Privacy policy

Last updated: 30 September 2026

This policy explains what the PyreTale website collects, what it makes public about players and what it keeps private. It also covers the account you can create for your player page and the cookie that keeps you signed in, the forum, what happens to your data when you buy from the store, the outside services the website uses, how long data is kept, and how to see, correct or delete your data.

What this covers

PyreTale is a community game server for Hytale, based in British Columbia, Canada. Its owner and operator is Alexander J Baxter, operating as PyreTale, and a small team runs the server day to day. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Alexander J Baxter, operating as PyreTale.

This policy covers:

the website at www.pyretale.com
the forum at www.pyretale.com/forum, the news pages at www.pyretale.com/news and the console our team uses to run the website, all drawn by a second small program that Cloudflare runs for us
the relay, a small program that Cloudflare runs for us at www.pyretale.com/api and api.pyretale.com, which feeds the Settlements, Players and Leaderboards pages and every player page, and keeps player accounts
what the game server sends to the relay
what our live map at map.pyretale.com shows about players
what we receive when you buy from the store, and what the game server sends Tebex so that your purchase can be delivered

It does not cover Hytale itself, Discord or Tebex, which each have their own privacy policy. Hypixel Studios runs Hytale, and Tebex handles payments in the store.

The game server also keeps its own records to run and moderate the game, such as connection details, chat and moderation notes. Those records stay with the server team and are not sent to the website, and the Rules set out how everyone must behave in the game.

The store is not open yet. The section "Buying from the store" explains what will happen to your data once it opens.

Our terms of service explain the conditions for using the website and playing on the server.

What the game server sends the website

The game server runs a small add-on called PyreLink. While the live feed is running, PyreLink sends the relay one file about every 15 minutes, describing the world as it stands, plus an extra update a few seconds after anyone types /link or /unlink. When the feed is switched off, the game server sends nothing. The relay never connects to the game server: this data only travels outwards, from the game server to the relay, and from the relay to your browser.

The file covers every player the game server has a record of, not only players who are online or who have a player page. For each player it can include:

your character's permanent id, a long code that tells one player apart from another
your in-game name
when you first joined and when you were last seen
how long you have played
how much of the world you have explored, as a percentage
your settlement, your rank and title in it, and any settlement you lead
the milestones you have reached, with dates
your shops, with their names and where they stand in the world, whether you hold a bank, and how many markets you have founded
how many quests you have completed (story, daily, weekly and side), your quest streaks and your quest milestones
your standing with each faction
a private part with your money: your coin balance, your bank totals (earnings, deposits, withdrawals and how many of each), what your shops have earned, and the wages paid to you

The file also carries each settlement's details (listed in the next section), the server's name, how many players are online, and two short lists used for accounts: link codes waiting to be used, each with the id of the character that asked for it, and recent unlink requests.

What it never sends. PyreLink is built so that it cannot read your IP address, chat or command logs, moderation records such as bans, mutes and warnings, or player reports. It also does not read the record of each trade you make. Those records stay on the game server.

What is public and what is private

Anything public can be seen by anyone without signing in, on the website or by asking the relay directly.

Public for every player, whether or not they have a player page. We chose to show these so that settlements and leaderboards are complete.

Settlement pages: each settlement's name, motto, tier, realm, branch and type of government, colour and banner, when it was founded, whether it is open to join, which empire it belongs to, how much land it has claimed, its treasury and tax rate, its leader, and its full member list with each member's in-game name, rank and title.
Leaderboards: the top 50 players for time played, world explored, quests completed and longest quest streak, with each player's in-game name, settlement and figure.
Name checks: the relay will say whether a character name has played on PyreTale. For a player with no page, it shows nothing else.

Wherever a player's name appears, the relay also gives their character id and says whether they have a player page.

Public only once you create an account. Until you do, you have no player page. Once you do:

Your player page shows your in-game name, settlement, rank and title, any settlement you lead, how long you have played, when you first joined, when you were last seen, how much of the world you have explored, your milestones, your quest counts and streaks, your faction standings, your shops and where they stand, whether you hold a bank, the markets you have founded, and when your page opened.
You appear in the Players list, with your name, settlement and time played.

