Your data should not be the mystery.

1. Scope and responsibility

Who this policy covers

This Privacy Policy applies to the Project Helios website and browser game at projecthelios.io, including the mission console, multiplayer relay, optional cloud profiles, support pages, advertising features, and payment flow. For purposes of this policy, the service responsible for the processing described here is referred to as Project Helios, “we,” “us,” or “our.”

Questions and requests can be sent to support@projecthelios.io. This policy does not replace the separate privacy notices of services such as Google, Stripe, Microsoft Azure, or a player’s browser and device provider.

2. Information we process

What the expedition records

Information you provide

• Cloud profile information: email address, username, password, and verification status. The server stores a salted cryptographic hash of the account password rather than the readable password.
• Player and room choices: callsign, selected rig color and appearance, room code, optional room access key, and whether a hosted survey is listed in the crew finder. Room access keys are stored by the game server as a hash, but a complete private invite URL can contain the key so another pilot can join.
• Support messages: the email address, message, attachments, and other information you choose to send to the support address.
• Purchase choices: the add-on selected and the information needed to associate a completed checkout with the correct signed-in account.

Gameplay and profile information

Project Helios processes the state needed to run a live and persistent survey. Depending on how you play, this can include a device-local profile identifier, account identifier, callsign, position, rig condition, inventory, credits, upgrades, equipment, cosmetics, entitlements, daily rewards, achievements, campaign chapters, narrator events, mission participation, sky records, and room progress.

Shared room data can include mined cells, placed infrastructure, liquid and mixed-deposit state, base upgrades, bosses, rescue missions, crew votes, Orbital Tether funding, access-key status, and recent participants. Other pilots in the same room can see gameplay information required for the shared experience, such as your callsign, appearance, position, status, and actions.

Technical and security information

When a browser connects, the server and hosting infrastructure receive ordinary request information such as IP address, requested path, time, connection status, origin, and browser-provided headers. The live relay also receives connection and message traffic needed to synchronize the room. Project Helios uses this information to deliver the service, enforce request and connection limits, validate origins, diagnose failures, prevent abuse, and protect accounts and rooms. Hosting infrastructure may retain operational or security logs under its own configured retention.

Aggregate product and monetization events

The game reports bounded events such as session start, store open, ad request, ad impression, ad completion or skip, offer shown or accepted, purchase, redemption, and daily reward claim. A batch can include a device-local profile ID and a temporary session label while in transit. The current Project Helios metrics store records aggregate event counters, placement totals, product totals, and revenue totals rather than retaining those submitted identifiers in the metrics record.

3. Browser storage and cookies

What stays on this device

Core Project Helios features currently rely primarily on browser local storage rather than a first-party cookie. Local storage can hold:

• a device-local profile identifier and guest room progress;
• cosmetics, Escape Credits, daily reward state, campaign history, and sky achievements;
• interface and rendering preferences, such as minimized panels and optional performance overrides;
• an authentication token after sign-in;
• daily advertising frequency counts and launch count;
• a pending checkout reference used to finish a return from Stripe; and
• publisher or owner diagnostic settings if deliberately entered through an authorized testing surface.

Clearing site data in the browser removes device-local records, which can permanently erase guest progress that has not been synchronized to a cloud profile. Logging out removes access to the cloud session but does not necessarily clear every guest or preference record stored by that browser.

Microsoft Azure hosting may set essential routing or load-balancing cookies, such as ARRAffinity or ARRAffinitySameSite, to keep requests connected to an appropriate application instance. Project Helios does not use those essential hosting cookies to personalize advertising.

Third-party services used for advertising or payment may set or read cookies and similar technologies as described below. Browser controls can block or delete cookies and local storage, but doing so may interrupt sign-in, saved progress, frequency limits, consent choices, advertising, or checkout completion.

