Guild Esports PLC – Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
1.1 We are Guild Esports PLC (referred to as Guild, we, us and our in this Privacy Policy), a company incorporated in England with company registration number 12187837 and whose registered office address is Guild Esports, 2a Chance Street, E16JU.
1.2 The information set out in this Privacy Policy is provided to individuals whose personal data we process (you or your) as data controller, in compliance with our obligations under Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
1.3 This Privacy Policy applies to your use of the Guild Services. By Guild Services we mean any of our websites, web stores, the Guild Academy, tournaments, applications or other products or services that link to this policy. Additional terms and conditions may apply to your relationship with Guild, depending on how you choose to interact with us.
1.4 It is important that you read this Privacy Policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you (such as the use of your gamer account within the Guild Academy) so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This Privacy Policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.
2. Data controller details
We are the data controller in relation to the processing of the personal data that you provide to us. Our contact details are as follows:
2.1 Address: Guild Esports, 2a Chance Street, E16JU.
2.2 Email address: privacy@guildesports.com.
3. How we collect your information
3.1 You may provide your personal data to us when you choose to use the Guild Services. Because we change our offerings and features from time to time, the options you have to provide us with information also may change.
3.2 Generally, the information we hold about you comes from the way you engage with us and the Guild Services, for example by doing any of the following:
3.2.1 engaging with us via our website;
3.2.2 creating a Guild Academy account;
3.2.3 engaging or interacting with us via our streaming services;
3.2.4 engaging or interacting with us via the Guild Academy portal;
3.2.5 purchasing any product from us or through our website;
3.2.6 entering online competitions or registering for or participating in special events;
3.2.7 entering contests or sweepstakes, participating in any of our promotions, or accepting any prizes from us;
3.2.8 signing up for email alerts or subscribing to receive other information from us;
3.2.9 completing a survey;
3.2.10 contacting us offline, for example by telephone, SMS, email or by post; and 3.2.11 interacting with us using social media.
3.3 It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
4. What we collect
4.1 The specific types of information you may be able to provide us will often vary depending on the Guild Services you are using and how you interact with us.
4.2 The types of personal data that we may collect, use, store and transfer about you are as follows:
4.2.1 Contact data such as your name and email address, and your physical address for any deliveries of items purchased from us;
4.2.2 Guild Academy profile data such as your username or similar identifier, password, age, date of birth, gender social media usernames, and your gamer handles/usernames, interests, statistics, reviews, preferences, feedback and survey responses;
4.2.3 Gameplay data such as your statistics, match results in competitions, tournament records and any other information in relation to your gaming activity;
4.2.4 Financial data such as your bank account and payment card details and your transaction history, including payments to and from you and details of any purchases;
4.2.5 Content Data such as information relating to your Guild Academy profile, game & social account information including friends' or teams’ lists, photos, videos or other digital content and check-ins;
4.2.6 Usage data such as details of your use or your visits to our website including, but not limited to, traffic data and other communication data;
4.2.7 Marketing and communications data including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and selected third parties and your communication preferences;
4.2.8 Location data such as a country identifier and time zone;
4.2.9 Consent data such as a parent or guardian’s name and email address;
and 4.2.10 Other/voluntary information which you share with us when you respond to communications from us, communicate with us via email or share additional information about yourself through your use of the Guild Academy, such as entering tournaments, competitions, completing surveys or other promotional events. Information we collect about you from your use of our website
4.3 We will automatically collect information from you each time you visit or otherwise use the Guild Services. This includes the following:
4.3.1 Social networks: When you register through your social network account (such as your Facebook account) to use the Guild Services, we will have access to basic information from your social network account, such as your name, birthdate, profile picture and friends’ list, as well as information you made publicly available on such account;
4.3.2 Game account: By connecting a game account (for example, Steam, Epic, EA) to your Guild Academy profile, we will, via your game account, get access to your gaming history, such as your in-game ranks, match results and other publicly available profile information related to the game.
4.3.3 Technical and device information: We may collect specific types of connection details and information in relation to your device, software or hardware that may identify you, such as a device’s unique identifiers, IP address used to connect your device to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access our website and the Guild Academy.
