Privacy Policy
BELLUM – Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 1st, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Astarte Industries Inc. (“Astarte,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards your information when you purchase, download, or play BELLUM (the “Game”), use the BELLUM launcher, visit https://playbellum.com (the “Site”), or take part in the official BELLUM Discord community, including through Bellum Bot.
By accessing or using the Game, Site, or any related services (collectively, the “Services”), you consent to the practices described below. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
1. Who We Are
Controller: Astarte Industries Inc.
Address: 9375 E Shea Blvd, Suite 100, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, USA
For EU/UK data subjects, Astarte is the data controller. Stripe, Inc (“Stripe”) acts as our payment processor, and may function as an independent controller for payment data it collects.
2. Scope
This Policy applies to:
- Visitors to the Site
- Purchasers of any edition of BELLUM
- Players who install or use the Game or launcher
- Individuals who contact our support channels
- Members of the official BELLUM Discord community who use Bellum Bot or whose activity it processes (see Section 12)
3. Information We Collect
| Category | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Account Data | Email, username, hashed password, country, linked platform IDs | Directly from you |
| Purchase Data | Order ID, edition, price, currency, payment method, VAT/GST | Stripe |
| Gameplay & Telemetry | Session time, crash reports, hardware specs, ping/latency, match stats | Client launcher, in-game telemetry |
| Anti-Cheat Data | Memory scans, running processes, driver lists, user identification tokens | In-game anti-cheat module |
| Communications | Support tickets, emails, chat logs, voice/text communications | Directly from you; in-game chat |
| Discord Community Data | Discord IDs, usernames, roles, membership changes, message content processed for moderation, submitted reports (see Section 12) | Discord, through Bellum Bot; directly from you |
| Marketing Data | Newsletter opt-in status, campaign metrics, referral source | Directly from you; cookies/analytics |
| Cookies & Similar Tech | IP address, device type, browser, pages viewed, referring URLs | Site cookies; analytics pixels |
We do not intentionally collect special-category data (e.g., health, biometrics) or data from children under 13.
4. How & Why We Use Your Information
| Purpose | Legal Basis (GDPR / UK GDPR) |
|---|---|
| Create and manage accounts | Contractual necessity |
| Process payments, issue refunds | Contractual necessity / Legal obligation |
| Provide access to closed-alpha, beta, and live servers | Contractual necessity |
| Operate multiplayer networking and matchmaking | Legitimate interests |
| Detect, prevent, and enforce against cheating, fraud, or Terms violations | Legitimate interests |
| Moderate the official Discord community, prevent spam and abuse, and keep staff audit records | Legitimate interests |
| Handle bug, performance, launcher, and misconduct reports submitted through Discord | Legitimate interests |
| Run giveaways, notification roles, and community campaigns that you choose to join | Contractual necessity / Consent |
| Send service-related emails (e.g., keys, patch notes) | Contractual necessity |
| Send marketing newsletters (opt-in only) | Consent |
| Analyse gameplay and telemetry to improve performance and balance | Legitimate interests |
| Comply with legal requests, tax, and accounting rules | Legal obligation |
Where “legitimate interests” is the basis, we have balanced those interests against your rights and concluded they do not override your privacy.
5. How We Share Information
We may share your data with:
- Stripe – payment processing, tax calculation, fraud detection
- Cloud hosting & CDN providers – game servers, patch delivery, website hosting
- Anti-cheat & security vendors – cheat detection, ban enforcement
- Analytics providers – aggregated usage metrics (IP anonymised where required)
- Customer support platforms – ticket management and live chat
- Discord – the platform on which our community and Bellum Bot operate
- Issue-tracking and productivity tools – our internal issue tracker and Microsoft 365, used to handle reports
- AI service providers – AI-assisted technical investigation and staff assistance (see Section 12)
- Law enforcement or regulators – when required by law or to protect our rights
- Business transferees – in connection with a merger, acquisition, or asset sale
We never sell your personal information for monetary consideration.
6. International Transfers
Our servers are primarily located in the United States. When we transfer personal data from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland to countries without an adequacy decision, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) or another lawful transfer mechanism.
7. Data Retention
We retain data only for as long as necessary to:
- Provide the Services and fulfil the purposes outlined in this Policy
- Comply with legal, tax, or accounting obligations (e.g., 7-year US tax record requirement)
- Resolve disputes and enforce our agreements
Account data tied to an active player is kept until you delete the account or we no longer need the data.
Retention of records related to Bellum Bot and our Discord community is described in Section 12.
8. Your Rights
Depending on your region, you may have rights to:
- Access – receive a copy of your personal data
- Rectify – correct inaccurate or incomplete data
- Erase – request deletion (subject to legal exceptions)
- Restrict or Object – limit or oppose certain processing
- Portability – obtain an export of data you provided in a structured format
- Withdraw consent – opt out of marketing at any time
- Appeal – for Colorado/Virginia residents, appeal a denied privacy request
California (CCPA/CPRA) residents may also request:
- A list of categories of personal information we disclosed for a business purpose
- Opt out of “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising (we do not “sell” data)
To exercise any right, email [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy Request.” We will verify your identity before responding. You may also lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
These rights also apply to information processed through Bellum Bot. Section 12 explains what to include in a request about Discord community data.
