Privacy

This website

playphaethon.com sets no cookies, loads nothing from another site, and has no analytics or trackers. Its account pages keep your sign-in in the browser tab until the tab closes or you sign out. What the web server logs is under Logs and backups, below.

The launcher

Signed out, the launcher sends nothing about you except the crash reports below, which carry no account. Nothing about a disc, a build or a save leaves your machine. It downloads its own updates signed in or not, and the runtime only while you are signed in. Each runtime or tool file you download is recorded with your account's id, the IP address it went to and when, for 90 days. The launcher's Discord presence, which tells Discord what you are doing in the launcher and in the game, can be turned off in its Settings.

Crash and usage reports. One switch in the launcher, Send crash and usage reports, covers crash reports and your play sessions. It is on by default, and it sits in the launcher's Settings under Privacy and on its setup's preferences page. While it is on, signed in or not:

• A crash of the launcher sends the launcher's and the runtime's versions, the Windows version, when the crash happened, what the launcher was doing, the error, and the launcher's last log lines.
• A crash of a game the launcher started sends the launcher's and the runtime's versions, the game, its channel, how the game ended, the Windows edition and version, the game's own crash report and the last lines of that run's game log. It also carries your PC's specs: each graphics card's model, driver version and video memory, the processor's model and its core and thread counts, the total memory, each display's resolution, refresh rate and scale, and the install drive's free space and whether it is an SSD. It carries no crash dump.

Neither report carries an account, a machine name, a serial number, a hardware id or any identifier that persists from one report to the next. Before a report leaves, your computer's name, your Windows user folder, your install folder, your disc image paths and your account's username, email and display name are replaced by placeholders. Phaethon stores each report with nothing about who sent it, and deletes it after 90 days.

Each report is also summarized in the project's own error tracker, which is reachable only on the project's private network and keeps a summary for about 90 days. A game crash's summary copies no text from the report: it holds the versions, the game, its channel, the kind of crash and where in the code it happened, the graphics vendor and driver version, and the Windows build. A launcher crash's summary holds the error's message and where in the code it happened, with folder paths, email addresses, IP addresses and anything shaped like a player number blanked; a person's name written in a message isn't recognized. Neither summary holds a log, an account or an address.

Turn the switch off and no crash report or play session is sent, and the crash reports waiting to go are deleted. A report already sent may still be summarized in the error tracker afterward.

Asking after a game ends badly. From launcher v0.3.0, if a game stops responding or is force-closed, the launcher asks whether something went wrong and offers to send that run's log. After a game you close normally, it may show a small note that lets you say something went wrong, and you can turn that note off. The launcher shows you everything that would be sent first. Only a yes sends anything, and a yes sends even with Send crash and usage reports off.

A yes sends the answer you picked from a short list, how the game ended, the launcher's and the runtime's versions, the game, its channel, the Windows edition and version, and the last lines of that run's game log, up to about 128 KB. In the log, your display name, your user and install folders, addresses, hosted game names and online ids are replaced; anything this misses is in the text you're shown before you choose. It carries no account and nothing you typed. Phaethon stores nothing about who sent it, the web server keeps no log of these requests, and the report is deleted after 90 days. The error tracker gets the answer and how the game ended, never the log.

Your account

Signing in is needed to download and update the runtime and to play online. Once the runtime is installed, every game plays the same signed out, apart from online play. With an account, Phaethon keeps:

• Your sign-in: your username, your password, your email address and your sign-in sessions. The launcher never sees your password.
• Your account: your Phaethon user id, your player number, your display name, your email address and whether it is verified, your relay switch, your release channel, whether your account is in the beta, and when you were first and last seen.
• Play sessions: each game session you play while signed in, with Send crash and usage reports on: the game, when it started and ended, the seconds played, and your computer's name. Your play time per game is summed from them.
• Saves: when saves are uploaded, the newest five revisions of each game's saves, up to 64 MB for the account.
• Your lists: your friends, friend requests for the 14 days they last, the players you ignore or mute, and whether you asked to appear offline.
• Your card: the accent color, background mark and card color you choose and, once they can be chosen, up to three achievements you pin and up to four stats you pick, until you change them or your account is deleted.
• Achievements: once achievements are tracked, each one you earn, with when you earned it and whether you were appearing offline then, until your account is deleted. Phaethon also counts how many players of each game have earned each one, and the launcher shows that share without naming anyone.
• Online stats: once online races count, your Jak X stats, the ones its Your Stats screen shows, counted from what each race's host reports when the race ends, until your account is deleted. Each counted race's report is kept for 90 days, then deleted: the game and, for each player in it, their place, their figures, their clan, how they ended the race and their score before and after.
• Your clan: your clan and when you joined it, your clan's message, and the clan invitations you send or get for the 14 days they last, until you leave or are removed or the clan is disbanded.

