PATH OF EXILE & PATH OF EXILE 2 - TERMS OF USE

1. Application of Terms of Use: Welcome to Grinding Gear Games Limited's ("Grinding Gear Games") 'Path of Exile' and/or 'Path of Exile 2' online games ("PoE"). These terms of use ("Terms of Use") apply to your use of the PoE websites ("Websites") at www.pathofexile.com and www.pathofexile2.com (or such other URL as either Website may subsequently be hosted at), the software, documentation and any associated materials comprising or made available to you in relation to PoE (the "Materials") as well as any services (including, without limitation, any Website APIs (as defined in clause 22) offered or provided by Grinding Gear Games or its nominated third parties in relation to PoE (the "Services"). These Terms of Use incorporate and must be read in conjunction with our Privacy Notice. By making use of any of the Websites, Materials and Services, you are deemed to have read and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use and our Privacy Notice. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use or our Privacy Notice, you are not authorised to access and use the Websites, Materials and Services, and you must immediately stop doing so.

2. Amendments: Grinding Gear Games reserves the right to amend these Terms of Use from time to time upon placing any such amendments on the Website or by providing you direct notice of any such changes. Your continued use of any of the Website, Materials and Services thereafter will be deemed to be acceptance by you of any such changes to these Terms of Use.

3. Age restriction: If you are based in the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 16 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 16 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services. If you are based outside the European Union, you must not use the Website, Materials and Services if you are under 13 years of age, and if you are between the ages of 13 and 18, your parent or legal guardian must have consented to you accessing and using the Website, Materials and Services.

4. Rights: Unless otherwise stated in these Terms of Use, Grinding Gear Games is the owner or licensee of all rights including all copyright, trade marks and other intellectual property rights relating to or included within the Website, Materials and Services ("Rights"). For the avoidance of doubt, and to the greatest extent permitted at law, the Rights include without limitation all rights in respect of all graphics, logos, text, images and all other elements included in and deriving from the gameplay and virtual world featured in PoE, including without limitation in-game names, characters, locations and any virtual items ("Virtual Items") and their associated benefits or properties acquired or provided for use within PoE.

5. Amendments to PoE: Grinding Gear Games at all times retains the right to deal with the Rights as Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion deems appropriate, including without limitation the right without notice to alter, modify, redesign, suspend or discontinue any aspect or feature of the Website, Materials (including without limitation the Virtual Items) and Services.

6. Licence: Grinding Gear Games grants you a limited licence ("Licence") for the purpose of accessing, as applicable downloading, and making use of the Website, Materials and Services (or any parts of such as Grinding Gear Games may make available to you from time to time) and the related Rights for your own personal and non-commercial use in accordance with these Terms of Use. For the further avoidance of doubt, pursuant to clause 4, any rights you may have in respect of any elements or aspects of PoE (including without limitation in respect of the in-game characters and Virtual Items) are strictly limited to a personal 'licence to use' such as part of the Licence and at no time do you acquire any ownership rights in respect of such. Any contravention by you of these Terms of Use or any other terms or conditions notified to you by Grinding Gear Games or any behaviour which Grinding Gear Games deems in its sole discretion is not in keeping with the intended spirit of participation in PoE, immediately terminates the Licence, or such aspect of the Licence as Grinding Gear Games may otherwise provide you notice of. Termination of the Licence, or any aspect of the Licence, by Grinding Gear Games may without limitation also result in the taking of any of the further actions described in clause 17.

7. Restrictions: Under no circumstances, without the prior written approval of Grinding Gear Games, may you:

   1. Adapt, reproduce, store, distribute, print, display, publish or create derivative works from any part of the Website, Materials or Services other than in accordance with the Licence.
   2. Modify or adapt (including through third parties and third-party tools) the game client or its data, other than in the normal course of PoE gameplay as permitted in accordance with the Licence.
   3. Utilise any automated software or 'bots' in relation to your access or use of the Website, Materials or Services.
   4. Knowingly perform any actions that may cause the computers used to support the Website, Materials and Services (the "Servers") to become overloaded or crash.
   5. Connect to the Servers through any software other than the authorised game client software.
   6. Use any data gathering and extraction tools or software to extract information from the Website or utilize framing techniques to enclose any of the contents of the Website.
   7. Use any meta tags or other hidden text which incorporate Grinding Gear Games’ name or any of its intellectual property including trade marks.
   8. Perform in-game services during your use of the Website, Materials or Services for any form of compensation outside of PoE.
   9. Reverse engineer, de-compile or disassemble the Website, Materials or Services or seek to establish the technical processes, operations and communication protocols of the Website, Materials or Services through any means, including without limitation by reference to the input or output of the Website, Materials or Services or the internal structure and workings of the Website, Materials or Services.

8. Recording and Streaming Gameplay: Subject at all times to the remaining provisions of these Terms of Use, the Licence provided for in clause 6 will also be deemed to provide you a limited licence to stream your PoE gameplay on live streaming sites (including for example and without limitation www.twitch.tv) and to record videos of your PoE gameplay and post such videos on video sharing sites (including for example and without limitation YouTube). Subject at all times to any further restrictions or conditions specified by Grinding Gear Games from time to time, such licence from Grinding Gear Games will also be deemed to allow you to include advertisements in such live streaming or recorded video content (together the "Gameplay Content") and otherwise monetise such Gameplay Content as may be allowed by such live streaming or video sharing sites (together the "Gameplay Content Sites"). The terms of this clause 8 are at all times subject to your compliance with any further obligations imposed by the applicable Gameplay Content Sites you wish to make the Gameplay Content available through. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you agree that on request from Grinding Gear Games you will immediately arrange for the removal from or alteration of any Gameplay Content included on any Gameplay Content Sites and further agree that you will not pursue Grinding Gear Games for any actual or potential loss you may suffer in such regard.

