Privacy policy.

Who we are

Highwatch is run by an individual developer based in Ohio, United States ("we", "us"). This policy covers the website at highwatch.dev, the Server Desk and Server Manager apps, Highwatch Control, the ingest we host, the Highwatch Discord bot, the store pages served by our ingest, Highwatch Dispatch, the map and Party sites under highwatch.dev, and the Highwatch Discord community.

Privacy questions and requests: [email protected]. You can also open a ticket in the Discord.

Two roles: ours and the server owner's

Highwatch is a tool that game server owners choose to run. When a server owner connects their DayZ or Rust server, the data about that server's players and staff belongs to the server owner. They decide what to collect, who on their team sees it and how long to keep it, and they are responsible to their players for it. For that data we act as the owner's service provider (a "processor"): we store and process it only to run Highwatch for them.

We are responsible ourselves (the "controller") for the website, Highwatch Control accounts, desk check ins, bug reports, Party accounts and support tickets in our Discord.

If you play on a server that uses Highwatch and want to know what it holds about you, ask that server's owner first. If they cannot help, write to us and we will work with them.

The website

highwatch.dev sets no cookies, uses no local storage, has no forms and runs no advertising trackers. Fonts and images are served from our own server. Our web server logs the page asked for, the browser's user agent and the referring page, kept briefly for troubleshooting; it does not see your IP address, because every request reaches us through Cloudflare.

We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which records the page, the referring site, your browser and device type, your country and how fast the page loaded. It uses no cookies or local storage, does not fingerprint your device and does not follow you across other sites. It runs only on highwatch.dev, not on store pages, Control or the map sites.

Cloudflare, our network provider, also sees your IP address and request in order to deliver and protect the site.

Server owners and staff

• Highwatch Control accounts: your Discord id, username and avatar when you sign in with Discord, and when you last signed in.
• Access keys: a label, a contact and a note you give us. The key itself is stored only as a hash.
• Desk check ins: every five minutes the Server Desk tells Control its install id, the staff name set in the app, app and operating system version, and the names and state of the servers it watches, with error messages that have secrets and addresses removed. Error messages are kept 90 days and daily activity 400 days.
• Server Manager hosts: the host's name, platform, agent version and a summary of its servers, plus the commands sent to it and their results. Host events are kept 90 days and finished commands one day.
• Bug reports you send from an app: what you write, an optional contact and diagnostics with secrets removed.
• Team accounts on an ingest: each staff member's name, role and a hashed token, and a staff log of what each account did, kept 365 days.

The Server Desk stores your CFTools credentials and ingest tokens on your own computer, encrypted with your operating system's secure storage, and talks to CFTools directly. We never receive them. Support bundles are built on your computer and only leave it if you send them.

Players on servers that use Highwatch

The @Highwatch mod (DayZ) and the Highwatch plugin (Rust) run on the game server and send what happens there to the server owner's ingest. Depending on the server's setup this includes:

• Steam64 id (and the BattlEye id on DayZ), in game name, when you joined and left, and lifetime statistics.
• Kills and deaths with weapon, distance and cause, hits, shots, chat messages, items picked up, dropped and placed, base building and raids, vehicle use and reports to staff. Code lock codes are never sent.
• Position and condition every few seconds: location, health, hunger and thirst, what you hold, vehicle, ping.
• Public Steam profile details looked up through the Steam Web API, such as bans and hours played, kept 30 days.
• Records staff make: notes, watchlist entries, cases, tickets, anti cheat observations and their reviews.

IP addresses: neither the mod nor the plugin reads or sends players' IP addresses. Our services use the address of whoever is calling them for a few minutes, in memory, to block repeated bad keys, and do not store it. If a server owner connects CFTools webhooks, CFTools' own messages are stored encrypted for 24 hours.

The server owner may post some of this (for example kill feeds or raid alerts, with player names) into their own Discord channels through the Highwatch bot. Once posted, those messages are kept by Discord under that server's settings. Players can link a Discord account to their Steam64 with an in game code and unlink it at any time.

Staff actions

If a server owner installs the Highwatch add-on for Community Online Tools, VPP Admin Tools or LBmaster Admin Tools, Highwatch records the actions that server's staff take with that tool (for example spawns, teleports and camera use) and flags unusual patterns. Only the server owner sees this. Actions are kept 90 days and flags up to 365 days. Highwatch never acts on a flag. Server owners are responsible for telling their staff that this logging is in place.

Store pages and payments

A server owner can sell supporter perks through a store page on their ingest. To buy, you sign in with Steam; we receive only your Steam64 id. Payment happens in Stripe Checkout in the server owner's own Stripe account: the server owner is the seller, Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy policy, and we never receive card details or your email address.

We store the order (your Steam64, the product, amount, currency and whether it was a test) and the perk it granted with its start and end. The store page uses two strictly necessary cookies: one for sign in, valid ten minutes, and one for your buyer session, valid twelve hours, of which we store only a hash.

