Cape Town Life

Privacy Policy

Version 2026-11-01 · Effective 1 November 2026

Contents

1. Who we are
2. What we collect
3. How we use it and why
4. What other players can see
5. Who we share it with
6. Information sent outside South Africa
7. How long we keep it
8. How we protect it
9. Your rights
10. Children and teens
11. Cookies and storage on your device
12. Links to other websites
13. Changes to this policy
14. Contact us and complaints

1. Who we are

Cape Town Life (cptlife.com) is a multiplayer life-simulation game played in your web browser. It is operated by [[OWNER: legal name of the person or business operating Cape Town Life]] (“we”, “us”), of [[OWNER: physical address]], South Africa.

For the purposes of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA), we are the responsible party for your personal information. Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we are the controller.

Our Information Officer is [[OWNER: Information Officer name]], who you can reach at [[OWNER: contact email]].

2. What we collect

Your account

• Username. This is also the name other players see.
• Password. We store only a salted, one-way hash of it (scrypt). Nobody, including us, can read your password.
• The character you create: the person you pick (male or female), their look and styling, and your choices of aspiration, personality and first apartment.
• Your sign-up agreement: which version of these documents you accepted, when, and that you confirmed you are 13 or older.
• A login session: a random token kept in your browser. We store only a hash of it.

Your game

• Your progress and save: in-game wallet and its history, items and clothes, homes, furniture and properties, cars, businesses, jobs and careers, skills, needs, moods, wants, achievements and settings.
• Your social game: your friends list, the players you block, and your in-game relationships (friendship, dating and partner status) with other players and game characters.

Your messages and posts

• Private messages and message requests between you and other players, in-game money sent between players, and the short notices sent when someone waves or jokes with you. These are stored so you can read them later.
• Nearby chat is passed live to players standing near you and is not stored by us.
• Community posts, replies, likes and follows.
• Reports you make about players or posts, and reports other players make about you.

Things you submit

• Billboard campaigns: your artwork, brand name, headline and optional website link.
• App Store submissions: app name, description and website address.
• Side gigs you post or take on.

Payments

When you buy in-game rand, a billboard campaign or an App Store listing, you pay on Stripe's secure checkout page. Stripe collects your card details, email address (for your receipt) and billing details; we never see or store your card number. We send Stripe your account ID and username so we can match the payment to you. Stripe sends back, and we keep: the checkout and payment reference numbers, what you bought, the amount and currency, the payment status (paid, refunded) and the dates.

Technical information

• IP address. Our game server uses your IP address briefly, in memory, to limit repeated sign-in attempts and protect accounts. We do not save it in our game database. Our hosting providers keep standard security and access logs, which can include IP addresses, for a limited time.
• Basic connection details your browser sends to any website (such as browser type) may appear in those same hosting logs.

What we don't collect

We don't ask for your real name, email address, phone number, date of birth, ID number or address. The game doesn't use your location, contacts, camera or microphone. Photos you take with the in-game camera are pictures of the game, and they stay on your device (see section 11). We don't use analytics, advertising IDs, social-media pixels or any third-party trackers.

3. How we use it and why

We only use your information for the purposes below. POPIA and the GDPR require a lawful reason (a “lawful basis”) for each.

We don't use your information for advertising, we don't build marketing profiles, and we don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. (Our bad-language filter automatically masks a few words in chat; it doesn't decide anything about your account.)

4. What other players can see

• Your username, your character and what they're doing in the world, and your nearby chat, to players around you.
• Your community profile (username, character, follower counts) and posts, to logged-in players who haven't blocked you or been blocked by you.
• Your friends (players you've both added) can see when you're online and which part of the city you're in. Someone who has added you without you adding them back can't, and neither can anyone you've blocked or who has blocked you.
• Your private messages are visible only to you and the other player in the conversation (and to us where needed to investigate a report or as the law requires).
• Approved billboard ads and App Store listings are shown to everyone in the game, and billboard artwork can be viewed by anyone with its link.

You can block players, report players and posts, and switch off Allow friend messages in Settings to stop new private messages.

5. Who we share it with

We don't sell or rent your personal information, and we don't share it for advertising. We share it only with:

We may also disclose information when the law requires it (for example a court order or a request from the police or a regulator that we are legally bound to answer), to protect someone's safety, or to enforce our Terms. If the game is sold or transferred to a new operator, your information would go with it under this policy, and we would tell you in the game first.

