in the Member States of the European Union and other guidelines with a data protection nature regarding our online PC and mobile games including, but not limited to, “Fishing Planet” associated web-sites as https://fishingplanet.com, as well as any other Fishing Planet web-sites on which this Policy is posted:

Fishing Planet LLC
130 Oceana DR W, Apt 1D,
Brooklyn, NY 11235
USA
Email: support@fishingplanet.com

The entity is referred to as “Fishing Planet”, “we”, “our” and “us” in this Policy. The term “Services” refers to the act of providing you with the opportunity to use the named game (“Game”), websites (“Sites”), Fishing Planet account (“Account”), any of our other products and services (including support services, forums) related to the Games (“Ancillary Services”).

  1. GENERAL INFORMATION IN BRIEF

We process personal data only when necessary for the performance of a contract with you. Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or based on our legitimate interests, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms for which require the protection of your Personal Data.

Our legitimate interests are to provide our Services in an effective, safe and harmless manner. We want to provide everyone with a fair and balanced experience when using our Services.

  1. INFORMATION SECURITY

We and our employees understand the need for user privacy, and we maintain reasonable and appropriate security procedures to protect your information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction, taking into due account the risks involved in the processing and the nature of the Personal Data.

  1. PROCESSING INFORMATION BY THIRD PARTIES

We may share Personal Data with our affiliates, subsidiaries, vendors or agents working on our behalf for the purposes described in this Policy. For example, we may hire companies to assist with protecting and securing our systems or services. Any vendor or agent that we retain must comply with our data privacy and security requirements and are not allowed to use personal data they receive from us for any other purpose. Those companies may be located outside of the European Economic Area. Read more in Section 9 “How we share your information”.

  1. CHILDREN

We do not knowingly collect, use or share information from children without verifiable parental consent or as permitted by law. Where a parent or legal guardian has provided consent, the child may be able to use his or her Fishing Planet Account to play the game. Parents or guardians may review, modify, or delete the child’s personal information, or withdraw consent, by contacting us using the contact information provided in this privacy policy. For the purpose of this Policy, a child means any individual who is under the age of 18 (or the minimum legal age to consent to the collection and processing of Personal Data where this is different under applicable law).

  1. DATA RETENTION

We keep most of your Personal Data gathered and processed for the purposes described in this Policy for as long as you continue to use our Services, e.g. you have an activated Account in one of our Games. We will delete your Personal Data after you request your Account deletion and the grace period of 30 (thirty) calendar days, during which we can restore your Account, expires. Read more in Section 12 “Right to erasure”.

  1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

In relation to your use of our Services, we gather information either directly from you (when you provide information to us) or indirectly (e.g. through our Site’s technology).

 

  1. 7.1. INFORMATION WE COLLECT DIRECTLY

We collect Personal Data and other information that you voluntarily provide. It is entirely your decision to provide the requested information. However, your use of certain Services is possible only if you provide required information, e.g. while creating an Account.

Account Data

When setting up an Account, you will be asked to provide Personal Data including your user name and email address.

Content Data

We may obtain your Personal Data when you register for and use our other Services, e.g. game forums or when you provide feedback about our Services. This data includes:

    • Information that you post, comment or like in any of the Game’s Forums and Sites;
    • Information sent through the "game-chat" functionality in the Games;
    • Information you provide when you request information or support from us or purchase a product or service from us, including information necessary to process your orders with the relevant payment merchant, which may include the amount of any transaction, but will not include your financial information, which will only be submitted directly to the payment merchant under secure protocols;
    • Information other than the Account Data you provide to us when participating in different contests, responding to surveys, e.g. your contact details;
  1. 2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT INDIRECTLY

We indirectly collect a variety of information through your interaction with and use of our websites or Game. This information may include, but is not limited to, browser and device information, data collected through automated electronic interactions, application usage data, geographic, statistical and aggregated information (“Other Information”). Statistical or aggregated information does not directly identify a specific person, but it may be derived from Personal Data. For example, we may aggregate Personal Data to calculate the percentage of users in a particular country. If we combine Other Information with Personal Data, we will treat the combined information as Personal Data.

