Privacy policy

In short

The game has no accounts and we run no game servers. It sends us two kinds of technical data, both through Sentry, a crash-reporting service, and stored in the EU: crash reports, only when you click “Send report” after a crash, and performance stats while you play, which you can switch off. We use them only to fix crashes and make the game run better. We never sell them or use them for advertising.

Both switches are in the game: Settings → Privacy.

This website counts visits with PostHog, without cookies and without recognising you when you come back. See This website.

If you join the alpha list, we keep your email address to write to you once, when the alpha is out, and then delete it. See The alpha list.

Who is responsible

Trust Me, It's a Shortcut! (studio name Nearly There) is made by Matěj Mauler, a private individual in the Czech Republic, who is the controller of the data described here, from the game and from this website. Contact: matej@matejmauler.com.

Crash reports

When the game crashes, a window asks whether to send a report. Only if you click “Send report” does it reach us. It contains:

• a technical description of the crash: where in the game’s code it happened and a snapshot of the game’s memory at that moment;
• the game’s log file, a record of what the game was doing;
• a screenshot of the game window at the moment of the crash;
• the note you write in the window, if any;
• the game version and graphics level, your operating system, processor, graphics card and driver, memory size and screen resolution.

The memory snapshot, the log and the folder paths in them can contain your computer's user name and the names of the players in your session (Steam names). With “Crash reports: Never” no window comes up and nothing about crashes is sent.

Performance stats

While you play, unless you switch them off (Settings → Privacy → Performance stats → Off), the game sends:

• that a game session started and ended, and whether it ended in a crash;
• every 10 seconds the frame time, frames per second and how long the game, render and graphics threads took; every 60 seconds the memory use; garbage-collection pauses; in multiplayer every 30 seconds the ping and packet loss;
• with each of them: your graphics card model, number of processor cores, memory size, screen resolution, the map, the graphics level, the game version and your operating system.

No name, account, Steam ID or IP address is stored with them.

Why, and on what legal basis

To find and fix crashes and to make the game run well on as many computers as possible. Crash reports: your consent, given by clicking “Send report” for that one crash (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)). Performance stats: our legitimate interest in a game that works on your computer (Art. 6(1)(f)); you can object at any time by switching them off.

Who processes it, where

Sentry (Functional Software, Inc., San Francisco, USA) stores and processes the data for us as our processor, in its EU data region in Frankfurt, Germany. Sentry may access it from the USA; such transfers are covered by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and, as a fallback, by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in Sentry’s data processing addendum. Your IP address is used only to deliver the data; we have set Sentry not to store it. Sentry’s own policy: sentry.io/privacy. Nobody else gets the game's data.

How long

Sentry deletes crash reports and performance stats after 90 days at the latest.

Steam and playing together

The game uses Steam for friends, invitations and multiplayer. Steam (Valve Corporation) handles that data under its own policy: Steam Privacy Policy. Your friends’ games connect to yours through Steam; we don’t receive or store any of it.

On your computer

The game keeps your settings, progress, photos and its log file in the game folder. They are not sent anywhere, except the log inside a crash report you choose to send. Sentry keeps its own small files there too (reports not yet sent).

This website

The website measures how it is used with PostHog, so we can see what people read and whether the page works. It stores nothing in your browser: no cookies, no local storage. Each page load gets a new random ID, so a return visit can’t be linked to an earlier one. It doesn’t record your screen. With each visit it sends:

• the pages you open and leave, the page you came from, and any campaign tags in the link;
• what you click and where the pointer moves on the page, including the Steam button, the screenshots you open and links to other sites (only which site, not the full link);
• which parts of the page you scroll to;
• how fast the page loaded, and any errors in the page’s code;
• your browser and its language, operating system, device type and screen size.

Your IP address reaches PostHog with each request and is used to work out your rough location. We don’t use it to identify you. PostHog (PostHog, Inc., USA) processes this for us in its EU region in Frankfurt, Germany, and keeps it for one year. Its own policy: posthog.com/privacy.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in knowing whether the site works and reaches people (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). You can object at any time: a content blocker stops the measuring in your browser, or write to matej@matejmauler.com.

The site is hosted by Vercel, whose servers handle your IP address to deliver the pages. Once the game’s Steam page is live, the page also shows a store widget that loads from Steam, under the Steam policy linked above.

The alpha list

When you leave your email address on the website, it goes to Kit, which keeps the list for us. We write to you exactly once: the day the alpha is out. No confirmation email, no newsletter, no other news, and we don’t pass your address to anyone.

We store only your email address and when you signed up. Kit, like most mail services, notes whether the email is opened and which links in it are clicked; we don’t use that for anything. The email has a link to leave the list; you can also write to matej@matejmauler.com at any time, for example if someone entered your address without asking you, and we delete it straight away. Once the alpha email has gone out, we delete the whole list.

The legal basis is your consent, given by sending the form (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)); you can withdraw it at any time. Kit (ConvertKit LLC, USA) processes the list for us as our processor, under its data processing agreement, which covers the transfer to the USA with the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Its own policy: kit.com/privacy. The website records only that someone signed up, never the address.

Our YouTube channel

Our tools upload our own videos to our YouTube channel (@shortcutgameco) through the YouTube API Services. They don’t read, collect or store anything about you or other viewers. When you watch our videos on YouTube, Google’s terms and privacy policy apply: policies.google.com/privacy.

Your rights

You have the right to access the data about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict its processing, to object to it, to withdraw your consent, and to complain to a data protection authority, in the Czech Republic the Office for Personal Data Protection (uoou.gov.cz). Write to matej@matejmauler.com. The data isn’t linked to your name, so please tell us the date and time of the crash or game session (and the report ID if you have it) so we can find it. Website visits can't be traced back to you, because they carry no lasting ID.

Changes

If the game or the website starts sending something new, we update this page and the date at the top before it does.