Roblox Wiki:Privacy policy
ROBLOX PRIVACY POLICY
About ROBLOX
ROBLOX is an online virtual world and building game for kids. ROBLOX works like this:
- a user creates a virtual character, that is his or her identity in the ROBLOX world
- users interact with other users through in-game chat, personal messaging (site contained), and user forums; privacy settings allow users or parents to restrict communications with other users
- each user is given one or more pieces of virtual real estate on which they can build houses, cars, machines, or anything else you can build with building blocks; these places are called “games”
- users search for, find, and play games made by other users; they play these games with other users from around the world, and are identified only by their virtual character name
- users earn tickets and/or ROBUX, our virtual currency; users earn these in a variety of ways, and use them to buy items for their characters, including virtual hats, shirts, and pants; users can also sell these items, earning tickets and/or ROBUX
- users can purchase premium services, including: Builder’s Club, a monthly subscription that grants the user more virtual places and a daily allowance, among other things; and, ROBUX currency, allowing users to buy virtual currency that can in turn be used to buy virtual goods
Requested Information
ROBLOX users may play as guests; in this mode, users remain anonymous and interact with the website and game in Super Safe Mode – no free chat, no personal messaging to or from users, no posting to the forums, and other restrictions designed to prevent users from sharing personal information, intentional or otherwise. As guests, users are unable to save play statistics, accumulate points, share models, or participate in our virtual economy.
Users wishing to save statistics, share models, and participate in the economy are required to enter a username and password. We advise users to create a username that does not reflect their own name nor reveal personally identifiable information. We also advise users to pick a password that is not easy to guess, and to not share that password. For security reasons, we store passwords in encrypted form.
Registered users who are under 13 initially play in Super Safe Mode. To opt-in to free (but filtered) text communications, users are required to provide and verify a parent’s email address. The verification email we send informs parents of their child’s registration with ROBLOX and provides access to a parental control panel (parent’s may also create parental controls at any time). Under-13 users who do not enter a parent’s email address or who fail to verify one remain in Super Safe Mode. Registered users who are 13 or older can opt-in to Super Safe Mode, but begin with it turned off.
Regardless of security and privacy settings, all text on the site is filtered proactively to remove references to addresses, emails, phone numbers, age, and other personally identifiable information. All text is also filtered for profanity, phishing, and adult or suggestive content.
Users wishing to purchase Builder’s Club or ROBUX are required to enter billing information, including name, billing address, credit card or PayPal number, and billing email. For children under 13, we request the parent’s billing information. Billing information is retained to support customer service inquiries, but we do not retain the full credit card number.
Collected Information
ROBLOX uses a software technology called “cookies.” Cookies are small text files that we place in visitors’ computer browsers to store their preferences. These cookies do not store personally identifiable information. For account security purposes, we may store a cookie that contains the encrypted user password; the original password cannot be recovered by hackers. Users who disable cookies in their browsers will not be able to logon to the ROBLOX website or play the ROBLOX game.
We also use cookies and “clear gifs” (on-page tracking code) to track user entry onto and movement within the ROBLOX website. This helps us credit advertisers appropriately, and measure the health and effectiveness of our website. For example, we use tracking to determine if new page designs are user friendly or too complicated. Our tracking approach is industry standard, and includes non-personally identifiable information such as IP address, browser type, and date/time.
Additionally, when visitors come to our site, we automatically collect some non-personally identifiable “computer” information, such as the type of computer operating system (e.g., Windows 95 or Mac OS), the web browser (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer) being used, IP address, and information regarding the Internet service provider. This information is used to provide technical and community support.
Finally, we collect performance data from within ROBLOX Studio or the ROBLOX Player. We use this data retrospectively to improve the user experience of our games. This information includes in-game networking activity, CPU load, and resource usage, among other relevant data.
Information Sharing
We pass user billing information on to PayPal, our transaction processing partner. This is done for all payment types, including credit card and PayPal payments. For recurring monthly transactions, PayPal retains the credit card authorization on file, but we do not. All transactions are processed by PayPal.
We share aggregate web activity data, such as page views and unique visitor counts, with our advertising partners. No personally identifiable information is shared.
We will disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request.
We will not use or transfer personally identifiable information in ways that are materially different from the ones described above without also providing parental notification of such practices and obtaining consent for any materially different uses.
Options for Parents
Parents can set up a parental control panel to manage the privacy settings of their children. If a child enters a parent’s email address during signup, the parent receives an email notification of the account creation and an invitation to establish a control panel for that account. Parents can also create a control panel at any time and attach it to a child’s existing account.
A parent receiving a verification email has three options. First, the parent can choose not to respond; in this case, the child remains in Super Safe Mode. Second, the parent can choose to click the link in the email and do nothing more; in this case, the child is opted-in to free (but filtered) text communications, including free-text chat and personal messaging (site limited), forum posts, and site commentary. Third, the parent can choose to click the link in the email and then create a parental control account; in this case, the parent can set fine-grained security and privacy options.
Parents can close a child’s account by contacting ROBLOX customer service (see below). This hides the account from all other ROBLOX users and outside parties. The account data is not deleted, but retained internally for three purposes. Billing information and transaction histories are retained to resolve subsequent billing disputes and inquiries. Public domain content is retained for use by the community – e.g. a virtual shirt sold by the child to another user is kept in the system because the recipient now “owns” a copy of that article. Finally, user account history is retained to support subsequent customer service inquiries. All retained data for a closed account is private and visible only to employees.
Privacy Policy Changes
We post changes to our privacy policy on the ROBLOX website at www.roblox.com/info/Privacy.aspx, and we notify users through various website communication channels. Where available, we also notify users through email; this requires that the user has verified his/her email address (for children 13 or older) or a parent’s email address (for children under 13) prior to the policy change.
Contact Information
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding our privacy policy and/or practices, please contact us at the following e-mail address, telephone number, or address: ROBLOX Privacy Manager
(888) 858-BLOX
[email protected]
P. O. Box 2734, Redwood City, CA 94064
Glossary of Terms
Privacy
Super Safe Mode – users in this mode cannot free-chat, send or receive personal messages to or from other users, post to forums, or edit any free-text field
Communications
Personal Messaging – user-to-user and ROBLOX-to-user messaging inside the ROBLOX website
In-Game Chat – user-to-user messaging inside the ROBLOX game client
Forums – user and staff collaborative help and interest forums
Wiki – user and staff collaborative help and tutorial pages
Moderation
Text Filtering – all user-generated text is pre-filtered for inappropriate content
Text Filtering Black List – list of inappropriate keywords and word patterns
Image Moderation – all images are pre-filtered by human moderators
Abuse Reports – all users and content can be reported for abuse or inappropriateness
