Privacy Policy

This policy explains what ShardHop collects, why, and what choices you have. ShardHop is operated from Ontario, Canada, and we handle personal information in line with Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA).

1. What we collect

• Account information you give us: username, email address, and anything you add to your profile.
• Content you post: listings, reviews, forum posts, and messages.
• Voting data: the in-game name you enter, plus technical signals used to keep voting fair (see Section 3).
• Technical data: a hashed form of your IP address, a cookie identifier, a coarse browser fingerprint, and approximate country.

2. How we use it

• To run your account, listings, votes, and community activity.
• To keep rankings honest and detect vote fraud and abuse.
• To respond to you, and to meet legal obligations.

3. Vote data and your IP address

We do not store raw IP addresses long-term. IPs are salted and hashed to count votes and catch manipulation. A raw value may be kept briefly (around 30 days) strictly for abuse investigation, then purged. Owners never see your IP address — only whether a vote counted and, if not, a reason code.

4. Cookies

We use cookies to keep you logged in, remember preferences, and identify repeat votes. You can control cookies in your browser; some features won't work without them.

5. How we share

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who help us run the site (for example, hosting and anti-abuse), and where required by law or to protect the site and its users.

6. Your choices and rights

You can view and edit your account details at any time, and you can ask us to access, correct, or delete your personal information. Contact [your contact email]. Some information may be retained where we have a legal reason to keep it.

7. Data retention

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes above or as required by law. Hashed vote data is kept to enforce fair-play rules; raw abuse-investigation data is short-lived as described in Section 3.

8. Children

ShardHop is not directed at young children, and a large part of this audience is under 18. We collect the minimum needed and apply age limits to anything resembling a transaction. If you believe a child has given us information they shouldn't have, contact us and we'll remove it.

9. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your information, but no online service is perfectly secure. Please use a strong, unique password.

10. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be posted here with a new "last updated" date.

11. Contact

Privacy questions or requests: [your contact email].