9. Indemnity: You agree to fully indemnify Grinding Gear Games for any loss or damage it may suffer in contract, tort, equity, statute, regulation or otherwise, including without limitation any economic loss, loss of turnover, profits, business or goodwill, whether direct or consequential as a result of your breach of the Licence and your use or any third-party use of any Gameplay Content created by you including, in respect of any third-party claims against Grinding Gear Games, its related parties, employees, contractors or agents.

10. Posting Policy: The following provisions (“Posting Policy”) apply to any comments you post or any statements you make in any manner on the Website (which includes for the avoidance of doubt any associated forums) or any messages you send to other users of the Materials and Services (including as part of the PoE gameplay) by any manner whether facilitated or otherwise allowable by the Materials and Services (“Posts”):

    1. All Posts must represent your genuine opinion of the matter in question;
    2. Personal abuse, foul language, inappropriate subject matter, obscene, harassing, threatening, hateful, or discriminatory or defamatory remarks of any nature, as may be determined by Grinding Gear Games in its sole discretion, or Posts otherwise in contravention of any law or court order, are not permitted;
    3. Posts advertising or promoting any person or entity or their goods or services without the prior written approval of Grinding Gear Games are not permitted;
    4. You grant Grinding Gear Games a perpetual, non-revocable royalty-free licence to:
       1. make use of any Posts as Grinding Gear Games deems appropriate in relation to any of the Website, Materials and Services or the promotion of the same; and
       2. sub-licence third parties, on such terms as Grinding Gear Games deems appropriate, to make use of any Posts as Grinding Gear Games deems appropriate in relation to any of the Website, Materials and Services or the promotion of the same;
    5. Grinding Gear Games reserves the right without notice, explanation or liability to:
       1. restrict or remove your ability to make Posts;
       2. disallow the posting of any specific Posts;
       3. edit any specific Posts; and
       4. completely remove any Posts from the Website or anywhere else related to the Materials and Services (including as part of the PoE gameplay) where they appear or are stored; and
    6. You agree to indemnify Grinding Gear Games on demand for any loss or costs of whatever nature suffered by Grinding Gear Games whether direct or consequential as a result of any breach by you of clauses 10(a)-(c).

11. Image Policy: The following provisions (“Image Policy”) apply to any images you make available in any manner in relation to any of the Website, Materials and Services (including as part of the PoE gameplay) (“Images”):

    1. All rights of whatever nature (including without limitation copyright, registered and unregistered trade mark rights, rights of personality, privacy, confidentiality and any other intellectual property rights) in any Images must belong to you or you must have the right to make the images available in relation to the Website, Materials and Services in accordance with this Image Policy;
    2. Pornographic, obscene, harassing, threatening, hateful, discriminatory or defamatory Images, as may be determined by Grinding Gear Games in its sole discretion, or Images otherwise in contravention of any law or court order, are not permitted;
    3. You grant Grinding Gear Games a perpetual, non-revocable royalty free licence to:
       1. make use of any Images as Grinding Gear Games deems appropriate in relation to any of the Website, Materials and Services or the promotion of the same; and
       2. sub-licence third parties, on such terms as Grinding Gear Games deems appropriate, to make use of any Images as Grinding Gear Games deems appropriate in relation to any of the Website, Materials and Services or the promotion of the same;
    4. Grinding Gear Games reserves the right without notice, explanation or liability to:
       1. restrict or remove your ability to make Images available;
       2. disallow the use of any specific Images;
       3. edit any specific Images; or
       4. completely remove any Images from the Website or anywhere else related to the Materials and Services where they appear or are stored; and
    5. You agree to indemnify Grinding Gear Games on demand for any loss or costs of whatever nature suffered by Grinding Gear Games whether direct or consequential as a result of any breach by you of clauses 11(a)-(c).

12. Content: While Grinding Gear Games has endeavoured to take all reasonable and appropriate care in the preparation of the content of the Website, Materials and Services and has no reason to believe that any information contained in any of the Website, Materials or Services is inaccurate or that any Posts or Images are in contravention of the Posting Policy and Image Policy, Grinding Gear Games does not warrant the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information contained in any of the Website, Materials or Services and that such information is error free or that any Posts or Images are not in contravention of the Posting Policy and Image Policy. Grinding Gear Games does not undertake to keep any of the Website, Materials or Services updated. To the greatest extent permitted by law Grinding Gear Games does not accept liability for any loss or damage which may result either directly or indirectly from reliance by you upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in any of the Website, Materials or Services or in relation to any Posts or Images, including without limitation where such loss or damage is a result of or contributed to by the negligence of Grinding Gear Games.

13. Linked Websites: The Website, Materials or Services may contain links to other websites not controlled by Grinding Gear Games ("Linked Websites"). Those links are provided for convenience only and may not remain current or be maintained. Grinding Gear Games is not responsible for the content or privacy practices associated with Linked Websites. Grinding Gear Games' links with Linked Websites should not be regarded as approval or as an endorsement, of those Linked Websites, their operators or owners, or of any information, graphics, materials, products or services referred to or contained on those Linked Websites including further links contained on those Linked Websites, unless and to the extent stipulated to the contrary in these Terms of Use. Grinding Gear Games recommends that you read Linked Websites' privacy policies before you provide personal information on any Linked Website.

14. Account Registration: To acquire or make full use of any of the Website, Materials and Services you will need to register for a Grinding Gear Games member account ("Member Account"). If you do choose to register for a Member Account you warrant that all information and personal details you provide to Grinding Gear Games are correct. In addition, you acknowledge that you are aware that PoE has an R13 classification in New Zealand and warrant that you are over thirteen (13) years of age. You may not transfer your registration or any rights you may have in your Member Account to any other person or entity. For the avoidance of doubt, you acknowledge that you will have no ownership rights in your Member Account, including without limitation any Virtual Items connected with such Member Account.

