BIG VIKING GAMES INC. PRIVACY POLICY
Preamble
Big Viking Games Inc. (“BVG” or “we”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our users (“users” or “you”). BVG has adopted this Privacy Policy in order to inform you of the way we collect, store, secure, use, and manage the information you give us when using any BVG game, application, or website (together, the “Service”). Our websites includes bigvikinggames.com, yoworld.com, fishworldgame.com and others, and our games may be made available through third party platforms such as Facebook, Kongregate and others. This Privacy Policy is limited to information collected by BVG your using the Service.
What We Collect, How We Collect It And How We Use it
For the purpose of this Privacy Policy “personal information” is defined as information that can be used to identify you or by which your identity could be deduced, and any other information specifically associated with that information. We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:
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- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
- Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
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You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us using the details set out below. Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal information for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal information for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
Information That You Provide Directly to Us: When you use our Service for the first time we may collect the following personal information depending upon which part of the Service you are using: first and last name, your profile picture or its URL, IP address, email address, street address and country, date of birth and age, gender, Facebook ID and App Specific Facebook ID and/or user ID numbers and other public data for your friends.
We collect and store this information in order to provide the Service to you (for example, by your having your own account and associated characters), for fraud prevention, community support and customer support and protection. Where you play any of the games that we offer as part of the Services we may store information about your progress, actions and purchases in that games so that you can save and reuse your achievements and progress, and for display on leaderboards where we provide them. In addition, we store in-game messaging logs, which may include personal information, in order for Customer Service Representatives to help keep the Service safe for our users.
We may also offer you the option to complete a user profile that is visible to other BVG users. Your user profile may include: a profile photo; one or more game username(s); your gender; biographic details that you provide; links to your profiles; details about the games you play; and a BVG user ID number that is created by BVG and used to identify your profile.
The BVG user ID number used to identify your account and profile will be public and will appear in the URL of your profile page, but will only permit access to information that is considered public or that you have designated as public in your settings.
We may also offer you the ability to import your address book contacts or manually enter e-mail addresses so that you can (i) locate your contacts on BVG; and (ii) invite those contacts to join you in our games. We will store those contacts for purposes of helping you and your contacts make connections on our site. Passwords provided to BVG for the purpose of accessing your address book will not be stored.
If you purchase a license to use in-game virtual currency or virtual items directly from BVG, we will collect the billing and financial information necessary to process your charges, which may include your postal and e-mail addresses. BVG may also receive the billing and payment information that you provide when your purchase is processed by another party, such as Facebook (for Facebook Credits) or Apple (for purchases on iOS devices). Our Terms of Service explain our policies and terms relevant to our charges and billing practices. Please note that purchases of third party credits or currencies like Facebook Credits may also be subject to additional policies.
You may choose to disclose information about yourself in our online chat rooms, forums, game comments or in creating user “profiles.” Information that you disclose in these areas is public information and will be accessible to anyone who uses our Site. However, you may choose to have your profile page be public or private. In the case where you chose to make your profile page private, the information there (including challenges won, “my friends” list, etc.) will only be visible to you. We may record and store archives of communications in online chat rooms, forums and game comments on BVG’s servers to protect the safety and well being of our users and BVG’s rights and property in connection with the Service. You acknowledge and consent to the recording and storage of such communications for these purposes.
We may from time to time invite you to sign up to our marketing or promotional emails that we periodically send. We will not send you marketing or promotional emails if you do not opt in to receiving these emails, and we will always provide you with an easy way to opt out of receiving any more emails in each of those emails.
Information We Receive Through Mobile Applications: If you use our Service on a mobile device (such as your phone or tablet) we can collect mobile device identifiers that can include things like your MAC address and IP address. We may also collect information such as device name and type, operating system, telephone number, country and any other information you choose to provide such as your game character name or e-mail address. Additionally, we may access third party information such as your phone or Facebook contacts provided you allow your device to connect to the Service and you have given the application permission to access this information. We may only collect this information with your authorization and according to the rules you have established within your device permissions.
Information We Receive From Social Media Sites: You can access some of our Services and play some of our games through social media sites such as Facebook. When you play these games, we may be provided with some of your personal information by those social media sites. We will always ask your permission for social media to share your personal information with us. Where you continue to use the Services through the social media site then may collect certain pieces of information from you such as player IDs, session information, and purchase data, as well as personal information including email address, gender, and birthday and/or age range. This collection of information is governed by Facebook’s privacy practices and/or the applicable privacy policy of the social media sites required to access some of our Services. You should read those policies carefully where this section applies. The information that we receive about you when you play games through a social media site may also depend on your privacy and/or other settings you have with Facebook and/or other social media sites. If you want more details about what information Facebook shares via games on its platform, you should review Facebook’s and/or social media site policies.
Do Not Track: Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set in their web browsers allowing users to opt out of tracking by websites and online services. At the present time, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has not yet established universal standards for recognizable DNT signals, and, therefore, we do not recognize DNT.
