Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 July 2024

BlackFoot Studios LLC is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. BlackFoot Studios develops and sells the game GROUND BRANCH. GROUND BRANCH is published by MicroProse Software Pty Ltd. Please see MicroProse’s website for any privacy policies that may apply to them. 

This privacy policy describes the different ways we (BlackFoot Studios) may collect, use, and share information relating to GROUND BRANCH.

Please note that BlackFoot Studios, GROUND BRANCH and MicroProse are trademarks used in the course of business by BlackFoot Studios and MicroProse, as applicable.

We describe below in Section 1 the data that we capture. We describe below in Section 2 how we use the data that we capture. We describe below in Section 3 how we retain the data that we have captured. We described below in Section 4 how we share the data that we have captured. We describe your available choices and controls in Section 5. We cover some specific jurisdictional considerations in Section 6. If you have any queries regarding the foregoing information, please see Section 7 for our contact details.

1. Data That We Capture

We collect (A) data relating to sales of GROUND BRANCH, either directly from you or via sales intermediaries (in particular, via the Steam platform). We also receive (B) information from or about you, which may include personal data, via interactions on social media, such as via our Discord server, X (formerly Twitter) account, the GROUND BRANCH Steam forums, the GROUND BRANCH page (“subreddit”) on Reddit, and elsewhere. We receive (C) data from you via interaction with our website (www.groundbranch.com), if you choose to visit our website. We may also receive (D) personal data from you via direct communications via email, private/direct messages on social media sites, and via miscellaneous other communication channels, as explained in more detail below:

A. Information relating to sales of GROUND BRANCH

We take sales orders for copies of GROUND BRANCH via the GROUND BRANCH website. These orders are redirected to a third-party storefront and payment processor (SendOwl). We receive and store details of the transaction from them, which includes potentially identifying personal information about you (essentially your contact details).

We also take sales orders for copies of GROUND BRANCH via the Steam games platform. We receive (or are at least able to access) aggregated sales data from that platform. We do not have access to data defining individual transactions by users to purchase GROUND BRANCH.

B. Information from or about you received via interactions on social media

We maintain a number of social media sites for the purpose of building a community around the game, to provide technical and other support to the players of the game, and for marketing and news purposes. During the normal course of events while using these social media accounts, and including the specific task of moderating the Discord server (and others), we will receive player profile details and the content of posts created by users (including but not limited to players of GROUND BRANCH). 

C. Information received from you via interaction with our website(s)

We may collect information from you, or cause information about you to be stored locally to you or otherwise collected, during the normal course of you browsing our websites (and in particular the www.groundbranch.com website), for example due to the use of cookies and suchlike. We use third-party providers for some aspects of our website(s), for example including WordPress to display news articles on our website and SendOwl to provide a store front and payment processing facilities. third-party providers such as these may collect information through their technology. Please see the privacy policies of these providers for more information about how they treat your personal data.

We do not ourselves actively seek to collect or store any information about you from our website(s), beyond conventional use of the normal automated systems and processes which are necessary to deliver the contents of a website to you.

D. Information received from you via direct communications

We may receive information from you as a result of you contacting us via a direct method such as e-mail or private/direct mail. This may include personally identifying information, including your e-mail address, if applicable. 

2. How We Use Data That We Have Captured

In general, we use the information we collect (either individually or in combination with other information collected as described in this policy) to help us provide, improve and market the GROUND BRANCH game, and to assist us in providing support to and receiving feedback from users of the game and the wider community.

This includes using it for purposes such as:

• Providing sales of the game, as well as support and assistance for it, including by responding to inquiries, processing transactions or requests, and communicating with users (for example to verify a purchase has been made in order to complete a refund request);
• Developing and delivering the GROUND BRANCH game;
• Promoting the GROUND BRANCH game, including measuring the effectiveness of advertisements, promotional offers, and events;
• Managing beta and community tests (and collecting feedback);
• Complying with our legal or contractual obligations and enforcing our terms; and
• Detecting fraud and otherwise protecting BlackFoot Studios and the users of GROUND BRANCH from illegal or harmful actions.

