HonestGamers is run by Jason Venter, based in Oregon, USA. This page explains what the site collects about visitors and account holders, why, how long it's kept, and what you can do about it. Questions or requests go through the contact form.
The short version
Reading HonestGamers doesn't require an account, and nothing about you personally is recorded when you do.
Detailed visitor statistics are collected only if you allow analytics in your cookie settings, and even then they can't identify you.
IP addresses are never stored by the site itself. (The contact form keeps a scrambled code made from yours to stop spam, as explained below, and it can't be turned back into the address.)
Your information is never sold, or handed over to advertisers or data brokers.
Chat messages, and any images or files attached to them, are erased after 90 days.
Advertising partners such as Google can set their own cookies only if you allow advertising in your cookie settings. Otherwise, you'll see only HonestGamers' own ads, which don't track you. In Europe, the UK and Switzerland, Google asks you itself, as explained under Advertising.
If you create an account, you can change or delete it yourself at any time. If you can't sign in at all, contact us from the address on the account and we'll delete it for you.
What's collected from every visitor
View counts. Each time a review, preview, news story or guide page is read, its view count for that day goes up by one. Nothing else is recorded: no cookie, no IP address, no details about you or your device. (Views by signed-in staff aren't counted. That check uses only whether you're signed in, and nothing is saved.)
Searches. When you search for a game, the words you searched and how many games were found are saved for the site's statistics, with nothing to show who searched.
Server logs. Like nearly every website, the web server keeps routine logs of requests (IP address, time, page requested, and browser type) to keep the site secure and working. These logs are used only for that purpose and are deleted automatically after 10 days.
Ad counts. Each time one of HonestGamers' own ads is shown or clicked, that ad's total for the day goes up by one, so we know how ads are performing. As with view counts, nothing about you is recorded.
What's collected only if you allow analytics
If you turn on analytics in your cookie settings, each page you visit also records:
which page it was, and the name of the site that sent you there (for example, "reddit.com", never the full address)
your country, found by looking up your IP address in a list kept on our own server. The address itself is used only for that lookup and is never saved.
your screen size, your browser's language setting, and a general description of your device (for example, "Windows, Chrome, desktop")
a random ID created by your own browser and kept in its local storage, so that several pages visited by the same person can be counted as one visitor. It isn't linked to your name, your account, or anything else.
Visit-by-visit records are kept for 90 days. After that they're combined into daily totals (such as "40 visits from Canada on May 3") and the individual records are deleted.
If you later turn analytics off, collection stops and the random ID is removed from your browser.
If you create an account
Always: your username, email address, and password (stored only in scrambled form, so nobody at HonestGamers can read it).
If you choose to add them: your first and last name, a short reviewer bio, a profile photo, a forum signature, and links to your Patreon, Ko-fi or PayPal donation page.
Whether to show your name: your first and last name appear around the site only if you check the box for that on your account page. Otherwise your username is shown in their place. You can change this at any time.
For security: a count of recent failed sign-in attempts, and, if you choose "stay signed in," a sign-in record that lasts 30 days.
Your cookie choices, with the date you made them, as a record that you gave (or declined) consent.
If your account is suspended or banned: when it happened, who did it, until when, and the reason.
Your email address is used to verify your account, reset your password, and send notices about your account or your submissions. It's never shown publicly or used for marketing. Accounts that aren't verified within 24 hours are deleted automatically.
Your username is always public. It appears on your reviews, forum posts, blog, ratings and game collection, and in their web addresses.
Writers and editors: your byline (your name if you've chosen to show it, otherwise your username), bio, and photo appear publicly with your reviews and articles. Editorial notes and earlier versions of articles are kept so the editorial team can track changes.
Staff records: when staff change an account (its level, a suspension, a ban, a new username), the change is noted in a log with who made it and when, so the team can see what happened.
Reviews, ratings and collections
Reader reviews you submit are stored with your account and shown publicly once they're live. Game ratings you give appear publicly with your username, on the game's page and in the site's rating charts. Your game collection is shown on your blog.
Forums and feedback
When you post on the forums, or leave feedback under a review or news story, HonestGamers stores what you wrote, where you posted it, and when it was posted or last edited. Posts appear publicly with your username, profile photo and signature, apart from boards that only staff or freelancers can read.
Deleting your own post hides it from readers right away. Deleted posts, and posts that moderators remove, stay on the server so that moderation decisions can be reviewed.
Reporting a post records who reported it and the reason chosen. Reports are seen only by moderators and staff, and their decisions are recorded with who made them and when.
