Privacy policy

Version 1.6 — in force. Published 29 September 2026; last updated: 3 October 2026 (version 1.6: the anti-cheat; version 1.5: keepsakes; version 1.4: the end-of-beta survey; version 1.3: every promise checked against what actually runs; the treasure-hunt trophy case; cookies, backups, the chat filter, the monthly deletion, how we check it's you; what the anti-xray and the block log do; friends in town, the Mayor's chest, weekly errands, welcome gifts, "Around Kettlewood", guilds, the /join count; contact address).

Kettlewood is a calm survival Minecraft server for grown-ups. To run it and keep it safe, we need a little information about you. This page explains, in plain words, what we collect, why, who else sees it, how long we keep it, and what you can ask us. We never sell your data.

1. Who we are

Kettlewood is run by ELKTA s. r. o., Trstínska cesta 9, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia — Company ID (IČO): 54 734 720.
Contact for anything about your data: [email protected]

We are the data controller: we decide how your data is used. We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as the law does not require one for a service of our size — just write to the address above.

2. The short version

In the game we record your Minecraft name and ID, your IP address, your chat, the blocks you place and break, your votes, purchases, Embers, inventories, play time and any sanctions.
On the web map, anyone can see the name and position of players who are online.
On our website, when you confirm the rules, we record your email, your 18+ declaration and when you agreed.
In the store, payment is handled by Tebex. We never see your card or payment details.
No emails are sent today. If we ever send news, it will only be to players who ticked the box — and you can stop them at any time.
The data we store lives in the European Union (server in France, backups in France, Slovakia and Germany).
We keep things only as long as needed, and you can ask to see, correct or delete your data.

3. What we collect and why

In the game

Minecraft name and UUID (your account ID) — to let you play, remember your progress and tell players apart.
IP address and connection times — to keep the server secure, block attacks and enforce bans (including ban evasion).
Chat messages (public and private) — to moderate the chat and handle reports of harassment.
Block history — who placed or broke what, where and when — to undo griefing and protect everyone's builds.
Anti-cheat — the server checks how players move and fight (speed, flying, reach) and records suspected cheating: which check, how strong, when, linked to your account. It never bans anyone on its own: it only cancels the impossible move and alerts the staff, who look before deciding anything.
Game activity — position, inventories, homes, plots, shops, Embers balance and the journal of Ember payments, play time — to run the game itself: without it, your world and belongings would vanish.
Play time for the Founder title — during the first three months after the public opening, we count each player's hours of play (not AFK) to award the Founder title.
Nicknames — the nickname you choose, if your rank allows one. Refused nickname attempts are logged (the nickname and the reason) to stop anyone imitating staff or other players.
Votes — your name, the voting site and the time — to give you your vote rewards. There is no public vote ranking.
Sanctions — warnings, mutes, bans and the reason — to moderate fairly and consistently.
The museum — which pieces you gave and when, linked to your UUID, to show the collection and count your gifts. Your name appears on your gifts and on the benefactors' plaque only if you turn it on (/museum name on).
The town soup — what you added to the cauldron each week, to judge the soup.
Keepsakes — how many weekly soups you have added to, which keepsakes you have already received (so each one is given only once), and any keepsake waiting for you if you were offline or your inventory was full. Each keepsake shows your Minecraft name and the date in its description, so anyone you show or give it to can see them.
The Winter Star (a December gift exchange), if you sign up — that you take part, the secret pairing (who gives to whom: only the giver sees it), and the wrapped gift until it is delivered.
The morning post — the last day it greeted you, and whether you turned it off.
Season letters — at each season since you arrived, a snapshot of your own game statistics (blocks placed, fish caught, distance travelled) and your activity in the journal, to write you a letter about your season. We don't record who you play with.
Friends in town — for each townsperson you give gifts to (the clerk, the smith): your friendship points, the day and week of your last gift, and a line in the journal for each gift (what you gave).
"Around Kettlewood" — the board by the spawn shows who is online right now (as the in-game player list does) and, only if you choose to share it with /building, a short line about what you're building, with your name, for 14 days. /building off takes it down at once; it is deleted after 30 days. Basis: consent.
Guilds — if you join one: the guild's name and tag, and that you are a member. It is shown to everyone (your tag in chat, /guild), because that is what a guild is for. Leaving the guild removes it. Basis: your request.
Welcome gifts and play days — the days you played (dates only), whether you have claimed each welcome gift, and when you last left (to offer a small "welcome back" after a long absence). We also look, player by player, at when each feature was first used, to understand what helps newcomers settle in. Basis: legitimate interest; never used to sell you anything; deleted 12 months after your last login. If we ever ask you why you stopped playing, answering is entirely up to you.
Weekly errands — for the current week: whether you did each errand, whether you signed the lighthouse logbook, and your fish-caught and Diggings mine counts at the start of the week (to measure the week's progress); deleted after 8 weeks. Each errand done or reward claimed is also a line in the journal.
The Mayor's chest — your minutes of active play today, the day and week of your last draw, and a line in the journal for what you received.

