Privacy & Fiction Notice

LAST UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 2026 - LOCKKEEPER GAMES

This is a work of fiction

Silence of the North Sea is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG): a fictional story that plays out against the backdrop of the real world. All characters and organisations in the story - including but not limited to Elias Doorn, Nanneke Wiersma, Thorne-Vogel and the facilities and entities connected to them - are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons or companies is coincidental and unintended.

Because the game uses real-world tools, maps and locations, you may encounter real people, businesses or organisations during your research. Never contact, visit, question or otherwise disturb real persons or companies in connection with this game - or ever. No part of any puzzle requires contacting anyone in the real world. If you think a puzzle is asking you to do that, you have taken a wrong turn: everything you need can be found online.

Trespassing, harassment or unwanted contact in connection with this game may lead to a permanent ban, which does not entitle you to a refund, and where applicable, a report to the authorities.

All game content, including but not limited to the story, characters, puzzles, documents, audio, websites and the Silence of the North Sea name, is the intellectual property of Lockkeeper Games. You may not reproduce, distribute, publish or create derivative works from any part of this game without prior written permission.

1. Who we are

This website is operated by Lockkeeper Games (the maker of Silence of the North Sea). For all privacy questions and requests, contact: hq@lockkeeper.world. Full company details (Chamber of Commerce number, VAT number, address) are listed on our Terms of Service page.

2. What data we collect, and why

Account data: your chosen handle, email address and a securely hashed password (we cannot read your password). Needed to provide your account and let you resume your investigation. Legal basis: performance of a contract.
Game progress: your level, score and chat history with the game. Needed to run the game. Legal basis: performance of a contract.
Purchase data: when you buy an access key, Paddle (our reseller, see section 3) shares the details of your order with us. These can include your name, email address, country or address, and purchase history. In our own systems we store only your email address, the order number, Paddle's customer number for you, the time of purchase, and whether you agreed to immediate delivery of your key (including which version of that wording you saw). We use this to send you your key, link it to your account, find the right order if you ask for a refund, and show that you agreed to immediate delivery. The other details stay in Paddle's systems, and we only look at them when needed to handle a question, refund or dispute about your order. Legal basis: performance of a contract, and our legitimate interest in handling orders and disputes.
Case updates: after playing, you can choose to be notified when the next case opens, at the end of a case, on our About page or on the Dreamcatcher page. If you sign up, we store your email address, where you signed up, and when and with which wording you gave permission, so we can show you agreed. Signing up is entirely separate from your account: playing never puts you on this list. You only go on it after clicking the link in our confirmation email. We send one email per new case and nothing else. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time with the unsubscribe link in every email.
Problem reports: if you use the "Report an issue" button on our public pages, we receive your message, the page you were on, and - only if you choose to provide it - your email address (so we can reply). A Telegram notification with your message and page only (no IP address or email) also alerts us instantly; the full report, including your email address if given, only goes to us by email. Legal basis: legitimate interest (responding to support requests).
Technical logs: our web server briefly logs IP addresses for security purposes (abuse and attack prevention). Logs are automatically deleted after 14 days. Legal basis: legitimate interest.

Apart from what Paddle shares with us about your order, we do not collect names, addresses, dates of birth or any other personal details. We do not use analytics or tracking services. We never sell your data, and we do not use your purchase or account data for marketing. The only promotional email we send is the case update above, and only if you ask for it.

3. Payments

Our games are sold through Paddle, which acts as our authorised reseller and merchant of record. That means Paddle, not Lockkeeper Games, is the seller when you buy an access key. Which Paddle company you buy from depends on where you live: for buyers in the EU, UK and most other countries this is Paddle.com Market Limited, based in the United Kingdom. Buyers in the United States and Canada buy from Paddle's local companies.

Paddle handles your payment, VAT, fraud checks, receipts and refunds. For that, Paddle and Lockkeeper Games each act as an independent controller of your personal data: Paddle decides for itself what it needs for the sale, and does not act on our behalf. How Paddle handles your data is described in Paddle's privacy policy.

We never see or store your card or payment details. What Paddle shares with us, and what we do with it, is described in section 2.

4. Who processes your data

Postmark: delivery of access keys, account confirmations, password reset emails, case updates if you signed up for them, and problem-report replies sent from hq@lockkeeper.world (EU privacy commitments)
Telegram: if you use the "Report an issue" button, your message and the page you were on (nothing else) are forwarded to us via a private Telegram notification, so we can respond quickly
Oracle Cloud: runs the server this website lives on, hosted in the Amsterdam (Netherlands) region, within the EU/EEA (services privacy policy)
Strato: our domain registrar and DNS provider, and forwards email sent to hq@lockkeeper.world to us (privacy policy)

Paddle is not listed here, because it does not process your data on our behalf. It is an independent controller, see section 3.

Postmark is a US-based company and may process data on servers outside the EU/EEA. It commits to Standard Contractual Clauses and other GDPR-required safeguards for this; see Postmark's EU privacy commitments for its own, up-to-date description of these safeguards. Telegram's data processing location is not fully transparent to us; we minimise what we send it (see above) to limit this exposure.

5. How long we keep your data

Accounts: kept while you are active. Accounts that have not logged in for 12 months are deleted automatically, including all game data. This check runs weekly.
Unused access keys: if a key is bought but never activated, the purchase data linked to it (see section 2) is deleted 24 months after purchase. The key itself remains valid, so a key given as a gift still works.
Used access keys: our records of a used key, including the purchase data linked to it, are deleted 12 months after use.
Order records at Paddle: Paddle keeps its own records of your purchase, for example for tax purposes, under its own retention policy.
Password reset links: valid for 1 hour, and deleted from our systems within a day after they expire.
Case updates: sign-ups that are never confirmed are deleted after 7 days. When you unsubscribe, your address is removed from our list straight away; Postmark keeps it on a do-not-send list so you are never emailed by mistake. If we haven't emailed you for 24 months, we'll ask once whether you want to stay on the list, and remove you if you don't reply.
Server logs: deleted after 14 days.
Problem reports: we do not store these ourselves. They are forwarded to Telegram and Postmark as described above and retained there under those services' own retention policies.

6. Cookies

We use a single functional session cookie to keep you logged in. No tracking, advertising or analytics cookies are used by us. All fonts and other resources are served from our own server, so on almost every page your visit is not shared with third parties.

The one exception is the page where you can buy an access key (the Case page). To show the checkout, that page loads Paddle's checkout script from Paddle's servers. When you visit it, Paddle therefore receives technical data such as your IP address and browser details. When you open the checkout, Paddle may also set its own cookies, and asks for your consent first where the law requires it. Paddle handles this as an independent controller, as described in Paddle's privacy policy.

7. Your rights

Under the GDPR (AVG) you have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, and to restrict or object to our processing of it. Email hq@lockkeeper.world from the address linked to your account and we will respond within 30 days. Deleting your account erases your handle, email and all game progress permanently. For the data Paddle holds about your purchase, you can also exercise these rights with Paddle directly, as described in its privacy policy.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

8. Refunds and right of withdrawal

How refunds and the right of withdrawal work for our games, and how to request a refund, is explained in our Refund Policy.

9. Use of AI in building this site

Parts of this website's code were built with the help of an AI coding assistant (Claude Code), reviewed and published by Lockkeeper Games. The game itself does not use AI: puzzle content, character dialogue and answer-checking are all pre-written and rule-based, not generated or evaluated by AI at runtime, and no AI is involved in our own processing of the personal data described in this policy.