In particular, we may process received information regarding GROUND BRANCH sale transactions to generate accounting data, for the purpose of financial management (for example, to determine appropriate corporate tax payments and suchlike) and to allow us to fulfill agreements with third parties (for example to determine and to make appropriate royalty payments and suchlike).

We may also process information that does not identify you individually, including aggregate or de-identified information that we create or collect from other sources. If we were to combine this information with information that identifies you, we would treat it as described in this privacy policy, but we are not aware of any occurrence of this.

3. How We Retain Information

If you send us an e-mail or other direct message (such as a direct message on Discord or X, or similar), your message will typically reside for an indeterminate length of time in an inbox, until read and actioned, and in the same place or in an archived mail store thereafter. We have access to your posts on the social media sites that we maintain, but we do not take copies of those posts or store them anywhere ourselves. 

As a part of the development process, we remotely store bug reports submitted by users, and we remotely store crash reports submitted by users. This data does not contain personally identifying information. We do not take any active steps to store (or share) crash reports and bug reports beyond what is necessary for the normal operation of the bug reporting and crash reporting systems. 

We do not take copies of your financial data or of individual transactions relating to GROUND BRANCH, because this is handled by intermediaries (such as Steam). We do not take active steps to retain your information besides what is necessary to be able to assist you and make a reasonable record of that assistance.

4. How We Share Information

We may share some of the information we collect to help facilitate your purchase and use of the GROUND BRANCH game and to facilitate providing you with support. Depending on how you interact with us, common examples might include sharing:

• With platform partners (for example, to facilitate a GROUND BRANCH game purchase via SendOwl or Steam, or to allow use the game through a third-party platform such as Steam);
• With service providers that operate on our behalf to help support GROUND BRANCH and our marketing presence (such as the www.groundbranch.com website) in accordance with our instructions (for example, cloud storage providers, payment processors, or marketing and advertising partners);
• When we believe we must in order to comply with the law or to protect you, BlackFoot Studios or others (for example, in response to court order or subpoena, as part of an investigation of fraud or other illegal activity, or violation of our terms or policies, or if necessary to protect others from death or serious harm to body or property);
• With our publisher MicroProse (to the extent necessary and appropriate to help with their role as publisher, for example to allow them to carry out non-personally targeted marketing);
• In connection with certain types of corporate transactions (like in the event of a restructuring or the sale of all or a significant part of our business); and
• We may also share information that does not identify you with third parties, including aggregate or de-identified information, only to the extent necessary to carry out our business, to honor agreements (for example with our publisher), and to ensure effective marketing and sales of the GROUND BRANCH game.

No mobile phone numbers provided to BlackFoot Studios for security purposes and suchlike will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes.

5. Your Choices and Controls

We will try to facilitate any reasonable request regarding the information that we have collected with respect to your purchase of GROUND BRANCH or your interaction with us.

• You can request that we provide access to, or that we correct or delete, personal information we’ve collected from you. Please submit requests to access, update, or delete personal information associated with purchase or use of GROUND BRANCH by reaching out to us as described in “Contact Us” below. Note that we may ask you for additional information to help us verify who you are before completing your request. Please also note that the vast majority of information relating to your purchase or use of GROUND BRANCH will be held by third parties (such as Steam, regarding purchase and play, or social media sites, regarding communications with us relating to GROUND BRANCH) and so there is little that we can do in this regard.
• You can change your privacy settings on other parties’ websites (such as social networks) or platforms (like console providers) to limit the information they may share with us.
• You can change your browser or mobile device settings to block, manage, delete, or limit tracking technologies like cookies. In some cases, blocking or disabling cookies may cause our website(s) not to work as intended and some features may not be available.

Some parts of the world provide individuals with specific choices related to their personal information by right under local law.

