Privacy
Who we are
DZND is a creative house built in Nigeria: Studio, Labs, Objects, DZN.doc and PLAY. We decide how the personal data described here is used, and we answer for it.
Write to hello@dznd.studio about anything on this page, or use the contact page.
What we collect, and why
When you ask us about a project
The project form (/start) keeps your name, email, phone (if you give one), company, project name and the brief you write, with a hash of your connection’s address and your browser’s user agent, to stop abuse. We use it to answer you. You get a receipt by email; the studio gets a notice.
When you enter a campaign
A campaign form (such as the schools launch) keeps the organisation’s name, a contact name, email, phone, location and your note, with a hash of your connection’s address. We use it to follow up on that campaign.
When you subscribe to DZN.doc
We keep your email, where you subscribed and a hash of your connection’s address, and send you DZN.doc. Every issue has an unsubscribe link.
When you play PLAY
PLAY works without an email. Your profile is a cookie on your device that identifies a record on our server: the display name and Director you choose, your lives, your preferences (sound, the home-screen guide), the runs you play (each run’s game, score and the record of play the server checks it against), what you earn (achievements, Gold Tickets, the manna you catch in Orbital Wahala) and a hash of your connection’s address, used to stop abuse and to limit new profiles from one connection. Your display name and scores are shown on the leaderboards.
Every profile has a Gamer ID (such as #7KQ4M9TX), shown in your profile so you can quote it to us for help or a prize. It is made at random, never changes and proves nothing on its own: your cookie does that. We also note when you were last active in PLAY and which days you were (one note a day, however long you play), so we know how many people play; these counts are seen only by DZND’s administrators, and never with your email.
Gold Tickets can be sent or traded to another player. To find them you give their Gamer ID or the email of their PLAY account: we look it up on our server and show you only their display name, Gamer ID and character, never their email, and we never show yours to anyone. Each ticket keeps a history of who won it and who it went to (by display name and Gamer ID), which its current owner can see, and PLAY tells you in the game when something arrives. Gold Tickets have no money value.
If you enter the ranking or create an account, we also keep your email (to identify your entry, send you a login code, tell you if you win and, unless you turn it off, send game emails such as weekly results) and a record of each choice you make about email. Your email is never shown on PLAY.
When we write to an organisation
DZND finds organisations it may be able to help from public sources and keeps the organisation’s name, website, location and a public contact route (an email address or a contact page), with the public excerpts that made it a good fit. A person approves every message before it is sent. Every message carries an opt-out link; opting out stops all further messages to that address, domain or organisation. If you reply, we keep your reply.
What we do not do
We run no advertising or analytics trackers on this site. We do not sell or rent personal data. We keep no raw IP address from the public forms or PLAY: only a hash of it.
Emails we send
Receipts for enquiries and campaign entries, PLAY login codes and a winner’s notice are sent because you asked for them or need them. Game emails (weekly results, game updates) can be turned off in your PLAY profile or from any of them. DZN.doc and our messages to organisations each carry an unsubscribe or opt-out link.
Our emails load their typefaces from Google Fonts, so your mail app may contact Google when you open one.
Who processes it for us
Vercel hosts the site and stores its files. Neon hosts our database. Resend sends and receives our email and tells us when a message bounces or is marked as spam (we then stop writing to that address).
Anthropic provides the AI model our staff tools use to triage enquiries, draft replies and research organisations. Names, email addresses and phone numbers are removed before anything is sent to it, and no image showing an address is ever sent.
These services may store data outside Nigeria, under their own security and privacy commitments.
How long we keep it
PLAY: a run that was started but never finished is deleted after a day; a login code after a day; the record that limits new profiles from one connection 30 days after it was last used; and a profile without an email after a year without being seen. A profile with an email, and its runs and collectibles, are kept until you ask us to delete them.
Enquiries, campaign entries, subscriptions and our records of the emails we sent are kept until you ask us to delete them. Unsubscribing keeps a note that you unsubscribed, so we do not write to you again.
Your rights
Under Nigeria’s Data Protection Act 2023 (and the GDPR, where it applies to you), you can ask to see the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy, to object to how we use it, and to withdraw a consent you gave. Write to hello@dznd.studio; we answer without charge. We may ask you to confirm the request comes from you (for PLAY, from your profile’s device or its email).
If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
Security
Everything travels over HTTPS. PLAY’s cookie and login codes are kept only as hashes. Staff reach personal data through signed-in accounts with roles, and sensitive changes are recorded.
Changes
When what we do with personal data changes, this page changes with it, and its date with it.