Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Viking MUD processes personal data. All personal data are collected, stored, processed, transferred and disposed of in accordance with the Norwegian Personal Data Act (Personopplysningsloven) and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This Privacy Policy last revised on 20 November 2024, and this version replaces all previous revisions of the document.

We have also published a simplified version of this document, covering the essentials.

1. Who we are and how to contact us: Viking MUD is an unregistered, informal, volunteer, non-profit organization, consisting of current and former players of the game. Viking MUD is an Internet-based text-mode multi-user role-playing game. Viking MUD operates in Norway and under Norwegian jurisdiction. Our contact information can be found on our contact page. MUD players can also contact us in-game via mudmail to "admin", or by chatting directly with an Administrator.
2. Personal data we collect from you:
   1. Player character registration data: When you register a Viking MUD player character, you need to enter:
      • A name for your player character, which does not need to have any relation to your real name or other identities you use anywhere.
      • A password of your choosing, which we recommend is unique for this player character and not used for any other service, here or elsewhere.
      • An e-mail address, which according to your preference can be either a) public, b) secret, c) none.
      • Your character's gender identity, which does not need to have any relation to your personal gender identity.
   2. Volunteered information associated with your player character: At a later stage, you may also volunteer additional information about yourself, either to the administration or to be publicly available. For instance, you have the option to request an in-MUD marriage with another player, or a divorce at any time, or volunteer other information.
   3. System account user data: Some persons may be granted system access, and thereby have a system user account. In association with such an account, we may, but do not necessarily store the following system account data:
      • User name
      • User password
      • Person name (optional)
      • Other contact information (optional)
      • Connected IP address and other connection data
      • E-mail account data and metadata, including any messages stored therein
      • Files, code, and content stored in the account's home directory, or other directories/locations it has access to
   4. Automatically collected data: This is data that you do not submit to us directly, but that are automatically gathered by our systems when you use our services or contact us. This data has two sub-categories, in-MUD and other data.
      1. In-MUD collected data: This category specifically uses in-MUD terminology. Not all data is structured, and are therefore not necessarily possible to directly link to a specific player character.
         • Access, activity, and event logs
         • Command history
         • Bulletin board metadata
         • Chat metadata
         • Connected IP address and connection status
         • Mail metadata
         • Message metadata
         • Area information and metadata
         • Item/equipment/object information and metadata
         • Club/guild membership information and metadata
         • Player-generated character information and metadata
      2. Other collected data:
         • Web server access logs
         • E-Mail server logs
         • Other automatically generated system logs and system data
      Logs may include:
      • Timestamps
      • IP addresses
      • E-Mail addresses
      • E-Mail headers
      • Names, user names, character names, and aliases
      • HTTP request headers
      • Other data
      Our webpages may also make use of cookies, which may be used to identify individual persons. Cookies are used to ensure the proper operation of web areas that require a login session, and for related user preferences.
3. How we use your data:
   • In general, any data we collect may be used to maintain, protect, and improve our services, and to detect, investigate, prevent, or otherwise address rules violations, disputes, fraud or other criminal activities, security issues, or technical issues. As Viking MUD is one of the first, and therefore oldest, MUDs, your data is also used for archival and historical purposes.
   • All connections to the Viking MUD game are using the telnet protocol, which is unencrypted, all information you send and receive is transmitted in cleartext.
   • Backups are automatically and regularly processed, both locally and by a remote backup service hosted by our colocation provider Domeneshop AS, which is subject to their Data Processing Agreement.
   Specific categories mentioned above:
   1. Player character registration data:
      • Your player character name is considered public information, and when you are logged in, this name may be visible to all other logged-in players, and to the special "guest" user, as well as being publicly available via the login prompt by using the special login name "users".
      • Your password is cryptographically hashed, and the digest is only available to privileged users.
      • Your e-mail address is, depending on your choice, either publicly visible, "secret", or "none". Your "secret" e-mail address is visible only to privileged users, and may be used for contacting you if there is an issue with your player character, or we need to contact you regarding game issues.
      • Your character's gender identity is used for customizing in-game content.
   2. Volunteered information associated with your player character:
      • Any personal data that you or others volunteer, submit, upload, send, store, or process using our services are not covered by this Privacy Policy. This includes personal data that you add in free-text forms such as the "plan", post to bulletin boards, send via MUD-mail, "tell" others (in-game direct messages), mention on chat boards, store in files, in code, or otherwise submit outside the scope of the personal data that we require for using the service (Player character registration data).
      • Information that is given in confidence to the administration, will be treated as information that you do not wish to share with everyone.
      • Files, code, and content that player characters with such access (Contributors) store in their personal "home" directory is available for modification or deletion in-MUD, and via MUD-FTP.
      • Regarding the examples, your in-MUD marriage status - whether you are married and to whom - is considered public information, and may be used for customizing in-game content. Information that you e.g. publish publicly in your "plan", is outside the scope of this Privacy Policy.
   3. System account user data:
      • The user name is used to uniquely identify the account. If identical to a player character name, it is assumed to be linked to the player character. It is available to anyone with access to the system.
      • The user password is cryptographically hashed, and the digest is only available to privileged system users.
