Privacy Policy

DCS World Mods is an independent, community-run website for Digital Combat Simulator (DCS World) modifications. It is operated by a private individual, not a company, and it is not affiliated with Eagle Dynamics or any of its partners.

For any question about this policy or about your data, write to lwntwm10@gmail.com.

You can browse the site, read the forum and download public mods without an account. We only collect personal data when you choose to give it to us.

Account data

• Username and email address — required to create an account.
• Password — never stored in readable form. We keep only a one-way bcrypt hash and cannot recover your password.
• Google account identifier — stored only if you sign in with Google (see Google Sign-In).
• Optional profile details you add yourself: avatar image, bio, and links to your Discord, GitHub or YouTube.
• Account role and status — member, mod developer or owner, and whether you hold a Verified Developer badge.
• Last activity timestamp — used to show an online/offline indicator to other members.

Content you publish

• Mods you upload: title, description, version, installation notes, screenshots and the mod archive itself.
• Forum threads and replies, likes, mod comments and star ratings.
• Requests you submit: username change requests and Verified Developer applications.

Content in this group is public by design — it is visible to every visitor and may be indexed by search engines.

Private communications

• Direct messages you send to other members, including when they were sent and read.
• Your block list.

Safety and moderation data

• Reports you file: what you reported, the category, and the reason you gave.
• Moderation records concerning your account — warnings, suspensions, bans and unbans — each with the stated reason, the moderator responsible and a timestamp.

Password reset codes

If you use "forgot password", we email you a six-digit code and store only a SHA-256 hash of it together with an expiry time and an attempt counter. The code becomes unusable once it expires or is used.

What we do not collect

• We never ask for payment details — the site has no paid features.
• We do not ask for your real name, phone number, postal address or any government identifier.
• We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data to anyone, for any purpose.

• To create your account and keep you signed in.
• To publish the mods, comments, ratings and forum posts you choose to post, attributed to your username.
• To deliver direct messages between members.
• To send the notifications you asked for — for example when a developer you follow publishes a new mod.
• To send essential service email only: password reset codes and account or moderation notices. We do not send marketing email.
• To enforce the community rules: review reports, apply warnings, suspensions or bans, and prevent spam and abuse.
• To understand, in aggregate, which pages are popular so the site can be improved.

We do not use your data for automated profiling, advertising targeting, or any decision that has a legal effect on you.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on these legal bases under the GDPR:

• Contract — processing needed to provide the account and features you signed up for.
• Legitimate interests — keeping the site secure, moderating abuse, and measuring aggregate usage.
• Consent — optional profile details you choose to publish, and analytics where consent is required. You may withdraw consent at any time.

Essential cookie

We set a single strictly necessary cookie, dcs_session. It holds a signed session token, is marked httpOnly and SameSite=Lax so scripts cannot read it, and expires after 7 days or when you log out. Without it you cannot stay signed in. It is not used for tracking or advertising.

Analytics

The site may use Google Analytics to count page views and understand which pages are useful. Google Analytics sets its own cookies and processes a truncated form of your IP address to estimate your country. We never send your email, username or message content to Google Analytics. You can opt out entirely with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, or by blocking analytics scripts in your browser — the site works normally either way.

We do not run advertising networks and we do not place advertising-tracking cookies on this site.

If you choose "Continue with Google", Google tells us only your email address, your basic profile information (name and profile picture) and a stable account identifier. We use them to create or match your account.

We never receive your Google password, and we request no access to your Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Calendar or any other Google service. You can revoke the connection at any time from your Google Account permissions. If you do, set a password here first so you can still sign in.

Administrators cannot freely browse members' private messages. There is no interface that lets the site owner open an arbitrary conversation.

A conversation becomes visible to the owner in exactly one case: when a participant reports a message in it. The report opens access to that single conversation, and only so that the report can be investigated and handled. This is a deliberate design rule of the site, not merely a promise.

Direct messages are stored in our database and are not end-to-end encrypted. Please do not use them to send passwords, financial details or other sensitive information.

We keep the number of third parties as small as we can. The following providers process data strictly on our behalf:

• Vercel — website hosting and delivery. Processes request metadata such as IP address and user agent in server logs.
• Neon — managed PostgreSQL database holding accounts, content, messages and moderation records.
• Cloudflare R2 — storage and delivery of uploaded images and mod archives.
• Brevo — delivery of transactional email (password reset codes and account notices).
• Google — Sign-In and, where enabled, Analytics.

Some of these providers operate servers outside your country, including in the United States. Where data leaves the EEA or the UK, the transfer relies on the provider's Standard Contractual Clauses.

We may also disclose data where we are legally required to, or where it is necessary to protect the rights and safety of our members.

• Account data — kept while your account exists.
• Public content (mods, comments, ratings, forum posts) — kept while published; deleting it removes it from the site.
• Private messages — kept until you clear the conversation or your account is deleted.
• Password reset codes — expire automatically after a short validity window.
• Moderation records — retained after account deletion where needed to keep a ban effective and prevent abuse.

You can ask us at any time to:

• Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct anything inaccurate. Most profile details you can edit yourself from your profile; a username change needs owner approval.
• Delete your account and the personal data attached to it.
• Export your data in a portable format.
• Object to or restrict a particular use of your data, or withdraw consent you previously gave.

Email lwntwm10@gmail.com from your registered address and we will respond within 30 days. If you are in the EEA or the UK you also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority.

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt and never stored in readable form. Session tokens are signed and held in an httpOnly cookie. All traffic to the site is served over HTTPS. Administrative functions are restricted to a single, manually assigned owner account — there is no button or form anywhere on the site that lets a user grant themselves administrator rights.

No system is perfectly secure. If you discover a vulnerability, please report it privately to lwntwm10@gmail.com rather than posting it publicly.

This site is not directed at children. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, or 16 where your local law sets a higher age for consent to data processing. If you believe a child has registered, contact us and we will remove the account.

We may update this policy as the site develops. The "last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version, and material changes will be announced on the site and in our Discord community.

Questions, data requests or privacy concerns: lwntwm10@gmail.com

You can also reach us through our Discord server or our WhatsApp channel, but please use email for anything involving your personal data.