Private: on the website, only you can see it. Your money figures are shown only to a browser signed in to your account, or to one still holding the older claim cookie for your character when it asks the relay directly (see the next section). They never appear on a public page, a leaderboard or a settlement roster. The relay stores these figures for every player, with a page or not, so that they are ready when you create your account, but it never shows them to anyone else.

Members of the team who look after the game server or the relay can see all of this data, including the private part and the email address of each account, as part of running them.

The live map. Our live map at map.pyretale.com is open to anyone. It shows every online player's name and position while they play, and anyone can search it for a player by name. It also shows settlement land and pins for shops, banks and other places.

The Founder's Wall. If you buy a founding tier in the store, your in-game name and your tier are published on the Founder's Wall on the website. If you would rather not appear there, ask us and we will leave you off it.

Your account and its cookie

A player page opens when you create an account for your character. Creating one takes three things:

A six character code from the game. Type /link in the game: the code works once, lasts 15 minutes, and proves which character is yours.
An email address. We keep it with your account, and the website shows it only to you and to our admins, on your account's page in the console. The website sends no email at all yet. We keep the address so that account notices and recovery by email can be added later, and this policy will say so before that happens.
A password of 10 to 128 characters, which cannot be your email address. It is never stored as you typed it: the relay keeps only a scrambled form of it that cannot be turned back into the password.

After that you sign in with your email address and your password, on any browser or phone.

If you forget your password. No email is sent. The game is how you prove it is you: type /link in the game for a fresh code, and bring it with your email address and a new password to Forgot your password. Every other browser signed in to your account is then signed out.

The sign in cookie: __Host-pyre_sess

Set by the relay on the website's own address, and sent only to www.pyretale.com: never to another website, and never to another part of pyretale.com such as the live map. The __Host- at the start of its name makes your browser keep it to that one address.
Holds a long random value and nothing else: not your name, not your email address and not your character. The relay keeps only a scrambled copy of the value, so a copy of its records cannot sign anyone in.
Signing up or resetting your password keeps you signed in on that browser for 400 days, unless you sign out, and so does signing in with "Keep me signed in" ticked. A sign in without it ends when you close your browser, and the relay stops accepting it after 24 hours at the latest.
Scripts on web pages cannot read it, it only travels over encrypted connections, and your browser does not send it when other websites load things from www.pyretale.com in the background.
It lets the relay know that your browser is signed in to your account, so that it can show you your private money figures and tell the website who you are.

For each browser you sign in on, the relay keeps when you signed in, when it last saw that browser (to the nearest hour), whether it stays signed in, and a rough label such as "Chrome on Windows", worked out from the description your browser gives of itself. The relay never keeps your IP address or your browser's full description with them. The Account page lists them, and you can sign any of them out there.

The older claim cookie: pyre_claim. Before accounts, typing a code on the website set a cookie called pyre_claim, which only api.pyretale.com receives. The website no longer uses that address, so it can neither read the cookie nor delete it. Until your character joins an account or you type /unlink, a browser holding one can still see your character's money figures by asking api.pyretale.com directly. After that, every older claim cookie for your character stops working for good. Clearing your browser's cookies removes it.

The sign in cookie exists only to do what you asked for when you signed in, so we do not ask for separate permission to set it. It is not used for advertising or tracking.

Signing out, and removing it

Signing out deletes the cookie from that browser and ends its session. Use the menu under your name at the top of the website, or "Sign out" on your own page. "Sign out everywhere" on the Account page ends every session at once. Your page stays open and public.
Typing /unlink in the game takes your character off your account and ends every session, in every browser. Your page closes at the next update. The account stays, and a fresh /link code attaches the character again after you sign in. Your name can still appear on settlement rosters and leaderboards.
Deleting your account on the Account page removes the account, its sessions and its link to your character, and your page closes.
Clearing your browser's cookies removes the cookie as well.