15. Usernames: Any username you choose in relation to your Member Account or as applicable any other identifier you choose for use in relation to your access or use of the Website, Materials and Services, may be viewable by other users of any of the Website, Materials and Services as applicable and you warrant that any such username or other identifier will not:

    1. infringe the rights of whatever nature of any third-party including without limitation copyright, registered and unregistered trade mark rights, rights of personality, privacy, confidentiality and any other intellectual property rights; and
    2. contain foul language, inappropriate subject matter, obscene, harassing, threatening, hateful, or discriminatory or defamatory remarks of any nature as may be determined by Grinding Gear Games in its sole discretion or otherwise be in contravention of any law or court order.

16. Confidentiality of Passwords: You must keep all password and login information associated with your Member Account confidential and not disclose such information to any third-party or allow a third-party access to your Member Account without first obtaining Grinding Gear Games' written consent. You will be solely responsible for all activities undertaken and/or costs incurred under the use of your password and login. You must notify Grinding Gear Games immediately if you know or suspect that your Member Account has been accessed by a third-party or your login or password details have been, or may have been, obtained by a third-party.

17. Cancellation of Membership: Grinding Gear Games reserves the right, acting at its sole discretion, to refuse to accept your registration request for a Member Account. To the greatest extent permitted by law, Grinding Gear Games also reserves the right, acting at its sole discretion, at any time to cancel your registration and access to your Member Account or to restrict, limit or otherwise change your existing rights of access to your Member Account, or any specific feature or benefit afforded to you in relation to your Member Account, including without limitation in respect of any Virtual Items, if it believes you have breached these Terms of Use or any other agreements you may have with Grinding Gear Games, if you have engaged in behaviour which Grinding Gear Games deems in its sole discretion is not in keeping with the intended spirit of participation in PoE or for any other reason whatsoever. In such event you agree that Grinding Gear Games will not be required to provide you with prior notice or explanation in respect of such action. Notwithstanding the cancellation of access to your Member Account in any case, you agree you will remain fully liable for any outstanding liability owed to Grinding Gear Games. Grinding Gear Games may also, where it believes such action is necessary, without notice block IP addresses of any users who have breached the Terms of Use.

18. Points: Grinding Gear Games may offer 'game points' for sale ("Points") which can, in accordance with the procedures and further terms specified by Grinding Gear Games from time to time, be used to pay for certain goods and services, including without limitation Virtual Items, as may be offered from time to time by Grinding Gear Games in relation to the Website, Materials and Services. You must have an active Member Account in order to purchase Points. Grinding Gear Games reserves the right to offer or cease to offer Points for purchase or to restrict the purchase of Points by you at its sole discretion. To the greatest extent permitted by law Grinding Gear Games reserves the right to alter the terms and conditions relating to any Points which you have previously purchased. Grinding Gear Games reserves the right to provide Points at no charge to any users of any of the Website, Materials and Services on such terms and conditions as Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion deems appropriate.

19. Cost and Payment: The cost of any Points or any specific quantity of Points will be as specified by Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion from time to time. Any Points available for purchase may only be purchased by such means and in accordance with any further conditions as Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion may specify.

20. Non-transferable: You are not entitled to transfer any Points you purchase (or any rights in respect of any Virtual Items including without limitation those you may purchase using Points) to any other person or entity, use such Points for the benefit of any other person or entity or deal with the Points or any rights or interest in the Points in any way, except as explicitly provided for in these Terms of Use.

21. Points Cancellation: Grinding Gear Games reserves the right at any time without notice to cancel any Points previously acquired by you, as Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion deems appropriate. In addition, in the event of the cancellation of your Member Account any unused Points you currently hold will automatically be deemed to also be cancelled. To the greatest extent permitted by law Grinding Gear Games will have no further liability to you with regard to any cancelled Points including with respect to any obligation to refund to you the purchase price paid for such Points.

22. Website APIs: Grinding Gear Games may, from time to time, make available application programming interfaces to enable third-party sites and services to access certain in-game data via the internet ("Website APIs"). Grinding Gear Games may modify, add, remove, replace or upgrade any or all of its Website APIs (including the data fields of those Website APIs) at any time at its discretion. You must comply with Grinding Gear Games' technical documentation and policies (as published and as updated on the Website from time to time or as otherwise notified to you by Grinding Gear Games) regarding use of the Website APIs ("API Policies"). Without limiting the foregoing, you must comply with the Website API call limits set out in the API Policies or as otherwise notified to you by Grinding Gear Games, and not attempt to circumvent those limits.

23. Virtual Item Trading: Subject to the remainder of these Terms of Use, you may trade Virtual Items with other game players for your own personal and non-commercial purposes using the in-game trading mechanisms provided by Grinding Gear Games and through use of official Grinding Gear Games Website APIs. You agree that to the greatest extent permissible at law Grinding Gear Games will have no liability to you of any nature arising out of or in connection with any trade or inability to trade.

24. Links: If you provide a link to the Website you agree that you will not use any Grinding Gear Games logo, trade mark or other proprietary graphic as part of such link without the express prior approval of Grinding Gear Games.

25. Lost Data: In the event that any information or data (including without limitation in respect of in-game characters, achievements, Virtual Items, Points or general PoE gameplay) relating to you or your use of any of the Website, Materials and Services held by Grinding Gear Games or any third-party on behalf of Grinding Gear Games is lost, corrupted or otherwise no longer reasonably available or accessible as judged by Grinding Gear Games in its sole discretion, you agree that to the greatest extent permissible at law Grinding Gear Games will have no liability to you of any nature relating to any such information or data.

26. Accessing: You must take your own precautions to ensure that the process which you employ for accessing or making use of any of the Website, Materials and Services does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which may damage your own computer system or any data contained therein. To the greatest extent permitted by law Grinding Gear Games does not accept responsibility for any interference or damage to your computer system or any data contained therein which may arise in connection with your accessing or making use of any of the Website, Materials and Services.

27. Support: Grinding Gear Games reserves the right to make support services available in relation to any of the Website, Materials and Services on such terms and conditions as Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion deems appropriate and further reserves the right to alter, suspend or withdraw such support services as Grinding Gear Games at its sole discretion deems appropriate.

28. Exclusion of Warranty: To the greatest extent permitted by law, in relation to your access and use of the Website, Materials and Services, any condition or warranty either express or which would otherwise be implied by law into these Terms of Use is hereby excluded.

