Privacy Policy

FireCracker Studios LLC, based in Pennsylvania, United States, is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. In this policy, “we” means FireCracker Studios. You can reach us at contact@firecracker-studios.com for privacy questions or requests.

This policy currently covers Undertow, firecracker-studios.com, and our related feedback, support, and community activities. The game section explains Undertow’s features. The website section explains what happens when you visit our site. The remaining sections explain how we handle information across these services. We will identify additional games and their practices here when they are added.

1. Undertow

When you launch the Steam build, Undertow uses your SteamID (the number that identifies your account), Steam profile name or chosen in-game name, and Steam lobby and session identifiers to connect you with other players. The game can create a background Steam group in the main menu so friends can invite or join you. Players in a group or match can see names, teams, and information about the round. The host and participating clients receive identifiers they need to run the session.

Undertow uses Steam’s friends and activity features to find friends in the same session. Your Steam activity can show your group size, what you are doing in the game, the outcome of a round, and up to two friends’ profile names. You can review your game-details visibility in Steam’s profile privacy settings. Valve handles your Steam account, store transactions, and use of its platform under its own policy. Valve Privacy Policy

Find Match and your matchmaking balance

Your matchmaking balance tracks in-game currency earned through play.

When Find Match is available in your version of Undertow and you choose to join, the game shares your SteamID, party membership, requested team size, queue time, and preferred team name in a Steam lobby. To choose a nearby match and a suitable player to host, it also shares a Steam network location used to estimate the delay between players, plus your processor core count. The studio’s matchmaking balance database does not store either of those two values.

When a match is found, your game sends our matchmaking balance service proof of your Steam identity and information identifying the match, its players, host, and team size over an encrypted connection. Valve verifies that proof, which is a short-lived Steam authentication ticket. The matchmaking balance database does not save the ticket, and you do not give us your Steam password. The host receives the opening in-game balances and reports each player’s result and match reward. We use these records to update balances and in-game earnings, calculate relative standings, and prevent duplicate match rewards. A player who disconnects can still receive an earned match reward when the host submits the result.

Your matchmaking balance follows your Steam account between player hosts and game regions. Private games and dedicated servers keep their own balances. In those modes the host computer or server can store a player or reconnect identifier, display name, balance, and statistics such as matches and successful extractions. A host can use an identifier or display name to enforce a kick for the lifetime of the lobby.

The main menu checks whether the dedicated game server is available. The server sees your network address when it receives that check, even before you choose to join. If you connect directly, it also receives a reconnect identifier, game compatibility information and, when available, your SteamID.

Voice, text, and settings on your device

If you unmute your microphone, the game sends live voice through the host or dedicated server to other players. Who hears it depends on proximity, spectator status, and features such as the in-game telephone. Typed chat also goes through the host to players in the session. The game does not create a studio archive of voice recordings or chat transcripts. Other players can still hear, read, or independently record what you share. You can play with your microphone muted, turn voice chat off, or revoke microphone access in your device settings.

Your device saves preferences such as your chosen name, team name, cosmetics, audio controls, and, for direct connections, the last server address and reconnect identifier. The game also keeps limited diagnostics on the device as described below. Clearing local game data removes local preferences and can reset a direct-connect identity. It does not erase a balance stored on a server.

Bug reports and optional diagnostics

In-game bug reports. When you press Submit, the game sends your description, a random report ID, game and Unity versions, platform, and whether you chose to attach diagnostics. The studio’s website receives the report and emails it to our support inbox. Your description goes through as written. Please leave out passwords, authentication tickets, and information about other people. The standard report form does not request a SteamID or email address.

Optional diagnostics. The attachment is off by default. It contains event counts, categories of recent warnings or errors, and recognized game-code locations. The official client does not attach the full Unity log, chat, raw error messages, account or device identifiers, network addresses, or personal file paths. The game periodically saves the summary on your device. After an unexpected exit, the next launch can recover the previous summary and the checkbox tells you which session you would send. A recovered summary stays on the device until a successful report includes it or a newer unexpected exit replaces it. Nothing is uploaded merely because the game crashed or restarted.