Blogs
If you keep a blog on HonestGamers, your posts, the images you upload to your blog library, and the colors and layout you choose for your blog are stored so they can be shown. Published posts and the comments on them are public.
Comments are stored with your account, the post and the comment they answer, when they were posted, and when they were last edited. You can edit a comment for 15 minutes after posting it, and delete it at any time. Deleting it erases its text right away, leaving "This message is no longer available." in its place so the replies to it still make sense. A blog's owner can turn comments off on a post and block members from commenting on their blog. The site stores whom they've blocked, and when.
Reporting a comment records who reported it, the reason chosen, and any note added. Moderators, and a blog's owner on their own posts, can remove comments. Reports and decisions are recorded with who made them and when. A removed comment's text is kept for 90 days so the decision can be reviewed, then erased.
HG Mail
Private messages you send to other members are stored with the sender, the recipient, the subject, the message, and whether it has been opened. Each person deletes only their own copy, and a message is erased once both have deleted it. You can block members from mailing you. The site stores whom you've blocked. If a blocked member tries to send you a message, it isn't delivered, and they're told so.
Notifications
When something happens that concerns you, such as a reply to your forum thread or feedback on your review, the site stores a notification for you: what happened, who did it, and a link to it. You can clear your notifications at any time from your Activity page.
Pitches (writers and editors)
Writers at contributor level and above can pitch article ideas to the editors, and editors can assign articles to writers. Each pitch stores its title, type, and notes, who pitched or assigned it, who accepted or passed on it and when, its due date, and a thread of every step taken on it and every comment left there. All contributors, editors, and staff can see every pitch.
Pitches that were passed on or dropped are erased, thread and all, once nothing has happened on them for 30 days. Other pitches are kept as a record of the articles written from them.
Chat
Members with a verified account can use HonestGamers' chat. For each person, it stores:
Your messages, with any image or file you attach, the reactions you add, and whom you @mention. Messages in a channel are seen by everyone who can use that channel. Direct messages are seen only by the people in them. Nobody else can open them on the site, staff included, unless a message is reported (see below). Images and files can be opened only by people who can see the message.
Link previews. When a message includes a link, HonestGamers' server visits that page to fetch its title, description, and picture, and shows them under the message. Your browser doesn't contact the linked site to do this. A preview is kept only while a message still shows it. A YouTube video in a preview loads from YouTube, in its privacy-enhanced mode, only if you press play.
Your status (such as Busy or On vacation, and until when, for up to 90 days) and the time you last used chat, which is how the site knows when to show you as Idle.
Your place in each conversation: when you joined it, the last message you've read, and whether you've muted it. While you type, others in the conversation see that you're typing. That note is erased within a day.
Pins: who pinned a message, and when.
Blocks: whom you've blocked in chat, and when. The person you block isn't told.
Chat messages, with their images and files, are erased 90 days after they're posted. A thread is erased as a whole, 90 days after its latest reply. Deleting one of your own messages erases its text and attachment right away, leaving "Message deleted" in its place.
Reporting a chat message records who reported it, the reason chosen, and any note added, and keeps a copy of the message's text so moderators can read it even if the writer deletes it. Moderators also see the few messages just before it, for context, even in a direct message. The writer isn't told who reported it. Moderators' decisions are recorded with who made them and when. The report and its copy of the text are kept until a moderator decides, then erased 90 days later.
The contact form
Messages sent through the contact form are stored with the email address you give, the topic, the title, and the message itself, plus your account if you were signed in when you sent it. Staff replies are sent to that address by email, and a copy of each is kept with the message, along with who sent it and when.
To limit spam, the form also stores a scrambled code made from your IP address. It lets the site count how many messages come from the same place, but it can't be turned back into the address. Messages, replies, and these codes are all erased 90 days after the message arrives.
If an address is used to send spam or abuse, staff can block it. The site then keeps that email address (with who blocked it and when) so it can turn away later messages from it. Blocked addresses stay on that list until staff remove them.
Cookies and browser storage
Name | What it's for | How long | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID | Keeps you signed in as you move between pages | Until you close your browser | Necessary |
hg_remember | Keeps you signed in, if you chose "stay signed in" | 30 days | Necessary |
cookie_consent | Remembers your cookie choices | About 13 months | Necessary |
visitor_token | Links your cookie choices to your browser when you're not signed in | About 13 months | Necessary |
last_outlet_used, last_max_score_used | Remember the last choices on a staff tool for adding review links (staff only) | 7 days | Necessary |
hg_vid (local storage) | The random visitor ID described above | Until you turn analytics off or clear your browser | Analytics |
Google and other ad partners' cookies | Measure ads and choose which ads to show, as described under Advertising below | Set by each partner | Advertising (only if you allow it) |
Advertising
HonestGamers shows ads in hopes of generating sufficient revenue to pay for operating expenses and to compensate our contributors. There are two kinds:
HonestGamers' own ads, including ads placed directly by sponsors, are shown to everyone. They use no cookies and record nothing about you. Only a daily total of how often each ad was shown and clicked is kept.
