Privacy notice
0xA3 asks for as little as possible. This page says what we keep, why, for how long, and what you can do about it under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
Who is responsible
0xA3 is a personal, non-commercial experiment run by Arné Schreuder, who is the responsible party for your information. Contact: contact@0xa3.co.za.
What we collect
- Minecraft account: your Minecraft name and its UUID (required to play). We look the name up with Mojang to get the UUID and store the UUID, because names change.
- Discord, if you link it: your Discord user ID and display name. We use Discord's
identifyscope, which gives us no email, plusguilds.jointo add you to the 0xA3 Discord. - Rules: which version of the rules you accepted, and when.
- Membership: your status (verifying, waiting for approval, whitelisted, rejected or banned), and the rule and reason for any ban.
- Server logs: the Minecraft server records chat, joins and leaves, and the IP address you connect from. Minecraft does this for every server; we keep them to run the server and check reports.
- Staff actions: when a moderator or admin approves, rejects or bans someone, the audit log keeps who did it and when.
We never ask for your real name, age, phone number, address or your Minecraft or Microsoft password.
Signing in
Sign-in runs on Google's Firebase Authentication. If you use Google, Microsoft, GitHub or an email link, Firebase Authentication keeps the email address that provider gives it, for login only. 0xA3 doesn't copy it into its own records, doesn't email you, and doesn't share it. Discord sign-in gives us no email at all.
Your browser stores the Firebase login session and a small "signed in" flag so the menu can say "My account". There are no advertising or tracking cookies and no analytics on this site.
Why we use it
- To whitelist you on the server and, if you linked Discord, give you the Player role and set your nickname to your Minecraft name.
- To enforce the rules: bans apply on the server and, if linked, on Discord.
- To keep the server running and handle reports.
- For research, below.
Research
0xA3 is also a personal experiment. Gameplay data, server logs, chat, and anything posted on 0xA3 channels may be used for Arné Schreuder's own research. We tell you now, when the data is collected, rather than asking afterwards.
Research works on de-identified copies: player IDs are replaced and IP addresses removed. Results are only ever published in aggregate or de-identified form, never naming or identifying a player.
Who else handles it
- Google Cloud and Firebase host the server, this website, sign-in and the database, in Google data centres in South Africa (Johannesburg) and the EU (Belgium). That is a transfer outside South Africa, under Google's data-protection terms, which give protection comparable to POPIA.
- Mojang/Microsoft answers the name lookup, and sees your join like on any server.
- Discord, only if you link it.
We never sell your information or share it with anyone else, unless the law requires it (for example, a report to the police).
How long we keep it
- Account and membership records: while you have an account. Deleted when you ask.
- Ban records: kept after deletion when needed to keep a ban in place.
- Server logs, including chat: kept indefinitely, for the research purpose above. Research copies are de-identified.
- Backups: daily disk snapshots are kept 14 days; weekly archives longer. They contain the world and server logs.
- Audit log: kept as long as the service runs.
Your rights
Under POPIA you can ask to see what we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or object to how we use it.
- See it: your account page has "Download my data", or email us.
- Correct or delete it: use "Delete account" on your account page, or email contact@0xa3.co.za. Deleting removes your account, Minecraft link and Discord link, and takes you off the whitelist. Server logs and backups aren't rewritten; they follow the retention above.
- Complain: if we get it wrong, you can complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa), inforegulator.org.za.
Younger players
There's no minimum age, and we can't verify ages anyway. Chat and builds are unfiltered, so take that into account. For everyone, we store only the minimum above. Parents can email us to see or delete a child's information.
Security
The browser never writes to the database directly; every change goes through checked server code. Staff accounts need two-factor sign-in, and every staff action is logged.
Changes
If this notice changes, this page changes, with a new date at the top. Big changes are announced on Discord.
NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT SERVER. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG OR MICROSOFT.