The emails your account gets (a link to verify your address, a password reset, word that your address is changing, word of a deletion or a copy of your data, and word that a report has an answer) leave through the project's own mail relay and Amazon SES, which delivers them. Beyond that and what other players can see below, none of it is shared with anyone else, and none of it is used for advertising.

What other players see

• Any player with access to online play can find you by your player number, a random 8-digit number that never changes, or by your display name once you set one, and sees both, along with the name Jak X shows for you. Until you set a display name they see your number in its place. No other player is shown your username unless you choose it as your display name, and none is ever shown your email address or your Phaethon user id. Once online races count, they can also see your stats and your place on the player rankings.
• A friend sees when you became friends, your play time in each game and in all, how many sessions you've played of each, which games you've played and which you play most, your clan's name, the achievements you've earned with the day you earned each, and your card with your level and each stat you picked, leaving out a stat that reads 0. A friend never sees when you last played or anything about your saves. Your friends also see whether you're online and where: in an online universe's lobby, or in an online game, with its universe and whether it's still in its room or racing. Once the launcher sends it, they also see whether you have the launcher open or are playing a game offline, though never which game.
• While you appear offline, friends see you as offline wherever you are, and still see your play time, games, clan and achievements, but no achievement's day, and an achievement you earn while appearing offline never shows its day. They see your card's choices as they stood when you started appearing offline, though its stats and your level still move as each game you play ends. Once online races count, appearing offline doesn't hide your stats or your place on the rankings, and they still move as your races are counted.
• Clans. Any player with access to online play can see any clan: its name, its leader, its members and when each joined, when it was made, and its tag of three letters or digits if its leader gave it one. Once clan races count, any player with access to online play can also see a clan's score, how many events it has played, won, lost and drawn, and its place on the clan ladder, which lists every ranked clan. These are the clan's totals, never a member's, though a clan of one shows that one player's. Only its members see its message and which of them are online, with the launcher open or playing online, though not where, and a member playing a game offline or appearing offline shows as offline to them. A clan's tag shows beside your name, before or after it as you choose, only while both the leader and you have turned it on.
• Rooms and chat. The players in a room see what each other says there, apart from a player who ignores or mutes the one speaking. Phaethon keeps no chat history. So that a player can be reported, it holds in memory, for 15 minutes, each room's last 200 lines and the last 50 whispers (private lines) between each two players, with who sent each and when. A whisper to a player who isn't online is dropped, not kept.
• Online play. While you play online, Phaethon holds your online session, any game you host or join and the newest four addresses your session's requests came from, in memory only, until the session ends, and never writes an address to disk. The service remembers in memory each account that joined an open game, past the end of that account's session. Once a host can remove a player from the game, it also remembers each account removed, so that a removed account can't join that game again. It keeps both until the game closes or the service restarts, and doesn't show them to other players. Other players can see the number and name of everyone in an open game, even one who asked to appear offline. Your address stays behind Phaethon's relay unless you turn the relay off in the launcher: then a player who also turned it off can connect to you directly and sees your address.
• Messages. Once the launcher offers messages, friends can leave each other messages of up to 250 characters. A message is kept in its recipient's mailbox, with its sender, when it was sent and when it was first marked read, for 90 days from when it was sent, then it's deleted. A mailbox holds 500, and past that the oldest one already read is deleted to make room. Its recipient can delete one sooner. Phaethon keeps no list of what you send, and once a message is delivered you can't change it or take it back. Removing a friend or ignoring a player ends new messages between you; a message from a player you ignore is dropped and not kept, and they aren't told. Messages already delivered stay until their 90 days. Muting a player doesn't stop their messages.

Reports

A bug report filed from the report page at playphaethon.com/account/report/ keeps what you typed into its form, the files you attached, your account's id, display name and email address, when it was filed, its state, and the team's answer once there is one. A screenshot is kept without the original file's metadata. The report goes by email to the project's inbox, with your address as the reply address, and to no one else. Your account page lists your reports with their states and answers, and an email says when a report has an answer, never what it says. Reports, their answers and their files are removed with the account.

Each report you file is also sent to the project's error tracker, which keeps it for about 90 days: what you typed, the form, the game and the build you named, the report's id and when it was filed, along with your display name if you have set one, your player number and the email address on your account. In what you typed, email addresses, IP addresses, Windows user folders and anything shaped like a player number other than your own are blanked; a person's name you typed isn't recognized and goes as written. What's sent never includes your account's id or any file you attached.

A report you file in the launcher on a message a friend sent you keeps its sender's number, the reason you picked, any note you add, and a copy of that message: when it was sent and its text. All of it goes with the report's email to the project's inbox and to the error tracker, where the sender's number and the reason aren't blanked. It lasts as long as the report, past the message's 90 days and past the deletion of the message or of its sender's account. Its sender isn't told.