4. How information is used

Why we process it

• Provide the game: create and join rooms, synchronize crews, persist world state, save progress, deliver campaign objectives, and award in-game items.
• Provide accounts: create cloud profiles, authenticate sessions, verify email, reset passwords, merge compatible saves, and respond to account requests.
• Complete transactions: start and verify checkouts, grant purchased entitlements, keep transaction records, and address billing problems.
• Operate advertising: request eligible interstitial or rewarded inventory, enforce local frequency limits, measure delivery, provide earned in-game rewards, and detect invalid activity.
• Protect the service: rate-limit requests, validate connections, investigate abuse, prevent fraud, secure accounts, and maintain reliable rooms.
• Understand and improve Project Helios: review aggregate usage, ad, offer, and purchase totals; diagnose technical problems; balance systems; and prioritize improvements.
• Communicate: send transactional verification or reset messages and answer support, privacy, billing, or security requests.
• Comply with obligations: maintain records, respond to valid legal process, enforce terms, and establish or defend legal claims.

Where data-protection law requires a legal basis, the basis may be performance of the service requested by you, legitimate interests in operating and securing the game, compliance with legal obligations, or consent. Advertising cookies, personalized advertising, and similar technologies are handled on the basis required in the relevant region, including consent where required. Consent can be withdrawn through the available consent message or settings, without affecting earlier lawful processing.

5. Google advertising

Ads, cookies, and personalization choices

When a Google publisher ID is configured, Project Helios can use Google H5 Games Ads to request interstitial and rewarded ads at eligible points in the game. Google and participating advertising partners may use cookies, web storage, IP address, page URL, device and browser information, advertising identifiers where available, and information about ad delivery and interaction to serve and render ads, limit repetition, measure performance, prevent fraud and abuse, and personalize ads where permitted.

Google explains that a browser visiting a site using its advertising services automatically sends information such as the page URL and IP address, and that Google may set or read cookies. Learn more in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and How Google uses cookies.

Personalized ads can be based on previously collected or historical information, such as prior activity, general location, or inferred interests. Non-personalized ads do not use past behavior for ad targeting, but Google states that they can still use cookies or mobile advertising identifiers for frequency capping and aggregate reporting. Project Helios intends to present a Google-certified consent message in regions where consent is required and to respect the resulting advertising choice.

You can review or change Google advertising choices in My Ad Center and, where available, in the consent or privacy message shown on Project Helios. Device, browser, and regional industry controls may provide additional choices. Turning off personalized ads does not turn off all ads; ads may instead use contextual information such as the current site content, general location, or time of day.

Rewarded ads are optional choices tied to a clearly described in-game reward. Interstitial ads are intended for natural breaks and are subject to frequency limits. Buying an ad-removal entitlement suppresses eligible interstitial advertising on the associated save, while optional rewarded opportunities may remain available.

6. Payments through Stripe

Checkout and purchase records

When real billing is enabled and you choose an add-on, Project Helios creates a Stripe Checkout session connected to the signed-in account and selected product. Payment details entered on the hosted checkout are handled by Stripe. Project Helios receives or verifies information needed to confirm the transaction and grant the purchase, such as Checkout session ID, product, payment status, account reference, and purchase time; it does not need to receive the complete payment-card number entered into Stripe Checkout.

Stripe may collect transaction information, contact and billing information, device and browser information, IP address, cookies, and fraud-prevention signals to process the checkout, authenticate payments, prevent loss and fraud, meet legal obligations, and analyze its services. Review the Stripe Privacy Policy and Stripe Privacy Center for details and Stripe-specific choices.

