Privacy

We do not use advertising trackers, analytics services, or outside scripts.

Ads

Some pages show an ad, marked "Ad", or "" on every ad, including ads for sites we run. Ads are served by our own ad server through our site: our server picks the ad and the picture loads from our address, so no ad script runs and no ad network sees your visit. Nothing about you is sent to choose an ad; ads are picked by the page's topic (games). If you click an ad, the link goes through our ad server, which counts the click (it keeps a one-way code of your connection and browser for an hour, only to count each reader once) and then sends you to the advertiser. Some ads are affiliate links, such as Amazon's: the store may then set its own cookies to credit us, as described below.

What we keep

• When you open a story, we count the click so the Trending list works. We keep a one-way code of your connection for a day, only to count each reader once, and nothing that names you.
• We count reads of our own posts and community stories, and clicks on links in them, the same way: a one-way code of your connection for a day, only to count each reader once, and nothing that names you.
• When you sign up for a demo reminder, we keep your email address and the event, and delete them when you stop the reminders. We use the address only for those reminders.
• When you ask for a price alert, we keep your email address, the one game, its Steam price and your target price. Nothing is watched until you confirm by email. We send one email when the price falls below your target and then delete the alert and your address. If that has not happened after 60 days, we delete both without sending anything. Unconfirmed requests are deleted after two days, and every email has a link to cancel, which deletes them at once. The address is used only for that alert: no newsletters, no lists, never shared. To check prices our server asks Steam's public store for the game's price; your address is never sent to Steam or any store.
• When you send a removal request, we keep what you wrote so we can act and reply.
• When you submit a story, we keep the name or pen name you give (shown as the byline if we publish it), your email address, the headline, the story, any source and tags, and any image. Images are re-encoded on our server, which removes their location (GPS), camera and other hidden data. We also keep the license text you agreed to, its version, the time, and a one-way code of your connection, used to stop spam (no more than three submissions a day) and, for spam, to refuse that connection. Your email address is never shown or published. We send one automated email when we decide (published, with the link, or not published). We keep your address on your contributor record so our editors can write to you, one at a time, about that story and future writing; we never sell or share it, never add it to a mailing list, and delete it whenever you ask, using the link in the decision email or by writing to firststrike@lanombre.com. We keep each submission, its address and the connection code until our staff delete it or you ask us to; submissions marked as spam are kept so we can refuse more from the same address or connection. Stories we do not publish stay in our private queue until we delete them.

Cookies

On this site: a security cookie for forms, and your theme choice if you pick one. Nothing else. Amazon's own cookies are described below.

Publisher images

Story images are not copied to our servers: they are hotlinked, which means your browser loads them straight from the publisher's own servers (or their image hosts). We ask your browser not to tell them which page you were on, but like any web server they can see your IP address and browser details, under their own privacy policies.

Store links

Deal and game pages may show buttons for stores we have affiliate accounts with (Amazon, and when set up Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Humble, Fanatical and Green Man Gaming). Nothing is loaded from those stores and no store cookie is set until you click a button. If you do, the store may set its own cookies to credit us, under its own privacy policy; your price does not change.

Amazon Associates

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Deal links to Amazon carry our Associates tag. When you follow one, Amazon may set its own cookies in your browser to record that you came from us, so a purchase can be credited to us; this does not change your price. Those cookies are Amazon's, set on Amazon's site and governed by Amazon's privacy notice. We receive only order totals, never who you are.

Questions: firststrike@lanombre.com.