Privacy Policy

This page explains which personal data the Northforge Minecraft server (Java and Bedrock), its website playnorthforge.com and its live map process, why, and for how long. It was written from the server’s actual configuration and code.

Last updated: 17 October 2026

1. Who is responsible

Northforge is a non-commercial hobby project run by a private individual living in Serbia. There is no company behind it, nothing is sold, and no advertising networks or data brokers are involved.

The operator is the controller (rukovalac) for the personal data described on this page. As permitted for non-commercial private websites in Serbia, no name or postal address is published; the operator can be reached by e-mail at any time:

kontakt@playnorthforge.com

Please use this address for all privacy questions and requests. See also the contact page.

2. Applicable law

Because the operator lives in Serbia, this site is subject to the Serbian Law on Personal Data Protection (Zakon o zaštiti podataka o ličnosti, “Službeni glasnik RS” no. 87/2018, “ZZPL”). For visitors located in the European Union or the European Economic Area, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also applies under its Article 3(2). Both laws are built on the same principles, and the legal bases named below exist in both (ZZPL Article 12 / GDPR Article 6(1)).

3. Hosting and server logs

All parts of this site run on a single dedicated server rented from Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany, in a data centre in Germany (EU). Hetzner provides the hardware and network only and acts as a processor; the server itself is administered by the operator. Databases, files and backups stay on this server.

Like every web server, the nginx web server writes an access log entry for each request. An entry contains your IP address, date and time, the requested address, HTTP status and size, the referring page (if your browser sends it) and the browser identification string (user agent). Errors are written to a separate error log.

• Purpose: delivering the site, keeping it secure, detecting and defending against attacks and abuse, troubleshooting.
• Legal basis: legitimate interests (ZZPL Art. 12(1)(6) / GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)) in a secure, working service.
• Retention: the logs are rotated daily and deleted automatically after 14 days. Individual entries are kept longer only if they are needed to investigate a specific security incident.

4. Visitor statistics (Umami, self-hosted)

To see which pages are used, the site uses Umami, an open-source statistics tool that runs on the same server in Germany. It is not provided by a third party, and no data is sent to Umami’s developers or anyone else. The script is loaded from this site itself (https://playnorthforge.com/_u/).

• What is recorded: the page address, the referring page, browser, operating system, device type, screen size, language and the country derived from your IP address.
• What is not stored: your IP address. Umami uses no cookies and no local storage. To count unique visitors it computes an anonymised hash that changes every day, so visits cannot be linked across days or to a person.
• Do Not Track: if your browser sends a “Do Not Track” signal, the script records nothing. Blocking the script (for example with a content blocker) has no effect on how the site works.
• Legal basis: legitimate interests (ZZPL Art. 12(1)(6) / GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)) in understanding, in anonymised form, how the site is used. Because nothing is stored on or read from your device, no consent banner is needed.

5. Website and contact form

The website shows live server information (online status, player counts, current events, leaderboard leaders and recent loot drops with player names). It sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser.

If you use the contact form on the home page, your name, e-mail address and message are stored together with the time of sending in a file on the server. No e-mail is sent and no third-party service is involved; a hidden timestamp and an empty decoy field are used only to stop spam bots. The data is used solely to answer your request (legal basis: ZZPL Art. 12(1)(6) / GDPR Art. 6(1)(f), and where your request concerns your player account, Art. 12(1)(2) / Art. 6(1)(b)). There is currently no automatic deletion; messages are deleted once they are no longer needed, or earlier on request. You can also simply e-mail kontakt@playnorthforge.com.

6. Live map (/map/)

The live map at playnorthforge.com/map/ uses BlueMap, running on the same server. Besides the world itself, it shows online players with their name, skin head and current position. Players who are vanished or invisible are hidden. The map is public, so anyone can see where you are while you are online. The map page may store your map view settings in your browser’s local storage; this stays on your device.

7. Playing on the server

Java Edition players sign in with their Microsoft/Mojang account (“online mode”). The login itself happens between your game and Microsoft/Mojang; the server receives your player name, UUID and skin from Mojang’s session service, and your IP address through the connection. Your Microsoft account is governed by Microsoft’s own privacy policy.

While you play, the following is processed:

Purpose: running the game (progression, inventories, economy, ranks), moderation and preventing cheating, griefing and attacks, and improving the server, for example finding out where new players get stuck. The gameplay analytics are not used for advertising and are not shared.

Legal basis: providing the game you join (ZZPL Art. 12(1)(2) / GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) and legitimate interests in a secure, fair and improving server (Art. 12(1)(6) / Art. 6(1)(f)).

Server logs: the console logs are currently rotated but not deleted automatically; logs from the launch in April 2026 still exist. They are only used for moderation and troubleshooting. If you want your entries removed, ask by e-mail.

