Aethro Privacy Policy

1. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to Aethro Network and all services operated under, connected to, or administered by Aethro, including:

• Aethro Network, including central hub pages, community links, staff information, redirects, announcements, and network-level services.
• TopMCServer, including Minecraft server listings, voting, rankings, advertising, account tools, moderation tools, and related services.
• Play Aethro, including community websites, forums, staff portals, support tools, development systems, and game-related services.
• Shadows of Aethro, including Minecraft server features, server logs, gameplay systems, voting rewards, event tools, economy tools, moderation tools, and Discord integrations.
• Aethro Online, including the MUD/game account portal, character systems, gameplay logs, staff tools, forums, lore pages, bug reports, testing programs, and related community systems.

This policy also applies when you contact staff, submit forms, create accounts, use Discord-linked features, participate in events, make purchases or donations, submit support tickets, apply for staff or testing access, or interact with Aethro services through third-party platforms.

2. Who We Are and Governing Information

For purposes of this policy, “Aethro,” “we,” “our,” or “us” means the Aethro Network and its divisions listed above. Unless a specific service identifies another operator, Aethro is responsible for deciding how information is handled for Aethro-operated services.

Any governing information, legal administration, dispute interpretation, and operational privacy administration for Aethro services will be located in the State of California, United States, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

Some services may be hosted, processed, moderated, or supported by third-party providers located outside your country or region. See the sections on service providers and international transfers below.

3. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on the services you use, the settings you choose, and how you interact with Aethro.

Account and Identity Information

• Username, display name, account ID, profile URL, avatar, forum profile fields, account preferences, account status, and staff or community role assignments.
• Email address if required for registration, notifications, support, purchases, staff applications, testing access, account recovery, or administrative contact.
• Discord ID, Discord username, linked account identifiers, OAuth login tokens or authentication confirmations, and role-sync information where Discord login or Discord-connected features are used.
• Minecraft usernames, UUIDs, server profile information, vote identifiers, whitelist status, ban or warning records, and other game-related account identifiers.
• Aethro Online account, character, staff, testing, and gameplay identifiers.

Community and User-Generated Content

• Forum posts, comments, reactions, private messages where available, reports, appeals, tickets, applications, feedback, bug reports, roadmap comments, support requests, and staff notes.
• Game chat, command logs, moderation logs, event participation records, character names, gameplay actions, marketplace interactions, vote reward activity, and server economy actions.
• Images, files, attachments, screenshots, logs, or other content you upload or submit.

Technical, Security, and Usage Information

• IP address, device identifiers, browser type, operating system, language settings, approximate location derived from IP address, referring URLs, pages viewed, timestamps, session identifiers, and log files.
• Cookie identifiers, analytics identifiers, anti-spam signals, bot detection results, rate-limit records, firewall logs, crash reports, and security audit records.
• Game server connection logs, login history, disconnect reasons, latency, server errors, plugin/mod logs, and abuse-prevention records.

Commercial, Donation, and Transaction Information

• Purchase or donation records, invoice identifiers, transaction status, package or benefit selections, subscription status, chargeback or refund information, and payment processor references.
• We generally do not receive full payment card numbers. Payment details are usually handled by payment processors, storefronts, or platform providers under their own terms and privacy policies.

Staff, Applicant, and Tester Information

• Application answers, experience, availability, age confirmation where required, Discord/forum history, staff interview notes, internal role decisions, NDA/testing status, and trust-and-safety records.
• For private testing, staff, or restricted-access programs, we may collect additional eligibility, confidentiality, and security information necessary to operate those programs.

Sensitive Information

We do not intentionally request sensitive personal information unless it is necessary for a specific service, legal requirement, safety issue, payment dispute, staff matter, or protected access program. Please do not submit government IDs, health information, financial account numbers, precise location data, or other sensitive information unless we specifically request it through an official process.

4. Sources of Information

We may collect information from:

• You directly, such as when you register, post, vote, apply, purchase, donate, send a ticket, join a server, or contact staff.
• Your device and browser, such as through cookies, logs, analytics, anti-spam tools, and server security systems.
• Connected services, such as Discord, Minecraft/Mojang/Microsoft account systems, forum software, payment processors, server listing tools, or authentication providers.
• Other users or staff, such as reports, appeals, moderation notes, community safety reviews, screenshots, and support evidence.
• Publicly available sources where relevant to fraud prevention, staff review, security, community safety, or abuse investigation.