Use Of Data: We use the collected data for various purposes related to our fulfilling our agreement to provide the Service to you at your request when you access the Service:
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- To provide and maintain our Service, websites and business
- To send emails and other communications and to notify you about changes to our Service
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our Service when you choose to do so
- To provide customer support and to communicate with you by responding to your requests, comments and questions
- To identify and suggest connections with other BVG users
- To enable user-to-user communications
- To provide technical support and respond to user inquiries
- To notify users of in-game updates
- To provide in-game leader boards and promote in-game player achievements
- To solicit input and feedback to improve the Service and customize your user experience
- To inform you about new products or promotional offers
- To engage commonly accepted practices, such as contracting you at the email address we have on file for various promotions
- To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our Service
- To monitor the usage of our Service
- To communicate with you for billing, account management and other administrative matters
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues
- To detect, prevent and address fraud
- To detect, prevent and address community issues such as bullying, harassment or similar issues
- As required by applicable law, process or regulation
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Where we create aggregated, de-identified or anonymized data so that it is no longer reasonably associated with an identified or identifiable person that data will no longer be personal information and this Privacy Policy will not apply to it.
Any subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with BVG (collectively, “Related Entities”), may share some or all of your personal information, in which case we will require our Related Entities to honor this Privacy Policy and your personal information will only be used for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.
If we wish to use your personal information for any other purpose we will ask you for your consent before doing so.
Sharing of Data with Third Parties: We share and disclose data for various purposes related to our fulfilling our agreement to provide the Service to you at your request when you access the Service:
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- To engage third party companies or individuals as service providers or business partners to support our business. These third parties may, for example, provide virtual computing and storage services
- To share in the event of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, sale of some or all of BVG’s assets or stock, financing, public offering of securities, acquisition of all or a portion of our business, a similar transaction or proceeding, or steps in contemplation of such activities, some or all non-personal information subject to standard confidentiality arrangements
- To disclose or use aggregated information for any purpose. For example, we may share aggregated information with prospects or partners for business or research purposes
- To comply with laws if we reasonably believe disclosure is in accordance with or required by any applicable law, regulation, or legal process
- To enforce our rights, prevent fraud, and for safety
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We do not actively share personal information with a third party advertiser for their direct marketing purpose unless you give us consent.
We may share (i) aggregated information (information about you and other users collectively, but not specifically identifiable to you); (ii) anonymous information; and (iii) certain technical information (including IP Addresses, MAC Addresses for mobile devices and mobile device IDs) to develop and deliver targeted advertising in the Service and on the websites of third parties. We may also allow advertisers to collect these types of information within the Service and they may share it with BVG. Advertisers may collect this information through the use of tracking technologies like browser cookies and web beacons. The information collected may be used to offer you targeted ad-selection and delivery in order to personalize your user experience by ensuring that advertisements for products and services you see will appeal to you, a practice known as behavioral advertising, and to undertake web analytics (i.e. to analyze traffic and other end user activity to improve your experience).
Our collection, use, and disclosure of anonymous or aggregated information are not subject to any of the restrictions in this Privacy Policy.
Data retention: BVG will retain data we process for as long as needed to provide the Service. BVG will retain and use this information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. We ensure that personal information we dispose of is de-identified or destroyed in a secure fashion.
The BVG corporate website may contain links to other websites. Should a link to a website present any advertisements, it does not mean BVG endorses or authorizes these activities and neither is it a representation of our affiliation with these third party websites. BVG is not responsible for the privacy policies of these other websites. Please read the Privacy Policies of these applicable websites when exiting the BVG corporate website and accessing these third party websites and services. BVG has no control over third party websites and cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of information while you are visiting other websites.
Third Party Platforms and Services: When accessing the Service through third party platforms such as Facebook or other social networks, or chat applications you grant us the ability to collect and store personal information via your account profile and any cookies stored by that third party platform. We use your personal information in accordance with the terms of service and the privacy settings you have set with the third party platform. We may share personal information with the third party platform in accordance with their terms of service and the privacy settings you have set.
Upon opening the Service on your device we will share some of the non-personal information we collect with third party services such as Google Analytics and third party ad networks who are engaged by us in order help operate the Service we provide to you and for data usage analysis purposes to help us provide a better service. We do not share personal information that BVG stores with the third party services we work with.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
BVG does not direct its websites, games, game engines, or applications to children (usually considered to be under the age of 16, depending on the country where you reside). We also do not intentionally collect personal information from children through our websites, games, game engines, or applications. If you are the parent or guardian of a child and you believe that we have inadvertently received personal information about that child, please contact us as described in the “How to Contact Us” section of this policy and we will delete the information from our records.
COOKIES
When you visit the BVG corporate website we may store cookies on your device e.g. your computer, phone, tablet, or any other device. Cookies are small text files containing information about your navigation on a website. If want to opt out of cookies you can disable and clear them in your browser.
We and service providers acting on our behalf, such as Google Analytics, collect and analyze certain types of technical information, including cookies, IP addresses, device type, device identifiers, browser types, browser language, referring and exit pages, and URLs, platform type, the number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, game state and the date and time of activity on our websites or games, and other similar information. In some cases, we will associate this information with your user ID number for our internal use.
