Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how the Exotic Car Dex Discord bot ("the Bot", "we", "us", or "our") and its associated services collect, use, store, and protect your information when you interact with the Bot in Discord servers.

By using the Bot, you consent to the practices described in this Privacy Policy. Please read it carefully, together with our Terms of Service.

1. Information We Collect

We collect the information necessary to operate the game and provide the Service. We do not collect personal information (such as your real name, email address, or payment details) unless you choose to provide it to us directly.

1.1 Information you provide

• Suggestions and uploaded media — When you use the /suggest command, we collect the name, statistics, and the images you upload (spawn and collection card images), any artwork credits, and your Discord user ID so that we can associate the suggestion with you.
• Communications — If you contact us directly, we may collect the content of your messages and your contact information.

1.2 Information we collect automatically when you use the Bot

• Discord identifiers — Your Discord user ID, and, when relevant, the Discord server (guild) ID and channel ID where the Bot is used. This is required to attribute gameplay and settings to you.
• Discord profile information — Your Discord username and avatar, accessed through the Discord API as necessary to display your profile, mention you, or send you notifications. We do not store this data in our own database beyond what is needed for the Service to function.
• Gameplay data, including but not limited to:
  • Your collectible collection (what you caught, when, where, statistics, and whether they are favorites);
  • Your virtual currency balance and transaction history;
  • Your trade history, including what was traded and with whom;
  • Your marketplace listings and purchases;
  • Daily reward claims, giveaway entries, and giveaway winnings;
  • Notifications sent to and read by you;
  • Participation in boss battles, races, crafting, and other events, including statistics such as damage dealt;
  • Your configured player settings, such as privacy, donation, mention, friend, and trade-cooldown preferences;
  • Your friends and blocked-user lists.
• Server configuration data — Information about how the Bot is configured in each server (for example, spawn channels), stored as part of providing the Service.
• Suggestion records — If you submit a suggestion, we store the suggestion, its status (pending, approved, or declined), the reviewer, and the review channel message ID.
• Blacklist records — If you or a server is blacklisted from the Service for violating our Terms, we may store the relevant Discord IDs and the reason.
• Error logs — Technical logs that may include exception details, timestamps, and diagnostic information needed to maintain and fix the Service.

1.3 Message Content

The Bot requests the Discord Message Content privileged intent to provide its core gameplay and to keep the game fair. Message content is used strictly in the following ways:

• Spawning and anti-farm detection (primary use). Exotic Car Dex spawns collectible cars in servers based on real, active chat. To prevent farming and abuse, the Bot inspects the length of recent messages and the diversity of authors in a channel. It temporarily keeps a rolling window of at most the last 100 messages per server in a memory-only buffer; each message's content and author ID is used solely to compute spawn-rate multipliers (for example, very short messages or messages dominated by a single author reduce the spawn rate). This message content is never written to a database, disk, or log. It is automatically discarded as newer messages arrive and is cleared immediately when the Bot restarts.
• Prefix commands. The Bot supports optional prefix commands (for example, mentioning the Bot). To recognise and execute these commands, it reads the text of messages that invoke them. Command text is used only to run the requested command and is not stored.
• Donation quoting. When you explicitly choose to donate a collectible using a message you sent (an opt-in action), the Bot may include that message's text in the resulting donation announcement. This only happens when you select that option.

We do not use message content to build profiles of users, for advertising, for any machine-learning or analytics purposes, or for any purpose other than those described above.

1.4 Information we do not collect

We do not intentionally collect, and you should not provide through the Service:

• Your real name, physical address, or phone number;
• Your email address (unless you provide it to us directly);
• Payment or financial account information;
• Sensitive personal data, such as health, religious, or political information (other than the fictional "regime"/"economy" attributes of virtual collectibles).

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

1. Providing and operating the Service — Spawning and catching collectibles, processing trades, market listings, giveaways, notifications, and other gameplay features;
2. Personalization — Remembering your preferences and settings;
3. Safety and moderation — Preventing abuse, cheating, and violations of our Terms of Service, and enforcing blacklists;
4. Maintenance and improvement — Diagnosing errors, fixing bugs, and improving gameplay balance and features;
5. Communication — Sending you in-app notifications and (where applicable) direct messages related to the Service, such as giveaway results;
6. Legal compliance — Complying with applicable laws, regulations, and legal requests.

3. Legal Bases for Processing

Where required by applicable law (for example, the GDPR), we process your information on the following legal bases:

• Contractual necessity — Processing is necessary to provide the Service you requested;
• Legitimate interests — Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in operating, securing, and improving the Service, provided your rights and interests do not override those interests;
• Consent — Where you have provided explicit consent (for example, by submitting a suggestion); and
• Legal obligation — Where processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

4. Sharing and Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information with third parties except in the following circumstances:

1. Discord — Information is exchanged with Discord, Inc. to the extent necessary to operate the Bot on Discord's platform. Your use of Discord is governed by Discord's own Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
2. Service providers — Trusted third parties who host the Service, its database, storage, and infrastructure, or who provide monitoring and error-reporting services. These providers only process your information on our behalf and under our instructions.
3. Legal requirements — Where required by law, regulation, legal process, or a valid governmental request, or where disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the operators, other users, or the public.
4. Business transfers — In connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction.
5. Aggregate and de-identified data — We may share aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you, such as anonymous usage statistics or leaderboard rankings that respect your privacy settings.

Public information you generate through the Service (for example, approved suggestions, leaderboard standings, or trade announcements in public channels) may be visible to other users in the Discord servers where the Bot operates, subject to your configured privacy settings.

5. Data Storage and Security

Your information is stored on servers controlled by the operators or their service providers, including a PostgreSQL database. We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration. These include access controls, secure storage, and regular backups.

No method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

6. Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as necessary to provide the Service and fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

In particular:

• Gameplay data, trade history, and transaction records are retained while your account data exists, and may be retained after you delete data where required for fraud prevention, audit, or legal compliance;
• Server configuration data is retained while the Bot remains in a server, and may be removed when the Bot is removed from that server;
• Logs and error reports may be retained for a reasonable period for maintenance and security purposes;
• Message content is not retained at all. As described in Section 1.3, message content exists only in a memory-only rolling buffer of at most 100 messages per server, is automatically discarded, and is never written to persistent storage.

When you request deletion, we will delete your data as described in Section 7, except where we are required to retain certain information by law.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

1. Access — The right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
2. Correction — The right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
3. Deletion — The right to request deletion of your personal information;
4. Restriction — The right to request that we restrict processing of your information in certain circumstances;
5. Portability — The right to receive your information in a structured, machine-readable format;
6. Objection — The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests;
7. Withdraw consent — The right to withdraw any consent you have given at any time.

You can review and change your own privacy and mention preferences at any time using the /player settings command in Discord.

Requests to access, export, correct, or delete your personal information are handled by us. Please contact us using the details in Section 11 and tell us which right you wish to exercise. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe, and in any event within the time limits required by applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

If you believe we have processed your personal information in violation of applicable law, you may also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

8. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 13 (or the minimum age required to use Discord in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us, and we will take steps to delete such information.

9. Cookies and Tracking

The Bot itself does not use cookies. The associated website may use session cookies or similar technologies to keep you logged in and to protect against cross-site request forgery. These cookies are strictly necessary for the functioning of those sites and do not include third-party advertising or analytics trackers.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this document. Material changes will be announced where reasonably possible (for example, through an announcement channel). Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

11. Contact

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us at:

• Email: exoticcardex@proton.me
• Support server: https://discord.gg/RGrrEXneR7

When contacting us, please provide sufficient information to verify your identity and help us respond to your request efficiently.