In the store

Our store sells cosmetic ranks (Resident, Notable, the upgrade between them, Supporter), bonuses for the whole server, and contributions. Embers are never sold.

The store and the payment are run by Tebex, which generally sells to you as a reseller and is an independent controller of your payment data, as described in Tebex's own privacy policy. We never see your card or payment account details.
Tebex tells us your Minecraft name and UUID, what you bought, and the amount, so the server can deliver it.
The server keeps which rank, bonus or contribution you bought, the date and the amount — to deliver it, to settle a problem (a bonus that could not run, a refund) and for our accounts.
When a bonus starts, the announcement in chat is anonymous by default; your name is shown only if you chose it when buying.
We keep the date of your first purchase to award the Founder title.
There is no public ranking of buyers.

On kettlewood.org

No cookies or trackers of our own (Cloudflare may set one security cookie, see §8). The only thing we count is how many people arrive through the link kettlewood.org/join we use in videos and ads, and from which one (its ?src= tag): for each visit, only the time and that link — no IP address, no browser details, nothing that identifies you. Kept a few months at most.

On the website (rules.kettlewood.org)

Your Minecraft name and UUID, carried by the personal link /rules gives you — to make sure you confirm the rules for your own account, not someone else's.
Your email address — asked when you confirm the rules, to contact you about your account or a moderation matter.
Your answers: that you are 18 or older and have read the rules, with the date and time and the version of the rules — to know which rules you accepted, and when.
Your choice about information emails (yes or no, unticked by default), with the date — to prove what you agreed to, or that you didn't.
The IP address used to confirm — to protect the form from abuse.

These answers are kept in a register that can only be added to, never edited, so it can prove who agreed to what. In it, you appear only under a pseudonymous code: your name and email are stored separately and deleted on schedule (see §4).

The end-of-beta survey

At the end of the beta, we ask beta testers six questions on rules.kettlewood.org/survey, through a personal invitation link. Answering is entirely up to you. We record only the day you answered and your answers: no IP address, no Minecraft name, no cookie. Your answers are not linked to your account or to the link you used (we only note that the link has been used), unless you write your name in them yourself. We publish a summary of what we change thanks to them, never your own words with your name.

On Discord

We plan to open a Discord server. Before we link it to the game in any way, this page will say what that involves.

What we don't collect

We don't collect your real name, address, phone number, date of birth, payment card details or anything about your device beyond what a normal connection sends. We don't use advertising or tracking tools.

4. Legal basis and how long we keep it

The law (GDPR, art. 6) requires a legal reason for each use of your data. Here are ours, and how long we keep each thing.