2. Feedback, support, and community

Our optional Google feedback form for Undertow asks about your experience, graphics settings, performance, and suggestions. You can provide a Discord handle if you want follow-up or a creator page and contact details if you are interested in collaborating. If you email us, we receive your address, message, and anything you attach. We use that information to answer you, investigate problems, and act on your feedback.

In the studio Discord, we can see the profile, messages, and files you share with us and use them to organize game sessions, respond, and moderate the community. Other members can see posts in channels they can access. Google and Discord also process information when you use their services under their own policies. Google Privacy Policy · Discord Privacy Policy

3. Visiting our website

Browsing and cookies. Our website and hosting providers receive your IP address, browser details, requested pages, and request times to deliver the site, diagnose problems, and protect it from abuse. Necessary cookies may support functions such as signing in and security. You can block or delete cookies through your browser settings; doing so may affect site features. Cookies from our previous analytics and consent setup may remain on your device until they expire or you delete them. Removing a cookie does not erase information already sent to a service.

Website measurement. We disabled Google Analytics and plugin conversion tracking on November 6, 2026. Our public website no longer loads Google Analytics, advertising pixels, or third-party visitor-analytics scripts. We have not replaced them with another visitor-tracking service. Ordinary hosting and security records remain separate from analytics. We may use Google Search Console to review how our site appears in Google Search; this does not add a visitor-tracking script to our pages.

Background video. The homepage plays a muted, looping gameplay video served from our VPS in Canada through media.firecracker-studios.com. Playing it sends normal file requests to that server and its hosting provider, with the connection information described above. It does not load an embedded YouTube player or require analytics consent. Following a separate YouTube link takes you to YouTube under Google’s policies.

If you comment on a news post, WordPress collects the name, email, comment, and any website you provide, along with connection information for moderation. Your displayed name, comment, and any link you share may be public. The comment form lets you choose whether your browser remembers your details in cookies. External Gravatar avatar display is disabled. Standard WordPress resources, such as emoji images, may load from WordPress.org infrastructure, which receives the connection information needed to deliver them. WordPress.org Privacy Policy

When you use a contact link to email us, we use the details you send as described in section 2. Links to Steam, Discord, and other external websites take you to services with their own privacy practices.

4. Who receives information and where it is stored

Our team and the providers that host the game, matchmaking balance service, website, email, and feedback form process the information needed for those services. Our bug-report endpoint uses our Spaceship-hosted website and Spacemail for delivery. Valve supports Steam features, Google provides the feedback form and search-performance tools, WordPress.org infrastructure serves standard resources described above, and Discord operates the community platform. Match participants and player hosts receive the gameplay information described above. We use SteamIDs linked to in-game balances for gameplay and account verification, not website analytics. We may also share information where required by law or where necessary to investigate abuse or protect players.

The studio operates from the United States. Our current game server and matchmaking balance service run on a VPS in Canada. A match can be hosted by a player in another country. Hosting a match in a different region does not automatically create another copy of the studio’s matchmaking balance database. We plan to add server regions and may replace our current VPS. We will update the countries listed here before moving studio-held Steam data to a new country.

Our main website and support email are hosted separately from that VPS; the homepage video files are served from the Canadian VPS. Spaceship provides the main website hosting and Spacemail provides the support mailbox. Their services can involve processing in the United States, as described in the Spaceship Privacy Policy. Other providers described above may process information outside your country under the policies linked above. The website’s hosting location does not determine where your matchmaking balance is stored.

Different countries have different privacy laws. Where a transfer requires additional safeguards, the applicable arrangement depends on the provider, service, and destination. Contact contact@firecracker-studios.com for information about a particular transfer, its destination, and any applicable safeguards. This policy does not treat your use of the game or website as consent to every international transfer.

5. How long we keep information

Matchmaking balance

We keep the balance and cumulative in-game earnings linked to your SteamID while we operate the matchmaking balance service and until you erase it or we otherwise remove the record. A later match can create a fresh balance record.

