Privacy Policy
What this site actually stores
Worth knowing before you read the policy, because it's less than most sites.
Cookies this site sets by itself:
| Cookie | Set when | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
ghost-members-ssr |
You sign in as a member | Keeps you signed in |
ghost-members-ssr.sig |
You sign in as a member | Verifies the session cookie hasn't been tampered with |
ghost-admin-api-session |
Staff sign in to the admin panel | Keeps writers signed in |
That's it. All three are strictly necessary session cookies. A reader who never signs in gets no cookies at all, which is why there is no cookie banner.
Browser storage this theme uses: two small things, both kept only in your own browser's localStorage and never sent to us.
- Checklist ticks. When you tick an item on a collectibles checklist in a guide, your ticks are saved so they're still there next visit. The entry is named after the page (
cp:check:/guide-url/:list) and holds only which boxes you ticked. Nothing is stored if you never tick a box. - Recently viewed games. The site remembers the last few games you opened (
cp:recent: the game's name, link and image) so it can show "Pick up where you left off". You can clear it with the button on that row.
We can't read either one, and clearing your browser's site data removes both. Ghost, the publishing platform, may also keep a ghost-history entry in your browser that records which page you arrived from, so it can tell which pages bring in newsletter signups.
Fonts: self-hosted. The theme itself loads nothing from a third party.
Scripts Ghost loads: Ghost's own front-end scripts (the subscribe and sign-in popup, search, and comment counts) are served from this site's own address by our host, not from a third-party CDN.
Analytics: Ghost's built-in analytics counts visitors without cookies, using 24-hour windows rather than persistent identifiers.
Privacy Policy
Last updated: 3 October 2026
Checkpoint Guides ("we", "us") publishes game guides, tier lists, codes, news and reviews at checkpointguides.com. This policy explains what personal data we process, why, on what legal basis, and what you can do about it.
Who is responsible for your data
The data controller is the operator of this site:
Joshua Sascha Miguel van den Toorn, a sole trader (OSVČ) registered in the Czech Republic, trading as Checkpoint Guides Company ID (IČO): 29818818 Registered address: Děčínská 552/1, 180 00 Praha 8 – Střížkov, Czech Republic Entered in the Trade Licensing Register; registering authority: Úřad městské části Praha 8 Email: kernelandshell@gmail.com
We have not appointed a data protection officer, because we are not required to. Write to the email address above about anything in this policy.
What we collect, why, and on what legal basis
If you just read the site, we collect nothing that identifies you. Our analytics counts page views and referring sites without cookies or persistent identifiers. Our host keeps server logs that may include IP addresses and browser details for security and troubleshooting. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running a secure, working website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
If you subscribe to the newsletter, we process your email address, and your name if you give one, to send it to you. Legal basis: your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time with the unsubscribe link in every email.
If you create an account, we process your email address and name to let you sign in and read member content. Legal basis: performing our agreement with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
If you comment, we store your comment, your name, and any profile details you added, and we moderate what is posted. Legal basis: performing our agreement with you, and our legitimate interest in keeping the comments free of abuse and illegal content.
If you email us, we keep the correspondence for as long as it takes to deal with it. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in answering you.
We do not sell your personal data, we do not share it with advertisers, and we do not use it for automated decision-making or profiling.
How long we keep it
- Newsletter and account data: until you unsubscribe or delete your account.
- Comments: until you delete them or your account, or we remove them.
- Server logs: for the short period our host keeps them. The host does not publish an exact figure.
- Emails to us: until the matter is closed, and no longer than 2 years.
Who else handles your data
We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf.
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Magic Pages (operated by Jannis Fedoruk-Betschki, Austria) | Hosts the site and stores member accounts | Hetzner data centres in Germany (Falkenstein and Nuremberg) |
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Content delivery, DNS and firewall for our host | EU and USA |
| Mailgun Technologies, Inc. | Delivers the newsletter and sign-in emails | EU and USA |
Where a provider processes data outside the European Economic Area, the transfer is covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.
We may also have to disclose data to public authorities where the law requires it.
Every email we send includes an unsubscribe link that works immediately, and states who sent it. Unsubscribing from the newsletter does not delete your account; you can do both from your account page or by emailing us.
Affiliate links
Some articles contain affiliate links. When you click one and buy something, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Any article containing them carries a disclosure at the top.
Clicking an affiliate link takes you to a third-party retailer, which will set its own cookies and collect its own data under its own policy. We receive aggregate reports about sales, not information about you personally.
See our Affiliate Disclosure page for how this affects what we recommend. (Short version: it doesn't.)
Cookies and browser storage
We set no cookies for readers who are not signed in. Signed-in members get session cookies that are strictly necessary to keep them signed in. Checklist ticks and recently viewed games are saved only in your own browser and are never sent to us. The details are in the table at the top of this page.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy
- correct anything that is wrong (most of it from your account page)
- erase your data; deleting your account removes your email, name and comments
- restrict processing, or object to processing based on our legitimate interests
- data portability: receive your data in a common machine-readable format
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting what was done before
To use any of these, email kernelandshell@gmail.com. We will answer within one month. We may ask you to confirm that you control the email address in question.
You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority. In the Czech Republic that is the Office for Personal Data Protection (Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů), Pplk. Sochora 27, 170 00 Praha 7, www.uoou.gov.cz. You can also complain to the authority in the EU country where you live.
Children
This site is not aimed at children. In the Czech Republic a child can consent to online services on their own from the age of 15; if you are younger, please ask a parent or guardian before signing up. If you believe a child has given us personal data without that permission, email us and we will delete it.
Security
Member sign-in uses one-time email links, so we store no passwords. Sessions are cookie-signed and payment data never touches our servers. That said, no site is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee it.
Changes
If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top. Material changes get an email to subscribers.
Contact
Joshua Sascha Miguel van den Toorn (Checkpoint Guides) Děčínská 552/1, 180 00 Praha 8 – Střížkov, Czech Republic IČO: 29818818 kernelandshell@gmail.com