Once a player can be reported from the game, the report you file keeps the reported player's number, the reason you picked, and the game and the room your game names. It also keeps a copy of up to 250 lines from the last 15 minutes: those said in the rooms you were in, any you ignored or muted among them, and the whispers between you and the reported player, each with its sender's number and when it was sent. Apart from those, as your game's word and not Phaethon's, it keeps the in-race lines your game held, each with the number its sender's machine claimed. All of this lasts as long as your account, past the deletion of the reported player's account, and goes with the report's email to the project's inbox. The error tracker also gets the reported player's number, not blanked, and the reason, and none of the lines.

News by email

News by email is something you ask for, one kind of post at a time, and every news post email carries a link that stops its kind.

• With an account, Phaethon keeps your three switches, Feature announcements, Development updates and Notices, and when they last changed. The kinds start off. Email goes to the address on your account, once it is verified.
• Without an account, the sign-up box on the news page asks for an address and the kinds you want, and Phaethon keeps them with when the sign-up was made, confirmed and last mailed. The confirmation link works once and for 24 hours, and an address nobody confirmed is deleted 24 hours after its last link was sent. Stopping every kind deletes the sign-up; for an account, it turns all three switches off and keeps the account.
• Each news post email sent is kept as a record of the address, the kind, whether it was sent or failed, and when. Each record is deleted within 12 months of its email being sent or failing. Stopping a kind does not delete these records sooner; they are removed when your account is deleted or you ask for removal below.

News email leaves through the project's own mail relay and Amazon SES.

Logs and backups

• The web server keeps the standard request log every web server keeps, for this website and for the launcher's and the game's requests to Phaethon: the IP address a request came from, the time, what was asked for and the name the browser or the launcher gives. A request that names a player number carries it there. It keeps those lines for 90 days.
• Phaethon's own services log your account's id and your player number beside what changed, never a name, an email address, a clan's name or the text of a message or a chat line. They also log when an account joins a game, with the game and the seat it took, so a race report kept after a deletion can still be tied to that account through those lines until they age out.
• The sign-in log keeps each failed sign-in step with the IP address it came from, and with your account's id or the username typed when it has one.
• The mail log keeps the address each email went to.
• A security alert raised on a log line keeps that line for as long as the security monitor keeps its alerts, and some logs keep their lines longer than 90 days.
• A backup is kept until it's rotated out.

A copy of your data

From your account page, you can ask for a copy of what Phaethon keeps for your account: your profile, your username, email address and sign-ins (never your password), your email changes, your play sessions, your saves, your reports with their answers, files and any message or chat lines they copy, your friends and the other lists above, your clan with its members and the clan invitations you sent, got or declined, the messages in your mailbox but none you sent, the announcements you've read, your news switches and the news emails sent to you, the licenses you accepted and, once online races count, your stats and your own places in the race reports you were part of. Other players appear in it only by the numbers and names those lists and messages already show you. An email says when it's ready. It can be downloaded for 72 hours, then it's deleted, and you can ask twice a day. It holds no crash reports, which carry no account, no report another player filed, and no log.

Deleting your account

From your account page, you can ask for your account to be deleted by typing your player number. It's deleted 7 days later. Until then, online play and messages are closed to it, though messages sent to you still arrive, everything else works as before, and you can cancel it there; signing in doesn't cancel it by itself. An email says when it's asked, when it's canceled and when it's done.

At the end, Phaethon deletes your account and everything kept under it: your profile, your username, password and sign-ins, your play sessions, your saves, your reports with their answers and files, and their copies in the error tracker, your friends and the other lists above, your place in your clan and the clan invitations you sent or got, the messages you sent and received, your stats and your place on the rankings, your news switches, the news sign-up at your verified address and the records of the news emails sent to you, your email changes, and any copy of your data still waiting. A clan you lead passes to its longest-standing member, or is disbanded if no one else is in it. A few things stay:

• Your player number stays on a list of used numbers, with nothing linking it to you, so it is never given out again.
• The emails your reports sent to the project's inbox stay there until they're removed by hand.
• Crash reports and the reports sent after a game ends badly carry no account, so they stay for their own 90 days, as do their copies in the error tracker.
• Lines already written to the logs, the record of each download, security alerts and backups stay for as long as Logs and backups, above, gives them.
• A report another player filed on a message you sent keeps its copy of that message, with your player number, in the report, in its email to the project's inbox and in its copy in the error tracker, so that deleting an account can't undo a report against it.
• Once online races count, a race report you were part of stays until its 90 days end, with your account cut from it; your place, figures and clan in that race stay.
• Once a player can be reported from the game, a report another player filed that names you, or that holds lines you said or race lines claiming your number, keeps your player number and those lines, in the report and in its email to the project's inbox. Its copy in the error tracker keeps your number if it names you.

If you can't sign in, write to hello@playphaethon.com from the address on your account and ask for it to be deleted. An address signed up for news without an account is removed the same way: write from that address and ask, and its sign-up and the records of the emails sent to it are deleted. Removal by email is done by hand, so it is not instant.