The forum

The forum at www.pyretale.com/forum is part of the website. Anyone can read its open categories without signing in. To write, react, report or send private messages you need an account with your character attached, and everything you do there is shown as that character.

Public: anyone can see it.

Threads and posts in the open categories: the title, the text and any images, and beside each post your character's name, your settlement, any team badge, your number of posts and the month you joined. A thread also shows how many times it has been read.
Reactions: how many of each kind a post has had, but not who gave them.
When a post was edited, and by whom. When a post was deleted, a note in its place says who deleted it, when, and the reason they gave.
Your member page: what your player page already shows (your settlement, rank and title, time in the world, when you first joined, quests completed, world explored and milestones), your numbers of posts and threads, when you joined, when you last opened a forum page, and your latest threads and posts in the open categories.
Members online: the forum's front page names every member who opened a forum page in the last 15 minutes, and the newest member.
While a ban on the forum lasts, a Banned label beside your name, on your posts and on your member page. The reason is shown only to you and the team.
Threads in the open categories are listed in the forum's search, its feeds and its sitemap, so search engines and feed readers can find them.

Private: only the people named can see it.

Threads in the private categories, Whitelist Applications and Appeals: the member who started the thread, and staff, admins and the owners. These threads never appear in lists, search, feeds or member pages, and a post elsewhere that quotes one of them never names its author to anybody who cannot read it.
Private messages: the members in the conversation. The team is shown a message only when somebody in the conversation reports it, and then a copy of that one message and who reported it, nothing else: the forum has no page where the team can read a conversation. Leaving a conversation does not delete what was said in it: the others can still read it.
Your alerts, the threads you watch and the members you block: only you. A member you block is not told, but if they try to message you, the forum tells them you are not taking messages from them, and if they try to quote you, that you have blocked them.
Your email address never appears on the forum. Admins can see it on your account's page in the console, and no other page shows it.

What the team sees. Moderators, staff, admins and the owners see, besides what is public: posts and threads deleted in the last 30 days, the earlier versions of an edited post, reports, bans and warnings, and the moderation log. Staff, admins and the owners also read the private categories and the admin log. Members of the team who look after the database can see everything the forum stores, private messages included, as part of running it.

Images you upload. An image you upload to the forum, or the team uploads in the console, is kept in storage that Cloudflare runs for us, with a note of who uploaded it and when. Before a JPEG, PNG or WebP image is kept, we take out what the camera, phone or editing program wrote into the file: where it was taken, the camera or phone, the date and time, the program that edited it and any small preview copy. The picture itself stays as it was, with its colours and the way up it was taken. A GIF is kept exactly as it was uploaded. Each image has an address of its own, and anyone with that address can open it, even when the post it is in is private or has been deleted, until the image is removed (see How long data is kept).

Images from other sites. A post can also show an image kept on Discord or on Imgur, which your browser fetches from them when you open the page, as the section on outside services explains. An image from any other site is shown as a link, and nothing is fetched from that site unless you follow it.

Reports. When you report a post, a private message or a member, the team receives your character's name, the reason you give, and a copy of what you reported as it was then, up to 5,000 characters. The member you report is not told who reported them. A report about a thread in a private category reaches only the members of the team who can read that thread, and still does after the thread has gone.

Bans and warnings. A ban on the forum records its reason, who placed it, when, and when it ends, if it does. You see the reason on the forum while the ban lasts; other members see only the Banned label. A warning records a note, who gave it and when. It reaches you as an alert, and nobody outside the team sees it. The team keeps the record of past bans and warnings, including who lifted a ban and when.

The moderation log. The forum records each moderation action: deleting, restoring or editing another member's post; deleting, restoring, moving, renaming, locking, pinning or changing the prefix of a thread; bans, warnings and lifted bans; reports dealt with; and images taken down. Each entry says who acted, on what, when, and the reason given. Only the team reads it, and an entry about a thread in a private category names that thread only to the team members who can read it.