We may also employ other technologies including: (i) web beacons, which allow Us to know if a certain page was visited or whether an e-mail was opened; (ii) tracking pixels, which allow BVG to advertise more efficiently by excluding our current users from certain promotional messages, identifying the source of a new installation or delivering ads to you on other websites; and (iii) local shared objects also known as flash cookies, which help Us to prevent fraud, remember your in-game preferences and speed up load times.
You can set your web browser to warn you about attempts to place cookies on your computer or limit the type of cookies you allow. Flash cookies operate differently than browser cookies and cookie management tools available in a web browser may not remove flash cookies. To learn more about and manage flash cookies you can visit adobe.com and make changes at the privacy settings panel. If you disable cookies, you may lose some of the features and functionality of playing our games, as BVG cookies are necessary to track and enhance your game activities. Please note that companies delivering advertisements in our games or on our websites may also use cookies or other technologies, and those practices are subject to their own policies.
YOUR RIGHTS
We aim to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your personal information. Whenever made possible, you can update your personal information directly within your account settings section. If you are unable to change your personal information, please contact us to make the required changes.
If you wish to be informed what Personal information we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us using the contact details set out at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.
In certain circumstances, you have the right:
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- To access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- To rectify any personal information held about you that is inaccurate
- To request the deletion of personal information held about you
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You have the right to data portability for the information you provide to us. You can request to obtain a copy of your personal information in a commonly used electronic format so that you can manage and move it.
Please note that we may ask you to verify your identity before responding to such requests. Depending on the mechanism that you used to set up your account, you may only be able to access your rights regarding your personal information if you access your account through that same mechanism. For example, if you set up your account with us through Facebook, we will only be able to identify you from your Facebook identifier, and we will not know your name, email address or other information by which we could readily identify you. In that case you will still need to log in to your account through Facebook in order for us to be able to identify and help you.
To exercise your rights regarding your personal information that we store please contact BVG at [email protected]. Deleting personal information may affect your ability to access some or all of the Service and may result in the permanent deletion of all purchases that you have made in our services. Any such deletion is permanent and cannot be restored after deletion. If you request such deletion then you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any loss you may suffer as a result of such deletion. BVG will take all reasonable steps to respond to your request to review or delete your personal information within 30 business days.
REQUEST DATA DELETION
At any time, you can request the deletion of personal information held about you. To exercise your rights regarding the deletion of your personal information that we store, please contact BVG at [email protected]. BVG will take all reasonable steps to respond to your request to review or delete your personal information within 30 business days.
Alternatively, you can delete your account from within either of BVG’s games: YoWorld and Fish World. In YoWorld, select the “Account” button from the top of the game bar, and then select “Privacy Settings” tab. From here, there is a blue “Delete My Account” button. In Fish World, select the “Account” button from the top game bar and then at the bottom of this page, select “Delete My Account”.
SECURITY OF INFORMATION
Data security for our games implements best industry practices to reduce the possibility of a data breach. These include, but are not limited to implementing industry standard Identity and Access Management procedures, performing periodic backups of the data as well as having implemented, tested and documented disaster recovery procedures.
YOUR RIGHTS IN CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS
Individuals located in certain countries, including the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, have certain statutory rights in relation to their personal data. Subject to any exemptions provided by law, you may have the right to request access to personal information, as well as to seek to update, delete or correct personal information.
To the extent that BVG’s processing of your personal information is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (or applicable laws covering the processing of Personal Data in the United Kingdom), BVG relies on its legitimate interests, described above, to process your personal information.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Members who are California residents may request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, certain information about personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding personal information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared information in the immediately preceding calendar year. BVG does not sell (as such term is defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act) the personal information we collect (and will not sell it without providing a right to opt out).
If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to [email protected].
CONTACTING US
BVG welcomes your feedback regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have questions, comments, or concerns please contact us: [email protected] or at the mailing address below:
Big Viking Games Inc.
70 Peter Street, Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5V 2G5
As noted above, if you wish to exercise your rights regarding your personal information please do so through the account settings section of your personal profile.
CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY
BVG often reviews its policies and procedures and reserves the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. BVG will post changes to this page and encourage you to review our Privacy Policy to stay informed. If we make changes that materially affect your privacy rights, BVG will provide additional notice, such as via email or through the Services. If you disagree with the changes to this Privacy Policy, you should deactivate your Services account.
DEFINED TERMS USED IN THIS POLICY
Usage Data
Usage Data is data collected automatically either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on a User’s device.
Data Controller
Data Controller means a person who (either alone or jointly or in common with other persons) determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal information are, or are to be, processed.
Data Processor (or Service Providers)
Data Processor (or Service Provider) means any person (other than an employee of the Data Controller) who processes the data on behalf of the Data Controller.
Data Subject
Data Subject is any living individual who is the subject of Personal information.
User
The User is the individual using our Service. The User corresponds to the Data Subject, who is the subject of Personal information.
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BigVikingGames Inc. Privacy Policy Last Updated March 2024