Epic Games Forums - Privacy Policy

Updated April 27, 2006

Overview:

Epic Games, Inc. ("EPIC" or "we") considers the protection of personal privacy to be one of our most important values. This privacy policy ("Policy") gives you specific information on how we protect your privacy, how we treat personal information, and the choices you have.

This Policy applies to all web sites and services owned or provided by EPIC which we refer to here collectively as "EPIC Sites." EPIC Sites include, but are not limited to, epicgames.com, unrealtechnology.com, unrealchampionship2.com, as well as other EPIC-branded services. From time to time we may add new sites, domain names or services to those listed above. Please note that this Policy applies only to sites owned and services maintained by EPIC or its corporate subsidiaries and not to web sites or services provided by other companies or organizations to which we link.

As a condition of using the EPIC Sites, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Policy. Additional terms and conditions which govern your use of the EPIC Sites are contained in our Terms of Service, and, as applicable, in certain other service specific license agreements, which you will be notified of at the time of your registration for the applicable services.

You acknowledge that this Policy may change over time. You should check the EPIC Sites regularly for these and other important announcements. Your continued use of the EPIC Sites will signify that you agree to these changes. If you do not agree to any changes or updates, your sole remedy is to not use the EPIC Sites or other EPIC-branded services and to cancel any accounts you may have established to access the EPIC Sites or services.

Children:

The EPIC Sites are not directed to children under the age of 13. The EPIC Sites prohibit registration by, and EPIC will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from, anyone under 13. This requirement will be posted at points of data collection within the EPIC Sites, such as registration for services.

Note to Parents. If you have any concerns about the EPIC Sites, please contact us at forums@epicgames.com. EPIC encourages parents to spend time online with their children. We also urge parents to instruct their children never to give out their real names, addresses or phone numbers without parental permission when using the Internet.

Information Collection, Storage and Use:

We refer to information that identifies an individual as "Personal Information". In general, EPIC collects Personal Information from users of the EPIC Sites in connection with access to certain online areas or services, including but not limited to during (i) registration for certain online community services and tools such as message boards, chat rooms or other community services; (ii) registration for special communications, such as email updates and newsletters; (iii) subscription registration; (iv) user surveys; (v) events, sweepstakes, contests or promotions; and (vi) registration for online multi- or single-player gaming, either through the EPIC Sites or through the game itself. Your Personal Information is stored on EPIC computer servers (or those of its service providers).

We may gather data about the areas of the EPIC Sites you visit or access. We do not use any of this navigational data about where you "as an individual user " go on EPIC Sites or share any of this data with third parties. However, we may use and share navigational data in aggregate, non-personal form to understand how our users as a group use the EPIC Sites.

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information in public areas of an EPIC Site, such as the member home pages and message boards, your information can be viewed and possibly used by others. We advise users to be especially careful in such public areas about disclosing Personal Information, such as full name, home address, or phone number.

Below are more details about the Personal Information we, or third parties might gather from you and how we might use it.

A. Email Newsletters. If EPIC offers email newsletters to its registered users. We will use your email address to send you only the specific newsletter(s) that you signed up for. If you want to update your email address or stop receiving a newsletter, follow the procedures to unsubscribe at the bottom of any newsletter we send you.

B. Membership Information. When you register for membership on an EPIC Site, we will ask you for certain minimum required information, such as your name, birth date, gender, email address and zip code. We may also ask for additional information about you and your interests. We do this so we can better understand your preferences and tailor the EPIC Sites to suit you better. The more information you volunteer, the more we can tailor the EPIC Site and promotions to your interests.

* Service Providers. We may offer our members other services provided by third parties such as email and userpages, among others. When you register for membership on an EPIC Site or activate a related service by clicking on a particular service link (i.e. email) on an EPIC Site, you may be automatically registered to receive the services we offer and some of your Personal Information may be transferred from EPIC to those third-party service providers. By becoming a member, you authorize us and our third-party service providers to send you email updates and information about promotions and special offers. We take care to require that our third-party service providers only use our members data as necessary to provide the particular service and to give you updates on that service providers products and services.

* Advertisers. EPIC may send you emails on behalf of our advertisers. If you opt to receive information from our advertisers they may use your Personal Information to send you advertisements or other notices, via email or postal mail, and it is possible that your information may be shared with others.

* Other Parties. We occasionally provide third parties with Personal Information limited only to your physical address in order to send you promotional mailings.

C. Email Updates to Members. If you so elect at registration, we may periodically send you promotional email about products or services offered by the EPIC Sites, our partners and advertisers. If you want to update your email address or stop receiving these types of promotional emails, please follow the procedures to unsubscribe at the bottom of any email we send you.

We may contact you regarding account status, changes to this Policy or our Terms of Service to confirm your registration or for any other business reason related to your use of EPIC Sites.

D. Promotions. We may ask you for Personal Information at other times, including, but not limited to, when you enter sweepstakes, contests or promotions sponsored by EPIC or a third party. If you choose to enter sweepstakes, contests or promotions sponsored by a third party, the Personal Information you provide will be subject to the privacy policy of the third party sponsor. We encourage you to check the applicable third party policy before providing any Personal Information.