The admin log. Every change made in the console is recorded with who made it, when, and what it was before and after: the news, the Founder's Wall, the team list, the store, the forum's categories and settings, bans, warnings and reports, images taken down, players taken off the website or put back, and changes to an account's role. Staff, admins and the owners read it. It never holds a password or an email address.

Editing and deleting. You can edit a post for a day after posting it, and delete it for an hour. A deleted post or thread is kept for 30 days, seen only by the team, so that it can be restored if it was deleted by mistake. Then it is removed for good, with its reactions, its earlier versions and the images its author uploaded for it, unless another of their posts or messages still shows them. If you type /unlink or delete your account, your member page closes, but your posts, threads and messages stay on the forum under the name you posted them with. To have them removed as well, email us (see "Your rights and how to use them").

The message cookie: __Host-pyre_flash. After you do something on the forum or in the console, such as posting or saving, the page you land on says it is done. The word it shows travels in this cookie, which holds that one word and nothing else, is sent only to www.pyretale.com, lasts a minute at most and is removed by the page that shows it. It exists only to finish what you asked for, so we do not ask for separate permission to set it.

What the website itself collects

Nothing else. The website has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking pixels. Creating an account asks for an email address and a password, and nothing more: never your real name or your age. Checkout in the store is run by Tebex, not by the website, and is covered in the next section. We do not sell data or use it for advertising.

Apart from the cookies above, the website stores three things in your browser, and none of them leaves it:

pt.codex.gaps remembers whether you turned on "What is unwritten" in the Codex of Nu.
pt.acct holds the name shown at the top of the website while you are signed in: your character's name, or the part of your email address before the @ until a character is attached. It lets the name appear at once when a page opens. It is kept only on a browser that stays signed in: after you sign up or reset your password, or sign in with "Keep me signed in" ticked. It holds no password, and it is deleted when you sign out.
pt.draft, followed by a code, holds what you are writing on the forum, saved as you type so that it is not lost if the page closes. The code is made from your account, so another account on the same browser is not shown your draft. A draft is removed when you send it, and every draft goes when you sign out.

An older version of the website set a greeting cookie called pyre_who. The website no longer sets it, and deletes one it finds.

The relay itself keeps no record of who looks at which page. To stop people guessing codes and passwords, it counts attempts, in counters kept in its account database:

against your IP address: every sign up, every password reset, a failed sign in, a failed code when you attach a character, and a wrong password on the Account page
against the email address: a failed sign in, and a wrong password on the Account page
against your account: each change of email address

A counter never holds the address, the email or the account it counts, only a keyed hash of it: a scramble made with a secret key that only the relay holds, so it cannot be turned back. A sign in that works first time is not counted. One older part of the relay, where codes were typed before accounts existed and which the website no longer uses, is the exception: it counts a failed code against the IP address itself, and deletes that count within 24 hours.

The forum keeps no record of who reads which page either. It counts how many times each thread is read, and to count each reader once it uses your account or, if you are not signed in, a scrambled form of your IP address, held in the program's memory for a short while and never stored. It limits searches to 20 a minute the same way. It keeps the time you last opened a forum page, which your member page and Members online show. And it counts how often your account starts threads or conversations, posts, reports, uploads, reacts, watches threads, blocks members and previews what it writes, against your account, so that each can be limited.

Outside services the website loads from. Whenever your browser loads something from another service, that service receives your IP address, basic details about your browser such as its type and language, and usually the fact that you came from our website. This happens on every website. These are the services, and when:

Cloudflare hosts the website, runs the relay and the program that draws the forum and the news, stores the accounts, the forum and uploaded images, and sits in front of our map server. It receives every request your browser makes to them, so that it can deliver the pages and protect them from attacks. Cloudflare can also keep a short technical log of each request to the relay and to the forum, which can include your IP address and approximate location, for up to 7 days.
Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) supplies the website's fonts. Your browser fetches them from Google when you load the website.
Our map server (map.pyretale.com) runs on the same machine as the game server, behind Cloudflare, and supplies the number of players online. Most pages of the website ask it for that number when they open, and every 30 seconds while they stay open. BisectHosting, which hosts the game server, may keep connection logs as part of running it.
YouTube shows the trailer. On the home page, the trailer's preview picture loads from YouTube's image server (i.ytimg.com) when it comes into view, so YouTube receives your IP address even if you never press play. The Press page shows a preview picture from YouTube too. The video itself only loads when you press play, from YouTube's privacy-enhanced address (youtube-nocookie.com). From then on YouTube's own privacy policy applies, and YouTube may store information in your browser.
hyvatar.io, and crafthead.net if hyvatar.io does not answer, draw the team's in-game skins on the About page. They receive the in-game names of the team members being drawn, not yours.
Discord is mostly only linked. A forum post or a news post can show an image kept on Discord (cdn.discordapp.com or media.discordapp.net), and your browser fetches it from Discord when you open the page. Apart from that, nothing reaches Discord until you click through, and then Discord's own privacy policy applies. When the forum shows how many people are online in our Discord, it asks Discord itself and sends nothing about you.
Imgur (i.imgur.com): a forum post or a news post can show an image kept on Imgur, and your browser fetches it from Imgur when you open the page. An image from any other site is shown as a link instead, and nothing is fetched from that site unless you follow it.

When you contact us. If you email us, your message goes through Gmail, which Google runs, and we see your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to deal with your message. If you contact us on Discord, for example to report a player or appeal a ban, Discord's own privacy policy applies, and our staff see what you send.

Where your data is handled. Cloudflare, Google, Discord and Imgur are based in the United States and handle data in many countries. Tebex is based in the United Kingdom. The game server, and the live map with it, is hosted with BisectHosting. Data held in another country can be subject to that country's laws, including requests from its courts and authorities.

Buying from the store

What Tebex receives. Payments in the store are handled by Tebex, which sells to you as the merchant of record. When you buy, Tebex receives your payment details, your email address and the in-game name you are buying for, and handles them under the Tebex privacy policy, not this one. To deliver what you buy, the Tebex add-on on our game server sends Tebex your in-game name and your character's permanent id.

What we receive from Tebex. For each purchase, we receive a record from Tebex with the in-game name, what was bought, the transaction id, the amount and the date. We use these records to deliver what you bought, to help you if something goes wrong, and to show founders on the Founder's Wall. We keep them for as long as we need them for delivery, support and the law, and we keep accounting records for as long as the law requires.

How long data is kept

Game data on the relay: each update replaces the last one completely. We keep it for as long as the server runs and sends it. The game server keeps a record of everyone who has ever played, so this includes players who have stopped playing. If the game server stops sending, the relay keeps the last copy until we delete it, and if the server closes for good, we will delete the relay's data.
Your account: until you delete it on the Account page, or ask us to. Your email address, your scrambled password and the record of each browser you signed in on go with it. The account stays after /unlink, so that nobody else can take its email address.
Your page: open for as long as your character is on your account, even while you are signed out. It closes when you type /unlink, delete your account, or we remove it.
The sign in cookie: 400 days after you sign up, reset your password or sign in with "Keep me signed in", otherwise until you close your browser and never more than 24 hours, unless you sign out or clear it sooner.
Signed in browsers: the record of each one is kept while its session lasts and for 24 hours after it ends. It is then deleted, a few at a time, the next time the account signs in, signs out, resets or changes its password, or signs a browser out, so a record can stay longer on an account that is not used. All of them go when the account is deleted.
Link codes: a code works for 15 minutes, and the relay clears out expired codes automatically.
Unlink notes: when you unlink, or when your character joins an account, the relay keeps a note of your character's id and the time, so that older claim cookies stay refused. The note holds nothing else and is not deleted automatically.
Attempt counters: each one counts over a window of at most 24 hours, and expires when its window ends. Expired counters are cleared a few at a time as new attempts come in, so one can stay in the database for a while after its window.
Forum posts, threads and private messages: for as long as the forum runs, unless they are deleted. They stay when you type /unlink or delete your account, under the name you posted them with, until you ask us to remove them.
Deleted posts and threads: 30 days, seen only by the team, and then removed for good with their reactions, their earlier versions and the images their author uploaded for them.
Earlier versions of an edited post: the last twenty, for as long as the post is kept.
Forum alerts: until 90 days after you have read them.
Uploaded images: until the team takes them down, or until the posts and messages of yours that show them have all been removed for good. An image you upload and never post stays until the team takes it down.
Reports, bans, warnings, the moderation log and the admin log: not deleted automatically, so that the team can see what happened before.
Forum limits: each count lasts as long as its window, from a minute to a day, and is cleared a few at a time after that.
The message cookie, __Host-pyre_flash: a minute at most.
Forum drafts, pt.draft: in your browser until you send them, sign out or clear them.
Cloudflare's request logs for the relay and the forum: up to 7 days, if they are switched on.
The Codex setting: in your browser until you clear it.
The name note, pt.acct: in your browser until you sign out or clear it.
Purchase records: as long as we need them for delivery, support and the law, and as accounting records for as long as the law requires.
Emails: only as long as we need them to answer you, and then we delete them.