29. Exclusion of Liability: To the greatest extent permitted by law, under no circumstances will Grinding Gear Games, its employees, contractors or agents be liable to you in contract, tort, equity, statute, regulation or otherwise for any loss, damage, costs, legal costs, professional and other expenses of any nature whatsoever incurred or suffered by you or by any third-party, whether direct or consequential (including without limitation any economic loss or other loss of turnover, profits, business or goodwill) arising out of any dispute or contractual, tortious or other claims or proceedings made by or brought against you which relate in any way to your access and use of any of the Website, Materials and Services, including without limitation in relation to any Posts or Images or any breach by you of the Posting Policy or Image Policy, or in respect of any failure or omission on the part of Grinding Gear Games to comply with its obligations as set out in these Terms of Use.

30. Limitation of Liability: To the greatest extent permitted by law, in the event that any limitation or provision contained in these Terms of Use is held to be invalid or unenforceable for any reason and Grinding Gear Games becomes liable for any loss or damage that would otherwise have been excluded, Grinding Gear Games' maximum liability in contract, tort, equity, statute, regulation or otherwise for any loss, damages or injury directly or indirectly arising in respect of your access and use of any of the Website, Materials and Services is to be limited to $50 in New Zealand currency.

31. Jurisdiction: The provision and use of the Website, Materials and Services is governed by and is to be interpreted in accordance with the laws of New Zealand and subject to clause 32, in all matters relating to or arising from your access and use of any of the Website, Materials and Services, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of New Zealand. If you are accessing or making use of any of the Website, Materials and Services from outside of New Zealand then you agree that you are entirely responsible for ensuring that your access and use of any of the Website, Materials and Services will not contravene any laws in your country.

32. Disputes: In the event that you have a dispute in respect of, relating to or arising from any of the Website, Materials and Services you must immediately notify Grinding Gear Games in writing giving details of the dispute. If Grinding Gear Games and yourself cannot resolve the dispute within fourteen (14) days of receipt by Grinding Gear Games of such notice then to the greatest extent permitted by law the following procedure will apply. The dispute will firstly be submitted to mediation by a mediator agreed to by both yourself and Grinding Gear Games or, failing agreement, appointed by the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand at the request of either you or Grinding Gear Games. If the matter is not resolved by mediation within fourteen (14) days from there, (unless you are a consumer as defined in the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and otherwise to the greatest extent permitted by law), the matter will be submitted for arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration Act 1996 by a single arbitrator agreed to by both yourself and Grinding Gear Games or, failing agreement, to be appointed by the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand at the request of either you or Grinding Gear Games. Unless agreed otherwise by Grinding Gear Games, all such mediation and arbitration proceedings shall take place at a venue in New Zealand to be chosen by Grinding Gear Games acting entirely at its own discretion. All costs in relation to the staging of such proceedings (excluding for the avoidance of doubt any awards which may be made) shall be borne equally by the parties unless explicitly stipulated otherwise by the arbitrator as applicable or agreed otherwise by the parties.

33. Failure to Comply: Grinding Gear Games accepts no liability for any failure to comply with these Terms of Use where such failure is due to circumstances beyond its reasonable control.

34. Waiver: If Grinding Gear Games waives any rights available to it under these Terms of Use on one occasion, this does not mean that those rights will automatically be waived on any other occasion.

35. Severability: If any provision of these Terms of Use is held to be invalid, void, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, such provision shall be deemed to be severed from these Terms of Use, but only to the minimum extent necessary to avoid such issue and the remainder of any such provision as well as all other provisions of these Terms of Use shall continue in full force.

36. Entire Agreement: These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and Grinding Gear Games in respect of their subject matter and supersede any previous understandings, representations or agreements on that subject matter.

37. In these Terms of Use, words in the singular include the plural and vice versa.

38. Queries: If you have any queries in regard to these Terms of Use please don't hesitate to contact us via email support@grindinggear.com.

PATH OF EXILE & PATH OF EXILE 2 - PRIVACY POLICY

Last Updated: October 2024

1. Introduction – What is this notice for?: This privacy notice (this “notice”) is about how we use personal information about you called “personal data” when you’re playing Path of Exile or Path of Exile 2 (“PoE” or the “games”) and your use of websites related to the games and/or pathofexile.com or pathofexile2.com, together with the game the “services”.

2. Who are we?: We are Grinding Gear Games Limited, (“GGG”, “we” or “us” in the rest of this notice). We are located at 6 Alderman Drive, Henderson, Auckland, 0612, New Zealand and you can find our contact details at www.pathofexile.com/support. We make decisions about how and why we use your personal data when you use the services. This means we’re what’s called a “data controller” of this personal data.

3. What is personal data and why is it important?: Personal data is any information which identifies you (like your name, nickname, and email address). It is also information which can be pieced together with other information to identify you like your age, gender, or the technical IDs given to your phone/laptop/computer (these IDs are sometimes known as “online identifiers”); and the interactions of you and your character in the game from which it’s possible to work out things about you, such as play time, item acquisition rates, inventory amounts, character characteristics and choices (“gameplay data”). It’s important to know what we do with your personal data, because you should be able to control what happens to it. By reading and understanding this notice, you will know how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal data, and how you can ask us to use it differently.

4. How do we collect your personal data?: Sometimes you give us your personal data directly - for example, when you are filling in your account sign up form or contacting our customer support teams. The information that you are asked to provide and the reasons why you are asked to provide it will be made clear to you at the point we request it. Providing us with this information is voluntary, but if you choose not to provide it you may not be able to access the service or certain aspects of the service. Sometimes we also collect information about you automatically when you use the service. Where this information can be linked back to you, it will be personal data. This information includes IP addresses, geographic location information using IP information, event data related to updates to your account information, and purchase information. GGG may place cookies on your device. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers which are transferred to your computer’s storage through your web browser to enable GGG to recognise you whenever you access the Website and therefore better personalise your access of and use of the Website, Materials and Services. A cookie does not identify you personally but it does identify your device. GGG uses cookies for the following purposes:

   1. a login cookie, which tells GGG which Member Account you are currently logged in to the Website with; and
   2. a language cookie, which tells GGG what language you have set the Website to.
   3. GGG’s partners, Youtube and Twitch, may also place cookies on your device when you view Twitch streams of PoE gameplay embedded on the Website or Youtube videos embedded on the Website. Youtube’s privacy policy is available at: https://policies.google.com/privacy and its cookies policy is available at: https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies. Twitch’s privacy policy is available at: https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/privacy-policy/ and its cookie policy is available at: https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/cookie-policy.