AI agent access

A server owner can give an AI tool of their choice read only access to their servers through an Agent account. That tool receives server health, events, metrics and anti cheat observations, which can include player names and Steam64 ids. Player IPs, credentials and staff actions are never sent to it, and every read is in the staff log. The server owner chooses and is responsible for that tool.

Highwatch Dispatch

Highwatch Dispatch is a ticket system we host for Discord communities. Each community runs it under its own Discord bot and is the controller of its tickets; we process them only to run Dispatch for that community, under the Dispatch terms. People who open tickets in a community should see that community's notice, which links to the Dispatch privacy notice.

• Tickets: the Discord ids, names and messages in a ticket, files posted in it, form answers, and records staff keep (notes, ratings, reports). Each community chooses how long what was said is kept, from 30 days to 3 years after a ticket ends (365 days unless it changes it).
• Bot tokens and files are encrypted by the service. Files are served from a separate address so they can never act as the dashboard.
• Dashboard sign in: Discord sign in with the identify scope only: your Discord id, name and avatar, and a session cookie valid seven days of which we store only a hash.
• Game data: if a community connects its Highwatch ingest, its staff can see a ticket opener's in game character, play time and the counts of their cases and notes on that community's servers. This needs a Steam link the player made in game, a Steam sign in the player made with the bot's /steam command (we receive only the Steam64 id), or a link staff set, which is always shown as unproven.
• Never across communities: nothing about a person in one community is shown to another, pooled, sold or used to train AI.
• Removal: anyone can ask a community to remove what its bot holds about them with the bot's /report command, or write to us. When a community leaves Dispatch, everything held for it is deleted at once. Backups of Dispatch expire within about four weeks on our server and about thirty days after that off site, and are encrypted off site.

Party and the map sites

The atlas map sites set no cookies. Party (at /party on those sites) uses Discord sign in and stores your Discord id, name and avatar, a session cookie of which we store only a hash, and the groups, markers, routes and pings you create. Visit counts are kept as daily hashes, not as addresses.

Why we use it

• To provide Highwatch to the server owners who chose it (performing our agreement with them, and their legitimate interest in running and protecting their servers).
• To keep the service secure, stop abuse and fix problems (our legitimate interests).
• To answer support requests and send release notes you asked for (our agreement with you, or your consent where that applies).
• To meet legal obligations.

We do not sell personal data, share it for advertising, or use it to build profiles for anyone other than the server owner it belongs to.

How long we keep it

On the ingest we host, the defaults are: events and chat 90 days, item events 14 days, position history 7 days, staff log 365 days, staff actions 90 days, dismissed anti cheat observations 90 days, closed support tickets 365 days and Steam profile details 30 days. Some of these can be shortened for a server. Player records, notes, cases, open anti cheat observations and shop orders are kept until the server owner deletes them or removes the server.

When a server is removed from the hosted ingest, every record for it is deleted. Nightly backups then expire on their own: copies on our server within about four weeks, and an encrypted off site copy within about thirty days after that.

A server owner who runs their own ingest keeps that data on their own machine; we never receive it.

Where it is stored and who helps us

Our hosted services run on servers provided by VYKIX, our infrastructure partner, behind Cloudflare. Data may be processed in the United States and other countries where these providers operate. Service providers we rely on:

• VYKIX: hosting.
• Cloudflare: network delivery and protection, and encrypted off site backups.
• Discord: sign in, the Highwatch bot, our community and support tickets.
• Steam (Valve): store sign in and public profile lookups.
• GitHub: app downloads and update checks.
• Stripe: payments on store pages, in the server owner's own account.

The apps also talk directly to services the owner chooses, such as CFTools, the Steam Workshop, uMod and Codefling, under those services' own terms.

Security

Everything travels over HTTPS, and our origin servers only accept traffic through Cloudflare. Tokens and keys are stored as hashes, payment secrets and CFTools messages are encrypted at rest, and off site backups are encrypted. Staff see only what their role allows, and the staff log records their actions. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data we will tell the affected server owners, and you where the law requires it, without undue delay.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, or the CCPA in California), you may have the right to access your personal data, correct it, delete it, receive a copy, object to or restrict how it is used, and withdraw consent. We do not sell or share personal data for advertising, and we will not treat you differently for using these rights.

To use them, write to [email protected]. For data a server holds about you as a player, we will pass your request to that server's owner and help them meet it. We may need to confirm who you are, for example by a message from your Steam or Discord account. We answer within 30 days. If you are in the EU or UK you can also complain to your data protection authority.

Children

Highwatch is a tool for server owners and their staff, who must be at least 16. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. DayZ and Rust are rated for older players, but server owners are responsible for their own player communities. If you believe we hold data about a child under 13, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes

We will update this page when what we collect or how we use it changes, and change the effective date at the top. Significant changes will also be announced in the Discord.

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