Information we collect about you from other sources
4.4 We may collect information about you from third-party service providers or information that is publicly available. This may include information such as your age, identity, and gameplay data, such as statistics, match results in competitions, tournament records and any other information in relation to your gaming activity.
4.5 We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we would then treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Special category data
4.6 We may process special category data relating to your health or mental health such as a how often you exercise and when you go to sleep.
5. Purpose/Legal grounds
6. Change of purpose
6.1 We will use your personal data only for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to receive an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us (at privacy@guildesports.com).
6.2 If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will either obtain your consent or we will notify you and set out the legal basis which allows us to do so.
7. Sharing your information
7.1 Please note that personal data we are holding about you may be shared with and processed by:
7.1.1 regulators or other third parties for the purposes of monitoring and/or enforcing our compliance with any legal and regulatory obligations, including statutory or regulatory reporting or the detection or prevention of unlawful acts;
7.1.2 credit reference and fraud prevention agencies;
7.1.3 any third party in the context of actual or threatened legal proceedings, provided we can do so lawfully (for example in response to a court order);
7.1.4 third party payments providers to carry out data analysis including the number of visits to our website, when such visits are made, from which region and through which channel (if not a direct visit);
7.1.5 other parties and/or their professional advisers involved in a matter where required as part of the conduct of the Guild Services;
7.1.6 our own professional advisers and auditors for the purpose of seeking professional advice or to meet our audit responsibilities;
7.1.7 our trusted social media, advertising and analytics advisers to provide customised content and advertising, to provide social media features and to analyse traffic to our website;
7.1.8 our service providers and agents (including their subcontractors) or third parties which process information on our behalf (e.g. internet service and platform providers, our bank, payment processing providers and those organisations we engage to help us send communications to you) so that they may help us to provide you with the applications, products, services and information you have requested; and
7.1.9 another organisation to whom we may transfer our agreement with you or if we sell or buy (or negotiate to sell or buy) our business or any of our assets (provided that adequate protections and safeguards are in place).
7.2 Please note that we include links within our website to third party social media providers such as Facebook and Twitter, but we will not share your information with such providers without your consent.
8. International transfers
8.1 We may need to transfer personal data relating to you outside the United Kingdom (UK), including to our affiliated companies.
8.2 We will not transfer personal data relating to you to a country which is outside the UK unless one of the following scenarios under UK GDPR applies:
8.2.1 the country or recipient is covered by UK adequacy regulations under UK GDPR Article 45;
8.2.2 appropriate safeguards have been put in place which meet the requirements of UK GDPR Article 46; or 8.2.3 one of the derogations for specific situations under UK GDPR Article 49 is applicable to the transfer. These include (in summary):
8.2.3.1 the transfer is necessary to perform, or to form, a contract to which we are a party: 8.2.3.1.1 with you; or 8.2.3.1.2 with a third party where the contract is in your interests;
8.2.3.2 the transfer is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
8.2.3.3 you have provided your explicit consent to the transfer;
or 8.2.3.4 the transfer is of a limited nature, and is necessary for the purpose of our compelling legitimate interests.
9. Public forms
We may, from time to time, make chat rooms, message boards, news groups and/or other public forums available to users of the Guild Services. Any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when using these and avoid posting any personal data.
10. Child safety
10.1 Protecting the safety of children when they use the Guild Services is important to us.
10.2 We may ask you to provide age-related information in order to help us comply with relevant laws and guidance, such as the Age Appropriate Design Code. For example, we may request your date of birth to determine whether the Age Appropriate Design Code requires us to obtain verifiable consent from your parent or guardian before allowing you to access the Guild Services.
10.3 If a user indicates that they are a minor, we will require consent from their parent or guardian before allowing access to the relevant Guild Services. This process is designed to notify parents or guardians that their child has requested access to the Guild Services, inform them about our privacy practices, offer them the opportunity to approve our collection and use of their child’s information as described in this Privacy Policy, and describe the controls that we make available to them.