Minecraft name, UUID, game activity, inventories, Embers, homes, plots, shops, play time, nickname — to provide the game. Basis: contract (our rules, which you accept to play). Kept while you play, then 12 months after your last login. This happens automatically on the 1st of each month; a plot, shop, guild seat or lot in the Diggings still in your name is then handed back by a member of staff. If you ever bought a rank or supported the server, your account and what you bought are never deleted automatically; only if you ask us to.
Journal of Ember payments and purchases in the game's economy database — to settle disputes and undo mistakes. Basis: contract. Kept 12 months.
IP addresses and connection logs (including the IP address used to confirm the rules) — security, ban enforcement. Basis: legitimate interest (keeping the server safe). Kept 6 months.
Chat messages — moderation, handling reports. Basis: legitimate interest (a safe, friendly community). Kept 6 months.
Refused nickname attempts — preventing impersonation. Basis: legitimate interest. Kept 6 months.
Anti-cheat records (suspected cheating, linked to your account) — keeping the game fair. Basis: legitimate interest. Kept 90 days; the link between your account and your name in the anti-cheat is deleted 12 months after your last login.
Block history — undoing griefing. Basis: legitimate interest (protecting players' builds). Kept 12 months, rolling.
Sanctions and their reason — fair moderation. Basis: legitimate interest. Kept for the length of the sanction + 12 months; permanent bans: as long as the ban lasts.
Votes — vote rewards. Basis: contract. Kept while you play, then 12 months after your last login.
Rules confirmation (Minecraft name and UUID, email, date, rules version, your 18+ declaration) — knowing who accepted which rules, and contacting you about your account. Basis: contract. Kept while you play, then 12 months after your last activity. The pseudonymous entry in the register (no name, no email) is kept so that the register stays verifiable.
Information emails, if you ticked the box — sending you news. Basis: consent. Until you unsubscribe or your account data is deleted.
Proof of your email choice — showing we asked properly. Basis: legal obligation (we must be able to prove consent). Kept in the pseudonymous register, as above.
Purchases — delivering what you bought, then our accounts. Basis: contract, then legal obligation. Kept as long as Slovak accounting and tax law requires.
Founder title — the play-time count and first purchase date. Basis: contract. Once the title is awarded, kept like the rest of your game data: deleted 12 months after your last login.
Your name on the Founders' Wall — only if you add it. Basis: consent. Until you remove it with /monument remove.
Your position on the live web map — a shared map of the world is part of the community. Basis: legitimate interest. Shown only while you are online; not stored as a history.
Your title on the web map (Notables) — see §9. Basis: legitimate interest. As long as you own the plot or shop, until you turn it off with /maptitle off.
Museum gifts (piece, date, UUID) — the museum and its milestones. Basis: contract. Kept like the rest of your game data. Your name on your gifts and on the plaque — only if you turn it on. Basis: consent. Until you type /museum name off; after a year away, your gifts show "a former townsperson" anyway. The pieces stay on show.
Treasure-hunt trophy case (the month, and who was first to the great chest) — the trophy case in the town hall. Your name shows only if you turn it on (/hunt name on; /hunt name off takes it down at once); otherwise "a treasure hunter". Basis: consent for the name. Deleted with the rest of your game data.
Keepsakes (soup count, keepsakes received or waiting) — giving each keepsake once. Basis: contract. Kept like the rest of your game data: deleted 12 months after your last login. A keepsake already in your inventory or chest is an item of the game: it stays where you put it.
Town soup contributions — judging the weekly soup. Basis: contract. Deleted 30 days after the week.
Winter Star — sign-up and secret pairing: basis contract (you sign up), the pairing is never written to logs or chat and is deleted 30 days after the exchange. A gift waiting for you is kept until it is delivered to you.
End-of-beta survey answers — improving the server. Basis: consent (you choose to answer). Not linked to you; deleted 6 months after you answer.
Morning post — the last day it greeted you. Basis: contract. Deleted after 90 days away.
Season letters — the latest snapshot of your own statistics and your letter. Basis: contract. Kept like the rest of your game data: deleted 12 months after your last login.
Friends in town — your hearts with each townsperson and your gifts, to run the friendship and the smith's friend price. Basis: contract. Only you see your hearts (/friends, your own /profile); there is no ranking. Deleted 12 months after your last login.

Backups. Our backups are encrypted and rotate automatically. Data deleted from the server disappears from every backup within 18 months at the most, and much sooner from most of them.

About "legitimate interest". Where we rely on it, we have weighed our need (a safe server) against your privacy, and kept only what's needed. You can object to it at any time — see §11.

5. Who else sees your data

We never sell your data and never share it for advertising. A few services help us run Kettlewood. Some only work for us (processors); others are independent companies with their own privacy policies, which apply when you use them.

OneProvider — hosts our server in Paris, France. It runs the machine; our data is on it. Processor.
Backup storage — OneProvider (France) and Hetzner (Germany) store our backups, which are encrypted before they leave: they see encrypted files only. Processors.
Cloudflare — DNS, protection and delivery of our websites. Sees your IP address and web requests. Processor.
TCPShield — filters connections to the game to protect it against attacks. Sees your IP address when you connect. Works for us.
Mojang / Microsoft — checks that your Minecraft account is genuine when you join, as on any server. Independent controller.
Voting sites — let you vote for us. They see what you give them when voting, and send us your name and the time. Independent controllers.
Tebex — runs our store and handles payments (see §3). Independent controller, as described in Tebex's own privacy policy.
Email provider — none today. If we choose one to send information emails, we will name it here first.

We may also share data when the law requires it (for example, a valid request from a court or the police), and only what is required.

Minecraft chat reports. Minecraft itself may let players report chat messages to Mojang. That feature belongs to Mojang, not to us.

6. Where your data is stored

Our game server is in Paris, France. Our backups are kept encrypted in France and Germany, and a copy of the game world is kept on our own backup server in Slovakia, on a private network that can't be reached from the internet. The data we store stays in the European Union.

Cloudflare is a US company and may process website traffic outside the EU. That transfer is covered by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. TCPShield and Tebex explain in their own privacy policies where they process data.