  1. 2.1. Tracking Data and Cookies

We use cookies and so-called pixel tags to collect information about visitors on our websites. Pixel tags are invisible tags placed on certain pages of our websites, but unlike cookies, not saved on your device. A pixel tag triggers a cookie when you visit a website. A cookie is a small piece of data sent from the website to your web browser and may be stored on your device. Cookies allow us to recognize your device while you are on the website and help customize your online experience and make it more convenient for you. Cookies are also useful in allowing more efficient log-in for users, tracking transaction histories, and preserving information between sessions. The information collected from cookies may also be used to improve the functionality of the website and to measure traffic patterns.


Example of improved experience: If you visit our forum, you will not be asked for your password every time you visit, but rather every now and then, or when you clear your cookies manually.

We do not control cookies in third party ads, and you are encouraged to check the privacy policies of advertisers and/or ad services to learn about their use of cookies and other technology. The ads appearing on the Site may be delivered to you by third-party advertising companies. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements on the Site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you.

There are two main kinds of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are deleted from your device when you close your browser, whereas persistent cookies remain stored on your device until deleted, or until they reach their expiry date. You are entitled to choose whether or not you would like to use cookies. If you do not approve of the use of cookies, please be sure to opt out, as in block or disable them using your browser settings as described below or the opt-out link provided to you on your first visit to the website.

Fishing Planet will use the following cookies on our websites, for the following purposes:

a) Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are necessary for the website to function. They are usually set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the website might then not work. These cookies do not store any Personal Information;

b) Performance Cookies: These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources in order to measure and improve the performance of the website. These cookies help us know which pages are the most and least popular and how visitors move around the website. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, as explained hereunder. If you do so, we will not know when you have visited our website, and will not be able to monitor its performance;

c) Functionality Cookies: These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services have been added to the website. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly;

d) Targeting Cookies: Advertisers and/or other content providers that may appear on our website may also use cookies that are not sent by us. Such advertisements or content may use cookies to help track and target the interests of users of the website in order to present customized and personalized advertisements or other messages that the user might find interesting. These cookies uniquely identify your browser and Internet device. Such cookies may even impact your experience of other websites you may visit subsequently. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. Fishing Planet is not responsible for any of our advertisers' or content providers' cookies and we will always require your active consent for our own targeting cookies.

Please note that most web browser applications (such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome) have features that can notify you when you receive a cookie or prevent cookies from being sent. In Microsoft Edge, you can refuse all cookies by clicking "Tools", "Internet Options", "Privacy", and selecting "Block all cookies" using the sliding selector. In Firefox, you can adjust your cookies by clicking "Tools", "Options" and "Privacy". In Google Chrome, you can also adjust your cookies by clicking on "Settings", "Show advanced settings", "Content settings" and on the "Privacy" section.


If you disable cookies, however, you may not be able to use certain personalized functions of the website.

 

Website traffic volume and patterns, such as the number of visitors to a given website or page on a daily basis is typically referred to as “Tracking Data”. This type of indirectly collected information is gathered through various means, such as an IP address, which is a number that is automatically assigned to your device whenever you are surfing the web. Web servers, the computers that “serve up” web pages, automatically identify your device by its IP address. When you visit any of our Sites, our servers log your device’s IP address.

  1. 2.2. Game-Related Information, Device Information

In order to provide you with efficient services, we need to collect, store and use various information about your activity in our Games. “Game-Related Information” includes your in-game identifier, which is known as “Fishing Planet ID”, as well as what is usually referred to as “game statistics”. By game statistics we mean information about your Game preferences, progress in the Game, frequency of playing, as well as information about the device you are using the Services on, including:

  • Mac and IP Address
  • Device name
  • Device model
  • Device Id
  • Locale / language
  • RAM size
  • Video RAM size
  • Video output resolution and quality settings

Whether we collect some or all of this information often depends on what type of device you are using and its settings. Wi-Fi and IP addresses received from your browser or device may be used to determine approximate location.