Ads from partner networks such as Google AdSense appear only if you allow advertising in your cookie settings. If you don't, their code isn't loaded at all.
In Europe, the UK and Switzerland, Google's ads work a little differently. There, Google's own consent message asks what you allow, using a tool Google has certified for those places, and HonestGamers' cookie banner isn't shown. Google's code is loaded so that the message can appear. If you don't agree to cookies in it, Google may still show ads that are chosen without cookies or information about you, such as ads that fit the page you're reading. You can change your answer at any time from "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page. HonestGamers' own optional analytics stay off for you unless you turn them on there.
If you do allow advertising: third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet. These partners receive information directly from your browser, such as your IP address, device details, and the pages where their ads appear, and they handle it under their own privacy policies. Google explains its part at How Google uses information from sites that use its services.
You can opt out of personalized advertising at any time in Google's Ads Settings, or for many other ad companies at www.aboutads.info. You can also turn advertising off in your cookie settings, which stops partner ads on HonestGamers altogether.
Embedded videos
Some articles and blog posts include videos from YouTube or Vimeo. When a page containing one loads, your browser connects to that service, which receives your IP address and may use cookies under its own privacy policy. YouTube videos are embedded in YouTube's "privacy-enhanced mode," which limits its use of cookies until you play the video.
What HonestGamers doesn't do
Sell or rent anyone's information, or hand it over to advertisers or data brokers
Use Google Analytics, Facebook pixels, or any other third-party tracking, apart from partner advertising, which runs only if you allow it
Build profiles of visitors or try to identify them across other websites (advertising partners may do this if you allow advertising, as explained above)
Why this is allowed (legal bases)
For visitors in the EU, UK, and similar places, the legal grounds are:
Your account, reviews, ratings, collection, forum posts, blog, HG Mail, chat, pitches, and notifications: it's needed to provide the account and features you asked for.
Reports, blocks, moderation records, and staff records: legitimate interest in keeping discussions civil and the site safe, and in being able to review decisions.
Contact messages and the spam code: legitimate interest in answering you and in keeping the form free of spam.
Analytics and partner advertising: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in your cookie settings. For Google's ads, you give or refuse it in Google's own consent message.
View counts, search counts, ad counts, server logs, and security records: legitimate interest in running a secure site and knowing what's read and how ads perform, done in ways that don't identify anyone.
Where the data is kept
HonestGamers' server is in the United States, and all of the information described here is stored there. Emails are sent from that same server. No one else receives it, apart from the companies that host and connect the server, and only as needed to keep it running. If you allow advertising, partner networks such as Google also receive information directly from your browser, as described under Advertising above.
Your choices and rights
Change your cookie choices any time on the cookie settings page.
See or correct your information: most of it is on your account page, where you can edit it.
Delete your account yourself from your account page. This removes your account, profile, photo and sign-in records, your reader reviews, game ratings and game collection, your forum threads and posts, your blog posts (with the comments on them) and blog images, the HG Mail sent to you, and messages you sent through the contact form. Your chat messages are erased, each keeping its spot in its conversation as "Message deleted." Your comments on other members' blog posts are erased the same way, each showing "This message is no longer available." Staff and freelance reviews, news stories, guides, and screenshots or other material you contributed to game pages stay on the site, credited to "Site Contributor" instead of you. Staff records about your account stay, but no longer say who you were. Your username is held for about six months so that nobody else can take it over and be mistaken for you, and after that anyone can use it.
Anything else, including a copy of your information or questions about how it's used: use the contact form. You'll get a reply within 30 days.
If you're in the EU or UK and believe your information has been mishandled, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority. California residents: HonestGamers doesn't sell or share personal information as California law defines those terms.
Age requirement
You must be at least 16 to create an account. Accounts found to belong to anyone younger are deleted.
Changes to this policy
If what HonestGamers collects changes, this page will be updated and its date changed below. For changes that affect analytics or advertising, you'll be asked for your cookie choices again.
Credits
IP geolocation by DB-IP.