10.4 Once a parent or guardian provides their consent, we will give them an opportunity to review and change important account settings that control how their child can interact with the Guild Services. Parents or guardians are also generally free to change or revoke the choices they’ve previously made, and will be able to review the personal data associated with their child’s account or request that we delete it from our systems. To submit these requests or ask us any other questions you may have about how we handle your child’s personal data, please contact us (at privacy@guildesports.com).
10.5 Authorised child accounts are otherwise treated much like other accounts that use the Guild Services. They may generally play approved games, access communications and social features (like chat and friends lists), and freely interact with most of the Guild Services (including competing in challenges and tournaments). For additional details, please see section 3 (How we collect your information) and section 4 (What we collect) above.
11. Retention of personal data
11.1 Unless we are required or permitted by law to hold on to your data for a specific retention period we will hold your personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements, in particular:
11.1.1 contact data is retained for as long as you are an active user of our platforms and for two years after you delete your account;
11.1.2 financial data is retained for six years from the date of your last transaction with or through us;
and 11.1.3 usage data is retained for as long as you are an active user of our platforms and for two years after you delete your account.
11.2 We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
11.3 To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
11.4 Where we no longer need your personal data, we will dispose of it in a secure manner.
11.5 In some circumstances you are entitled to ask us to delete your personal data: see your legal rights at paragraph 12 below for further information.
11.6 In some circumstances we will anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes, in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
12. Your rights in respect of your personal data
12.1 You have certain rights under existing data protection laws, including the right (following a written request) to access a copy of your personal data that we are processing. In accordance with the UK GDPR:
12.1.1 you will have the following rights:
12.1.1.1 right to access: the right to request certain information about, access to and copies of the personal data about you that we are holding (please note that you are entitled to request one copy of the personal data that we hold about you at no cost, but for any further copies, we reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee based on administration costs);
and 12.1.1.2 right to rectification: the right to have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete;
and 12.1.2 in certain circumstances, you will also have the following rights:
12.1.2.1 right to erasure/“right to be forgotten”: the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of the data (if the legal basis for processing is based on your consent) and the right to request that we delete or erase your personal data from our systems (however, this will not apply if we are required to hold on to the information for compliance with any legal obligation or if we require the information to establish or defend any legal claim);
12.1.2.2 right to restriction of use of your information: the right to stop us from using your personal data or limit the way in which we can use it;
12.1.2.3 right to data portability: the right to request that we return any information you have provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or that we send it directly to another company, where technically feasible;
and 12.1.2.4 right to object: the right to object to our use of your personal data including where we use it for our legitimate interests or for marketing purposes.
12.2 We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
12.3 We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
12.4 You have the right to unsubscribe from our marketing communications at any time by following the link in the footer of the last email you received from one of our brands (“Unsubscribe”) or by sending your request with detailed instructions to us (see contact details above in the “Data Controller details” section).
12.5 Please note that, if you withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data for purposes set out in our Privacy Policy, we may not be able to carry out our contractual obligations to you or provide you with access to all or certain parts of the Guild Services.
12.6 If you consider our use of your personal data to be unlawful, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office. Please see further information on their website: www.ico.org.uk.
13. Automatic decision making
We do not make decisions based solely on automated data processing, including profiling.
14. Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or may not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see https://guildesports.com/cookie-policy.
15. Security
15.1 We keep your information protected by taking appropriate technical and organisational measures to guard against unauthorised or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. For example:
15.1.1 where appropriate, data is encrypted when transiting on our system or stored on our databases;
15.1.2 we have implemented safeguards in relation to access and confidentiality in order to protect the information held within our systems;
and 15.1.3 we frequently carry out risk assessments and audits to monitor and review threats and vulnerabilities to our systems to prevent fraud.
15.2 However, while we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your information which is transmitted via the internet or a similar connection. It is important that all details of any username, password and/or other identification information created to access the Guild Services are kept confidential by you and should not be disclosed to or shared with anyone.
16. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example to keep it up to date, to implement minor technical adjustments and improvements or to comply with legal requirements. We will always update this Privacy Policy on our website, so please try to read it when you visit the website (the “last updated” reference tells you when we last updated our Privacy Policy).
Last updated 29 November 2022