 

  1. 2.3. Information required for fraud and violations detection

We may also collect certain data (like IP address, username, etc.) that is required for our detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Game and EULA violations. This data is used only for the purposes of detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Game. If the data can be used to prove that cheating or another fraud or EULA violation has occurred, we will further store the data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims during the applicable statute of limitations. Please note that the specific data stored for this purpose may not be disclosed to you or any third parties, since the disclosure will compromise the mechanism through which we detect, investigate and prevent cheating in the Game, as well as other EULA violations.

  1. 2.4. Information from publicly available online resources

We may use the information made publicly available, e.g. through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Twitter and other public online resources, in order to find out your opinion about Games and Services, so that we could take them into account while improving our Services.

  1. 2.5. Information from our partners

In order to fulfill our obligation under the EULA and when processing is required in order to comply with the legal obligation to which we are subject, we may also obtain information about you from our partners, e.g. from our payment and advertising partners. We only use the data controlled by our partners in accordance with their instructions and applicable laws.

  1. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We need to process your Personal Data in order to fulfill the contract with you according to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR. As a user, we will use your Personal Data, unless otherwise prohibited by law, for the following purposes:

    • to provide you with the Services you request;
    • to communicate with you about your Account or transactions with us and send you information about features on our Sites or changes to our policies;
    • to provide support including, but not limited to, product updates, product patches and fixes and other similar communications;
  1. 1. COMMUNICATION PURPOSES

We will use your Personal Data for our legitimate interests according to Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR to notify you and provide you with information about features on our Sites, new product releases and service developments and to advertise our products and services in accordance with this Policy. Namely, once you have created an Account we may use your email address and user name in order to send you emails, messages and targeted in-game offers about Game. Please note that even if you unsubscribe from all our emails, we may still send you some notifications (we often refer to them as “transactional”), e.g. to confirm purchases or changes in your Account, give warranty or security information, information about changes to the EULA, Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. We will be able to stop all communications only after your Account is deleted.

  1. 2. SERVICES IMPROVEMENT PURPOSES

We may analyse the Tracking Data, Content Data and Game-Related Information to identify how to improve the Services and our operations to make them more interesting for our players in general. You are not obligated to respond to polls or surveys and you have choices about the information you provide.

  1. 3. TARGETED IN-GAME OFFERS

We may also use the Game-Related Information to send you certain in-game offers that we believe are the most useful to you. To make the offer we first collect Game-Related Information from various players, identify patterns in their behaviour, and create algorithms that identify whether you follow the pattern, if we apply the algorithm and it says that you do actually follow the pattern – we send the in-game offer to you. We make sure that such offers never have any significant impact on you or our other players.

  1. 4. FRAUD AND EULA VIOLATIONS DETECTION

We use the information required for our detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Game and EULA violations only for the purposes of detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Game. If the data can be used to prove that cheating or another fraud or EULA violation has occurred, we will further store the data for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims during the applicable statute of limitations.

  1. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

For the performance of a contract with you, compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, and based on our legitimate interests, we may share your personal data with the following categories of third parties:

  1. Analytics partners: we may provide access to some of your data, such as device name, user language, user name and user country, to our partners in order to be able to use their services. We share anonymous data with our partners unless your personal data is necessary for the requested services;
  2. Customer support partners: we engage third parties to provide you with appropriate customer support services. Such companies may get access to your personal data, including personal data that you may provide in your customer support requests. Such partners include Zendesk.
  3. Publicly available information: our Sites may also have forums, where users can exchange ideas and communicate with each other. When posting a message to a forum, please be aware that the information is being made publicly available on-line; therefore, you are doing so at your own risk. If your personal information is posted on one of our community forums, please contact us at support@fishingplanet.com to request its removal. If we may not be able to remove your personal information promptly, we will let you know about the reasons.
  4. External moderators and testers: some limited data about you (such as your username, content of customer support ticket) may become available to third party volunteering moderators and testers who contribute to providing you with better Services, e.g. to quickly respond to your questions about the Game.
  5. Anti-cheat and anti-fraud companies: we may share the information required for our detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Games and EULA violations only for the purposes of detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Game.
  6. Fishing Planet contractors: as a US based company with contractors in different countries, we collect information that may be processed by our employees and contractors worldwide. Your information may also be processed outside of the European Economic Area, e.g. in the United States, or any other country in which we, our affiliates or contractors maintain presence.
  7. Change of control: we may share your data as part of our company’s sale, merger or change in control, or in preparation for any of these events. Any entity which buys us, or part of our business will have the right to continue using your data, but only in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy unless you agree otherwise.