7. When information is shared

Service providers and other recipients

Project Helios does not sell personal information for money. Information can be disclosed in these circumstances:

• Other players: crew-visible callsign, rig appearance, position, status, actions, and shared room state.
• Hosting and communications: Microsoft Azure can host the application and data and can deliver account verification and password-reset emails through Azure Communication Services.
• Advertising: Google and authorized advertising participants receive information needed to request, deliver, measure, limit, and protect ads as described above.
• Payments: Stripe and relevant payment networks, financial institutions, or authentication providers process checkout and transaction information.
• Professional and operational support: vendors or advisers may receive limited information when reasonably necessary to operate, secure, audit, or support the service and subject to appropriate obligations.
• Legal and safety reasons: information may be preserved or disclosed when reasonably believed necessary to comply with law or valid process, protect users and the public, investigate fraud or abuse, or establish and defend legal rights.
• Organizational change: information may be transferred as part of a financing, acquisition, restructuring, sale, or similar transaction, subject to applicable notice and legal requirements.

Interest-based advertising can be treated as “sharing” or targeted advertising under some privacy laws even when no money is exchanged for personal information. Where applicable, use the consent controls, Google advertising settings, or the support address to exercise available choices.

8. Retention

How long records remain

• Guest and browser records remain until the game replaces them, they expire under the relevant feature, or you clear the site’s browser storage.
• Inactive room records are normally pruned after twenty-four hours without activity. A completed room can close sooner. Operational backups may remain for a limited additional period.
• Cloud sessions are configured to expire after thirty days. Logging out invalidates the current session.
• Email verification links expire after twenty-four hours, and password-reset links expire after one hour. Hashed or administrative records can remain as needed to maintain account security.
• Daily aggregate metrics buckets are limited to the most recent sixty days. All-time aggregate counters can be kept longer because they do not identify individual players in the current metrics store.
• Cloud profile and purchase records are kept while the account is active and afterward as needed to provide entitlements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, maintain financial records, comply with law, and act on a valid deletion request.
• Support and security records are kept for the time reasonably needed to answer the request, document the resolution, protect the service, and comply with legal obligations.

Retention periods can vary when a record is involved in an active security incident, dispute, legal hold, or mandatory recordkeeping requirement.

9. Security

How information is protected

Project Helios uses safeguards intended to reduce unauthorized access and misuse, including HTTPS in production, password hashing, hashed session tokens, origin checks, content and framing restrictions, request body limits, rate limits, connection caps, and bounded message sizes. No online service can promise absolute security, and users should choose a unique password and protect private room links and access keys.

If you believe an account or room has been compromised, contact support@projecthelios.io. Do not include a password, authentication token, full private invite link, or full payment-card information.

10. Your choices and rights

Control available to players

• Play as a guest: a cloud account is optional for the core mission console.
• Manage local data: browser settings can inspect or clear cookies and site storage. Clearing storage can erase unsynchronized guest progress.
• Manage ad choices: use the Project Helios consent message where shown, Google’s My Ad Center, and browser or device controls.
• Update account access: use password reset and email verification features, or contact support for an account issue.
• Request privacy action: depending on location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, receive a portable copy of, object to, or restrict processing of personal information, and to appeal certain request decisions.
• Withdraw consent: when processing relies on consent, you can withdraw it through the available setting or by contacting support. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was lawful before it.
• Complain to an authority: you may have the right to contact the privacy or data-protection regulator in your place of residence.

Send requests to support@projecthelios.io with the subject “Privacy request.” Write from the account email when possible and provide the username or profile needed to identify the record. Project Helios may need to verify identity and may retain information where an exception or legal obligation applies.

11. Younger players

Requests involving a child

If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child provided personal information to Project Helios without the consent required by local law, contact support@projecthelios.io. Include enough information to identify the account, but do not send identity documents or other sensitive records unless support explains why they are necessary and how to provide them safely.

12. International processing

Where providers operate

Project Helios and its service providers may process information in countries other than the one where you live. Privacy laws and government-access rules can differ. Where required, Project Helios will rely on an approved transfer mechanism or another lawful basis for cross-border processing.

13. Changes and contact

Policy updates

This policy may change as Project Helios, its providers, or legal obligations change. Material revisions will be posted on this page with a new effective date and, when appropriate, communicated in the game or through an account message.