Privacy policy
Updated October 1, 2026. This policy covers the main website, community voting, chat, games and public tracker. The Discord bot privacy policy describes the bot and its dashboard separately.
Who is responsible
The Deadlock Observatory is an independent fan project operated under the public name hesy in United States. The operator is responsible for its personal-data processing. Contact: [email protected]. Valve does not operate this website. You can submit a private request through our data deletion controls and contact options.
Data we use and why
| Feature | Data and purpose | Basis where GDPR applies |
|---|---|---|
| Website delivery and security | IP address, requested resources and technical connection/error information are processed to deliver the site, limit excessive requests and investigate abuse. Hosting and delivery providers may keep operational logs. | Legitimate interests in operating a secure, reliable service. |
| Community voting | Your selected hero, round and time, plus keyed hashes derived from your browser voting token and IP network, enforce one vote per round. IPv6 addresses are grouped by network prefix. Hashes are pseudonymous, not anonymous. Public results are totals, not a list of voters. The deletion button replaces linked ballots with aggregate counts; current-round duplicate-vote hashes are kept separately until that round closes. | Legitimate interests in providing a fair community poll and preventing duplicate votes. |
| Chat and moderation | Submitted text and time are public. A keyed network identifier supports cooldowns and abuse prevention. New submissions also receive a private browser ownership cookie; only its keyed hash is stored with the record, allowing safe automatic deletion. Ban records contain that identifier, reason, time and, for newer bans, the triggering message. Ban evidence is private to the operator. Owner messages carry an Owner label. | Legitimate interests in running and moderating community chat. |
| Optional online count | Only if you allow it, a random browser identifier and recent check-in time contribute to an estimated active-browser count visible only to the owner. Multiple tabs using the same browser storage count once. This does not build browsing histories or an advertising profile. | Consent. Declining or withdrawing does not prevent use of the site. |
| Minigame and community contributions | Game session identifiers, hits, scores, timing and anti-cheat evidence support gameplay. Submitted leaderboard names and approved community contributions can be public. Do not submit sensitive personal information. | Legitimate interests in providing requested interactive features and preventing score manipulation. |
| Public developer tracker | Names, account identifiers, avatars, messages, attachments and observed activity are collected from official Deadlock forums, Steam and community sources and displayed or archived. Some content is also relayed through the Discord bot or webhook. | Legitimate interests in reporting game development and maintaining a community history, subject to individual rights and balancing privacy interests. |
| Sign-in and data-rights requests | Secure sessions protect owner and Discord dashboard access. Privacy requests store your reply email, request type, explanation, reference, dates and resolution. We use this information to verify and respond to the request, not for marketing. | Legitimate interests in access security; compliance with applicable legal obligations to handle data rights. |
Cookies, browser storage and your choices
We do not use advertising trackers or sell personal data. Essential cookies support voting, game sessions, sign-in and access security. Optional counting is off until you opt in, with equally available allow and decline choices.
- __Host-hero-voter: secure voting token, set when casting a vote, up to 180 days; the server stores keyed hashes rather than the cookie token.
- __Host-chat-owner: secure ownership cookie set when submitting chat, up to 180 days. It allows deletion of new chat records belonging to this browser; it is not used for advertising.
- whack_session: game session cookie, set when starting to play, for the browser session. Personal game records are held in memory and expire after 30 minutes of inactivity or a service restart. Game state and leaderboard records are stored separately.
- Owner/Discord sign-in and authorization cookies: necessary to stay signed in and secure the login flow. Owner sessions last up to 12 hours, or 30 days if remembered; Discord dashboard sessions last up to one hour.
- gif_library: access cookie for the GIF library, up to one day, set when opening the library.
- observatory-privacy-v1: remembers your privacy choice for up to 180 days.
- observatory-presence: optional random browser identifier, used only with counting consent. Withdrawal removes it from this browser; its server check-in expires within 90 seconds.
- Music preferences: local settings remember your chosen track, volume and mute preference until changed or cleared. These are not used for analytics.
Global Privacy Control and browser Do Not Track signals keep optional counting off. We do not sell or share personal data for cross-context behavioural advertising. Browser settings can block or remove storage, which may affect sign-in, voting or game continuity. Our data page has separate automatic deletion and local-preference controls. Automatic deletion removes browser-verified chat, ban-message evidence and game records from active databases and replaces linked votes with aggregate totals. It does not erase other devices, source archives, provider logs or backups. Limited network restrictions remain; the button does not lift bans. Opening external links leaves this site and is governed by the destination’s policies.
Private regional vote statistics
For votes cast from October 2, 2026 onward, we use the approximate country supplied by Cloudflare to count votes by country, continent and hero for the owner’s private audience statistics. We do not store city, state, coordinates or raw IP addresses for these statistics, and do not publish these breakdowns. No extra tracking cookie is added. Browser Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals cause the location to be recorded as unknown. IP-based country estimates can be inaccurate, particularly with VPNs. A country is temporarily associated with the existing pseudonymous ballot so a reset can correct the count. Browser-verified deletion removes that association and preserves only aggregate counts; closed-round associations are aggregated after 30 days. Our purpose is understanding community participation, based on legitimate interests where applicable. You may object or request deletion using the contact or deletion options below.