7. Emails

We don't send any news emails today. We may in the future — and only to players who ticked the box. It is never ticked for you, and it is separate from confirming the rules. Saying no changes nothing to your game.
If we start, we'll first send one email asking you to confirm your address. No confirmation, no emails.
Every email will have an unsubscribe link. You can also write to [email protected] at any time. Unsubscribing takes effect right away.
We may still write to you about your account (a sanction, a problem with a purchase) — these are not newsletters.

8. Cookies and local storage

Our websites use only what is strictly necessary to work: no advertising, no tracking, no analytics cookies, so we don't need to ask for your consent and you won't see a cookie banner.

Cloudflare may set a security cookie to tell real visitors from bots.
The map (map.kettlewood.org) remembers your display settings in your own browser. This stays on your device; we don't receive it. You can clear it at any time from your browser settings.
The store runs on Tebex's pages, with Tebex's own cookies and privacy policy.

9. What other players — and visitors — can see

In the game: your Minecraft name, your skin, your public chat messages, the signs and builds you make, and the owner's name on the sign of shops and plots.
On the web map (map.kettlewood.org, public, open to anyone): players who are online appear with their name, skin and position. Players who are invisible, vanished or in spectator mode are not shown; sneaking does not hide you.
Notables' title on the map: a Notable who owns a plot or shop in town is shown as "❖ Name" over it, by default. Type /maptitle off to remove it (the owner's name is already on the plot's sign in game).
The Founders' Wall (a monument in town): your Minecraft name appears there only if you add it with /monument add. /monument remove takes it off at once. The wall can be seen by anyone visiting the town and on the web map — and screenshots taken by others can't be undone.
The museum (town hall, second floor): each piece on show says "given by a benefactor", or your name only if you chose /museum name on; the same goes for the benefactors' plaque (10 gifts or more). /museum name off takes it off at once. Screenshots taken by others can't be undone.
There is no public ranking of votes, of buyers, of museum gifts, or of friendships.

Please don't put personal information in public places (chat, signs, books): our rules forbid sharing anyone's personal details, including your own.

10. Adults only

Kettlewood is for players aged 18 and over. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If we learn that a player is under 18, we close their access and delete their data, except what the law requires us to keep (such as purchase records). If you believe a minor is playing, please tell us at [email protected].

11. Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us, free of charge:

Access — a copy of the data we hold about you;
Correction — to fix data that is wrong;
Deletion — to erase your data, unless we have to keep it (for example, purchase records, or data needed while a ban is in force);
Restriction — to pause the use of your data while a question is settled;
Portability — to receive the data you gave us in a common, machine-readable format;
Objection — to object to uses based on our legitimate interest; we will stop unless we have a compelling reason, such as keeping the server safe from someone who harmed it;
Withdrawal of consent — to stop our emails, take your name off the Founders' Wall, or off your museum gifts (/museum name off), at any time. This doesn't affect what happened before.

How to ask. Write to [email protected] from the address you gave us, or tell us your Minecraft name. To make sure you are really you, we may ask you to message us in the game from your account. We answer within one month (up to three months for complex requests, and we'll tell you if so).

No purely automatic decisions. The server hides ores from x-ray clients (Paper's anti-xray) and records every block placed or broken (CoreProtect). These records may point to something, but a member of staff always reviews it before any ban. The only automatic action is the chat filter, which can briefly mute a brand-new player who uses a banned word; a member of staff reviews it. No decision with serious effects on you is taken by a machine alone. If you disagree with a sanction, you can ask a staff member to look at it again.

12. How we protect your data

Backups are encrypted before they are stored with a hosting company; the copy on our own backup server travels encrypted and stays on a private network.
Access to the server and its data is limited to the administrator; game staff only see what moderation needs.
Our databases are not reachable from the internet. Our websites reach the world only through Cloudflare; the game accepts players only through TCPShield, our anti-DDoS proxy, plus one port that receives signed votes from the vote sites.
Connections to our machines use strong keys, and every new login is monitored.

No system is perfect. If a breach ever put your data at risk, we would inform the authority and, where required, you.

13. Complaints

If you think we mishandle your data, please talk to us first at [email protected] — we'll try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, either the one in the country where you live, or ours:

Úrad na ochranu osobných údajov Slovenskej republiky (Office for Personal Data Protection of the Slovak Republic)
Galvaniho 7/B, 821 04 Bratislava, Slovakia — dataprotection.gov.sk

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this page, we'll update the version and date at the top. If the change is important, we will tell you in the game, or by email if you signed up.

Questions? Write to [email protected]. We're a small server run by real people, and we'll answer. 🫖

← Back to the rules · the short version is in rule 10. What we collect.