Privacy policy

Who we are

Starworn is made by Holonautic AG, which is responsible for the data described here:

Holonautic AG
Tannegg 4
6005 St. Niklausen
Switzerland
info@holonautic.com

Our data protection officer can be reached at the same address. This policy covers Starworn and starworn.net; our other games and holonautic.com are covered by the Holonautic privacy policy.

The game

Gameplay statistics and crash reports

To learn how Starworn is played and to fix problems, the game sends statistics to our own server. They include:

• a random installation ID and a random player ID, created on your device. The installation ID is used only for statistics and belongs to one installation of the game. The player ID is the one your name and friends list belong to, and it stays with you if you reinstall through Meta's Cloud Backup (see below). If you play through the Meta Horizon Store, we also link it to an ID Meta gives Starworn for your account (see Meta friends and blocks);
• the game version and whether it is a store release or a test build, the platform, the headset or device model and your game settings;
• session information, such as when you played, for how long and how the session ended;
• what happened in play, such as items crafted or gathered, creatures defeated, milestones reached, deaths and their cause, and whether you played alone or in multiplayer;
• performance measurements, sent when each session ends: the average frame rate, the share of slow frames, the number of hitches and the worst frame time, and a count of how many network messages from other players the game refused as invalid;
• when the game crashes, the error message and technical trace, with file paths and other identifying details removed.

These statistics do not include your chat, your voice, your exact position in the world or your saved worlds. We use them in aggregate to improve the game. Like the website, the server that receives them keeps technical connection logs, including IP addresses, which are deleted automatically after at most 31 days.

Name, friends and multiplayer

We store your chosen display name on our server so other players can find you. If you use the Friends feature, we also store your friend code, friends list, friend requests and any messages included with those requests. We store the players you recently played with and your character’s appearance so these can be shown in your friends list.

On a Quest, if you have no name yet when you first start, the game uses the name you chose on Meta (your Meta username), never your real name. You can change it. It is stored like any name you choose, and other players you play with can see it.

When you host a game, the game lists it in our lobby, with its public connection key and room details, so others can join. It lists your key, not your IP address.

Connections between players

Multiplayer connects players' devices directly, using the open-source iroh networking library. Players you play with can see your IP address, as with any direct connection. To help devices find each other, your device publishes its connection key and network addresses to a discovery service run by n0, the developers of iroh. When a direct connection is not possible, traffic passes, end-to-end encrypted, through one of n0's relay servers.

Keeping players out

A host can send a player out of a session (a kick) or keep them out for good (a ban). A kick is not stored. A ban is saved on the host's headset as a list entry: the banned player's connection key, their Starworn player ID and the name they were using. If the host's game is signed in to our server, the banned player's ID is also stored there, so that the host's games are hidden from that player and rooms they are in are marked for the host. We keep a ban until the host lifts it or asks us to delete their data. A banned player is not told by the lobby, and other players cannot see the list.

Meta friends and blocks

On the headset, Starworn can read three things from Meta: your Meta user ID (an ID Meta gives Starworn for your account, which means nothing to other apps), your Meta friends who also play Starworn, and the Meta users you have blocked. Starworn uses them like this.

Friends. The game sends your Meta user ID and the IDs of your Meta friends who play to our server. We keep your own ID with your player, once. We use your friends' IDs only to find them among our players: when two Meta friends have both opened Starworn, they appear in each other's friends list without a request or code, and we keep that friendship like one made in the game, until either of you removes it. IDs that match no player are not kept. We never show your Meta ID to other players.

Blocks. When you host a game, the game sends the IDs of the Meta users you blocked with the listing of your room, so the lobby does not show your room to them. We keep that list only while the room is listed. If one of them still joins, they are sent out for the rest of that session. The list is read from Meta each time and is never saved on your headset.

If you are not signed in to Meta, or you refuse the permission, none of this happens and the game works as before.

Cloud Backup

On a Quest, Meta's Cloud Backup copies Starworn's saved data to your Meta account and puts it back when you reinstall the game, on the same headset or another. Meta holds that copy under its own privacy policy; we do not receive it. It contains your worlds (those played most recently; larger or older ones stay only on the headset), your settings, your name and character, your multiplayer key, your sign-in to our server (your player ID, a random password and a session token), and a host's ban list. It does not contain your statistics, installation ID, crash logs or the downloaded encyclopedia. A reinstall that restores the backup is the same player, with the same name and friends, and a new installation ID.

Voice chat

In multiplayer, your voice is sent live, through the player hosting the game, to players whose characters are close to yours. The host marks each voice with its speaker's place in the game so that nobody can speak as someone else. We do not record or store voice. The game saves only whether your microphone and speakers are switched on.

In-game encyclopedia

The encyclopedia in the game's pack downloads its pages from starworn.net: a list of topics, the text of each topic and its pictures. The game asks for these files with a plain web request. The request names the game and its version (for example "Starworn/0.3.8") and, when it re-checks the topic list, repeats the tag the website sent last time, so the list is only sent again if it changed. It sends nothing about you: no installation ID, no player ID, no name, no Meta account details, no cookie and no gameplay data. The files are the same for every player. The game keeps the downloaded pages and pictures in your headset's cache (Cloud Backup does not copy them), so they open quickly and work again later, and it checks whether they changed at most every six hours while the game runs.

Like any visit to starworn.net, a download reaches our server with your IP address. We handle it like the website's connection logs described above and delete it after at most 31 days.

Meta

Starworn is distributed through the Meta Horizon Store. Your Meta account, purchases and anything your headset shares with Meta are handled by Meta under Meta's privacy policy. Apart from what the Meta friends and blocks section above describes (your app-specific Meta user ID, the IDs of friends who play Starworn and, when you host, of users you blocked), we do not receive your Meta account details.

Meta also collects crash reports from your headset and makes them available to us in the Meta developer dashboard. We use them to find and fix crashes.

How long we keep it

Gameplay statistics are anonymised automatically once they are 24 months old: the installation ID is removed, and what remains carries only a player ID, not an installation ID. Crash reports are deleted automatically once they are 24 months old. Friends and name data are kept while you use these features, and deleted at your request. Your Meta user ID, the friendships made from your Meta friends and the bans a host has set are kept while you use these features and removed at your request. A host's ban is kept until the host lifts it. The blocked users sent with a hosted room are kept only while the room is listed. Meta keeps your Cloud Backup under its own policy.

Children

Starworn is intended for teens and adults and is not directed at children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us data, contact us and we will delete it.