We are PlaytestCloud! Where gaming studios, including some of your favorite ones, come to test their games. At PlaytestCloud your parents can get sent new games to test with you. When your parents test these games together with you we record their phone screen and microphone. Then we send the videos to the game developers so they can make better games.
This policy explains what kinds of information we collect from you when you test a game with PlaytestCloud together with your parent, and how we use that information.
We sometimes refer to the grownups that take care of you at home by saying “parent”. Our lawyers tell us that we should say “parent or guardian” instead, but that’s a lot of letters! Just so you know, we mean parents or guardians whenever we say “parent.”
Table of Contents
How do we collect information?
Your parents help fill us in.
When your parents sign you up to play games, they give us your first name, gender, date of birth, and a list of your favorite games. That’s how we pick out games you’d be great at testing. Don’t worry though, we don’t share your name with game-makers, just your gender, age and favorite games.
You take a survey after you play.
After you play one or more games, we might ask you to take a survey. Then we share your answers with game-makers to help them do research and create better games.
Sometimes you’ll do an interview about the game.
Sometimes we’ll ask your parents to invite you to an interview about the game you played. Your parents will be there for the interview too. In an interview about a game you would speak with the game-makers or a researcher who want to find out more about what you liked and didn’t like about the game. We record these interviews, but the only people that will be able to watch the interview back will be the game-makers and the researchers that they work with, so you or your friends won’t see it on TV or YouTube.
What information do we collect from you?
Basic Information.
Your parent gives us your name, gender, date of birth, and a list of games you like to play when they sign you up for testing games. Just so you know, we do not share your date of birth or name with game-makers.
Voice and Video Recordings.
To help us understand how you play the game, we'll ask you to talk about how the game is going while you’re playing. We will make a recording of your voice, and we will also record your screen to see what sorts of buttons you press, and the things that you are doing in the game.
On-screen Information.
Don’t forget that in the video recordings we will see what appears on screen while you are taking the playtest. If you send in-game messages, or click on certain images, it will be recorded so that we can include it in our research. Sometimes games use the camera, and we will record that as well.
Who sees your information?
Our team.
We are your main information managers, so we have access to all the information you and your parents share with us.
Game-makers.
Game-makers are the ones who hire us to help make their games better. That’s why we share the most important information about you with them–so they can understand how players like you interact with their games.
Third-party service providers.
We sometimes need help with our research, so we call in other businesses to help us manage everything. That means some of the information we collect from you when you participate in a playtest may be accessed by these providers.
Here are the names of some of those businesses:
Google and the Google Cloud Platform
Amazon Web Services
Heroku by Salesforce
Agora
OpenAI
Our contracted research team
Our freelance video QA reviewers
PRIVO – this is our privacy partner which helps us verify your parents so that they can add you to their accounts. Your parents can find out more about PRIVO here: https://www.privo.com/platform-privacy-policy
How do we keep you and your information safe?
We take steps to make sure your data is safe on our servers
We only give people who should have access to your data access to it, and we make sure to only share certain information with the game makers. Remember that if you want us to delete your information you can do that with your parents too.
We make sure our third-party providers are security superstars too.
We always like to make sure that everyone who sees your information keeps it safe. That’s why we make sure they have their own privacy policies for your information. These businesses may use tracking links though, so make sure to ask your parents to help you review the privacy policies for the companies that we work with to understand how they collect your information. If you want to ask us questions about any of our third-party providers, get your parents to write us an email and send it to help@playtestcloud.com.
PS: You can also get help reviewing Google’s privacy policy for more information about their collection and use practices here, https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US#products, or the AWS privacy policy for more information about their collection and use practices here: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/.
PlaytestCloud also partners with PRIVO to make sure that we stick to privacy rules to protect your information, and we earned a certificate for doing it right.
Here’s what it says:
Kids Privacy Assured by PRIVO: COPPA Safe Harbor Certification PlaytestCloud GmbH is a member of the PRIVO Kids Privacy Assured COPPA Safe Harbor Certification Program (“the Program”). The Program certification applies to the digital properties listed on the validation page that is viewable by clicking on the link below. PRIVO is an independent, third-party organization committed to safeguarding children's personal information collected online. The PRIVO COPPA certification Seal posted on this page indicates PlaytestCloud GmbH has established COPPA compliant privacy practices and has agreed to submit to PRIVO’s oversight and consumer dispute resolution process. If you have questions or concerns about our privacy practices, please contact us at +1 (650) 480-3881 or privacy@playtestcloud.com. If you have further concerns after you have contacted us, you can contact PRIVO directly at privacy@privo.com. |
If you want to, you can also see our certificate here: https://cert.privo.com/#/companies/playtestcloud
Where does your information go?
When you complete a playtest with your parent, we see your information and it goes to third-party providers for processing. Here are some examples of how these companies help us organize our information:
Google Cloud transcribes audio files and creates audio transcripts. These files are deleted after 24 hours and are not stored or shared by Google. We then share these transcripts with game-makers as a part of the research process.
AWS automatically transcribes audio data collected from players into audio transcription files. These files are not shared further by AWS and are not used by AWS for anything but the work we ask them to do for us. We then share these files with game-makers to help with their game research.
Agora records your webcam (if enabled), your audio, screen sharing (if enabled) during interviews and moderated playtests. They share the recordings with us, and we share them with the game makers to help them with their game research.
OpenAI may analyze and summarize the transcript of your feedback to help game developers quickly spot issues with their game using artificial intelligence (meaning, OpenAI may analyze the transcript that we get from Google Cloud or AWS). We don't share your audio with OpenAI and don't submit any of your personal data to them, but if you speak about personal things while testing the game, OpenAI may receive this information. They will delete all data we send them within 30 days and won't use the transcript for anything other than what we've asked them to do with it.
What Rights do you have over your data?
It is important for you to know that you have certain rights when a service collects your personal information:
Right of Access - You have the right to know what information we have about you and how it is used.
Right to Rectification – This means that you can ask for your data to be updated if something is incorrect.
Right of Deletion – You can ask us to delete any information we may have about you or you can get your parents to login and edit their PlaytestCloud gamer profile.
Right to request the restriction of processing concerning you – You can decide how your personal information is used.
Right to data portability – You can ask for your personal information to be sent to another service.
Right to object to processing – You can ask us to stop using your information at any time.
Make a complaint. You have the right to complain to a data protection authority.
For more information or if you would like to action one of these rights you or your parent can contact us at help@playtestcloud.com.
If you want to read the full version of our privacy policy, you can do that here: https://www.playtestcloud.com/privacy. Our lawyers had a go at that privacy policy so you may need to ask your parents to help explain some parts. We can also answer any further questions you have about how your data is used for making games better.
Contact Us
Email: help@playtestcloud.com
Phone: +16504803881