9. Cookies & Tracking Technologies
We use:
- Essential cookies – site security, session management
- Analytics cookies – aggregated site usage (e.g., Google Analytics with IP anonymisation)
- Marketing pixels – only if you opt in to marketing cookies
Most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies. Disabling essential cookies may impair the Site or launcher.
10. Security
We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards:
- TLS encryption for data in transit
- Encryption at rest for key databases
- Least-privilege access controls and 2FA for staff
- Continuous monitoring for intrusion attempts and DDoS attacks
However, no system is perfectly secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.
11. Children
BELLUM is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child provided data to us, contact [email protected] and we will delete it.
12. Bellum Bot and Discord Community Services
Astarte operates Bellum Bot for the official BELLUM Discord community. This section explains how the bot handles Discord information. The rest of this Policy also applies.
12.1 Information the bot processes
Depending on the feature you use or the moderation event involved, the bot processes:
- Discord account and server identifiers, usernames, nicknames, roles, and membership changes, to maintain community records and reconcile authorized roles.
- Message text and attachment metadata needed to detect repeated text, image bursts, and rapid posting across channels. Our spam filter (“Spam Guard”) uses fixed rules. It does not use an AI model to classify these incidents.
- Cached message text and related identifiers for staff-only logs of message edits and deletions, where the original content is available.
- Bug, performance, launcher, and player-misconduct reports, including information submitted through forms, discussion threads, evidence, and attachment links.
- Staff review decisions, moderation notes, warnings, and private support or contact-thread information.
- Information needed for giveaways, notification-role preferences, training announcements, and community campaign participation.
Bellum Bot does not request Discord Presence access, and it does not monitor your online/offline status or Rich Presence activities. This is separate from staff logging of voice-channel join and leave events.
12.2 Why the bot uses this information
The bot uses this information to operate community support, route reports to staff, preserve supporting evidence, investigate technical defects, enforce community rules, maintain authorized community roles, and provide the community features described above. Section 4 lists the legal bases.
Spam Guard can remove offending messages, apply a configured timeout, and alert moderators. Protected accounts receive alerts without automatic enforcement. Spam Guard does not automatically ban accounts. Staff may take separate moderation actions.
Authorized QA staff can approve, reject, or mark reports as duplicates. Approved technical reports are sent to our internal issue tracker. When a report is marked as a duplicate, the workflow is designed to add relevant recent thread discussion, usernames, and attachment links to the original issue. Copying this information does not make it public.
12.3 Staff access, service providers, and AI assistance
Relevant staff use this information to handle reports and operate the community. Depending on the workflow, records may also be stored or processed in Discord, our internal issue tracker, Microsoft 365 reporting tools, the infrastructure that runs the bot, and AI services that support technical investigation or staff assistance.
Some approved bug reports can start an AI-assisted technical investigation for developer review. Some staff-assistance functions use AI services to process review notes and relevant staff information. The inputs and investigation or tool histories may contain report content, identifiers, evidence links, or other relevant material. AI-generated findings are given to staff for human review.
Discord message content is not used to train machine-learning or AI models, by us or by our service providers.
Passive FAQ capture, AI duplicate screening when a report is submitted, and AI summarization of misconduct reports are currently disabled. This does not mean that all AI-assisted processing is disabled.
12.4 Retention
How long we keep a record depends on its purpose and where it is stored.
- FAQ capture. A cleanup job runs every six hours and removes captured messages older than seven days. An outage or a failed run can delay deletion. This cleanup does not remove promoted FAQ drafts, and it does not set a seven-day limit for reports, moderation records, staff logs, investigation histories, or backups. Passive FAQ capture is currently disabled.
- Reports and case evidence. These can stay in our internal systems after a Discord thread is closed or a local record is removed. Investigation histories, staff records, and backups need their own retention and deletion handling. Many historical case records do not currently expire automatically.
- Moderation history. We keep the minimum case and sanction history for as long as it remains necessary for community moderation, with no fixed automatic expiry. We keep supporting evidence only as far as the case requires. We review whether a record is still necessary when the case closes and at least every 180 days. A review does not automatically remove an ongoing sanction. This retention remains subject to applicable deletion requirements, including Discord’s requirements for data received through its API. We do not keep all case messages or attachments permanently.
- Other records. We keep giveaway, notification-role, and community campaign records only for as long as necessary for the purpose they were collected for.
12.5 Requests and choices
To request access, correction, or deletion, email [email protected] with the subject line “Privacy Request.” Identify your Discord account and, if known, the report or feature concerned. Do not send your Discord password, login token, or other account credentials. We verify the requester’s identity before we disclose or change personal information.
A deletion can require coordinated action across the bot’s records and our other systems. Removing a Discord message, leaving the server, or removing one local record does not confirm that every copy has been erased. If we must keep some information because of a legal requirement, we will tell you what we kept and why.
There is currently no general per-user opt-out from the bot’s message-content moderation and audit processing. This does not limit your rights under Section 8, including the right to object. Campaign name anonymization is a limited feature. It is not a general opt-out from collection or a deletion mechanism.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy to reflect legal, technical, or operational changes. If the changes are material, we will give at least 48 hours’ notice via email or in-launcher message before they take effect. Continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance.
By using BELLUM or any related Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.