Paizo Inc. Privacy Policy

Last Updated Friday, August 30, 2024

We at Paizo are committed to protecting your personal information. This policy applies to transactions made and data gathered on paizo.com; its terms may not apply to offline contact between Paizo and consumers. If you have entered into a separate agreement with Paizo (a consignment agreement, licensing agreement, nondisclosure agreement, etc.) that agreement may include additional relevant information.

Each time you visit paizo.com or provide us with information, you are accepting the practices as described in the policy at that time. Please review this policy from time to time as we may update it periodically.


Information Collected From You

To provide you with products and services, and depending on your preferences, we have collected and may collect the following information about you:

  • personal information (i.e. name, paizo.com avatar name, account information, shipping address, phone number, email address, first and last name),
  • financial information (i.e. credit card numbers and billing addresses),
  • demographic information (i.e. zip code, age),
  • profile information (information you may voluntarily provide to us when setting up your profile, such as interests and favorite games),
  • chat or social information (information relating to you making forum posts or chatting with other users),
  • service use data (information regarding how you use and interact with our products and services, including user and product trends),
  • and device data (information regarding how you connect to our services, including your device, browser, and geolocation).

We collect, use, and disclose personal information as necessary to provide the products and services as reasonably expected by an average consumer who accesses the products and services. We retain personal information no longer than is necessary for business purposes or legal requirements. If you do not provide certain account information, or withdraw consent for us to use it, we may not be able to provide some services to you.


Children Under the Age of 16

Children under the age of 16 are required to provide consent from a holder of parental responsibility. This person may review the child's personal information, withdraw consent to use it, or have it deleted, by contacting customer.service@paizo.com. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us at customer.service@paizo.com. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from anyone under the age of 16 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.


How We Use Your Personal Information

We use information you provide to deliver the services you have requested, to contact you when necessary in connection with those service requests, to send you information regarding your order or requested services, and to prevent fraud and spam. We may also use your information to monitor and analyze trends and engagement with certain products and services, and for our own internal data analysis so we can improve our products, services, website, advertising, and outreach.

We automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This includes your IP address, your browser and operating system, and details of how you used our website.

We use cookies that may identify your browser or your paizo.com account. You can prevent this by adjusting your browser settings to disallow cookies from paizo.com. Please note that paizo.com requires cookies to function properly; disabling cookies will severely limit your ability to use this website.

If you opt in to emails about Paizo products, offers, updates, and events, Paizo may send you emails about these topics on behalf of ourselves and/or publishers of official licensed products. You can opt out of non-transactional emails at https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/account. (You cannot opt out of most transactional emails, such as order confirmations or shipment notices, though you may opt out of transactional emails notifying you about updates to your digital assets.)

If you opt into preferred advertising about Paizo products, offers, updates, and events, Paizo may share your user trends, tracking, and analytics with our service providers to customize the kinds of ads you see. More information about how we share data with our trusted business partners is found below. You can opt-out or modify your advertising preferences at https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/account.

If you add information to your user profile, it will be visible to the public. You can modify your user profile at any time.

If you use the paizo.com forums, the content you provide will be visible to the public along with your paizo.com username. Do not post sensitive personal information such as your address or credit card number on the forums. Users posting messages to the site automatically grant Paizo Inc. the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, sublicense, copy and distribute such messages throughout the world in any media.

If you use the paizo.com private messaging system, messages sent and received are visible to the sender and recipient. Messages may be reviewed by Paizo staff or disclosed to appropriate law enforcement agencies if required to do so by law, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to investigate abuse or ensure personal safety.

If you post a product review, it will be visible to the public. Users posting product reviews automatically grant Paizo Inc. the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, sublicense, copy and distribute the review throughout the world in any media.

If you create a public wishlist or list, anyone may search for and see it. (By default, wishlists and lists created on paizo.com are public, but you can make them non-public by changing your preferences at https://secure.paizo.com/paizo/account.) You can edit or delete your wishlists and lists at any time.

If you report an Organized Play session, or a GM or organizer reports it for you, it will be visible on your profile page.

Your information may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Paizo or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using this site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.


How We Share Your Personal Information

In some cases, it is necessary for us to provide information particular to you to a third party.

  • When you give us a billing address or credit card information, we provide it to a credit card processor to check your qualifications and to charge you for products and services you order from us. By making a purchase or engaging in another activity on paizo.com that uses financial information, you consent to our providing your financial information to third parties as necessary to process your transactions. If you do not provide this information, or withdraw consent to our sharing it for the above purpose, we cannot process your orders.
  • When you give us an address, we may provide it to shipping services in order to determine shipping rates and to ship your packages. If the address is within the United States, we provide it to an address verification service for standardization. If the address is within the state of Washington, we provide it to a geolocation service to determine your tax district so that we can correctly charge sales tax. If the address is outside of the United States, we may ask for a phone number; this is provided to the shipper per their requirement. If you do not provide this information, or withdraw consent to our sharing it for the above purpose, we cannot process your orders.
  • If you participate in Paizo Organized Play, information about your participation is shared with the Organized Play Foundation for the sole purpose of administering organized play activities. If you opt in to emails about Paizo Organized Play, Organized Play Foundation may email you about Paizo Organized Play programs. If you do not provide this information, or withdraw consent to our sharing it for the above purpose, your ability to participate in Paizo Organized Play programs may be limited.
  • If you use the My Partner Authorizations system to authorize any of Paizo's partners, we share the following information with that partner:
    • A list of that partner's products that you have purchased on paizo.com.
    • A list of the Paizo PDFs you have on paizo.com that correlate to that partner's products.