Outside services keep what they receive under their own policies.

Your rights and how to use them

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

tell you what data we hold about you, and give you a copy
correct anything that is wrong
delete your data, including taking your name off the leaderboards and settlement pages, and your posts and messages off the forum

How to do it:

To remove your player page, type /unlink in the game, or delete your account on the Account page. /unlink takes effect at the next update.
To remove a post of yours, delete it within an hour of posting it. For older posts, your threads or your messages, email us as below.
For anything else, or if you cannot get into the game, email pyretale.admin@gmail.com with your in-game name and what you would like us to do. We may need to check that the character is yours before we act.
We will do what you ask within 30 days, or sooner if the law where you live requires it. If we cannot do something, we will tell you why.

Removing your data from the website does not delete your character from the game. If you want your game records deleted too, tell us, and we will first explain what that would mean for your progress.

We handle personal information in line with Canada's federal privacy law for private organisations, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).

If you are in the EU or the UK, you also have the right to ask us to limit how we use your data, to get your data in a form you can reuse, and to object to how we use it. The legal reasons we rely on are:

our legitimate interest in running the game, this website and the store, and in answering your messages. This includes complete settlement pages and leaderboards, delivering purchases and keeping their records, and the Founder's Wall. You can object to this at any time.
your consent for your account, your player page and the sign in cookie, which you give by creating an account and can take back at any time by deleting it or with /unlink.

Complaints. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first, and we will try to put it right. You can also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia. In the EU you can complain to the data protection authority where you live, and in the UK to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Children

PyreTale is played through Hytale, and Hytale's own terms on age apply to everyone who plays here. Under those terms, a player under the age of adulthood where they live may only play if a parent or guardian has accepted Hytale's terms for them.

We do not knowingly keep personal information about anyone under 13. The website never asks for your age or your real name, and it asks for an email address only when you create an account. The game server records game facts, such as in-game names and time played, for everyone who plays, so we may not know a player's age unless someone tells us.

If you are under 13, please do not create an account.

Parents and guardians: if you would like your child's information taken off the website, for example because they are under 13, email pyretale.admin@gmail.com with their in-game name and we will remove it. We will take down their page and delete their account as soon as we can, and remove the rest within 30 days. We may need to check that you are their parent or guardian, but we will ask for as little as possible.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when the website, the forum, the relay, the game server or the store changes what it collects or shows. The date at the top shows when it last changed. For important changes we will also post in our Discord and on the News page. If we ever want to use your data in a new way that needs your permission, we will ask first.

Contact

Email: pyretale.admin@gmail.com. This is the best way to make a privacy request.
Discord: discord.gg/pyretale