The server software and some plugins send anonymous technical statistics to bStats (bstats.org): number of servers and players, software and plugin versions. According to bStats, this contains no player names, UUIDs or IP addresses.

8. Bedrock players

Bedrock Edition players (consoles, mobile, Windows) connect through Geyser and Floodgate. In addition to the data above, the server receives your Xbox gamertag, Xbox user ID (XUID) – from which your in-game UUID is derived – and connection details your client sends, such as device platform, input type and language.

To make Bedrock skins visible to Java players, Floodgate uses the GeyserMC Global API, run by the open-source GeyserMC project. If you choose to link your Bedrock and Java accounts with GeyserMC’s global linking, that link is stored by GeyserMC. Please see the GeyserMC project’s own privacy information.

9. Chat, translation and voice chat

• Text chat is visible to other players and is written to the server log (see section 7).
• Chat translation: if translation is active, chat messages are translated by LibreTranslate running on the same server; no text is sent to an external translation service. Your language setting (/lang) is stored for your UUID.
• Voice chat (Simple Voice Chat, optional client mod): your voice is relayed in real time through the server to nearby players. Voice is not recorded or stored by the server.

10. Voting sites

You can vote for Northforge on server lists such as TopG and Planet Minecraft. Those sites are independent; their own privacy policies apply to what you enter there. After a vote, the site sends the server a vote notice (via NuVotifier) with your Minecraft name, the name of the voting site and the time, and possibly the IP address the voting site saw. The server uses it to give vote rewards and keeps your vote count and streak.

11. Discord

The Northforge community uses a server on Discord, a service of Discord Inc. (USA). Joining it is optional and subject to Discord’s privacy policy. A Northforge bot can post server news and notable loot drops (with player names) to Discord. With the bot’s /link command you can connect your Discord account to your Minecraft name; the server then stores your Discord user ID together with your Minecraft name until you unlink or ask for deletion. When you use bot commands, Discord passes your Discord user ID, name and roles to the bot.

12. What is public

Your player name (and skin) is visible to other players in game, on the live map while you are online, in leaderboards and the “hall” on the website and its public status feed, in loot drop feeds on the website and Discord, and on auction listings. Choose a name that does not reveal your real identity. Your IP address, e-mail address and analytics data are never public.

13. Where data is stored and who receives it

Personal data is stored on the server in Germany. Germany is an EU member state; under Serbian law, transfers to EU countries are considered to have an adequate level of protection. Data is not sold, rented or shared for advertising. Apart from the hosting provider and the cases named on this page, data is only disclosed when required by law (for example to a court or authority with a binding order).

Third parties only receive data in the cases named above: Microsoft/Mojang (Java login and skins), the GeyserMC Global API (Bedrock skins and optional account linking), voting sites (only what you send them), Discord (if you use it) and anonymous statistics to bStats. Some of these providers are located outside Europe; their processing happens under their own responsibility and policies. There is no shop and no payment processing.

14. Retention overview

15. Your rights

Under the ZZPL and, where it applies, the GDPR, you have the right to:

• access the personal data held about you and get a copy of it;
• have incorrect data corrected;
• have your data deleted (“right to be forgotten”) or its processing restricted;
• receive data you provided in a common machine-readable format (data portability);
• object at any time to processing based on legitimate interests, for reasons arising from your particular situation;
• withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future, where processing is based on consent.

To use these rights, write to kontakt@playnorthforge.com. To protect your data, the operator may ask you to confirm that the account or data is yours. Requests are answered without undue delay and in any case within 30 days, free of charge.

Please include your Minecraft name and whether you play Java or Bedrock. Your UUID is linked to your player data in several plugins; on request, the operator deletes or anonymises this data, except where it is still needed to enforce a ban.

Right to complain

You can complain to the Serbian supervisory authority, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection (Poverenik za informacije od javnog značaja i zaštitu podataka o ličnosti), Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 15, 11000 Belgrade, www.poverenik.rs. If you live in the EU/EEA, you can also complain to the data protection authority in your country of residence. It would be appreciated if you got in touch first, so the problem can be fixed directly.

16. Children

Minecraft is popular with young players. Northforge does not ask for age, real names or e-mail addresses to play. In Serbia, a person aged 15 or over can consent to online services on their own; in EU countries the age is between 13 and 16. Young players should not share personal details in chat. Parents or guardians who want their child’s data deleted can write to kontakt@playnorthforge.com.

17. Security

All connections use HTTPS. Server access is limited to the operator, services run separately from each other, and backups are stored with restricted file permissions. The Minecraft remote console and the map backend are only reachable from the server itself, and the vote receiver port is rate-limited. No system is perfectly secure; if you notice a vulnerability, please report it by e-mail.

18. Changes to this policy

This policy is updated whenever the site changes in a way that affects personal data. The date of the current version is shown below.

Last updated: 17 October 2026