Control and deletion of cookies: You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish. The help portion of your browser’s toolbar should tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. You should note, however, that if you do not allow the use of cookies or do not wish to provide certain information to GGG, you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website, Materials and Services. You can find out more information about how to change your browser cookie settings at http://www.aboutcookies.org.uk.

5. When are we allowed to use your personal data?: We are only legally allowed to use your personal data where a “legal basis” allows us to do so. These are the legal bases which could apply:

   1. “Contract” - We need to carry out or sign up to a contract. When it’s necessary to use your personal data to perform a contract with you, or because you have asked us to do something before signing a contract with you that requires the processing of your personal data. In these cases, if you don’t provide your personal data, then we won’t be able to perform the contract or do what you have asked us to do before signing the contract.
   2. “Legitimate Interest” - It’s in our or someone else’s “legitimate interests”. “Legitimate interests” is a legal phrase. It usually means a commercial or business interest that is important to us or another company, and which we’ve balanced against your right to privacy. We will always let you know what the interest is, and you can object to us using your personal data for these reasons via email at support@grindinggear.com.
   3. “Consent” - You have given us your consent. Sometimes we will ask for your consent to use your personal data. This consent will always be clear and separated out from other information. You can always withdraw your consent by contacting us at support@grindinggear.com.
   4. “Legal obligation” - We need to do something a legal obligation tells us to. When it’s necessary to use your personal data so that we can perform our legal and regulatory obligations – so that we don’t break the law. There are strict conditions regarding when we are allowed to use “sensitive” data about you, like information about your health or your race. We do not intentionally process these types of data but we may do so if you provide this as part of your use of the Services such as chat logs or when communicating with us. If we knowingly process your sensitive information we process this based on your consent.

6. What personal data about you do we use, and why?: This section lists the types of personal data we use about you, and our reason for this:

   1. Information you provide to us (either directly or through a third party):
      1. Account setup information: Account ID, Alias, Email, Password, HWID, IP addresses. We use this information to create your account in order to provide access to the service. (Contract)
      2. Third party account setup information: Account ID, Alias, Email, Password, HWID, IP. We use this information to allow you to login to the game using third party platforms (e.g. Microsoft, Valve, Sony). (Contract)
      3. Account rewards: Email, account ID, view/claim data. We use this to provide rewards in-game based on action taken on the provider's platforms (e.g. Twitch). (Contract)
      4. Customer support: Any information voluntarily provided to customer support including email, login data, gameplay data and transaction data. We use this information to help provide support to you in relation to the issue you’ve contacted us about. (Legitimate interest – our interest in answering your questions about our service in order to improve your experience and improve our relationship with you)
      5. Security: IP addresses, IP lookup information, account ID. We use this information to help provide security and network protection mechanisms. (Contract - Where the data processing activities are not necessary for performance of a contract – Legitimate interest – our interest in ensuring the security of our services & technologies)
      6. Opt-in marketing and surveys: email, platform, transaction data. We use this information to provide you with updates and promotional emails. (Consent (for opt-in marketing))
      7. Website cookie analytics: Account ID, alias, email, password, IP addresses. We use website cookies to provide players with an integrated browsing experience and personalised content. (Consent)
      8. Analytics/telemetry information: IP addresses, running process list (PC only), login information, unique hardware ID, unique install ID, IP lookup information, basic hardware information, operating system information, user account information, memory and driver information, user behaviour and status that may be related to cheating software. We collect this information to monitor and resolve website or game crashes or issues. (Consent)
      9. Targeted advertising: Emails, google-specific account IDs (e.g. browser, etc.), purchase behaviour (SKUs, dollar value), in-game behaviour (login, tutorial and quest completions, other in-game conversion actions of interest etc.), IDFA, advertising ID. We use this information to track for spam and other behaviour that is against our Terms of Use. (Consent)
      10. Friends list: friend aliases. We use this information so that you can connect with your friends and share game activities with your friends. (Contract)
      11. Data subject request information: alias, email address, transaction history, login history, proof of user's identity. If a data subject request is submitted, we use this information to confirm the requestor’s identity, your rights and to process the request. (Legal obligation - our obligations under data protection laws)
      12. Sending legal reports/responding to court orders - Purchase and activity data, online identifiers, information requested by law enforcement. We may be required by law to disclose this information to law enforcement bodies. (Legal obligation – our obligations under intelligence and security laws)
   2. Information collected automatically or generated as part of our service to you:
      1. Transaction records: payments through payment processors or respective distribution platforms, cost, product purchased, IP addresses, details of transactions linked to alias, payment method, currency paid, vendor, item purchased, price paid, discount applied, shipping information. We use this information to facilitate your payment and maintain a record of your transaction history. (Contract)
      2. Virtual SKU purchases: Transaction data including account ID, IP addresses, vendor, item purchased, price paid, discount applied. We use this information to facilitate virtual currency/item purchases with third parties (e.g. Xsolla, Valve, Sony, Microsoft). (Contract)
      3. Generated account ID: We generate this and use this to store your service gameplay data (including level and progress) with your profile, and it allows you to connect to the game server. (Contract)
      4. Gameplay data: Various gameplay related data (i.e. account state, quest timing, item acquisition rates, inventory amounts, level, account ID of friends), Account ID, Game user ID, IP addresses, Character - i.e. all activities of a player in a game (for example, movement and choices, interactions with other players, attributes). Various other gameplay related data (ie. account state, aggregate account data, play time, item acquisition rates, inventory amounts, level, account ID of friends). We use this information to improve the game and provide you with feedback and information about your gameplay and progress. We also use this information to log when players join a session. (Legitimate interest - our interest in improving your and others’ future experiences with the game)
      5. IP addresses: We use this information to: Allow you to connect to the service server, determine your country of origin, security and anti-cheat functions (Contract + See legal bases for security / anti-cheat)
      6. Anti-cheat and security related information: IP addresses, running process list (PC only), login information, unique hardware ID, unique install ID, IP lookup information, basic hardware information, operating system information, user account information, memory, and driver information, user behaviour and status that may be related to cheating software, log files and bug/crash reports providing information on an error that has occurred, gameplay related data (ie. account state, aggregate account data, quest timing, item acquisition rates, inventory amounts, level, account ID of friends). If you use a PC, we use Windows account name, System info, unique machine ID. Xbox: Xbox account name, Gamer tag. Steam: SteamID, Steam profile name. Playstation: PSN Id. Epic Games: Account name. We use this information: for security and verification purposes, including to detect and observe cheating behaviours and consider restricting or banning access to the service, identify and address bugs and assess game functions for optimization, solve game crashes and optimise compatibility of hardware with the game. If your account is determined to breach our Terms of Use, we may consider restricting or banning your access to the service. (Consent - (to obtain diagnostic information about your device, bug/crash support, and to contact you by email to help fix any related issues) (Contract – (where necessary to provide you with the Services)) (Legitimate interest – (where consent isn’t relied on and obtained, including for anti-cheat) our interest in ensuring the security of our services, maintaining a fair gaming environment, and t0 gain development feedback and to confirm required optimizations))
      7. Anti-cheat and chat: Alias, Account ID, Message history. We use this to maintain a short-term record of the in-game chat logs in order to moderate chat content. (Consent, Legal Obligation, Legitimate interest – (where consent isn’t relied on and obtained, including for anti-cheat) our interest in ensuring the security of our services, maintaining a fair gaming environment)
      8. Crash log information: PC: Windows account name, system info, unique machine ID. Xbox: Xbox account name, Gamer tag. Steam: SteamID, Steam profile name. Account ID, Game user ID, IP. Epic account id, local account name, machine specs. Playstation: PSN ID. We use this information to create crash logs, backend logs, and crash reports. (Consent)
      9. Data to provide you with chat access: text communicated to other players in-game (message history), on our forum, and through public chat channel or sent to peers, including alias, account ID and gameplay information. If you engage with chat /forum services then we will process such data in order to deliver your messages to other users. (Contract)
      10. Data to provide you with Twitch Armory access: Account ID, gameplay information. We use this information to allow Twitch viewers to see account information (loadout) for a player streaming gameplay. (Consent)
      11. Chat monitoring and logging: communications to other players in-game (message history), on our forum, and through public chat channel or sent to peers, including alias and account ID. We monitor and take logs of chats to ensure they are in keeping with our community standards. If your account is determined to breach our Terms of Use, we may consider restricting or banning your access to the service. (Consent, Contract – to enable us to send and deliver messages, Legitimate interest – our interest in providing you with customer support and security by ensuring the messages you leave don’t breach our community standards)
      12. Financial reporting: Purchasing data, activity data, and IP lookup (country) data. We use this information to complete our financial reporting and disclosure obligations to our parent company, tax agencies and regulators.
      13. Legal obligation – our obligations under tax and corporate law.

7. Who do we share your personal data with?:Sometimes we share your personal data with other companies and organisations. The types of companies and organisations we share your personal data with are as follows:

   1. Third-party data processors - we list these processors here: www.pathofexile.com/legal/third-parties
   2. Game “storefronts” and “distributors” – If we’re not already doing this ourselves, we might need help from other companies to get you to join the Services and set up your account. We might share your personal data with those companies as part of that process.
   3. Other companies who provide us with services – We need separate companies to provide us with services we use to support the game (for example, payment processors, hosting providers, and companies that help send or display marketing or advertisements if these are relevant). We share your personal data with those companies so they can provide us with those services.
   4. Regulators, official authorities, and other third parties in relation to legal compliance – For example, the police or the government might legally require us to give them personal data to help them with an investigation, or we might be required to give these companies personal data to enforce our terms, address security and fraud, and to protect you.

8. Does your personal data ever go to other countries?: Yes, sometimes your personal data goes to other countries as part of using your personal data in the ways we listed above. If you are in the UK, the EU, or Switzerland and your personal data goes outside of the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, the law requires us to take extra steps to make sure your personal data is protected in the place it is going to. We do the following things to make sure we are not breaking these laws:

   1. If an adequacy decision/regulation from the European Commission or UK government is in place, we will rely on that adequacy decision.
   2. Before you enter the game, we ask for your consent to transfer your data overseas.
   3. If we send your personal data to a company which is in a jurisdiction not subject to an adequacy decision so they can provide us with services, we will have a contract with that company called the “standard contractual clauses and the UK addendum” which requires that company to protect your personal data.
   4. Sometimes the companies who provide us with services have special documents in place called “binding corporate rules”. If a company has one of these documents in place, this will be enough to make sure the personal data is protected.