When your personal data is shared with Fishing Planet contractors, as well as third parties outside the European Union or the European Economic Area, Fishing Planet guarantees an adequate level of personal data protection, including but not limited to, by entering into standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission with Fishing Planet contractors, as well as such third parties.

Sharing anonymous information. We also may share anonymous information, i.e. information which does not directly or indirectly disclose your identity, and aggregated information (meaning information about groups and categories of users, including game statistics and behaviour, but which does not identify and that cannot reasonably be used to identify any individual user) with our advertising partners. We may also allow our advertisers to collect anonymous information and aggregated information within the Services and they may then share that information with us. Our advertisers may collect this information through the use of tracking technologies like cookies and web beacons. This enables our advertisers to develop and deliver targeted advertising in the Services and on the websites of third parties, so that they can try to serve you with advertisements for products and services that are most likely to be of interest to you. Advertisers will also use this information to monitor, improve or modify their operations.

  1. RIGHT OF ACCESS

You have the right to access your Personal Data that we hold about you, i.e. the right to require free of charge (i) information whether your Personal Data is retained, (ii) access to and/or (iii) duplicates of the Personal Data retained. You can use the right to access your Personal Data by emailing us at support@fishingplanet.com. Normally, we provide the duplicate of the Personal Data retained within 30 (thirty) days upon your request.

  1. RIGHT TO RECTIFICATION

You have the right to rectify or add data if the personal information is inaccurate or incomplete. As soon as we become aware of any inaccurate personal information being processed, we will always rectify your data without undue delay and notify you accordingly. You can request a change or update in your personal data by contacting us at support@fishingplanet.com.

  1. RIGHT TO ERASURE

You have the right to obtain deletion by us of Personal Data concerning you by deleting your Account. To do so email us at support@fishingplanet.com.

As a result of deleting your Account, you will lose access to the Services, including the Account and Game-Related Information linked to the Account, and the possibility to access other services you are using the Account for.

Grace period. We allow you to restore your Account during a grace period of 30 (thirty) days from the moment you request deletion of your Account. This functionality allows you not to lose various Game-Related Information and other important information and options by mistake.

Information we retain. Upon expiry of the suspension period we will delete all Personal Data about you, except for the data that are required for our compliance with the requirements of applicable laws (e.g. tax and accounting requirements) or for our detection, investigation and prevention of cheating in the Game and EULA violations. We will retain anonymous information after your Account has been closed. Information you have shared with others (e.g. through in-Games chats, updates or group posts) will remain visible after you closed your account or deleted the information from your own profile or mailbox, and we do not control data that other Members copied out of our Services. Group content associated with closed accounts on our Sites or Forums will show an unknown user as the source. Your profile may continue to be displayed in the services of others (e.g. search engine results) until they refresh their cache.

  1. RIGHT TO OBJECT

Where processing of your Personal Data is based on legitimate interests according to Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, you can use your right to object at any time. If you object we will no longer process your Personal Data unless there are compelling and prevailing legitimate grounds for the processing or the data is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint at a supervisory authority.

  1. WE CAN CHANGE THIS POLICY

We may change this Policy from time to time for various reasons, such as legal and regulatory changes, changes in industry practices and technological developments that need to be reflected. Any changes to this Policy will be posted on this page on our website (https://fishingplanet.com/console/privacy/), and if the changes are significant, we will provide you with a more noticeable notice, like for example by public announcement of our forums and social media groups. Please make sure you check for updates to this Policy each time you use the Services.