Privacy policy

Your privacy at a glance

Signing in lets you save your games, playtime and ratings. Your privacy settings control supported profile sharing. Your Wishlist, ratings and playtime may contribute to community statistics even when your profile is private. Statistics do not show your name or account ID, but may be based on one contribution. Whether a value can be connected to a person depends on the information available, not just the contributor count.

UGDB uses privacy-limited Vercel Web Analytics to understand aggregate public traffic and a small list of completed product actions. Private and administrator page views are excluded, and these analytics are not joined to your UGDB account or personal gaming records.

Administrator statistics update — 25 October 2026: Authorised administrators can see counts of Wishlist, owned Games, play statuses and rated Games, including for private profiles, plus site-wide daily Wishlist-addition counts. These summaries do not show Game titles, scores, playtime logs or private drafts. Recording starts when the feature is enabled; earlier additions are not reconstructed. This update is announced through notices on UGDB rather than an email. You can object through support@ugdb.gg.

Questions or requests? Email support@ugdb.gg, including if you cannot sign in.

About UGDB

Ultimate Game Database (UGDB) is operated by Aytaç Sarkmaz, the data controller for the processing described in this policy. Contact support@ugdb.gg for privacy questions, or info@ugdb.gg for general enquiries.

What we collect and why

• Google sign-in: account identifier, email, name and profile picture where provided, through Supabase Authentication. The identifier associates saved records with your account. Your Google name appears in the signed-in session and is a fallback where no UGDB display name exists. Our current Profile uses a letter avatar, not your Google picture. We do not receive your Google password or request access to Gmail, Drive, calendars or contacts. Your Google email is not a public profile field.
• Your gaming information: display name, privacy choices, Wishlist, platforms, ownership, playthroughs, playtime, timer sessions, ratings and timestamps, to provide the features you use.
• Contributions: drafts, suggestions, artwork, account associations and review records, to manage catalogue improvements.
• Support and privacy requests: your email, message and attachments, plus minimal handling notes, deadlines and outcomes, to answer and follow up requests.
• Technical information: connection and request information, which may include IP addresses, browser details, URLs, timestamps and security/error events, to deliver and protect UGDB. This can be collected automatically, including when you browse without signing in.
• Privacy-limited usage analytics: aggregate public page views and an allowlisted set of completed actions: finishing profile setup, performing a Search, adding a Game to Wishlist or Collection, saving an Overall or eight-dimension Rating, logging playtime, and completing a Share action. Vercel Web Analytics can report a redacted route template, timestamp, referrer, approximate location, browser, operating system and device category. UGDB removes query strings, URL fragments and dynamic identifiers from the page or event URL it sends; excludes private and administrator page views; and replaces the URL of a private custom event with a neutral private-action label. Event properties are limited to a fixed search surface or a coarse single/bulk or manual/timer source. We do not send UGDB user IDs, names, email addresses, search text, Game identifiers or titles, Rating scores, playtime durations or arbitrary event details, and we do not join this analytics data to UGDB account records.
• Restricted operational statistics: counts calculated from existing gaming records help investigate account-feature problems; site-wide totals help us understand feature use. New Wishlist insertions also update a daily site-wide count. Counter storage contains a UTC date and count, not names, member or Game identifiers, or individual events. It does not create a per-person activity history or link gaming records with Vercel Web Analytics.

Sign-in information is necessary for account features, not public browsing. Other information is supplied when you use particular features. Google handles your Google account under its privacy policy.

Legal grounds

The grounds below apply to the stated purposes, not to every possible use of information received from Google or another provider. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests through support. We assess objections individually; having a private profile does not itself switch off community statistics.

Recognising your account and saving requested gaming records

Performance of the service agreement for information necessary to provide the account features you request.

Handling requested catalogue submissions

Performance of the requested contribution service where necessary. Our legitimate interest in maintaining an accurate catalogue and investigating abuse applies to necessary review and provenance records, subject to your rights.

Protecting accounts and keeping UGDB available

Legitimate interests in preventing unauthorised access, investigating abuse and diagnosing failures.