We might take similar steps where you are in another country with similar legal requirements, as well. If you want proof of or more information about any of these things, you can contact us at support@grindinggear.com

9. How long do we keep your personal data for? We only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary.

10. What control do you have over your personal data, and how can you make us change what we do with it?: Because your personal data is about you, you should be able to control what happens to it. We provide different ways you can do this. The easiest way is to write us an email at support@grindinggear.com requesting one or more of the following:

    1. “Stop using my data” – you can object to how we are using your personal data if we are using it based on legitimate interests (see above) in certain situations. You can also change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting support@grindinggear.com;
    2. “Download my data” – you can request a downloadable copy of your personal data and for us to transfer it to another party. If you wish for us to transfer such personal information to a third party, please ensure you detail that party in your request. Note that we can only do so where it is technically feasible;
    3. “Access my data” – you can request to access to the personal data we use about you, and information about how we use it and who we share it with;
    4. “Delete my data” – you can request that your account or specific personal data we store about you is deleted from the game. Please be aware that once an account has been deleted there is no way to recover it;
    5. “Correct my data” – you can request that information about you that is wrong or outdated is corrected. You can update your account information at any time by logging on to your account profile;
    6. “Restrict the use of my data” - you can request to restrict the use your personal data, for example to storage purposes only;
    7. “I don’t consent any more” – you can withdraw your consent if our reason for using your personal data is consent (see above). We will then stop using your personal data in this way (though this doesn’t affect the lawfulness of the processing until you withdraw).

    Additionally:

    1. If you are based in France, you also have the right to: set guidelines regarding the use of your personal data after your death (Art. 85 French Data Protection Act).
    2. If you are based in Italy, you have the right to: set guidelines to restrict those who have their own interest, or act on your behalf, in their capacity as representative or for family reasons deserving protection, to exercise after your death the above mentioned rights on your personal data (Art. 2-terdecies D.Lgs. 196/2003).

    You can also submit requests to exercise these rights by contacting us at support@grindinggear.com.

    Unfortunately we’re sometimes not able to do the things you tell us to, for example because of the particular legal basis we have been relying on to process your personal data, or because it would interfere with another person’s own privacy rights. If this happens, we’ll explain to you why we aren’t able to do what you tell us to with that piece of personal data. We may also be required to keep certain personal data to satisfy legal requirements or for security purposes, or if there are valid grounds under data protection laws for us to do so (for example, for the defence of legal claims or freedom of expression) but we will let you know if that is the case.

11. Children: None of our services are designed or intended for children. Our content is in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and will never be directed at children under 16 years of age. If you are below the age under which personal data is not permitted to be processed without parental/guardian consent in your jurisdiction, you are not permitted to access the services until such parental/guardian consent has been obtained. Please see our Terms of Use for additional information. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the ages described above for any purpose. If you believe that we have personal information of a child under these ages without parental/guardian consent, or if you are the parent or guardian of the user and wish to withdraw consent, please contact us at support@grindinggear.com.

12. Updates to this policy: We may make updates to this policy from time to time (for example because our services have changed or because of changes in laws). We will appropriately notify you of this. The date this notice was last updated can be found at the top.

13. Other locations: If you are located in any of the following locations, you can read more about the additional privacy terms which apply to you here:

    1. California
    2. Australia
    3. Brazil
    4. Canada
    5. Philippines
    6. Thailand

14. How can you ask questions or make a complaint about your privacy?: If you have any questions about what we have said in this notice or how your personal data is used, you can contact us about it. Our contact details are: support@grindinggear.com

If you are located in the EEA or the United Kingdom and have questions about your personal data or would like to request to access, update, or delete it, you may contact our representative at:

1. EU: IT Governance Europe Ltd, The Mill Enterprise Hub, Stagreenan, Drogheda, Co. Louth, A92 CD3D, Ireland, eurep@itgovernance.eu
2. UK: GRCI Law Ltd, Unit 3 Clive Court, Bartholomew's Walk, Cambridgeshire Business Park, Ely, Cambridgeshire CB7 4EA, ukrep@grcilaw.com

You can also contact the official organisation which regulates personal data in your country (the “regulator”) to lodge a complaint, if you think we are not using your personal data correctly. If you are in the UK or the EEA, you can find a list of EEA data protection regulators here: www.edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en. In the UK, the regulator is the Information Commissioner’s Office which you can contact here: ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

If you are in California:

1. California Privacy Rights: This section contains disclosures required by the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and applies only to “personal information” that is subject to the CCPA.

2. Personal Information we Collect: In the preceding 12 months, we collected the following categories of personal information about California consumers. We do not sell personal information.

3. Categories of Personal Information / Disclosed for business purposes to the following categories of third parties / Sold to following categories of third parties:

   1. Personal and online identifiers (such as first and last name, email address, or unique online identifiers) / Service providers / None
   2. Internet or other electronic network activity information (such as browsing history, search history, interactions with a website, email, application, or advertisement) / None / None
   3. Geolocation information / None / None
   4. Inferences drawn from the above information about your predicted characteristics and preferences / None / None
   5. Other information about you that is linked to the personal information above / None / None

4. Categories of Sources:We collect personal information from the following categories of sources:

   1. Consumers;
   2. Internet service providers;
   3. Data analytics providers;
   4. Advertising providers;
   5. Social networks;
   6. Service providers; and
   7. Affiliates.

5. Why We Collect, Use, and Share California Information: We use and disclose the personal information we collect for our commercial and business purposes, as further described in this Privacy Policy. These commercial and business purposes include, without limitation:

   1. Our commercial purposes, including marketing, advertising, and enabling commercial transactions.
   2. Our business purposes as identified in the CCPA, which include:
   1. Auditing related to our interactions with you;
   2. Legal compliance;
   3. Detecting and protecting against security incidents, fraud, and illegal activity;
   4. Debugging;
   5. Performing services (for us or our service provider) such as account servicing, processing orders and payments, and analytics;
   6. Internal research for technological improvement;
   7. Internal operations;
   8. Activities to maintain and improve our services; and
   9. Other one-time uses.

6. Recipients of California Personal Information: We disclose the categories of personal information designated above to the categories of third parties listed below for business purposes:

   1. Service providers;
   2. Affiliates; and
   3. Government entities.

7. Your Rights Regarding Personal Information: California residents have certain rights with respect to the personal information collected by businesses. If you are a California resident, you may exercise the following rights regarding your personal information, subject to certain exceptions and limitations:

   1. The right to know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell about you; the categories of sources from which we collected personal information about you; our purposes for collecting or selling personal information about you; the categories of personal information about you that we have either sold or disclosed for a business purpose; and the categories of third parties with which we have shared personal information.
   2. The right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you.
   3. The right to opt out of our sale(s) of your personal information. Please note that if you opt out of certain types of sales, we will be unable to provide you with the services that rely on such sales. We do not have actual knowledge that we sell the personal information of minors under 16 years of age.
   4. The right not to receive discriminatory treatment for the exercise of the privacy rights conferred by the CCPA.

