Privacy

This website

waterlauncher.app counts its visits with Google Analytics: the pages you open, the links you press (Download, the shop, Discord), how far down a page you get, and the rough location and device Google works out from the visit. Nothing is used for advertising.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics stores no cookies on your device and counts the visit without them. The site is served by Cloudflare, which sees each request as any web host does.

The Water app

Water sends Google Analytics what happens in it, so its team can see what breaks and what people use:

• Water starting, the pages you open in it and what you search for.
• A download or install starting, finishing or failing, and why it failed.
• A game starting, how long it was played, and an uninstall. An event about a game carries the game’s name, its console and where its download came from.
• A license activated, and a press of Water’s links to its shop and Discord.

Each one also carries Water’s version, whether a license is active, and the PC’s Windows version, processor, graphics card, memory, screen, language and country setting. Water knows the PC by a code it makes from Windows’ own ID for the PC, one-way, so the code can’t be turned back into the ID or matched to your license.

Water’s analytics can’t be turned off. Only Water’s released versions send them.

Your license

When you activate a license, Water sends Water’s license server your key and an ID for your PC, made one-way from Windows’ own ID for it. The server keeps a fingerprint of the key, never the key itself, the PC it’s on and when the license started and ends. Water checks with it at launch and every few hours, so the license keeps working on that PC.

Licenses are sold in Water’s shop, which runs on SellAuth. SellAuth takes the payment and the email address your key is sent to; Water’s team sees the order and that address.

Downloads, art and achievements

Water downloads games over BitTorrent. While a game downloads, your PC connects to the people sharing it, as every BitTorrent client does: they see your IP address, and Water shares the parts you already have with them.

Covers, screenshots and trailers load from IGDB’s and Steam’s image servers, and achievement lists from Steam, which see your IP address as any website does. No Steam account is involved.

What stays on your PC

Your settings, profiles, play time, favorites, saves and games stay on your PC, in Water’s folders and your games folder. Water also keeps a sealed note of your free install, in the registry and in your AppData folder, so the free install can’t be taken twice.

Help happens on Water’s Discord server, where Discord’s own privacy policy applies. The Report button in Water copies a report to your clipboard: you decide what to post.

Questions

Ask Water’s team on Discord about anything here, or to see or remove what the license server keeps about your license.