Privacy policy

This policy explains what information Sapphire Studios collects through this website, how we use it, where it is kept, and what rights you have over it. It is written in plain English. If something is not clear, you are welcome to get in touch.

Who we are

Sapphire Studios is an independent Minecraft content studio. We develop and publish content through the official Minecraft Marketplace, operated by Microsoft and Mojang. This website is informational: you cannot create an account, log in or buy anything here. We are the data controller for the information described on this page.

What we collect, and why

We only collect information you choose to send us. There are four places on this website where that happens.

Contact form

Your name, email address, a category, the subject and your message. We use it to reply to you and for nothing else.

Help form

Your name, email address, a category, the platform you play on if you tell us, the subject and your message. We use it to help you with the problem you describe.

Careers application form

Your name, email address, your location if you give it, a portfolio link if you give one, and what you write about yourself. We use it to review your application and to contact you about it. We do not pass applications to anyone outside the studio.

Newsletter

Your email address, the page you signed up from, and the date you confirmed. We use it to send you news about our releases and the studio. Signing up is a two-step process: we first send one confirmation email, and we only add you to the list once you click the link in it. Every newsletter contains an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing takes effect at once. We send newsletters ourselves; your address is not given to a mailing company.

Protection against spam

Each form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that the form was filled in by a person. We also keep a one-way hash of your internet address for a short time when you submit a form or sign up. It lets us slow down anyone sending hundreds of messages and cannot be turned back into your address.

What we do not collect

We do not run advertising, tracking pixels, fingerprinting or social media trackers. We do not set cookies for visitors, which is why there is no cookie banner. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits and see which pages are read; it works without cookies and does not build a profile of you.

We do not collect payment information. Purchases happen on the Minecraft Marketplace, operated by Microsoft, and are governed by Microsoft's Privacy Statement, not this one.

If you browse this site and never fill in a form, we hold nothing that identifies you.

Where your data is kept

Everything you send us is stored in a database on a server we rent from OVH and operate ourselves. Nobody but the studio's staff can read it. We do not use a third-party form service, and we do not sell or share your data with anyone for their own purposes.

Three companies help us run the site and handle data on our behalf:

• Cloudflare delivers the website, protects the forms (Turnstile) and counts visits (Web Analytics). Your requests pass through Cloudflare's network to reach our server.
• Google Workspace carries our email. A copy of each message you send us is emailed to our inbox, our replies come from it, and newsletters are sent through it.
• OVH provides the server. OVH does not access the data on it.

How long we keep your data

• Contact and help messages: until the conversation is closed, and no longer than 12 months after that.
• Job applications: up to 6 months from the date you applied.
• Newsletter addresses: until you unsubscribe. After that we keep only the address and the fact that you unsubscribed, so that you are never mailed again by mistake.
• Unconfirmed newsletter sign-ups: deleted after 30 days if the link was never clicked.
• Hashed internet addresses used for spam protection: 30 days.

If you would like your data deleted before then, just ask. See "Your rights" below.

Security

Everything you send is transmitted over HTTPS. The database and the uploaded files are backed up every night; backups are kept for 30 days and are only used to recover from a failure. Staff access to the data requires a login that only named studio accounts can use.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over the personal data we hold. These include the right to:

• Ask us what data we hold about you
• Ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Ask us to delete your data
• Withdraw your consent to the newsletter at any time (the unsubscribe link does this)
• Object to how we are using your data
• Ask us to restrict our use of your data while a dispute is being resolved

We respond to requests within 30 days. If you are in the UK or the EU and are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to your data protection authority; in the UK that is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Children's privacy

This website is not directed at children under 13, and the newsletter is for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent us data, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we update the date at the top of this page. We will not reduce your rights over data we already hold without telling you directly.