Answering enquiries

Legitimate interests in responding to people who contact us; performance of the service agreement where account support is necessary to provide that service.

Responding to privacy requests and completing account deletion

Compliance with applicable data-protection obligations. The limited completed-deletion receipt also serves our legitimate interest in preventing removed accounts from being accidentally restored.

Community statistics

Legitimate interests in helping people compare games through community ratings, anticipation and completion times. This is separate from saving your private records and remains subject to individual privacy objections.

Understanding aggregate use and improving UGDB

Legitimate interests in understanding which public routes and core features are used, diagnosing broad adoption problems and prioritising improvements. The minimised Web Analytics configuration is separate from account records and remains subject to individual privacy objections.

Restricted member counts and site-wide gaming-feature statistics

Legitimate interests in investigating account-feature problems using limited member counts, and understanding feature use through site-wide totals. These uses include private profiles and remain subject to individual privacy objections. They are not used for advertising or decisions about account eligibility.

YouTube handles information under its own policies when you choose to load its player, as explained below. Pressing Play or reading this policy is not automatically consent to every use by Google. Our assessment of the player’s additional processing and any consent requirements remains under review; we do not claim that privacy-enhanced mode exempts all processing from consent.

We do not sell personal data, send marketing emails, or make solely automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Who can see your information?

Profile setup records your Public or Private choice; neither is preselected. Separate Ratings and Collection settings do not override a private profile. The current website does not provide a public member-profile page or directory: your Profile page shows your own account. These settings do not switch off community statistics.

Eligible Wishlist, rating and playtime contributions can feed community statistics regardless of profile visibility, without your name or account ID. A statistic can reflect just one contribution, so context may still reveal an individual value.

Wishlist statistics use saved Wishlist entries. Rating statistics use scored ratings, with an overall score entered separately from individual dimensions. Typical playtime uses reviewed completed playthroughs for supported completion approaches, rather than a running timer.

Drafts are private to you in the application. Submitted suggestions are available to authorised reviewers; accepted catalogue facts and artwork may become public. Avoid including unnecessary personal information in submissions.

Restricted administrator summaries can show your UGDB name (or Google name if you have not chosen one), profile visibility, account-created date and contribution counts. They can also show current counts of Wishlist Games, owned Games, play statuses and rated Games, even for private profiles, to help investigate account-feature problems. These summaries do not show individual Game titles, rating scores, playtime logs or private drafts. Site-wide totals help us understand feature use. The summaries are not public, and profile-sharing settings do not switch them off. People authorised to operate UGDB’s database, hosting or email systems can have additional access needed to maintain the service, investigate security problems or handle support.

Site-wide Wishlist-addition counts start when recording is enabled; earlier additions are not reconstructed. Removing an entry lowers the current Wishlist count but does not undo an earlier addition. Removing and adding the same Game again counts as another addition. A small total may still be linked to someone using other information, so removing identifiers does not guarantee anonymity. You can ask about the start date or object to these uses at support@ugdb.gg, even if you cannot sign in. We assess objections individually and can restrict the new summaries and future counter contributions without blocking ordinary account features.

Providers and international transfers

Supabase

Sign-in identity, saved gaming records, submissions, artwork and relevant technical records for authentication, storage and database services.

Vercel

Web requests and relevant connection, security and error information for hosting and delivery; route-redacted public page views and allowlisted, minimised action events for aggregate Web Analytics.

Google Workspace

Support/general email and attachments; minimal privacy-request follow-up notes and email links in a manual Google Tasks list.

Providers do not necessarily act only on UGDB’s instructions for every kind of information. Vercel distinguishes hosted customer data, processed on our behalf, from personal information in service-generated and contact data for which it acts as a separate controller. Google handles Google sign-in and YouTube under its own policies, separately from our use of Workspace for correspondence.

We may disclose information when required by law. Our primary Supabase database is in Frankfurt; this does not mean every provider processes information only in the EEA. Provider support and delivery can involve other countries, including the United States and Singapore.

