// Legal
We collect the minimum we need to run a multiplayer game and understand how it plays. We don't sell your information, we don't advertise to you, and we don't record your voice.
// At a glance
Audio is transmitted to the other players in your session and discarded. There's no archive to go back to.
Most of what we collect is tied to a random or platform-issued ID. Your display name comes from your platform profile — you control it.
Steam and other storefronts handle every purchase. We never see your card details.
We don't sell personal information, use it for advertising, or profile individual players.
01 //
The Besszong Group Inc. ("besszong.") is an independent video game studio based in Nova Scotia, Canada. We develop and publish video games for PC and other platforms.
Email is the best way to reach us about anything in this policy, including privacy requests: [email protected]. We read it, and a person answers it.
If you need a postal address — to serve a formal notice, or because a regulator in your country requires one — email us and we will provide it.
We are the party responsible for the personal information described in this policy — the "data controller" under the GDPR, and the "organization" under PIPEDA.
02 //
This policy covers:
It does not cover Steam, Discord, or other third-party platforms you use to reach us. Those services have their own privacy policies and we don't control them.
03 //
We collect the minimum we need to run a multiplayer game and understand how it plays. We do not sell personal information. We do not use it for advertising. We do not build profiles of individual players.
Most of what we collect is pseudonymous — tied to a random or platform-issued identifier rather than your legal name. The main exception is your display name, which comes from your platform profile and is whatever you chose it to be; Section 4.1 covers that. We don't ask for information that would identify you as a person, and we don't try to work out who you are from what we hold.
04 //
When you launch the game, we receive an identifier from the platform you launched it on:
We use these to connect you to other players, keep sessions together, and associate your saved progress with you. We do not receive your Steam or Epic password, payment details, or email address.
Your display name is shown to the other players in your session — in the player list, and anywhere the game needs to say who did what. We take it from your platform profile as it is; we don't ask you to create a separate name for our game, and we don't change the one you already have.
// Your display name is your choice
Because it comes from your Steam or Epic profile, your display name is whatever you set it to there. If it contains your real name, or anything else you'd rather other players didn't see, change it on the platform and it will change here too. It's the one piece of information in this policy that you control directly.
We collect gameplay events so we can find bugs, balance difficulty, and understand which parts of the game work. For example:
This data is linked to a random session or install identifier, not to your name. We use it in aggregate. We are not looking at what any individual player did.
Crash reports can occasionally contain fragments of memory. We do not intentionally collect anything personal through them, and we do not attempt to extract personal information from them.
Multiplayer requires knowing where to send data. Establishing a connection involves processing your IP address and network configuration. Section 6 explains exactly how this works and who sees what.
Out of Office! uses proximity voice chat. Section 5 covers this in full, because it deserves its own section.
besszong.ca collects standard server logs — IP address, browser type, pages requested, and timestamps. If you email us or join our Discord, we hold that correspondence.
05 //
Voice is the core mechanic of Out of Office!, so we want to be specific about it.
When you're in a session with voice enabled, audio from your microphone is captured and transmitted in real time to the other players in your session. It is routed through a voice provider's servers — routing through a server is what allows proximity effects, muting, and cross-platform delivery to work.
Our games are built to carry your voice to the other players in your session. Depending on the platform you're playing on and the build you're running, we may use any of the following services to do that:
Whichever service is in use, everything below applies.
// We do not record or store your voice
Audio is transmitted and discarded. There is no archive of what you said, and no one at besszong. can go back and listen to a session.
Our voice provider processes connection metadata — which participants joined which voice channel, when, and for how long — to operate and secure the service. We may receive aggregate quality metrics such as packet loss or audio dropout rates.
You can mute your microphone, adjust or disable voice entirely, and mute individual players, at any time from the in-game settings. Disabling voice does not prevent you from playing, though it will make the game considerably harder, which is rather the point.
// Others can hear you
This is obvious but worth stating: anything you say on voice chat can be heard by the other players in your session, and we cannot control whether they record it using software on their own machines. Treat voice chat as a public conversation.
06 //
Multiplayer requires knowing where to send data. We use Epic Online Services to establish and maintain connections between players. Depending on the session, traffic takes one of two paths:
Direct connections are a technical requirement of peer-to-peer multiplayer and are true of most games built this way. An IP address can reveal an approximate geographic location. If this concerns you, only play in sessions with people you know.
We do not log or retain player IP addresses ourselves beyond what is needed to establish the session.
07 //
We share data only with service providers who help us operate the game. They act on our instructions and cannot use your data for their own purposes. Which networking and voice providers are involved depends on the platform and build you're playing.
| Provider | What they process | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Epic Games, Inc. Epic Online Services |
Product User ID, display name, connection data, session metadata, voice audio in transit | Multiplayer networking, player identity, and voice chat |
| Unity Technologies Unity Gaming Services, Vivox |
Connection data, IP address, voice audio in transit, session metadata | Multiplayer networking and voice chat |
| Exit Games Photon Voice |
Connection data, voice audio in transit, session metadata | Voice chat |
| Valve Corporation Steam |
Steam ID, display name, ownership and session data | Distribution and platform authentication |
We may also disclose information where legally required, or to protect the rights and safety of players and our studio.
// The short version
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for advertising or cross-context behavioural advertising.
08 //
We are based in Canada. Our service providers operate servers internationally, including in the United States and the European Union, so your data may be processed outside your country of residence.
Where we transfer personal data out of the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on the Standard Contractual Clauses included in our providers' terms, and on the European Commission's adequacy decision for Canada.
09 //
This section applies to players in the EU, EEA, and UK.
| What | Basis |
|---|---|
| Running multiplayer sessions and voice chat | Performance of a contract |
| Gameplay analytics and crash reporting | Legitimate interests — improving the game |
| Security, anti-abuse, and fraud prevention | Legitimate interests |
| Optional features requiring consent | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. See Section 11.
10 //
11 //
Depending on where you live, you have the right to:
To make a request, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.
// One honest limitation
Because most of what we collect is pseudonymous, we may need you to provide your Steam ID or Epic PUID so we can locate your data. A display name isn't enough on its own — it can be changed, and it isn't unique. If we genuinely cannot link data to you, we may not be able to action a request — and we'll tell you plainly if that's the case rather than pretending otherwise.
12 //
Out of Office! is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, or under 16 where local law sets a higher age for consent. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
// A note for parents
Voice chat is an unmoderated, live communication feature. Parents and guardians should consider that before allowing younger players to use it.
13 //
We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit and access controls limiting who on our team can view data. No system is perfectly secure, and we won't claim otherwise. If a breach occurs that puts you at risk of significant harm, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.
14 //
We will post any changes here and update the date at the top. For material changes — particularly anything that changes how voice or gameplay data is handled — we will notify players in-game or through our Steam and Discord announcement channels before the change takes effect.
15 //
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please reach out:
// Get in touch
The Besszong Group Inc.
Nova Scotia, Canada
Email is our contact channel for privacy requests and everything else in this policy. If you need a postal address, ask and we'll provide one.