Privacy policy

Last updated: 2026-10-14

1. Who we are

NN STUDIO, an independent game studio in Japan, makes and runs The Lords Next Door (“the game”), its online service and this website. We are responsible for your personal information under Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) and, for players in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, we are the controller under the GDPR and the UK GDPR.

Contact: support@lordsnextdoor.com. Our address and the name of our representative are given promptly to anyone who asks at this address.

Person responsible for personal information: the head of NN STUDIO, reachable at support@lordsnextdoor.com.

2. What we collect, and why

2.1 From the platform you sign in with

You sign in with your account on a gaming platform. For now that is Steam; when we add other ways to sign in, they will be listed here, and we will take the same three things from them. When you start the game, it asks the platform on your computer for a one-time sign-in ticket, and our server asks the platform to confirm it. From the platform we receive and keep:

• your user ID on that platform (on Steam, your Steam ID), so we know it is you and can find your town;
• your nickname there, updated each time you sign in, so your neighbours know who you are;
• your profile picture, so that you and your neighbours see it. After you sign in, the game makes it 64 × 64 pixels and sends it to our server, and sends it again only when it changes. The server keeps only the picture’s pixels, nothing else that was in the image file, and gives it only to you and to the players on your map.

That is all. We do not ask the platform for your friends list, e-mail address, real name, age, location, games or anything else, and we never see your password.

2.2 Your game account and your town

To run the game we keep, on our server:

• your account: an account number we give you, when it was made, when you last played (shown to your neighbours as how long you have been away, and used to tidy up the maps), which edition of the game you play (the full game or the test version), and which map and spot your town is on;
• your town: its buildings, resources, heroes, gear, gems, quests and events, your in-game messages and shop history, and your time zone offset from UTC (so that your “day” in the game starts at your midnight);
• what happens between you and your neighbours: visits, gifts, help with building, requests, heroes lent or sent to stand guard (their level, stars and gear), freed homes, the preset phrases you exchange (there is no free-text chat), and your friendship with each of them.

In-game messages are kept up to a set number per kind, the oldest making room for new ones. Things sent to you while you are away wait for you on the server and are cleared once your town has taken them in.

2.3 Purchases

Purchases in the game are paid through the store of the platform you play on (for now, the Steam Wallet). We never see your card or bank details. For each order we keep the order number, your account number, the item, its price and currency, the order’s status, the platform’s transaction number, the time and, if it failed, the reason. To open the order we send the platform your user ID, the order number, the item, its price and currency, and the language. Before that we ask the platform which currency your wallet uses; its reply can include your country, which we do not keep.

When we give gems or items to an account by hand (for example to make up for a problem), we keep a record of it: the account, nickname, amount, reason and time.

2.4 Server logs

Our server writes a log so that we can find and fix problems: when it starts and stops, sign-ins, new towns, saves it could not read, commands it turned down, towns leaving their spot on a map, and the status of orders. The log names players only by their account number. The game server itself does not record IP addresses. Like any server on the internet, our server’s operating system and security tools may record connection attempts, with IP addresses, to protect the server; we use those records only for security. Logs, these records included, are deleted after 30 days at the latest.

2.5 When you write to us

If you write to our support address, we receive your e-mail address and your message. Mail to our address is passed on by Cloudflare to our mailbox at Google (Gmail). We use your message only to answer you and to deal with what you asked.

2.6 On your own computer

The game keeps a few files on your computer that are not sent to us: your settings (language, full screen, mouse), your profile picture and your neighbours’ (a neighbour’s is deleted once they are no longer your neighbour), the game engine’s own log, and, if your town ever got out of step with our server, up to five copies of it per session for troubleshooting. You can delete these files; they are in the game’s folder for app data (on macOS, ~/Library/Application Support/Godot/app_userdata/The Lords Next Door/).

2.7 What we do not collect

No analytics or usage statistics, no advertising or tracking of any kind, no crash reports sent to us or to anyone, no device fingerprinting, no location, no contacts, no microphone or camera, and no free-text chat between players.

2.8 Why we may use it

We use the information above only for what is described in this policy: to sign you in, run the game and your town, let you play with your neighbours, deliver what you buy, keep the service safe and working, answer you, and keep the records the law asks of us. Under the GDPR, we rely on the performance of our contract with you (signing in, your town, playing with neighbours, purchases), our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and working (logs, backups, troubleshooting, answering you), and our legal obligations (records of purchases).

3. Played online

The game is played online: your town lives on our server, and it shares a valley with other towns. Sharing a little about you with your neighbours (section 4) is part of how the game works. By playing online, you agree to it.

4. What other players see

The players on your map (up to nine) receive a “name card” for you, which their game keeps in their own town:

• your account number and your nickname (passed through the platform’s text filter before it is shown);
• your profile picture, which their game gets from our server (only the players on your map can get it). Your platform user ID is not on your card: other players never receive it;
• your Town Hall’s level, and the time left if it is being upgraded;
• when you were last online (shown as how long you have been away, or “playing now”);
• your strongest heroes (up to six: who they are, their level, stars, skill level and gear) and your total power;
• the craft you chose, your scores in festival contests, and whether raiders are attacking or holding your home.