5. How We Use Information

We use information to operate, protect, improve, and administer Aethro services, including to:

• Process purchases, donations, subscriptions, benefits, refunds, disputes, and related records.
• Manage staff, volunteer, builder, tester, NDA, or restricted access programs.
• Send service updates, security notices, policy notices, support replies, and optional community communications.
• Comply with legal obligations, enforce agreements, respond to lawful requests, and protect legal rights.

6. Legal Bases for Processing

Where privacy laws require a legal basis, we may process information under one or more of the following bases:

7. How We Share Information

We may share information only as needed for the purposes described in this policy. Recipients may include:

• Aethro staff and authorized volunteers: for moderation, support, development, security, event operation, and community administration.
• Service providers: hosting companies, forum software providers, analytics providers, payment processors, email providers, security providers, database tools, backup providers, and support tools.
• Connected platforms: Discord, Minecraft/Microsoft/Mojang services, payment platforms, server listing platforms, and authentication providers where integrations are used.
• Other users: public profile details, public posts, public gameplay outcomes where appropriate, event results, and gameplay information visible in-game.
• Legal, safety, and compliance recipients: law enforcement, courts, regulators, legal advisors, payment dispute handlers, or affected parties where required or reasonably necessary.
• Business transfers: if part of Aethro is reorganized, transferred, merged, or otherwise changed, information may be transferred as part of that process subject to appropriate protections.

We do not intend to sell personal information in the traditional sense. If any future feature involves selling or sharing personal information as defined by applicable privacy law, we will provide the required notice and opt-out mechanisms.

8. Cookies, Analytics, Advertising, and Tracking

Aethro services may use cookies, local storage, pixels, logs, and similar technologies to:

• Keep you logged in and remember preferences.
• Secure accounts and detect suspicious activity.
• Measure traffic, diagnose errors, and improve performance.
• Prevent spam, abuse, and automated attacks.
• Support advertising, affiliate, or referral functions where used by a specific service.

You can usually control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking cookies may prevent login, forum posting, voting, staff tools, checkout, or other features from working correctly.

Where required by law, we will request consent before using non-essential cookies or similar tracking technologies. If a legally recognized opt-out signal, such as Global Privacy Control, is required for a service that sells or shares personal information, we will honor it as required by applicable law.

9. Discord, Minecraft, Payment, and Other Third-Party Services

Aethro services may rely on third-party platforms. Your use of those platforms is also governed by their own privacy policies, terms, and account settings.

• Discord: We may process Discord user IDs, usernames, avatars, server membership, role data, OAuth login confirmations, webhook messages, moderation records, and linked-account status. Discord messages sent in Aethro servers may be visible to staff and other members based on channel permissions.
• Minecraft/Microsoft/Mojang and server tools: We may process Minecraft usernames, UUIDs, connection logs, gameplay activity, server commands, chat logs, anti-cheat signals, ban records, whitelist records, voting rewards, and server economy records.
• Payment processors and storefronts: Purchases, donations, refunds, disputes, and subscriptions may be handled by third-party payment providers. We receive records needed to grant benefits, handle support, and maintain accounting records.
• Forum and website software: Community accounts, posts, messages, reactions, files, sessions, and moderation tools may be processed through forum or content-management software.
• Analytics, security, and anti-spam providers: These providers may process IP addresses, device data, cookies, fingerprints, or usage signals to protect and improve Aethro services.

10. Children, Teens, and Age-Restricted Areas

Aethro communities and Minecraft-related services may be accessible to younger users, but certain areas may be age-restricted. Users must comply with the age requirements of Discord, Minecraft/Microsoft, payment providers, and any specific Aethro program.

• We do not knowingly request more information from minors than is reasonably necessary for the service.
• Some programs, such as private testing, NDA access, staff roles, payment features, or restricted staff portals, may require users to be at least 18 years old or meet additional eligibility requirements.
• Parents or guardians may contact us to request review, correction, or deletion of a minor’s personal information, subject to verification and legal exceptions.
• Users should not share real names, addresses, phone numbers, school information, financial details, or other sensitive personal information in public community areas.

11. Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect information. These may include access controls, role-based permissions, authentication, logging, backups, encryption in transit where supported, limited staff access, moderation workflows, anti-spam tools, firewall/security services, and abuse detection.

No internet service, game server, forum, or online platform can guarantee perfect security. You are responsible for keeping your accounts, Discord account, Minecraft/Microsoft account, email account, and passwords secure. Notify us promptly if you believe your Aethro account or linked account has been compromised.

12. Data Retention

We keep information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Retention periods vary based on the type of data, service, account status, safety needs, and legal obligations.

13. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your location and the service you use, you may have rights to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Request deletion of personal information, subject to exceptions.
• Request a portable copy of certain information.
• Object to or restrict certain processing.
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
• Opt out of certain sales, sharing, targeted advertising, profiling, or marketing where applicable.
• Appeal a rights request decision where applicable law provides an appeal right.
• File a complaint with a privacy regulator or supervisory authority.

To protect accounts and community safety, we may need to verify your identity before responding. We may decline or limit requests where permitted by law, including where a request would compromise another person’s privacy, reveal confidential moderation information, interfere with security, affect legal obligations, or require disproportionate effort.

Deleting information may affect your ability to use Aethro services. For example, deleting account identifiers may remove forum access, Discord-linked access, Minecraft rewards, staff records, character access, purchases, or server permissions.

14. Regional Privacy Notices

California Residents

If the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, applies to Aethro, California residents may have rights to know, access, delete, correct, opt out of sale or sharing, limit certain sensitive personal information uses, and avoid discrimination for exercising rights. We do not intend to sell personal information. If we use cross-context behavioral advertising or “sharing” as defined by California law, we will provide required notices and opt-out methods.

Categories of personal information we may collect include identifiers, internet or electronic network activity, commercial information, approximate geolocation, audio/visual content you submit, inferences, protected classification information only if you choose to provide it or where legally required, and sensitive personal information only when necessary for security, access, payments, legal compliance, or restricted programs.

European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland

If GDPR, UK GDPR, or Swiss data protection law applies, you may have rights to information, access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability, withdrawal of consent, and complaint to a supervisory authority. We process information using the legal bases described above and provide this policy to explain our purposes, categories, sharing, retention, and transfer practices.

Canada

If Canadian privacy laws such as PIPEDA apply, we handle personal information according to principles including accountability, identifying purposes, consent, limiting collection, limiting use/disclosure/retention, accuracy, safeguards, openness, individual access, and challenging compliance.

Other U.S. States and Worldwide Users

Residents of other U.S. states and other countries may have privacy rights under local laws. We will honor applicable rights requests where required and will interpret requests in a practical way when similar rights apply across multiple jurisdictions.

Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Other Regions

Where laws such as Brazil’s LGPD, Australia’s Privacy Act, New Zealand’s Privacy Act, Japan’s APPI, South Korea’s PIPA, or similar laws apply, we will process information consistent with applicable transparency, purpose limitation, access, correction, deletion, security, retention, and transfer requirements.

15. International Data Transfers

Aethro is administered from California, United States, and our service providers, staff, users, hosting systems, Discord systems, payment systems, and game infrastructure may be located in different countries. By using Aethro services, your information may be processed in the United States and other jurisdictions that may not provide the same privacy protections as your home jurisdiction.

Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as contractual commitments, service-provider terms, data processing agreements, standard contractual clauses, adequacy decisions, consent, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.

16. Automated Decisions, Anti-Abuse Systems, and Moderation

Aethro may use automated or semi-automated systems to detect spam, cheating, suspicious logins, bot activity, vote manipulation, server abuse, payment fraud, and rule violations. These systems may flag accounts, limit access, queue staff review, block requests, or trigger moderation workflows.

Important moderation or access decisions may involve staff review where practical. You may appeal moderation decisions through the official appeal or support process when one is available.

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Aethro services, laws, technologies, and community operations change. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date and may provide notice through the website, forums, Discord, email, or in-service notices where appropriate.

Your continued use of Aethro services after a policy update means the updated policy applies to future use, subject to rights provided by applicable law.

18. Contact and Privacy Requests

To make a privacy request, report a privacy concern, or ask a question about this policy, contact Aethro through an official support channel or privacy contact designated on Aethro websites.

If the email address above is not active, replace it before publishing this page. A privacy policy should always provide a working request method.