Privacy Policy

Website Privacy Notice

Effective Date: October 27th, 2023

Design Works Studios LLC takes the privacy of those who visit this website seriously and we aim to be transparent about our processing of personal information. This page explains what information we collect about you when you visit and interact with our website www.designworksgaming.com and any other website we offer that directly links to this Policy (“Website”), what we do with such information, and additional information to help you exercise your rights.

If you are a European Resident, please see the section entitled Additional Disclosure For European Residents.

Information We Collect About You

Information may be provided to us voluntarily by you or collected automatically by us from you.

A. Information you May Voluntarily Provide

Emails and contact details

We process contact and related information about you if you are a:

  • Business contacts, in which case we process your name, email address and company name for the purpose of sending out marketing information and details of product launches.
  • Client contacts, in which case we process your name, address, company name and (if we have been supplied it) telephone number for the purpose of delivering our service to the client, for example by informing you of system outages and maintenance information.
  • Anyone else who contacts us, in which case we process your email address and any other information you share with us, together with any information we link to it, in order to respond to you and deal with whatever matter you have contacted us about.

Unless we are in direct correspondence with you – for example because you have asked us specific questions about our products or services – in addition to the purposes listed above, we will only use your email and other contact information for the following purposes:

  • Promotional emails, for example:
    • Product updates and key milestones
    • Our presence at events & conferences (e.g. poster presentations, talks, booths, webinars, symposia etc.)
    • Our publications (e.g. journal papers, conference proceedings, magazine spreads etc.)
  • News and press releases
  • Outbound newsletters
  • Survey invitations

B. Information We Collect Automatically

General website information

If you use this website, we will make a record of the information your web browser sends to us, typically identifying the type of browser you are using, and your IP address. We record this information in order to understand the ways in which people use our website; to detect bugs; and hostile access. We routinely delete our web server logs after 14 days unless we discover an anomaly (for example a security violation) in which case we will use the information for as long as necessary to investigate and deal with it.

We share this information only with our website hosting service Microsoft Azure, who are under an obligation not to use your information for any other purpose.

Cookies

A “cookie” is a small data file stored by your browser at our request. This website uses necessary cookies to enable our website to work. We’d also like to use optional analytics cookies, for example to recognise your web browser, tell us how and when you visit our site, analyse trends and improve our website. We won’t set optional cookies unless you enable them.

For more information about our use of cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

We do not share any of the above information with any third party except for:

  • Our professional advisors (who are under professional duties of confidence), for example in the case of your contacting us about a legal
    dispute.
  • Third party data processors, for example to automate our handling of mailing lists. Any use we make of data processors will require them only to act only on our instructions concerning your personal data.

Social Sharing buttons

On some pages of the site you will see ‘social buttons’. These enable users to share or bookmark the web pages on other services such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. These sites often collect information about what you do once you click on their button. You should check the respective policies of each of these sites to see more about how they use your information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such information.

Sharing of Information

We share information we collect in accordance with the practices described in this Privacy Policy. The types of entities we may have shared information with or may share information with in the future include the following:

A. Subsidiaries

We carry out some of our business through several subsidiary companies and, as part of that business, we may share your personal information with them. For the purposes of our privacy policy, they do not count as “third parties”. Our subsidiaries will deal with your personal information strictly in accordance with this privacy notice.

B. Service Providers

We share information with entities that process information on our behalf for our business purposes. Service providers assist us with services such as payment processing, data analytics, marketing and advertising, website hosting, and technical support.

C. Merger and Acquisition

We share information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any proposed or actual merger, purchase, sale or any other type of acquisition, business combination of all or any portion of our business or assets, change of control, or a transfer of all or a portion of our business or assets to another third party (including in the case of any bankruptcy proceeding).

D. Security and Compelled Disclosure

We share information to comply with the law or other legal process, and where required, in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. We also share information to protect the rights, property, life, health, security and safety of us, the Website or anyone else.

E. Facilitating Requests

We share information at your request or direction, such as when you choose to share information with a social network about your activities on the Website.

F. Consent

We share information with notice to you and your consent.

Your Choices and Controls

A. Tracking Technology Choices

Cookies

Most browsers accept cookies by default. You can instruct your browser, by changing its settings, to decline or delete cookies. If you use multiple browsers on your device, you will need to instruct each browser separately. Your ability to limit cookies is subject to your browser settings and limitations.

Do Not Track Signals

Your browser settings may allow you to automatically transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to online services you visit. Note, however, there is no industry consensus as to what site and app operators should do with regard to these signals. Accordingly, unless and until the law is interpreted to require us to do so, we do not monitor or take action with respect to “Do Not Track” signals.  For more information on “Do Not Track,” visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

B. Communications

Emails

You can opt-out of receiving promotional emails from us at any time by following the instructions as provided in emails to click on the unsubscribe link, or emailing us at the email address set out in the “Contact Us” section below with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field of the email. Please note that you cannot opt-out of non-promotional emails, such as those about your account, transactions, servicing, or Company’s ongoing business relations.

Additional Disclosures for European Residents

A. Roles

Data protection laws in Europe distinguish between organizations that process personal data for their own purposes (known as “controllers”) and organizations that process personal data on behalf of other organizations (known as “processors”).

With respect to information collected in connection with our Website, we act as a controller.

B. Lawful basis

It is lawful for us, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), to process the information described in this notice because we have a

  • Legitimate interest in operating a website and using the information we collect for these purposes.
  • Where you have signed up to a mailing list, we have a legitimate interest in emailing you so long as you do not object to our doing so.

We do not believe the way in which we are processing them is likely to cause you any harm.

C. Transfer of data outside Europe

We may share any of the information described on this page with our US affiliate Design Works Studios LLC. If we do so, we will ensure that our affiliate signs an agreement including model clauses approved by the European Commission which ensure that they are required to treat your data with the same respect as they would be required to do so if they were based in the UK.

In addition, website information is processed on our behalf by our hosting provider (Microsoft Azure) which is also based outside Europe. Microsoft Azure has agreed that any transfer of data to it, or onward transfer elsewhere will be subject either to model clauses (see above) or will rely on the rules binding on Microsoft Azure as part of its membership of the US-EU Privacy Shield. For more information see Microsoft Azure’s data processing agreement with us.

D. Your legal rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

  • access to your personal information
  • require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold
  • require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations
  • receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations
  • object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing
  • object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
  • object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information
  • otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

  • email, call or write to us
  • let us have enough information to identify you e.g. when you accessed the website and from what location or your name and email address if you are one of our existing contacts

If you would like to unsubscribe from any newsletter or commercial or marketing email, we may send you, you can also click on the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of the email. It may take up to seven days for this to take place.

E. Complaints

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113