We do not sell personal information.

To exercise any of the above rights, please contact us and submit the required verifying information, by emailing us at support@grindinggear.com.

8. Verification Process and Required Information:Note that we may need to request additional information from you to verify your identity or understand the scope of your request, although you will not be required to create an account with us to submit a request or have it fulfilled. We will require you to provide, at a minimum:

   1. Account Name (Including older account name if changed)
   2. Character Names
   3. Email address linked to the account/email address used to create the account.

If you are in Australia:

1. Overseas Recipients:We take reasonable steps to ensure that third party recipients of your personal information located outside Australia handle your personal information in a manner that is consistent with Australian privacy laws. However, you acknowledge that we do not control, or accept liability for, the acts and omissions of these third party recipients.

2. Access:You have the right to access personal information we hold about you, how we use it, and who we share it with. You can access the personal information you have made available as part of your account by logging into your account. If you believe we hold any other personal information about you, please contact us at support@grindinggear.com.

3. Correction:You have the right to correct any of your personal information we hold that is inaccurate. You can access the personal information we hold about you by logging into your account. If you believe we hold any other personal information about you and that information is inaccurate, please contact us at support@grindinggear.com.

4. Children:If you are under the age of 18, you undertake that you have the consent of your parent or legal guardian to register an account on and use the service.

5. Transacting Anonymously:Where practicable, we will give you the option of not identifying yourself or using a pseudonym when registering an account on or using the service. You acknowledge that if you do not provide us with your personal information, we may be unable to provide you with access to certain features or sections of the service, including in-Game purchases.

6. Your Rights:If you are dissatisfied with our response to your request for access to, or correction of, your personal information or your privacy complaint in respect of your personal information, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (Telephone: +61 1300 363 992 or email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au).

7. Data Transfers:While we take reasonable steps to ensure that third party recipients of your personal information comply with privacy laws that are similar to those of your jurisdiction, you acknowledge and agree that we cannot control the actions of third party recipients and so cannot guarantee that they will comply with those privacy laws.

If you are in Brazil:

1. Consent Revocation:Whenever we use your personal information based on your consent, you may revoke the consent that you have previously given for the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information, subject to contractual or legal limitations. To revoke such consent, you may terminate your account or you can contact us at support@grindinggear.com. This may affect our provision of the service to you.

2. Parental and Guardian Consent:If you are under the age of 18, you should not use the service for any purpose without first obtaining parental/guardian agreement to this privacy policy (both for themselves and on your behalf). We do not knowingly collect personal information from any children under the age of 18 without such consent. Please contact us at support@grindinggear.com if you believe we have any personal information from any children under the age of 18 without such parental/guardian consent – we will promptly investigate (and remove) such personal information.

3. BY ACCEPTING THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU EXPRESSLY STATE THAT YOU AUTHORIZE US TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, AND PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, INCLUDING DISCLOSING TO THIRD PARTIES AND TRANSFERRING TO COUNTRIES OTHER THAN BRAZIL, TO THE EXTENT PROVIDED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

If you are in Canada:

1. If you are located in Canada and wish to obtain written information about our policies and practices with respect to our service providers located outside Canada, you may contact us at support@grindinggear.com. Our privacy experts who monitor this email address are also able to answer any questions users may have about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by our service providers.

2. Where we use service providers who might have access to your personal information, we require them to have privacy and security standards that are comparable to ours. We use contracts and other measures with our service providers to maintain the confidentiality and security of your personal information and to prevent it from being used for any purpose other than as provided in this privacy policy.

If you are in the Phillipines:

1. No automated decision-making or profiling is carried out.

2. Minimum Age:You must be at least 18 years of age to be able to use the service.

3. Your Rights:You are entitled to the following rights:

   1. Right to object. You may in certain circumstances have the right to object to the processing of your personal information, including processing for direct marketing.
   2. Right to access. You may in certain circumstances have the right to seek reasonable access to, upon request, your personal information.
   3. Right to rectification. You may in certain circumstances have the right to dispute an inaccuracy or error in your personal information and have us correct it, unless the request is vexatious or otherwise unreasonable.
   4. Right to erasure or blocking. You may in certain circumstances have the right to suspend, withdraw or seek the blocking, removal or destruction of your personal information.

4. Consent:By consenting to this Privacy Policy, you consent to us:

   1. Collecting and processing your personal information as described in the section “What personal data about you do we use, and why?” above;
   2. Sharing your personal information with third parties, companies within our corporate group, and a third party that acquires all or substantially all of us or our business, as described in this Privacy Policy and for the purposes stated herein; and
   3. Transferring or storing your personal information in destinations outside the Philippines as described in the sections “Who do we share your personal data with?” and “Does your personal data ever go to other countries?” above.

If you are in South Korea:

If you are accessing this service in South Korea, please consult Kakao Games Corp’s Privacy Policy and contact their customer support for any queries.

If you are in Thailand:

1. By accepting this notice, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to this notice. If you do not agree with this notice, you must not use the service.

2. If you are under the age of 20, you undertake that you have obtained your parent or legal guardian’s consent to register an account on and use the service.

3. We do not undertake automated decision-making or profiling.

4. To the extent provided for by the Thai Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), you may:

   1. Withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data (only where the legal basis for our processing is consent); however, please note that where consent is required to process your personal data, we may not be able to deliver the expected service without it;
   2. Request us to provide you access to, make any correction to, discontinue, restrict the use or provision of and/or erase your personal data;
   3. Request us to provide you or a third party with your personal data which is stored by us in a machine-readable format; and/or
   4. Lodge a complaint to a relevant authority.

Where you wish to make such requests, please contact us at support@grindinggear.com