Privacy Policy

FictionHive Games ("FictionHive", "we", "us") operates the website at games.fictionhive.com and related pages. We publish gaming news, reviews, guides and hardware coverage, host embedded browser games, and run a community with accounts, comments, leaderboards and a credit-based reward system.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use and share it, and the choices you have. By using the site you agree to the practices described here.

We collect information in three ways: what you give us, what is generated when you use the site, and what we receive from third parties.

• Account data: email address, password (stored hashed by our authentication provider), display name, avatar and banner images, bio, social links, favorite genres and platforms, time zone, and theme preference. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email and profile picture from Google.
• Community content: comments, reactions, star ratings and written game reviews, article submissions you write, favorites you save, and any profile information you choose to make public.
• Gameplay data: which games you play, play time, scores you submit, saved game states, challenge progress and leaderboard positions.
• Reward data: credits earned and spent, the actions that earned them (e.g. daily login, finishing an article, sharing), login streaks, badges, cosmetics purchased with credits, and referral relationships between accounts.
• Usage data: pages and articles viewed, searches and search suggestions, outbound clicks on affiliate/product links, share actions, and general analytics events. For unique-view counting we store a one-way hashed fingerprint derived from your user ID or IP address, not the raw IP.
• AI assistant data: messages you send to the Hive Guide chat assistant and its replies, which are processed by third-party AI providers to generate answers.
• Device and log data: browser type, operating system, referring URLs, approximate location derived from IP, and timestamps, as collected by our hosting and analytics providers.

We use cookies and browser storage that are necessary to keep you signed in and to make the site work. We also store some preferences directly in your browser so they work even when you are not signed in:

• Session/authentication tokens so you stay logged in.
• Theme choice (dark, light or system), selected time zone and the last guest reaction you left on an article.
• An anonymous session key and local save states for browser games so you can resume where you left off. If you later sign in, these are merged into your account.
• Favorites saved while signed out, merged into your account on sign-in.
• Hive Guide chat state and guest message limits.
• Analytics cookies from our analytics providers to understand how the site is used. You can control cookies via your browser settings; blocking essential cookies may break sign-in.

• To provide, operate and secure the site, including account creation, sign-in, password reset and email verification.
• To run community features: publishing your comments, reviews, ratings, reactions and approved article submissions under your display name.
• To run games and competitions: recording scores, maintaining leaderboards, evaluating daily challenges and restoring saved games.
• To operate the credit reward economy: awarding credits for eligible actions, preventing duplicate or fraudulent awards, processing referrals, and letting you spend credits on cosmetics.
• To personalise your experience, such as recommended articles and games based on your favorite genres and platforms, and "continue playing" rows.
• To send transactional emails such as verification, password reset, replies to your comments and reactions to your articles (where enabled).
• To answer your questions through the Hive Guide AI assistant using our published content.
• To measure and improve the site through aggregated analytics, and to track affiliate link clicks so we can be paid commissions by retailers.
• To detect abuse, enforce our Terms of Service and comply with legal obligations.

Some information is visible to anyone who visits the site. Your display name, avatar, rank badge and public profile page are visible by default, along with your comments, game reviews, leaderboard scores and credited articles. You can hide parts of your public profile (such as favorites, scores or badges) using the visibility toggles in Settings.

The full names and emails of editors who work on an article are kept internal; only the credited author name is shown publicly.

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only in the following cases:

• Service providers: our hosting, database and authentication platform (Base44), email delivery, analytics providers, image/file storage, and AI model providers that power the Hive Guide assistant and editor tools. They process data on our behalf under contractual restrictions.
• Google: when you choose "Sign in with Google", subject to Google’s privacy policy.
• Embedded games: browser games are loaded in an iframe. Game developers may see technical information about your session; we pass save-state and score messages between the game and the site, and we do not share your account details with game developers.
• Affiliate partners and retailers: when you click a product or deal link we record the click and the retailer may set its own cookies. Our affiliate disclosure explains this on relevant pages.
• Social platforms: when you use a share button, you leave our site and the platform you share to receives the link and any text you post.
• Legal reasons: to comply with law, enforce our Terms, protect our rights, or respond to lawful requests.
• Business transfers: if FictionHive is merged, acquired or sells assets, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction.

The Hive Guide assistant and our editorial AI tools use third-party large language models. Messages you type into the assistant are sent to these providers to generate replies and may be retained briefly by them for abuse monitoring. Do not share sensitive personal information in the chat. Guests are limited in how many messages they can send; signed-in members have higher limits.

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. Community content, scores and credit history are retained to keep leaderboards, article threads and reward records consistent. Hashed view fingerprints and analytics events are kept in aggregated form. If you delete your account, we remove or anonymise your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we must retain it for legal, security or fraud-prevention reasons. Public contributions such as comments may remain visible attributed to a deleted user.

• Access and update: edit your profile, display name, avatar, favorites, social links and privacy toggles at any time in Settings.
• Delete: request deletion of your account and personal data by contacting us at the address below.
• Portability and correction: request a copy of your data or ask us to correct inaccurate information.
• Email: transactional emails (verification, password reset) are required to run your account; notification emails about replies and reactions can be turned off in Settings where the option is available.
• Cookies: manage cookies through your browser settings.
• Residents of the EU/EEA, UK, California and other regions with privacy laws may have additional rights, including the right to object to processing and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. We honour these requests as required by applicable law.

FictionHive Games is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your country). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

We use industry-standard measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, server-side validation of scores and credit awards, and access controls that restrict who can read or modify your data. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password and keep it confidential.

Our service providers may store and process data in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date above and, for significant changes, notify you on the site or by email. Continued use of the site after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.