Optional chat colors
The owner can offer a custom chat color. It is applied only after you accept the popup. We associate the color and any pending offer with your existing pseudonymous chat-browser identifier, not your name or IP address. The owner sees a private guest label for that browser. The preference is removed after 180 days without activity, when you clear it through My chat color, or when you use Delete my data. Declining removes the pending offer. This is optional; chat works without accepting. A different browser or cleared cookies will not carry the color over.
Retention
- Old chat history and old ban-message evidence were cleared on October 1, 2026. New unpinned chat messages and removal notices expire after 24 hours. Owner-pinned messages remain until unpinned, removed, or deleted through the author’s browser-verified data deletion; cooldown records expire after one hour. Cleanup runs while chat is in use.
- Chat bans expire after 90 days; their message evidence and browser ownership link expire after 30 days. You can request review, appeal or deletion; any justified retention will be explained.
- Optional presence check-ins expire after 90 seconds of inactivity and are held in memory, not a visit-history database.
- Identifiable vote records support duplicate prevention during voting. A private reference code lets a voter ask the owner to reset their current-round vote; only the owner can approve this. Codes are removed when used for a reset, when the round closes, or when the associated browser data is deleted. Closed-round records are reduced to aggregate counts after 30 days. On browser-verified deletion, a current-round duplicate-vote marker may remain until that round closes, without storing the selected hero in that marker. Personal game counts, submitted names, scores and anti-cheat evidence are held in server memory only, cleared after 30 minutes of game-session inactivity or a service restart. Anonymous global hit totals and a highest-whack record number remain, without a player identifier attached to the record. Historical stored personal game records have been removed.
- Open privacy requests are kept while being handled. Closed request details are deleted 90 days after closure through routine cleanup.
- Public source archives remain while relevant to the tracker’s historical purpose, subject to correction, objection and deletion requests.
- Operational logs and backups may outlast removal from the active service. For a verified request, we will identify affected copies and explain applicable retention, isolation or legal/security exceptions. We do not promise that another service’s copies disappear when ours are removed.
Recipients and international processing
Access is limited to the operator and service providers needed to host, deliver and secure the website. Cloudflare processes traffic to deliver and protect the site; its privacy policy describes its role. Our VPS hosting provider operates the server infrastructure. Discord handles authentication and bot delivery. Your browser may request avatars or media from Discord’s CDN or Tenor, which receive connection information such as your IP address. Public contributions are visible to other visitors and may be copied by them. We may disclose data where legally required or necessary to address abuse.
Providers may process data outside your country, including outside the EEA. Where GDPR transfer rules apply, appropriate safeguards or another lawful transfer mechanism are required. Contact us for information about the providers, processing locations and safeguards relevant to your data.
Your rights and deletion
Depending on applicable law, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, or object to processing based on legitimate interests. Withdraw optional-counting consent at any time using Privacy choices; withdrawal does not affect earlier lawful processing. You may complain to your local data protection authority, including in the EU/EEA where you live or work. The EDPB lists European supervisory authorities.
Delete browser-linked data or contact the operator, or email [email protected]. We respond without undue delay and normally within one month, free of charge. Where legally permitted for complex requests, an extension of up to two further months may apply; we will explain within the first month. We may seek proportionate identity verification. We will explain refusals or retained information and how to challenge the decision. We will not collect extra identity documents merely to identify anonymous browsing.
Deletion is not absolute: justified security, legal obligations or other lawful exceptions may require limited retention. Aggregated data that can no longer identify you may remain. A request about chat does not automatically cancel an abuse restriction. Shared IP addresses alone are not reliable proof that all related records belong to one person.
Automated moderation and human review
The owner may appoint chat moderators. They can see recent chat messages, remove messages and lock or unlock chat; they cannot access ban records, connection identifiers or other owner controls. Moderator access uses the existing browser chat cookie and a private nickname chosen by the owner, expires after 180 days, and can be revoked by the owner or removed using Delete my data. Moderator actions and removed message text are kept in a private moderation log for 30 days to review abuse. This includes the moderator’s internal ID, nickname, time, action and any automatic safety intervention. Browser-data deletion clears the associated removed message text. Rapid removals or repeated lock changes may automatically revoke moderator access and lock chat for owner review.
Chat uses automatic word filters and rate limits. Certain detected slurs automatically block the connection; other prohibited wording is rejected without a ban. These filters can make mistakes. Use the appeal option for human review by the operator. We do not use the online count for decisions about individuals.
Security and updates
Voting uses short-lived, one-use verification tied to the voting cookie and connection, plus submission limits to reduce automated voting. Used verification identifiers expire after five minutes. When you vote, Cloudflare Turnstile checks browser and connection signals to help distinguish people from automated traffic. Verification is required for voting; its token is validated on our server. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy. Suspected manipulated ballots may be withheld from totals for review.
HTTPS, restricted owner controls and keyed identifiers help protect data. No service can guarantee perfect security. Material changes will be reflected in this policy and its date; a new optional purpose will require a fresh choice where consent is needed.