OUTCHARGED: what we keep about players

Outcharged is a free game in the browser. It keeps a small game save for every player, so that your callsign and your level are still there when you come back. And only if you say yes, it counts how you play, to find out whether the game is fun. We do both without knowing who anyone is.

[Owner: who is responsible for this data: your name, and how to reach you.]

Your game save

Every player gets one, whether or not this browser is counted (below). It holds:

A random number for the save. Our server makes it up, and your browser keeps it in this site's storage, so that the game finds your save again. Our server never stores the number itself, only a scrambled form of it that cannot be turned back. It is a different number from the one used for counting (below), and the game never combines the two or tries to match them.
Your callsign (the game makes it up, see below), your points and so your level, how many matches you won, this week's points for the "This week" board, and the paint job you picked for your car.
The day the save was first written and the day it was last used: the day only, not the time.

Nothing else: not the name you type, not your IP address, nothing about your device.

Why: so that your callsign, your level and your paint jobs are still there when you come back, as in any game; and so that the "This week" board can show the week's best callsigns.

On what basis: our legitimate interest in giving players a game that remembers their progress, which is what a player expects from a game (GDPR art. 6(1)(f)). The save number in your browser's storage is needed for the save to work, and is used for nothing else, so the game does not ask for it first.

How long: until 12 months after you last played with this browser (opened the game or finished a match); then our server deletes it. A save is written only once there is something to keep: the points of your first match, or a paint job. Before that, your callsign lives only in our server's memory.

How to reset it: press "Reset my progress" on the game's menu, under your level, or the button here. Our server deletes the save straight away (its last copies leave the server's files within a day), and this browser forgets its save number; the game then gives you a new callsign at level 1. Our server keeps only a note that this scrambled number was reset, so that no old copy can bring the save back: for 12 months, or for a week if the server had not seen that save yet (just after an update, say, or before your first points).

Checking…

Is this browser counted?

Checking…

You can change it here at any time. When you stop it, this browser forgets its counting number and our server deletes what it counted about this browser straight away. Your game save is not part of the counting: it stays, and the game works just the same either way.

What we count, while a browser is counted

A random number for counting. Our server makes up a long random number and the browser keeps it in this site's storage. It lets us tell a player who comes back from a new one. Our server never stores the number itself, only a scrambled form of it that cannot be turned back. It is not the save's number.
When: the times this browser first and last opened the game and last played, and a day-by-day log of the times it opened the game, started and finished a match, and when it left.
The kind of device: computer, phone, tablet or Chromebook. Not which one.
The time zone the browser reports, for example Europe/Prague, and how many hours it is ahead of or behind world time. It tells us roughly which country players come from, and which day it is for them.
How fast the connection is: how long a message takes to reach our server and come back.
How the game went: how many minutes were played in matches and in the test drive, and how long was spent waiting; whether a match was played and finished, and whether another one was played after it; whether the player came back to play on another day, or only opened the game; how often the connection dropped; and a few facts about the first match: did the car charge, were upgrades bought, and how did it end (won, ran out of battery, wrecked, left the game, walked away, or lost the connection).

Not your callsign, your points, your level or your paint job: those are in your game save, and the game never combines the save with the counting or tries to match them.

What we never keep

The name you type. Everyone in your match and anyone watching it sees it while you play, and the game's public scoreboard shows it while that game runs. Your browser remembers it for next time. Our server does not write it down anywhere.
Your IP address (your internet address). Our server needs it to talk to your browser and to stop floods of requests, but it does not store it.
Your email, your home address, your exact location, or anything else from your device.
A fingerprint of your device, such as its model, its screen size or its browser version.

Where it is kept, and who sees it

The game saves and the numbers stay on our game server, which runs on Microsoft Azure in its Poland Central region (Warsaw). Nobody else gets them: no advertising networks, no trackers, no analytics companies. Only the game's author looks at the numbers, to add them up. The one exception is the "This week" board: it shows everyone the callsigns, levels and this week's points of the players at the top (see below), and nothing else.

Why we count

To decide whether the game is worth building further: do new players start a second match, how long do they play, and do they come back another day? We only look at totals, like "40 of 100 players started a second match".

On what basis: your consent. The game asks first, counts only a browser that said yes, and you can take the yes back at any time, above.

How long we keep it

The game save: until 12 months after you last played with this browser, or until you reset it (see above).
If our server keeps no saves at the moment, a callsign and its points last one visit: in our server's memory, never written down, forgotten 30 minutes after the visit.
The day-by-day log of the counting: 90 days, then it is deleted.
The counting record of one browser: until a year after that browser was last seen, or until it is switched off above. Then our server deletes the record straight away (its last copies are gone from the server's files within a day) and keeps only a note, for a year, that this scrambled number was switched off, so that no old copy can bring the record back. The lines already in the day-by-day log, which hold only the scrambled number and what happened in the game, stay until they are 90 days old.

Starting over, and your rights

Clearing this site's data in the browser (or playing in a private window) removes both random numbers. The game then sees a new player, with a new callsign and no points; the old save is deleted 12 months after it was last used, and the old counting record a year after it was last seen, because nothing links them to this browser any more.

If you think we handle this wrongly, you can complain to the Czech data protection authority, the Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů (ÚOOÚ). [Owner: check the authority's address, and add yours for questions.]

Your callsign and points

The game gives every player a callsign it makes up from two lists of friendly words, like "Swift Otter" or "Cosmic Kayak 12". Nobody types it, and it is not made from either random number or from anything about you. After each match you get points: for playing it to the end, for the time you drove with charge, for charging, for the Gears you picked up, for the cars you outlasted, and for a win. Points make levels.

They are kept in your game save (above), so they are still there when you come back, whether or not this browser is counted. If our server keeps no saves at the moment, you still get a callsign and points, but only for this visit: your browser keeps nothing of them, and our server keeps them only in its memory. You lose them when you leave the game, reload or close the page.

Levels unlock paint jobs for your car, like stripes or flames, over the car's own colour. The one you pick is kept in your game save.

The "This week" board shows everyone, in the game and on our server's web address, the callsigns, levels and points of the 50 players with the most points this week (since Monday, 00:00 UTC). Only callsigns of game saves can be on it: callsigns kept only for one visit never are. It shows nothing else: not the name you typed, not the random numbers, nothing about your browser. Resetting your progress takes your callsign off the board within two minutes.

[Owner: decide whether a player can keep a callsign off the board.]

Draft of 2 October 2026.