E. Surveys and User Research. EPIC may conduct email and web-delivered surveys from time to time, as well as instant polls, to gather information about our users. Taking these surveys and polls is entirely optional. You have no obligation to respond to them. We share only the aggregate results of these surveys, not Personal Information, with our advertisers and partners to help them better understand our services and monitor the reach of their advertising or other offerings on our service. We also use some of the Personal Information that you provide in these surveys to help us understand your interests and to make the EPIC Sites more useful to you.

F. Use of Cookies. On the Internet, a "cookie" is a piece of information (a file) that a Web site transfers to a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. The use of cookies is common on the Internet. The process we use to serve advertisements and to track use of the EPIC Sites involves cookies. We use cookies to recognize users who have already registered for an EPIC Site, allowing those users to speed up their future activities on the EPIC Sites. Cookies help EPIC and our advertising service (discussed below) track the frequency and placement of advertisements. Cookies also enable us to measure aggregate (total) usage and traffic to the EPIC Sites and to specific offerings. This aids us in producing content that best meets our users' preferences. In order to implement new services, we may use other types of cookies as well. We also may use cookies to understand better what parts of the EPIC Sites you like best. We may use that information to display advertisements that we think will be of particular interest to you. You may configure your browser to reject cookies, but this may interfere with some functionality of the EPIC Sites. To find out more about changing your browser to reject cookies, we suggest you check the related documentation for your specific browser software. Certain pages of the EPIC Sites may contain electronic images (called a "single-pixel GIF" or "web beacon") that allow a web site to count users who have visited that page. EPIC occasionally uses web beacons on the EPIC Sites in order to count users and to recognize registered users by accessing the EPIC cookies.

G. Purchase of Products or Services. When you purchase products or services from or through the EPIC Sites we may require Personal Information such as name, address, telephone number and billing information, including credit card, debit card or bank account data. EPIC will not disclose your Personal Information, including billing information, except to the extent necessary to complete your transaction, for example during an online purchase or where needed to deliver a product or service you ordered.

H. Software Updates; Interactive Material. EPIC automatically updates software used in conjunction with certain of the services available on the EPIC Sites. In order to update this software, EPIC collects a user's current version information from the user’s computer. This information is not archived and is only used to determine which software requires updating. EPIC may record audio conversations or copy text chat or video images from chat rooms on the EPIC Sites and may disclose such material for use in connection with promoting the EPIC Sites.

I. Sites You Visit. As you browse around the EPIC Sites, EPIC may store information about which pages you visit and other information presented in your browser's URL address line. EPIC will use this information to help determine what our users are most interested in.

J. Sharing Non-Personal Information. EPIC may share information that is not Personal Information -- meaning non-personal, aggregate, or summary, information regarding our users -- with other third parties not mentioned in this Policy. This kind of information does not identify you individually.

K. Merger or Acquisition. In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of its assets, or the sale of an individual website owned by EPIC, EPIC may transfer your Personal Information to a third party as a part of such merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale.

L. Legal Authorities. We may also disclose Personal Information in cases when we reasonably believe that it is necessary to identify someone who may be violating EPIC policies or EPIC Sites’ Terms of Service, or who may be a threat to EPIC or third party rights, property, or personal safety. The EPIC Sites may disclose Personal Information to comply with valid legal process such as a duly issued search warrant, subpoena or court order.

Access to Other Sites through EPIC:
Linking to Other Sites. You may visit independent web sites, not owned or operated by EPIC, through links on the EPIC Sites. Such sites are operated by external, third-party service providers. Some of these sites will have their own separate membership processes and privacy policies. We do not control sites that are operated by others and are not responsible for the information practices of these sites. Other sites may set their own cookies, collect data or solicit personal information. It is always a good idea to check the privacy policy and terms of use of any site before offering any of your Personal Information. We do not share your Personal Information with these independent web sites.

Information Storage and Security:

Your Personal Information is stored on EPIC computer servers (or those of its service providers. We protect your Personal Information with technical, administrative and physical safeguards to protect against loss, unauthorized access, destruction, misuse, modification and improper disclosure. No computer system or information can ever be fully protected against every possible hazard. But EPIC is committed to providing reasonable and appropriate security controls to protect our EPIC Sites and all Personal Information against foreseeable hazards.

Notwithstanding these security measures, please be aware that when you submit Personal Information to the EPIC Sites over the Internet, the information may travel over many systems that are not under the EPICs control. We take the protection of user data very seriously and to that end take reasonable safeguards to prevent interception of any Personal Information. In the case of shopping pages, for example, the credit card information you submit is protected by secure servers.

Accessing, Correcting and Updating Your Information:

To access, correct or update your account or other Personal Information such as your city or interests, please use the "Edit profile page" at the EPIC Site on which you are registered.

If you have any other questions, comments or complaints about this Policy, please contact us forums.epicgames.com or write to us at:

Epic Games, Inc.
Attn: Customer Service/Privacy Administrator
620 Crossroads Blvd
Cary, NC 27511

Unsubscribe:

Newsletters. You may unsubscribe to email newsletters by following the instructions at the bottom of each newsletter.

Email updates and special offers: You may unsubscribe to email announcements by following the instructions at the bottom of each email.

Services:

You may unsubscribe to any service for which you have previously elected by following the instructions included in the EPIC Terms of Service.