Privacy Policy
Nowl Hub is a free games site run by Elias Ioannou, trading as Neon Owl Studios, in Nicosia, Cyprus ("we", "us"). This page explains what we store about you, why, and how to get it removed. The short version: we store what the games and chat need to work, we don't sell anything about you, and there are no ads or ad trackers.
Questions or requests: eioannou99@gmail.com.
What we store
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Account: your username and a scrambled (hashed) copy of your password. We never see or store your actual password. | So you can sign in. |
| Guest accounts: if you play without signing up, we make an account with a name like Guest-1234, tied to a cookie in your browser. | So your progress counts even before you register. |
| Discord (only if you connect it): your Discord ID, username and avatar, plus the names and icons of the Discord servers you're in. We don't get your email address or your messages. | Signing in with Discord and finding people from your servers. |
| Game data: scores, match results, ratings, wins and losses, coins, cards, items, quests, achievements, seasons and streaks. | Running the games, leaderboards and rewards. |
| Things you post: your profile (status, owl look, backgrounds), drawings, club and lobby chat, house guestbook messages, friend list, blocks and direct messages. | The social features. Drawings, profiles and club chat can be seen by other players. |
| Safety records: a log of chat messages, the IP addresses your account has used (with first and last time seen), reports you make or that are made about you, and bans. | Stopping spam, harassment and cheating, and keeping banned players out. |
| Usage stats: which pages and games are opened and when, linked to your account number. Error reports from your browser (the page, the error and your browser type). | Understanding which games people enjoy and fixing bugs. These stay on our server. |
| Notifications (only if you turn them on): the push address your browser gives us, and your time zone. | Sending the reminders and alerts you chose. |
| Bug reports: what you write, and your browser type. | Fixing the problem you reported. |
We don't ask for your real name, email address, age, location or payment details.
Cookies and browser storage
We use one cookie, token, which keeps you signed in. It can't be read by scripts on the page and expires after at most 7 days. We also keep a few settings and cached data in your browser's local storage (sound volume, which games you've seen, card art) so pages load faster. None of this is used for advertising or tracking you across other sites, so there's no cookie banner.
Other services the site uses
Some parts of the site load content from other companies. When they do, your browser connects to them directly and they see your IP address:
- Google Fonts provides the pixel fonts, on every page.
- YouTube plays songs in the jukebox, but only when you play one.
- Pexels provides the photos in Caption This.
- Discord, if you sign in with Discord or connect it.
- Your browser's push service (Google, Mozilla or Apple) delivers notifications, if you turn them on.
The site is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH on a server in Nuremberg, Germany. Hetzner stores the database for us and is bound by the GDPR, so the database itself never leaves the EU.
Who can see what
Other players can see your username, profile, owl, house, drawings, scores, achievements, match history and anything you post in public or club chat. Direct messages are only shown to you and the person you message, but moderators can read chat (including messages that have been reported) to deal with abuse. We don't sell or share your data with anyone else, except when the law requires it.
How long we keep it
- Your account and game data are kept until you delete your account.
- Guest accounts nobody has used for 30 days are deleted automatically, unless they hold something like cards, friends or messages.
- The chat safety log is kept for up to a year. Messages that were flagged or reported can be kept longer, as part of the report.
- Page view stats are kept for 90 days and error reports for 30 days.
- Daily backups of the database are kept for 14 days, so deleted data disappears from backups within two weeks.
Deleting your account
Open your profile, scroll to Account and choose Delete account. Your account is deleted straight away and can't be recovered. That removes your profile, password, Discord link, friends, blocks, direct messages, chat, guestbook posts, house, scores, quests, notifications, IP history and any drawings that aren't used anywhere else.
A few things stay, because other players rely on them or because they keep the site safe. They no longer show your name: you become "Deleted-" followed by a number.
- Cards or items made from your drawings that other players now own, and the record of trades you made with other players.
- Reports and bans, so a banned player can't erase a ban by deleting the account.
- Anonymous usage stats.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (including under the GDPR in the EU and UK), you can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop using it for something. Email eioannou99@gmail.com from any address and include your username. We'll answer within a month. We may ask you to prove the account is yours, for example by sending a message from it. You can also complain to the Cyprus Commissioner for Personal Data Protection (dataprotection.gov.cy) or the data protection authority where you live.
We use your data because it's needed to run the service you signed up for, and for our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe and working well.
Children
You must be at least 14 to use Nowl Hub. Some EU countries set this age higher (15 or 16). If you live in one of them and are younger than its age, you need a parent's permission to use the site. If you think a child under 14 has an account, email us and we'll delete it.
Security
Passwords are hashed, the sign-in cookie can't be read by page scripts, and the database isn't reachable from the internet. No site is perfectly secure, so please use a password you don't use anywhere else.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. Big changes will also be announced on the site.