This information will be used by the partner solely to provide access to and pricing information for that partner's products. If you do not provide this information, or withdraw consent to our sharing it for the above purpose, our partners' ability to provide access to and beneficial pricing information for these products may be limited.

Paizo may additionally disclose your information to other parties for business purposes to assist us with collecting, analyzing, and using data in connection with our products, services, and the methods of using your data discussed in this Privacy Policy. This may include disclosures for purposes of data analytics, tracking user trends and engagement, providing customized or targeted advertising, or otherwise enhancing user experience with our website, products, services, or branding.

In the event of, or during negotiations of, an actual or proposed merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar event, your information may be disclosed to Paizo’s successors or assigns or other third parties involved in the event.

Paizo may disclose your personal information to other parties if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Paizo or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Paizo and its web sites, or (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Paizo, its web sites, or the public.

Paizo will not share your personal information with third parties without your permission, other than for the limited exceptions stated above.


Access to and Control of Your Personal Information

You have the means to ensure that your personal information is correct and current.

Visit the "My Account" area of paizo.com to:

  • View and edit personal information you have already given us.
  • Opt into or out of emails about Paizo products, official licensed products, special offers, updates, and events.
  • Opt into or out of emails about Paizo Organized Play.
  • Opt into or out of emails about updates to your digital assets.
  • Opt into or out of custom advertising.
  • Opt into or out of the paizo.com private messaging system.

You can request deletion of your personal data by contacting customer.service@paizo.com. (Some data will be anonymized rather than deleted; this means that some of the data will be held in a form that cannot be connected to you personally.) Please be aware that once we delete your data, we will be unable to “undelete” it. (Among other things, this means you will be unable to redownload any PDFs you previously purchased, as we will no longer be able to connect that purchase to you.)


Information Other Websites Collect From You

Some parts of the paizo.com service are hosted by companies that may collect usage data for the purpose of providing and improving service.

Please be aware that there are links from our site to other websites operated by other parties where our privacy policy does not apply. We encourage you to review their privacy policies, and remind you that we are not responsible for their actions.


Notice of Rights

Subjects in the European Union, UK, Switzerland, certain U.S. States, and elsewhere in the world are advised of the following rights; Paizo gladly provides the same opportunities to all users. (You may have other rights as well.)

  • You may request access to the personal data we have collected about you, including the categories of information, sources of information, which information has been used or disclosed, for what purpose it has been used or disclosed, and to which of our business partners it was disclosed.
  • You may request rectification or erasure of personal data concerning you.
  • You may request restriction of data processing concerning you, including processing by third parties.
  • You may request the personal data which you have provided us concerning you, and you may transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from us.
  • You may object at any time to our processing of personal data concerning you and you may withdraw your consent for future processing.
  • If you believe that Paizo's processing of personal data relating to you infringes applicable local law, including the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, you may lodge a complaint with the designated supervisory authority. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your consumer rights, including by:
    • Denying goods or services to you;
    • Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
    • Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to you; or
    • Suggesting that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

We do not sell your personal information as that term is generally understood. However, some of our disclosures of personal information may be considered a “sale” or “share” as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or other applicable law. A “sale” is broadly defined under the CCPA to include a disclosure for something of value, and a “share” is broadly defined under the CCPA to include a disclosure for cross-context behavioral advertising. We collect, sell, or share the following categories of personal information for commercial purposes: identifiers, characteristics, commercial or transactions information, internet activity, non-precise geolocation data, and inferences drawn. The categories of third parties to whom we sell or share your personal information include, where applicable, vendors and other parties involved in cross-context behavioral advertising.

We do not use your sensitive personal information for purposes other than permissible business purposes under the CCPA. Additionally, we do not “sell” or “share” your sensitive personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA.


Changes to This Policy

Paizo will occasionally update this privacy policy. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page. When we do so, we will revise the "last updated" date at the top of the page. We encourage you to visit this page from time to time to check for updates. For material changes to this policy, we may include additional notice on the web site, and may contact you via email. Your continued use of our website, products, and services indicates your consent to the Privacy Policy then posted.


Contact

If you have questions or concerns about this privacy policy, or about your dealings with the Paizo Inc. website, contact:

Paizo Inc.
15902 Woodinville Redmond Road N.E., Building A, Suite B
Woodinville, WA, 98072-4572
customer.service@paizo.com