This policy explains what personal data Earth's Elite keeps about you when you use earthelite.co.uk, our forums, LaunchPad and our game servers, why we keep it, how long for, and the rights you have over it. We've tried to keep it plain and short.

Who we are

Earth's Elite is a gaming community run by volunteers. We are the "controller" of your data, which means we decide how it's used. You can reach us about anything in this policy at senior-staff@earthelite.co.uk or through our Contact us page.

What we keep, and why

The law asks us to say the "lawful basis" for each use. For most of what we do it's legitimate interests: running a community and its website in the way members expect. Where it's consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Your forum account

  • Your username, display name, email address, password (stored scrambled, never readable), the date you joined, your posts and private messages, and the IP addresses you use.
  • Optional profile details you choose to add, such as your birthday, location or avatar.
  • Why: to give you an account and run the forums. Basis: legitimate interests.
  • How long: until you delete your account, which you can do at earthelite.co.uk/account/delete. You choose what happens to your posts: keep them (they stay as guest posts under your old name, without your profile), delete your replies, or delete all your posts including topics you started. Senior Staff check each request before the account is deleted, and until then you can undo it by signing in to the forum.

Membership and staff records on the website

  • Your rank, any staff roles, leaves of absence, staff applications and interviews, Academy courses and results, event sign-ups, notifications, and notes or warnings staff have recorded.
  • Why: to organise the community, its staff and its events. Basis: legitimate interests.
  • How long: while you're a member. Notifications are deleted after a year at most. Six months after your forum account is deleted, we delete these records automatically. A few records other people rely on are kept without your name: the staff log, donation totals, and notes you wrote on someone else's application or report.

Contact us and Report a problem

  • Your name, email address, message, IP address and browser details. If you're not signed in, we email you a code to check the address is yours before the message is sent.
  • Why: to reply to you and to stop spam. Basis: legitimate interests.
  • How long: answered or closed messages are deleted automatically 6 months after the last reply. Messages marked as spam are deleted after 30 days.

Emails we send

  • Who we emailed, the subject and the content, so we can see whether it was delivered.
  • How long: 30 days. You choose which emails you get under Notification settings, and every email we send members links there.

LaunchPad (only if you install it)

  • The games it finds on your PC, when you play them and for how long, and the devices you've signed in on. If you link Steam: your Steam ID, Steam name and recently played games.
  • Why: to show who's playing what and add up your hours. Basis: consent, because you choose to install it and link Steam.
  • You choose who can see what you're playing and your hours. You can unlink Steam or sign a device out at any time, and uninstalling stops all collection.
  • How long: the details of each play session are kept for 6 months. After that we only keep your total hours for each game, which are deleted along with your other records if your account is deleted.

Donations

  • Payments are made through PayPal, which handles your payment details under its own privacy policy. We keep the amount, the date, PayPal's transaction reference, and whether you'd like your name shown. We never receive your card details, and we don't store your PayPal name or email address.
  • Why: to keep track of money given to the community. Basis: legitimate interests, and keeping accounts.

Streaming and events

  • If you're on the Stream Team or take part in a stream event: your Twitch channel and the public stream details Twitch provides, and your event settings and activity.
  • Basis: legitimate interests, as you've asked to take part.

Game servers and TeamSpeak

  • Our game servers keep the in-game details you create, such as your FiveM characters, their in-game money and vehicles.
  • Our TeamSpeak server sees your nickname, IP address and TeamSpeak identity while you're connected.

Staff actions

  • When staff change something in the admin panel, we record who, what, when and their IP address, so changes can be checked.

Cookies

We only use cookies the site needs to work, such as the one that keeps you signed in. There's no advertising and no tracking or analytics. Pages that show Twitch streams ask first, because Twitch sets its own cookies. The full list, and your Twitch choice, is on our Cookies page.

Who we share it with

We don't sell your data, and we don't share it with advertisers. It's only seen by:

  • Our staff, as much as their role needs.
  • Other members, for things that are public by design, like your forum posts, your rank, or what you're playing in LaunchPad if you allow it.
  • Our hosting provider, Iniz, which runs our servers. The website, forums and game servers are in London, UK, and our TeamSpeak server is in Amsterdam, Netherlands, which has the same data protection law as the UK.
  • Services you choose to use through us: Twitch, Steam and PayPal. Each has its own privacy policy. Some are based in the USA, so your data may be handled there under the safeguards those companies use.
  • The police or other authorities, if the law requires it, or to protect someone from harm.

Children

You must be 13 or over to join. If you're under 13, a parent or guardian must agree before you can join. If we learn we hold data about a child without the agreement we need, we'll delete it. We keep children's settings private by default, and we never use anyone's data for advertising or profiling.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

  • See the data we hold about you, and get a copy (a "subject access request").
  • Correct anything that's wrong.
  • Delete your data. You can delete your account yourself at earthelite.co.uk/account/delete. Membership needs an account, so deleting it means losing your rank and roles.
  • Limit or object to how we use it.
  • Move data you gave us to another service, in a common file format.
  • Withdraw consent where that's our basis, such as LaunchPad and Steam linking.

To do any of these, email senior-staff@earthelite.co.uk or use Contact us. We may need to check it's really you first. We'll reply within one month, and it's free. Members can also download their forum data themselves from their forum profile (Profile, then Actions, then Download profile data).

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Keeping it safe

The site uses a secure (HTTPS) connection, passwords are never stored in a readable form, and only staff who need it can see members' records. Staff actions in the admin panel are logged.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date below. If a change makes a real difference to how we use your data, we'll also tell members on the site.

Read this alongside our Terms of service.

Last updated 1 November 2026.