      • The optional person name is used to identify which person an account belongs to, if not linked to a player character name. The person name can also be a pseudonym. It is available to anyone with access to the system.
      • The optional contact information is available to anyone with access to the system, and used to provide an alternate means of getting in touch with the person responsible for the account.
      • Connected IP address and other connection data is used for the proper operation of the system, and to identify where a connection comes from. The information is available to other logged-in users.
      • The e-mail account is provided for an Internet-reachable e-mail access to certain MUD users, and the content is only available to the account itself, and to any privileged system users, and to users/groups of users to whom the account holder has granted access. Privileged system users will not access such e-mail accounts, except when granted by the account holder, or as required for investigation into violations of our Service Agreement where e-mail accounts are relevant.
      • Files, code, and content that the user stores in their personal "home" directory is available under the same terms as the e-mail account.
      • Files, code, and content that the user stores in other directories/locations than their personal "home" directory, is available under the terms of use and permissions of that specific location/directory. Such terms of use and permissions are granted in-system and dynamically, and may be volatile.
   4. Automatically collected data:
      • In-MUD collected data is used to automatically or manually customize in-game content, maintain, protect, and improve our services, and to detect, investigate, prevent, or otherwise address rules violations, disputes, fraud or other criminal activities, security issues, or technical issues.
      • In-MUD collected data related to areas, equipment, items, clubs, guilds, and other in-game objects and functions, as well as connection data, may be available to the contributors of the underlying code, and can be used for the purposes described above.
      • Web server access logs and e-mail server logs are available to privileged system users, and may be used for system maintenance, debugging, improvement, and investigation into terms and AUP violations
      • Other automatically collected data is available to unprivileged or privileged users, depending on the data, and may be used for system maintenance, debugging, improvement, and investigation into terms and AUP violations.
4. How you can access, update, delete, or restore your personal data:
   • In order to authenticate your request, MUD players need to login to the MUD to prove ownership of the player character. People with other kinds of accesses, who have provided a valid and verified email address, may also get in touch via email, see our contact page.
   • MUD players can, at any time, login and modify their data, except their character name.
   • MUD players may request a character name change from a representative of the administration. Character name changes may be either public - keeping information about your previous character name - or discreet - discarding information about your previous character name.
   • MUD players may also erase their character data. Regular player characters do so by "entering the pit". The character data is then moved to a specific "deleted character file", in case you change your mind. If you want to have this erased as well, please contact a representative of the administration before "entering the pit".
   • Contributors or players with other special privileges cannot "enter the pit", and will need to login and contact a representative of the administration.
   • In exceptional circumstances overriding the archival and historical purposes of the MUD, a representative of the administration may take additional steps to ensure that as much as practically possible of personal data is erased. Retroactive erasure from backups is not practically possible.
   • System account users may update their password via SSH login to the server. They may delete E-mail messages and personal files, code and content via SSH. Account information changes, as well as account deletion, must be handled by a privileged system user on authorized request.
5. How we share your personal data:
   • Your player character name, its selected gender, marriage status, and, if selected as public, your email address, may be publicly listed to other logged-in player characters. Additionally, your connection status, your connecting IP address and/or the IP address' registered geolocation, may be made publicly listed while you are logged in, and while you are logged out, the last known information publicly listed to logged-in characters. Any logged-in player, including the special guest user, may look up public information about any other logged-in player.
   • If you have a system user account, your account information (except the password digest), including the IP address you connect from, is available to anyone else logged in with a system user account.
   • We may also share personal data with third parties who have a legitimate interest for this, to investigate technical problems, potential copyright or trademark infringement, or fraud and other criminal activities. In addition, we may share personal data with Norwegian police or other public authorities if presented with a court order, seizure warrant or other equivalent request for disclosure of information.
6. Transfer of personal data outside EU/EEA: There is no systematic transfer of personal data to parties outside the EU/EEA.
7. Automatic processing and decision-making based on personal data: Viking MUD may use any and all supplied data for automatic and dynamic processing, content, and decision-making. Data may be subject to automated checks for syntax and correctness, and be flagged for manual inspection.
8. Dataportability: On request, a representative of the administration may provide you with your personal data in a standardized format, e.g. CSV.
9. How long we keep your personal data: Personal data directly stored with the character object is kept for as long as the player character is registered, and for deleted characters as long as the "deleted character file" exists, which is until the player requests its destruction. The same goes for system user accounts. Character creation and name change logs, are stored indefinitely. System logs, e.g. for e-mail and web, are stored for up to a year. Local backups are stored for up to 25 years, or briefer, depending on capacity. Remote backups are subject to Domeneshop AS' backup retention policy.
10. Why we store some data for a long time: Viking MUD is one of first multi-player networked roleplaying games to exist, and has a rich history. Most of the information we store, is archival and historical, and not actively used. Very little data is directly usable for identifying real persons, living or dead.
11. Your right to complain: If you are a natural person residing in the European Union or European Economic Area and you believe that our use and processing of your personal data are not in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or any other applicable legislation, you have the right to complain to the Supervisory Authority in either Norway (Datatilsynet) or in your country of domicile.