Gamechecker

Privacy policy

How Gamechecker handles personal data and what your rights are.

Last updated: July 2026

Who are we?

Gamechecker is a Dutch price comparison site for retro games (connected NL webshops and selected EU shops shipping to NL). For privacy questions contact info@gamechecker.eu.

What data do we process?

Account data (registration only)

When you create an account we store:

  • name (display name);
  • email address;
  • hashed password (never in readable form);
  • collection and wishlist data you add yourself;
  • second-hand ads in the closed beta (title, price, condition, optional city, description) plus the email other testers see to get in touch;
  • Theme (localStorage) — dark/light display preference (gamechecker_theme), needed for a good user experience;
  • language preference (Dutch/English);
  • weekly member-digest preference (on/off);
  • optional: web-push subscription (endpoint tokens) if you enable browser notifications for price/stock alerts;
  • registration, login, and last-seen IP address (for security and abuse prevention, including admin mapping of HTTP traffic to accounts);
  • creation, login, and last-seen timestamps.

Visit without account

You can use Gamechecker without an account. Wishlist data is then stored locally in your browser (localStorage). We do not sell personal data to third parties.

Technical data

As with most websites, server logs may contain standard technical data (e.g. IP address, browser type, request time) for security and troubleshooting. We do not use third-party advertising or tracking pixels. We also count first-party, anonymised visitors (a hashed IP without storing the raw address) who were recently active, to show a live visitor count and all-time peak on the status page. Presence records expire after a few minutes; only the peak count and timestamp are kept. No cookies for this; no data sent to third parties.

Purposes and legal basis

We process data only to:

  • manage your account and store your collection/wishlist;
  • log you in and facilitate password recovery;
  • send service messages you enable (price/stock alerts by email and optional browser push) and, unless you opt out, the weekly member digest;
  • secure the website and prevent abuse;
  • improve the website (e.g. remember theme and language preferences).

Legal basis: performance of contract (account) and legitimate interest (security, operation of the service). You can turn off the weekly digest anytime under Account or via the unsubscribe link in the email.

Cookies and localStorage

Gamechecker uses:

  • Essential cookies — session cookie to keep you logged in, and optionally a “remember me” cookie if you choose that at login;
  • Preferences (localStorage) — anonymous wishlist items (gamechecker_wishlist), only after consent via the cookie banner;
  • Theme (localStorage) — dark/light display preference (gamechecker_theme), needed for a good user experience;
  • Language (localStorage) — language preference (gamechecker_language), needed for the correct site language;
  • Cookie preference — your choice from the cookie banner (gamechecker_cookie_consent in localStorage and cookie_consent cookie);
  • PWA install hint — whether you dismissed the ‘add to home screen’ banner (gamechecker_pwa_install_dismissed in localStorage);
  • Analytics & ad measurement (optional) — Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads conversion measurement only if you choose ‘Accept all’ in the cookie banner; measures anonymised visits and outbound shop clicks to improve the site and ads. No remarketing personalisation;
  • Marketing / affiliate (optional) — future affiliate attribution cookies (e.g. TradeTracker CleanLinking) only after ‘Accept all’. The PageTools SuperTag for site verification loads whenever configured (see below). No Google remarketing lists;
  • No Google remarketing cookies — we do not use Google ad personalisation or remarketing lists. Measurement and marketing cookies only after your consent.

Cookie banner

On your first visit we show a cookie banner at the bottom of the page. You can choose Accept all (essential + preferences + analytics + marketing) or Essential only (session for login, theme, language and your cookie choice). If you choose essential only, we do not store an anonymous wishlist and we do not place analytics/Ads or marketing cookies.

Your choice is stored in localStorage and a first-party cookie so we remember your preference. You can change your choice later via Cookie preferences in the footer.

Affiliate and marketing cookies

Gamechecker has active affiliate partnerships via TradeTracker (Nedgame). Product links to those shops use network deeplinks (for TradeTracker: tc.tradetracker.net); CleanLinking and other PageTools tracking modules on our site stay off. The network may set cookies on their domain during the redirect for commission attribution. Extra attribution scripts on Gamechecker load only after marketing consent in the cookie banner. Prices remain an indication; you buy on the webshop. Details: Disclaimer.

Public API

If you request an API key via /developers, we only store the email address you provide and the optional label/purpose, used to email the key, manage it, and prevent abuse. No website user account data is exposed via the API — only public catalog and price data. See API terms of use for the terms of use.

Processors and third parties

We use service providers for hosting and email (password reset, price/stock alerts and the optional weekly digest). You can request a current list via info@gamechecker.eu. Active affiliate networks (currently: TradeTracker for Nedgame) are listed below and under Affiliate.

Game titles, cover images, summaries and genres are partly sourced from IGDB (part of Twitch). We store this metadata locally in our own database and do not redistribute raw IGDB datasets; this concerns public game metadata, not personal data.

For page styling we may load stylesheets via a content delivery network (CDN), such as Tailwind CSS. That party may see technical request data (e.g. IP address) under their own privacy policy. We do not use that CDN for ad tracking.

On game pages we may embed a trailer via YouTube (privacy-enhanced embed using a known video ID from IGDB) and show summaries via Wikipedia or IGDB. Loading a YouTube iframe may let YouTube process technical request data under their own privacy policy. We do not scrape YouTube; without a known video ID we only show a link to YouTube search results.

We use Google Consent Mode. Without consent, Google may receive cookieless measurement pings (storage denied). After ‘Accept all’, Google processes usage and conversion data (GA4 + Ads outbound-click conversions) as a processor under their privacy policy. We use IP anonymisation in GA4 and keep ad personalisation/remarketing off.

TradeTracker (tm.tradetracker.net / tc.tradetracker.net) serves the PageTools SuperTag for site verification and, for active campaigns, deeplink redirects for affiliate attribution (including Nedgame). Without tracking modules enabled the SuperTag does not set marketing cookies on our site; CleanLinking stays off. See also their privacy policy on tradetracker.com.

Retention

We keep account data while your account is active. You can delete your account via account settings; your personal data is then removed except where legal retention obligations apply.

  • Password reset tokens: temporary, until used or expired (limited validity in hours);
  • Server logs with technical data: as short as practical for security and troubleshooting, then rotated/deleted;
  • Session and remember cookies: until logout, session expiry, or clearing cookies in your browser;
  • Web-push subscriptions: until you delete your account, disable notifications in the browser, or the subscription becomes invalid;
  • localStorage preferences: until you clear them or change cookie preferences;
  • Anonymous presence hashes for the visitor counter: a few minutes; all-time peak count with timestamp: permanent (no IP).
  • Short HTTP security logs (path, status code, User-Agent, IP) for admin abuse/crawler detection, including local bot classification (e.g. UptimeRobot, Googlebot, User) from User-Agent/known monitor IPs and optional matching of IPs to registered accounts via last-seen/login IP: at most 48 hours, then auto-deleted; visible to site admins only;

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection. Contact info@gamechecker.eu to exercise your rights.

Security

We take appropriate technical measures such as hashed passwords and limited data access. No method is 100% secure; report suspicious activity.

Changes

We may update this privacy policy. The date at the top indicates when the text was last updated.