Match and reward records

Match records support setup, the active game, and applying match rewards. Abandoned matches expire after a short period without contact from the game. Completed match reward receipts expire after 24 hours. Expired records are removed during subsequent service activity or scheduled cleanup.

Dedicated and private-host records

Studio-run servers keep progression so players can return. Contact us to request deletion on a studio server. A player host controls the files on their own computer.

Bug-report abuse and duplicate controls

To limit abuse and avoid duplicate reports, we keep a protected hash of the source IP and report metadata such as IDs, content hashes, status, and timestamps. These records expire within 24 hours and are removed on subsequent requests. Emailed reports and hosting access logs have separate retention.

Reports, feedback, and correspondence

Retention depends on whether a request is still open, whether the information is needed to investigate or verify a fix, and whether it is needed for a related dispute or legal obligation. A report is not automatically deleted when you close the game. Contact us to request deletion; a report date, description, or reference number helps us locate it.

Website comments

Comments and their moderation records can remain with the relevant discussion until removed. Contact us to request removal of your comment or identifying details.

Previously collected analytics

Disabling analytics does not automatically erase information already collected. Any remaining records are subject to the provider’s retention settings and deletion processes. Contact us about a particular record or visit.

Service logs

Retention depends on the provider’s settings and the period needed to diagnose a problem, investigate abuse, or meet a legal obligation. These records are separate from the 24-hour bug-report controls above. Contact us about a specific record or visit.

Backups

Where backups exist, deletion from an active service may not immediately remove its backup copies. Those copies remain subject to the provider’s backup lifecycle and are used for recovery. A deletion request also applies to information restored from backup.

6. Your choices and rights

Delete your matchmaking balance. When matchmaking is available in your version of Undertow, open Find Match, choose its balance-deletion option, and confirm. Steam verifies your identity before the balance is deleted. This erases the matchmaking balance and associated identifiers from our active matchmaking balance records. It leaves your Steam account, private-host and dedicated-server balances, and separately submitted reports intact. We also use Steam’s deleted-account feed to remove matching balance data when Valve tells us an account has been deleted.

Contact us about other records. Email contact@firecracker-studios.com and tell us which service or record you mean. For a bug report, an approximate date and a brief description can help if you do not have the report ID. For a dedicated-server balance, identify the server and the display name you used. We may ask you to verify ownership before disclosing or erasing information. Please never send a password or Steam ticket. If another player hosted the game, we can help identify which records the studio controls.

Depending on where you live, you can ask to access or receive a copy of your information, correct it, delete it, restrict its use, or receive it in a portable format. You may object to uses based on our legitimate interests. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it for future use. We will explain if we must keep information, for example to meet a legal obligation. You can also complain to your local data protection authority or ask us to review a decision about your request.

Where a legal basis is required, we use the information needed to deliver the online features you request, including authentication, matchmaking and in-game reward updates, to perform our agreement with you. We rely on our legitimate interests in securing the service, preventing duplicate match rewards or abusive submissions, responding to support requests, and improving the game from feedback. We rely on consent for optional diagnostic attachments and for optional website technologies where consent is required. We also process information when necessary to comply with a legal obligation. You may skip the optional reports, form, and voice chat. Steam identification is required to use the matchmaking balance.

7. Children

Undertow is a general-audience game available through Steam. Steam requires its account holders to be at least 13, and additional age restrictions may apply in some countries. Undertow does not ask for a date of birth or independently verify a player’s age. Steam Subscriber Agreement

If you are a parent or guardian who believes your child gave us personal information through the game, website, or a report, contact contact@firecracker-studios.com to request review or deletion. Tell us which feature they used and share only enough information for us to locate the record. If we learn that we collected a child’s information in circumstances requiring parental consent without that consent, we will take steps to remove it as required.

8. New games, features, and policy updates

As our games and services change, we will update this policy to explain the information we use, its purpose, the recipients, retention, and your choices. We will identify which games and services each practice applies to.

We will publish revisions at the same policy address and update the effective date. For material changes, we will provide additional notice where required, for example through the affected game or website. Before using existing personal information for a new purpose, we will explain the change and obtain consent where required.

Back to top ↑