Supabase’s and Vercel’s published processing agreements provide European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses for covered transfers. Google Workspace uses Google’s EU–US Data Privacy Framework arrangements for covered US transfers and contractual safeguards for other restricted transfers. These safeguards are separate from our database location and from Google’s own sign-in and YouTube services. Our review of the providers’ wider processing and transfer arrangements is ongoing. You can request information about safeguards at support@ugdb.gg.

See Supabase’s transfer explanation, Vercel’s processing agreement, Vercel’s privacy notice, and Google’s transfer arrangements.

Cookies, browser storage and videos

Authentication cookies maintain sign-in and are renewed as the authentication service refreshes your session. Browser storage remembers your rating-view preference and browsing position. Clearing it does not delete your server-side records. The rating-view preference has no set application expiry; the scroll-restoration entry is removed when used and otherwise belongs to the browser session. Deletion confirmation uses short-lived, ten-minute cookies; deletion-status access lasts up to 30 days and is separate from server-side retention of the deletion receipt.

Vercel describes Web Analytics as aggregate reporting that does not use analytics cookies. Its daily visitor hash resets after one day and is not an UGDB account identifier. This does not mean that every possible URL or event would be harmless, so UGDB still excludes private and administrator page views and minimises the routes and events described above. Authentication cookies and YouTube's behavior after you choose Play are separate from Web Analytics.

YouTube videos: UGDB serves preview images through its own website; your browser does not load the YouTube player until you press Play. Our server fetches the preview from YouTube without forwarding your browser headers. Playing loads YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player and connects your browser to Google/YouTube, which can receive your IP address, browser information and playback interactions and may use browser storage. Privacy-enhanced mode does not mean no data transfer. Close player unloads the player, but does not clear YouTube’s stored browser data or erase information already received by Google. You can also choose Watch on YouTube. See Google’s privacy policy.

Keeping and deleting information

You can request deletion from your Profile. Before confirming, you can download your profile and gaming records; this download does not include drafts, suggestions or uploaded files. Contact support@ugdb.gg for a wider access request. Signing out or disconnecting Google does not delete UGDB records. Deleting UGDB does not delete your Google account.

Deletion blocks account access while background cleanup removes your profile, personal gaming records, saved drafts and pending submissions. It also removes the Supabase sign-in account and linked identity/session records, including stored email and Google identity metadata. This does not delete an externally hosted Google profile picture. Known unpublished uploads no longer needed elsewhere are removed, and community statistics are refreshed without your ratings, playtime and Wishlist contributions.

Account deletion also removes your member gaming-count summary and contributions to current operational totals. Historical site-wide addition counts are separate from current Wishlist and community statistics. We retain historical counts after deletion only where they no longer relate to an identifiable person. If context can still connect a count to you, we assess your request and restrict or remove affected statistics where required; we do not keep an identity-linked event history just to adjust anonymous totals.

The status page reports completion of the account-removal and known-data cleanup checks; it does not certify erasure of every provider copy. During this alpha, a rare upload finishing after those checks may leave a private file requiring follow-up. Unfinished deletion requests are included in daily operator checks. Report a problem through support, including if the status page says complete but you believe private information remains. We investigate reported leftovers separately. Our monthly review also covers possible leftover files; this is not a guarantee that every late upload is automatically discovered.

Approved catalogue facts and artwork may remain where we are entitled to keep them, without your account attribution. Related review, provenance and audit history may also remain with account links removed; this alone does not make every retained detail anonymous. We separately assess personal information within contributions and any licence-required attribution.

The private recovery receipt contains the request ID, former account ID, status and timestamps, with a 30-day expiry target after verified completion. Actual expiry depends on worker execution. Unfinished requests remain for recovery and need review; restored-account exceptions are assessed separately. Completed receipts contain no gaming records, drafts or uploaded files.

How long information stays

The following distinguishes current behaviour from cleanup targets. A target does not mean cleanup has already run. Our first scheduled operational retention review is October 12, 2026; the monthly and annual review routines are not yet established through repeated operation.