6. Specific Jurisdictional Considerations

A. Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to or stored in the United States or other countries where we or our service providers operate. The data protection laws and rules in these countries may be different than those where you live. We rely on various legal mechanisms to help lawfully support transfers of information outside the country of collection where appropriate. If permissible under local law, you’re authorizing BlackFoot Studios to process your information in any of the locations where we operate (including the United States) by purchasing and playing the GROUND BRANCH game, or by interacting with us or others via our social media presence.

B. California Residents

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act or “CCPA” provides certain rights with respect to your personal information. You may have the right to: (1) request to know more about the personal information we collect, use, and disclose; (2) request deletion of your personal information; and (3) not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. We do not sell your personal information.

You can make requests via our contact details below. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your rights under the CCPA.

Through purchases of GROUND BRANCH on our website, we will typically collect: 

• Identifiers (such as email addresses);
• Commercial information (including entitlements or purchase history);

We (or third-party software that we use such as WordPress) may collect, as a consequence of the normal operation of our website:

• Internet or electronic network activity (for example, gameplay or website usage details);
• Geolocation information (such as may be derived from your IP address or included in your billing information); and
• Other “personal information” as defined under California law (like your credit or debit card information)

For details about the specific data that we collect, please see “What Information Do We Collect?” above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in “How Do We Use Information?” above.

BlackFoot Studios does not sell or share (as those are defined in the CCPA) the personal information we collect. We do, however, disclose personal information as described in this policy (see “How Do We Share Information?” above). In the past 12 months, we have disclosed personal information to the following categories of recipients:

• Service providers (as described in “How Do We Share Information?” above); and
• Operating systems and platforms.

C. Residents of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland

If you’re located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, you have certain rights regarding how your personal data is processed.

You may have the right to access, correct, or delete personal data we have collected about you. You may also have the right to a portable copy of the personal data you have provided, and to object to or restrict processing of your personal data, such as for direct marketing. Where you have provided your consent to our data processing, you have the right to withdraw consent.

You also have the right to make a complaint against us by contacting your local supervisory authority for data protection (if one exists in your country). We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you contact a data protection regulator, and ask that you direct your complaint to us first.

Please see the “Contact Us” section below to learn more about reaching out to BlackFoot Studios with any relevant concerns you may have. You can find more details about your local Data Protection Authority as follows:

• EEA: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en
• UK: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
• Switzerland: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home/the-fdpic/contact.html

The legal bases we rely on to process your personal data primarily include:

• Contractual Necessity: we process personal data to provide the GROUND BRANCH game you requested under our Terms of Service or other similar contractual agreements with you, as explained above.
• Legitimate Interests: we process personal data as needed for BlackFoot Studio’s business purposes, as balanced against the potential impact on your privacy rights. This includes many common purposes that you’d reasonably expect, such as to: communicate with you, respond to your requests, or provide you with updates and information; better understand our users and their preferences; develop, deliver, and improve the GROUND BRANCH game and other offerings; potentially to prevent fraud and illegal activity; and to support internal purposes such as auditing and data analysis.
• Legal Obligations: we process personal data when necessary to comply with legal obligations, such as responding to legitimate requests from law enforcement authorities or other government officials in accordance with relevant legal processes or processing date of birth to facilitate compliance with applicable youth protection laws.
• Consent: we process personal data when you provide us with your consent to do so, which is implied to be given when you request us to do something (such as to facilitate a purchase of the GROUND BRANCH game, or to respond to a support request) which can’t otherwise be done without processing your personal data. You aren’t required to provide consent if you do not want your personal data to be processed for the requested purposes, and you may withdraw your consent at any time.

How long we retain your personal data can vary. We generally store personal data for as long as we reasonably need it for the purposes described in this policy (like complying with our legal obligations and managing internal records), unless a long retention period is required or permitted by law.

To learn more about requesting that BlackFoot Studios delete your personal data, please see “Your Choices and Controls” and “Data Subject Rights” above.

7. Contact Us

If you want to learn more about our privacy practices or this policy, please email your questions to contact@blackfootstudios.com.