They also see what passes between you: visits, gifts, help, heroes standing guard, preset phrases and your friendship. They do not see the layout of your town, your resources, your gems or your purchases. Your card is rebuilt from the current map each time their town is saved, so it leaves their game soon after you leave the map.

5. Who else handles data for us, and where

We do not sell, rent or give your information to anyone for their own use. These companies handle it for us, or you use them directly:

• Valve Corporation (Steam, United States): signing in and payments. Your Steam account itself is governed by Valve’s own privacy policy.
• Vultr (The Constant Company, LLC, United States): runs the server our game uses, located in Tokyo, Japan, where all the server data in section 2 and its backups are stored.
• Cloudflare, Inc. (United States): our domain names, the hosting of this website, and passing on e-mail to our support address.
• Google LLC (United States): the mailbox that receives your e-mail.

Your information reaches these companies while you play and when you write to us: the game sends it over encrypted connections, and e-mail is passed on between mail services, which normally encrypt it on the way. Some of these companies are in the United States, so your information may be handled there. Information on the protection of personal information in the United States is published by Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission. For transfers from the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, we rely on the companies’ certification under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework (and its UK extension) where they have one, or on the standard contractual clauses in their terms.

6. How long we keep it

• Your account, town and profile picture: as long as your account exists. If you do not play for 30 days, your town gives up its spot on the map, but it is kept so that you can come back. If the game closes for good, we delete accounts and towns within 90 days of the closing, except what the law requires us to keep.
• Purchase records: for as long as Japanese tax and accounting law requires (up to seven years). After that they are deleted automatically. They are kept for that time even if your account is deleted, but from the moment it is deleted they are no longer linked to any account. The totals in your town (how many gems you have bought, how often you bought each item) stay as part of your game progress, because they decide things like your patron level.
• Server logs: no longer than 30 days.
• Backups: a copy of the server’s data each day, kept for 14 days; a copy before each update of the game, of which the last 10 are kept; and our hosting provider’s automatic backups, which it replaces on its own schedule. Deleted data disappears from the backups as they are replaced.
• Your e-mails: as long as we need them to answer you and to deal with what follows from your request.

7. How to delete your data

You can ask us to delete your account and your town at any time:

1. Write to support@lordsnextdoor.com with the subject “Delete my data”.
2. Tell us which platform you sign in with (for now, Steam) and your nickname or user ID there (on Steam, a link to your profile is enough), so that we can find your town.
3. We may ask you to show that the account is yours, for example by briefly changing your nickname to a word we give you.

We delete your data within 30 days and tell you by e-mail when it is done. We delete your account, your town and its previous copy, your profile picture, your spot on the map, your friendships, anything waiting to be delivered to you and the records of gems given to you by hand. From the towns of the players on your map we also remove your name card, the messages that name you and the letters you sent them that they have not opened yet. We keep only a note of which account number was deleted, and when.

A few things go a little later or stay:

• purchase records, for as long as the law requires (section 6), no longer linked to any account, and then deleted automatically;
• copies in our backups, until those backups are replaced (section 6);
• the files on your own computer (section 2.6), which you can delete yourself.

If you sign in again after your data has been deleted, the game starts a new town for you.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us, free of charge, to tell you what we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, or to stop using or sharing it. Under Japan’s APPI, this includes asking us to disclose the personal data we hold and the records of providing it to third parties, and to correct, add to, delete, stop using or stop providing it to third parties. In the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, you also have the right to receive your data in a portable form, to restrict or object to our use of it, and to complain to the data protection authority where you live. Write to support@lordsnextdoor.com; we answer without delay, and within 30 days at the latest.

9. How we protect it

Connections between the game and our server are encrypted. Only the developer can reach the server and its data, using personal keys. The server keeps the data in Japan, and we keep the daily backups described in section 6. We keep ourselves informed about the protection of personal information in the countries where the companies in section 5 handle data.

10. Children

To play, you need an account on the platform you sign in with, under that platform’s own age rules. The game sells gems and items and has a paid random draw (the tavern’s premium refresh). If you are not yet an adult where you live, get the consent of your parent or guardian before buying anything. A parent or guardian may ask us to delete a child’s data as described in section 7.

11. This website

This website is hosted by Cloudflare. When you visit it, Cloudflare handles technical information such as your IP address to deliver the pages and protect the site from attacks, under Cloudflare’s own privacy policy. We do not use any analytics on the website, it sets no cookies, and it loads nothing from other companies: no outside fonts, scripts or embedded videos.

If the site suggests another language and you close the suggestion, your browser remembers that in its own storage on your device so that it does not ask again; this is never sent to us, and clearing your browser’s site data removes it. Links to Steam take you to Steam, where Valve’s privacy policy applies.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new date. If a change is important, for example a new kind of information or a new way to sign in, we will also tell you in the game or on this website before it takes effect.

13. Contact

NN STUDIO · support@lordsnextdoor.com