Accounts, collections and saved text drafts

Kept to provide the account features while your account remains open, unless you remove the relevant records or request account deletion. There is no automatic inactivity expiry. An annual review is planned; detailed dormancy criteria are still being developed. Discarding unsaved edits does not remove saved drafts.

Withdrawn Game suggestions

New withdrawals remove saved text and leave a small private retry record. Target: 90 days from withdrawal, then identify it for removal at the monthly review. Automatic expiry is not yet implemented; historical withdrawn text and artwork require separate checks.

Rejected private suggestions

Target: remove private contents and identifiable review history after 90 days, subject to specific justified exceptions. Manual cleanup is available but not automatic. Earlier removal and account deletion remain separate.

Pending submissions and other review records

At the monthly review, submissions pending for 90 days are considered for a decision or a specific continuing reason, next action and review date. This is not automatic rejection or deletion. Accepted contributions and necessary review history are assessed separately.

Ordinary support conversations

Target: removal at the monthly review after 12 months from the latest resolution, ordinarily 12–13 months. Reopened cases restart the period. Specific legal/security exceptions need a reason and review date.

Privacy-request records, including Tasks notes

Target: necessary handling/outcome evidence for 12 months after final closure, removed at the next monthly review, ordinarily 12–13 months. Working copies are minimised after verified delivery. Specific exceptions need a reason and review date. Completing a Task does not delete its notes.

Member gaming-count summaries

Calculated when requested from current records; no separate per-member statistics history is retained. Existing source-record and account-deletion rules continue to apply.

Site-wide Wishlist-addition counters

Kept while needed for day, week, month and since-start operational comparisons. At the annual retention review, we check actual use, remove unnecessary detail and remove the dataset if the measure is discontinued or no longer serves a documented operational purpose. There is no automatic expiry. Identifiability and privacy requests can require earlier restriction or removal.

Provider logs and backups

Provider copies have separate periods. The current Supabase Pro plan provides seven days of daily database-backup access and lists seven-day service-log retention. Database backups exclude artwork files. Vercel’s enabled Observability Plus provides a 30-day runtime-log window. These are not blanket expiry periods for database audit rows, build/security records or all provider-internal copies. See Supabase backups, plan information and Vercel runtime logs.

Web Analytics reports are separate from Vercel runtime logs. The one-day visitor-hash reset does not mean aggregate reports are deleted after one day. UGDB does not keep a separate raw analytics event store; provider availability and retention remain governed by the applicable Vercel service settings and terms.

Vercel’s processing agreement uses continuing need for the stated purposes as the retention criterion for personal information in service-generated and contact data; it does not give those records the same fixed period as runtime logs. Ending UGDB’s hosting agreement is different from deleting one UGDB account.

Gmail ordinarily keeps deleted mail in Trash for 30 days; administrators have a further 25-day recovery window after permanent deletion. Earlier permanent deletion changes when that recovery period starts. Applicable holds can retain mail longer. Google’s processing terms separately allow up to 180 days for system deletion after covered data becomes unrecoverable by the customer, subject to legal storage requirements. These are not all-copy erasure promises from the date UGDB removes a support message, and Gmail’s recovery periods must not be assumed for Tasks. See Gmail recovery and Google’s processing terms.

Your rights

Depending on applicable law and circumstances, you can request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability or object to processing. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it without affecting earlier lawful processing. Email support@ugdb.gg, even if you cannot sign in. We may need to verify your identity, but never send us your password.

We respond without undue delay and normally within one month of receiving your request. Where permitted because of complexity or the number of requests, we may take up to two additional months; we will explain the extension and its reasons within the first month.

You can complain to your local data-protection authority, including the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Intended audience

UGDB is intended for adults aged 18 and over and is not directed at children. Browsing the public catalogue does not require an account. We do not currently collect birthdays or require an identity-document age check. Contact support@ugdb.gg with a concern about a child’s data.

Policy changes

This policy shows its effective date. For important changes, we will explain what changes and when through a prominent website notice before the changes take effect, with additional direct communication where appropriate. The October 2026 administrator-statistics update uses website notices rather than email. A notice or continued use of UGDB is not treated as consent where consent is required.