6. Information sent outside South Africa

Our service providers store and process information outside South Africa, including in the United States. Under section 72 of POPIA (and, where it applies, Chapter V of the GDPR) we only do this where the transfer is needed to provide the game you asked for, and where the provider is bound by a data processing agreement and protections substantially similar to POPIA (such as Standard Contractual Clauses). You can ask us for more detail.

7. How long we keep it

What happens when you delete your account

Use Settings → Privacy & your data → Delete my account and confirm with your password. We immediately delete your login, private messages and message requests (on both sides), in-game money transfers, relationships, friends and block lists (including your place in other players' lists), community posts, likes and follows, reports by or about you, billboard campaigns, App Store submissions, side gigs, properties and businesses. Your username becomes free for someone else. A blank placeholder with a random ID and the name “Former resident” remains so the game keeps working; it contains no personal information. A few things stay: payment records without your name (see above), and other players' own records, such as a line in their in-game wallet history showing money you once sent them. Paid ads that were still waiting for review are refunded. Deletion can't be undone, and in-game rand and items are lost.

8. How we protect it

• Passwords are stored only as salted scrypt hashes; login sessions are stored only as hashes.
• All traffic between your browser and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS and secure WebSockets).
• The database is reachable only by our game server, using credentials that never reach your browser, over an encrypted connection.
• Deleted records are overwritten in our database rather than just marked as deleted.
• Card payments are handled entirely by Stripe, which is certified to PCI DSS Level 1.

No system is perfectly secure. If a security compromise affects your personal information, we will notify the Information Regulator and, where we can identify you, tell you, as section 22 of POPIA requires. Please use a password you don't use anywhere else.

9. Your rights

Under POPIA (and the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act and similar laws where they apply to you), you have the right to:

• Access your personal information, and take a copy of it in a reusable format. Use Settings → Download my data for an instant JSON file, or ask us.
• Correct information that is wrong or out of date.
• Delete your information. Use Settings → Delete my account, or ask us.
• Object to our use of your information based on legitimate interests, or ask us to restrict it.
• Withdraw consent where we rely on it, without affecting what we did before.
• Not be subject to purely automated decisions with significant effects (we don't make any).
• Complain to a privacy regulator (see section 14).

To make a request, email [[OWNER: contact email]] from any address and include your Cape Town Life username. Because we don't hold your email address, we may ask you to confirm the request from inside the game (for example by sending us a message we specify) before we act on it. We'll respond within 30 days, free of charge. We will never treat you differently for using your rights. We don't sell or “share” personal information as those terms are defined in California law.

10. Children and teens

Cape Town Life is not for children under 13. You must be 13 or older to create an account (or older if the law in your country sets a higher age for using online services without a parent's consent). Under POPIA, anyone under 18 is a child: if you are 13 to 17, you may only play with the permission of a parent or guardian, who agrees to these terms for you. Purchases with real money must be made by an adult (18+) or with a parent or guardian's permission.

If we learn that someone under 13 has an account, or that a teen is playing without permission, we will delete the account. Parents and guardians can contact us at [[OWNER: contact email]] to ask about, download or delete their child's information.

Please don't share personal details (your real name, school, address, phone number or social-media handles) with other players in chat or messages.

11. Cookies and storage on your device

We don't use cookies. The game saves a few things in your browser's local storage so it works and remembers your preferences. None of it is used for tracking or advertising, and it never leaves your device except your login token, which is sent to our server to prove it's you. Because all of it is strictly necessary for the game or remembers choices you made, we don't show a cookie banner.

You can clear all of this at any time in your browser's settings (site data for cptlife.com). You'll be logged out and your in-game photos will be removed.

The website loads no fonts, scripts or images from other companies. When you choose to pay, you are taken to Stripe's checkout page, where Stripe's own cookies and policies apply.

12. Links to other websites

Billboard ads and App Store listings can link to websites run by other people and businesses. We review them before they appear, but we don't control those websites or their privacy practices. Check their privacy policies before sharing information with them.

13. Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy when the game or the law changes. The version date at the top always shows the latest version. If we make a significant change, we'll tell you in the game before it takes effect and, where the law requires, ask you to agree again.

14. Contact us and complaints

Please contact us first so we can try to fix the problem. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa):

If you live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you can also complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office).