Privacy

Aetas stores only what it needs to let you play online, keep matches fair, show a leaderboard and improve the game. This statement was last changed on 17 October 2026.

On your own computer#

Your settings, savegames, replays and the crash log live in %APPDATA%\Aetas and never leave your machine, unless you send them to us yourself (for example with a bug report).

Anonymous game data from single-player#

After each single-player match (a mission or historical battle, skirmish against the computer, a challenge or the tutorial) the game sends a short, anonymous report to the lobby server, so we can see which missions are too hard, how the computer opponents hold up and where players get stuck. A report contains:

• the game version, the mode, the mission or challenge, the difficulty and the map;
• how it ended (won, lost, gave up or stopped halfway) and how long it took;
• your civilization, the age you reached, your score and a few counters (units trained, lost and defeated, buildings built), and the civilization and difficulty of the computer players;
• in the tutorial: from which chapter to which chapter you played; in a challenge: your result and medal;
• a random number made on your computer, so we can count how many different players there are and recognise a report that arrived twice.

It contains no Steam ID, no name and no chat, and we do not store your IP address with it. If you are offline, the report waits on your computer (at most 30 days) and goes along next time. We keep reports for 12 months.

It is on by default. You can turn it off in Settings > Game > Share anonymous game data; from then on nothing is sent, and reports still waiting on your computer and the random number are thrown away. Because we cannot link these reports to you, we cannot look them up or delete them per player.

On the lobby server#

If you sign in with Steam (this happens automatically when you play online), we store a profile with:

• your Steam ID and Steam display name, to recognise your profile and show your name;
• your XP, your rating and the content you have unlocked;
• a hidden balance rating from normal (unranked) matches, used only to split teams evenly; it is never shown;
• how often you left a match without giving up, shown to other players as a percentage next to your name once you have played at least five online matches;
• statistics from online matches: matches played and won, units, buildings, technologies, resources, play time, ages, civilizations and a few records;
• when you were last online and on which days you signed in, to show the leaderboard as active and to see how busy the servers are.

For every finished online match we keep a short record: when it was played, the map, how long it lasted, who played with which civilization, who won, and each player's statistics and rating change. We also keep a replay of the match (the moves, not video or voice) for 21 days, so you can download your own matches and so the team can look into reports.

If you report a player, we store who reported whom, the reason, the lines that player wrote in the match chat, and a replay of the match so far. Nothing else from the chat is kept, and voice is never recorded.

Moderation#

To keep online play fair, the Aetas team (the developer and a few volunteers) can warn players, mute them, exclude them from ranked matches or ban them from online play. We store what was decided, why, by whom and for how long, and team members can write notes about a player. You see your own warnings and sanctions, with the reason, on My account, and you can appeal there. A ban stays linked to your Steam ID, also if you ask us to delete your data. Every action by the team is logged.

My account on this website#

On My account you sign in through Steam. Steam tells us only your Steam ID; your password never reaches us. Signing in sets one functional cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 12 hours; there are no other cookies. On My account you can:

• see your profile, matches, statistics and any warnings or sanctions;
• download your replays and everything we store about you as a file;
• hide your profile from the public leaderboard, or show it as "Anonymous";
• follow friends (they are not told), sign up for tournaments and report bugs, with a log file if you add one;
• ask us to delete your data.

Player pages on this site#

Every player with a profile has a public page, reached from the leaderboard: rating over time, civilizations with win rate, recent ranked matches with opponents' names, and a title if the team gave you one. Your Steam ID is not shown. You can hide this page on My account.

This website#

aetasrts.nl has no advertising and no third-party analytics, and loads nothing from other companies (fonts come from this server). The web server keeps technical log lines to find faults; the IP address in them is truncated before it is written, and the lines are deleted after two weeks.

While playing#

Matches run directly between players, through Steam or over a direct connection. If a host cannot be reached directly, the lobby server passes the match traffic along without keeping it. Apart from that it only receives the result, and the replay, after the match.

What we do not do#

We do not store your email address (unless you write to us), your IP address, your other chat messages or voice, or anything about what you do outside Aetas. We do not sell or share this data. The game contains no advertising and no analytics code from other companies; the anonymous single-player reports go only to our own server.

Retention and deletion#

Profiles are kept for as long as the game runs online. Replays of matches are deleted after 21 days, anonymous single-player reports after 12 months. You can ask for deletion at any time on My account, or by writing to info@aetasrts.nl with your Steam name; we handle it within 30 days. Deletion is permanent and includes your XP and unlocks. Your player page, your place in the hall of fame, reports about you, warnings, notes, friends, tournament entries and privacy choices are removed too; in the matches you played your line stays without name and Steam ID, so the result still adds up for the others. A ban, and a bug report you sent (without your name), stay.

The server keeps nightly backups for up to one week, after which deleted data is gone from those too.

Contact#

Consul Games, the maker of Aetas (consulgames.nl), at info@aetasrts.nl.