1. Who we are
The data controller is Ember Rooms Ltd, 41 Mare Street, London E8 4RP, United Kingdom. For anything to do with personal data, write to [email protected].
We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. Requests are handled by a named member of staff and every request is logged in writing.
2. What we collect
Very little, on purpose. There is nothing to pay for, so we never ask for payment details and have no way to receive them.
| Category | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Table name, email address, hashed password, confirmation that you are 18 or over | You, when you join |
| Play | Rooms visited, tables joined, token balance, session length, game history | Created as you use the club |
| What you write | Table chat, reports about other members | You |
| Technical | IP address, browser and device type, language, timestamps, error logs | Collected automatically |
| Correspondence | Emails you send us and our replies | You |
We do not collect special category data and never ask for it. If you send us some in a message, we delete it once your request is closed.
3. Why, and on what basis
- Running your membership — creating your account, handing out tokens, saving your games. Basis: performance of a contract, being the terms of use you accept when you join.
- Keeping the rooms civil — moderation, preventing duplicate accounts, acting on reports. Basis: legitimate interests in running a club people want to sit in.
- Age checks — confirming the declaration you make when joining, and closing accounts that fail it. Basis: legitimate interests and legal obligation.
- Support — answering you. Basis: contract and legitimate interests.
- Counting how busy the rooms get — the figures behind the room meter. Basis: legitimate interests; the data is aggregated and no individual can be identified from it.
- Occasional club emails — only if you ask for them. Basis: consent, which you can withdraw from the link in every message.
We do not profile members for advertising and we make no automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.
4. Cookies
Ember Rooms uses three cookies and none of them are for advertising. There are no social media pixels and no cross-site tracking, which is why you are not being asked to agree to anything.
| Cookie | What it does | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
| er_session | Keeps you signed in and keeps your seat at a table | Session |
| er_prefs | Remembers language, sound level and menu state | 6 months |
| er_pause | Enforces a break you have set, before you sign in | Until the break ends |
All three are strictly necessary, so no prior consent is required under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. You can clear them in your browser at any time; without er_session you cannot hold a seat.
The site loads its typefaces from Google Fonts, which means your IP address is sent to Google when a page opens. If you would rather avoid that, block fonts.gstatic.com in your browser — the site still works with system fonts.
5. How long we keep it
- Active account: for as long as the account exists.
- Dormant account: deleted automatically after 24 months with no sign-in, with an email warning 30 days before.
- Game history: 12 months, then anonymised and kept only in aggregate.
- Table chat: 90 days; if it is part of a report, until the case closes and for 6 months after.
- Technical logs: 30 days.
- Support email: 24 months.
- Permanent closures: we keep the email address in hashed form indefinitely, for the sole purpose of stopping the account being reopened.
Deleting your account is immediate and final. After 30 days it cannot be restored, even if you ask.
6. Who else sees it
Authorised staff, and the suppliers who keep the club running as processors under Article 28:
- hosting and database provider, servers in the United Kingdom and the EU;
- transactional email service (sign-in confirmations, password resets);
- aggregate analytics provider, with no advertising cookies.
We do not sell, rent or trade personal data. We disclose it to the police or a court only on a lawful request and only as far as the request goes.
7. Transfers abroad
Data is stored in the UK and the European Economic Area. Where a supplier processes data outside those areas, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses, with any further safeguards required. The current supplier list is available on request.
8. Security
Connections use TLS, passwords are stored using a purpose-built hashing algorithm, internal access follows need-to-know and administrative access is logged. If a personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights, we will tell you without undue delay and report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office within 72 hours.
9. Your rights
You can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict what we do with it, hand it over in a machine-readable JSON file, or stop processing that relies on legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting what was lawful before.
Write to [email protected]. We reply within one month, extendable by two further months for genuinely complex requests, and we will tell you if that happens. There is no charge.
10. Age of members
Membership is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data about children. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we close it and delete the associated data within 7 days. Parents and guardians can report an account to [email protected].
11. Changes
If this notice changes we publish the new version here with the date it takes effect. For material changes — new purposes or new recipients — we email members and post a notice in the club at least 15 days beforehand.
12. Contact and complaints
Ember Rooms Ltd, 41 Mare Street, London E8 4RP
Privacy: [email protected]
Club: [email protected]
If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF — ico.org.uk), or to the supervisory authority where you live.