Privacy Policy

At BoardGameLink, we are committed to protecting the privacy of everyone who uses our services. In this privacy policy, we explain how we handle personal data and protect your privacy.

1. Contact Information

BoardGameLink (trade name of Benki Games) is the data controller.

• Website: www.boardgamelink.com
• Address: Kanaalkade 57, 1811 LS, Alkmaar, The Netherlands
• Email: info@boardgamelink.nl

2. Processing of Personal Data

We process personal data only to the extent necessary to provide, manage, secure, and improve the Platform; to fulfill the agreement with the user; to comply with legal obligations; or for other legitimate purposes as described in this Privacy Policy.

We process the following personal data:

• email address;
• first name, middle initial, and last name;
• company name;
• account, profile, and company information provided by the user;
• subscription, billing, and payment information (payments are processed through external payment service providers);
• communication data, including messages related to Opportunities, Business Inquiries, and other communications via the Platform;
• technical and usage data, such as IP address, browser type, device, log files, and similar technical data;
• verification data, including information provided or used to verify the authenticity of an Account, company, or professional role, such as company information, website information, and optional verification links. For verification purposes, we may also use relevant information from publicly available sources, such as company websites or professional profiles;

• document access activity, including information about protected documents viewed or downloaded through the Platform, the type of activity, the date and time of the activity, and the Account and/or company associated with that activity;

• information relating to publicly visible Platform activity, such as comments, Event attendance, attendance type, and other information that a User chooses to make visible through public Platform features;

• newsletter and marketing communication preferences, including the email address used to subscribe and information necessary to manage the subscription.

• support and feedback data, including information provided through support requests, contact forms, or feedback features;
• records relating to the acceptance or acknowledgement of legal documents and notifications of material changes to those documents, including the applicable version and relevant date and time;
• other personal data that the user voluntarily provides or that is necessary for the Platform to function.

2.1. Document Access Activity

Certain documents made available through the Platform may have restricted or managed access. When a User views or downloads such a document, BoardGameLink may record the access activity, including the document accessed, whether it was viewed or downloaded, the date and time of the activity, and the Account and/or company associated with that activity.

This information may be made available to the User or company that owns or manages the relevant document. This allows document owners to understand who has accessed their materials and helps protect confidential, proprietary, or commercially sensitive content, including game concepts and other materials shared through the Platform.

Before a User views or downloads a document for which access activity is recorded and shared with the document owner, the User is informed that their activity will be visible to the document owner.

We process this information on the basis of the legitimate interests of BoardGameLink and the relevant document owner in protecting shared materials, providing transparency regarding access, preventing misuse, and maintaining an appropriate access history for documents made available through the Platform.

2.2. Question of the Week

BoardGameLink may invite Users and visitors to participate in the Question of the Week on topics related to the board game industry.

Responses are stored without information that identifies the individual respondent or links the response to a specific Account or company. BoardGameLink may use general respondent-type or industry-role information to produce aggregated insights, but such information is not stored or presented in a way that links a role or respondent type to a specific response.

For visitors who are not signed in, the industry role may be provided by the respondent themselves.

To prevent duplicate participation, BoardGameLink may temporarily record that an Account or visitor has participated in a particular Question of the Week. This information is kept separate from the response and is removed when it is no longer necessary for duplicate-participation prevention.

We may use general information about respondent types or industry roles to produce aggregated insights, but this information is not stored or presented in a way that links a role to a specific response.

This information is used to calculate, analyse, and present anonymous or aggregated results and industry insights. Question of the Week responses are not used to identify individual respondents.

2.3. Public Activity and Event Attendance

BoardGameLink is a professional network. When a company profile is created, certain basic profile information, including the company name, country and, where provided, company logo, is publicly visible on the Platform. Additional profile information that you choose to provide in public profile fields may also be publicly displayed. The Platform indicates where information you provide will be public.

If you choose to indicate that you will attend an event listed on the Platform, BoardGameLink may display this information on your profile and on the relevant Event Page, together with your company or professional profile and your selected attendance type, such as visitor or exhibitor.

Event attendance is optional. Before publishing this information, the Platform informs you that it will be publicly visible through the relevant Platform features. You can remove your attendance status through the Platform, after which it will no longer be displayed through those features. Where Event attendance is made publicly visible based on your choice, this processing is based on your consent. You may withdraw that consent at any time by removing your attendance status.

Where a User claims or manages an Event Page on behalf of an event organizer, the relationship between the relevant profile or company and the Event Page may also be publicly displayed.

2.4. Newsletter and Marketing Communications

If you subscribe to our newsletter or other marketing communications, we use your email address and relevant communication preferences to send you BoardGameLink news, industry updates, Platform information, and other communications you have subscribed to.

This processing is based on your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link included in our emails or by another method made available by BoardGameLink.

2.5. Legal Bases for Processing

Depending on the purpose of the processing, BoardGameLink relies on one or more of the following legal bases:

Performance of a contract: where processing is necessary to create and manage your Account and company or professional profile, provide the features of the Platform that you choose to use, manage subscriptions and payments, enable interactions between Users, and send service- or Account-related communications.

Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary to verify Users, companies, and professional roles, maintain the reliability and security of the Platform, prevent fraud or misuse, protect shared materials and maintain appropriate access records, provide support, handle disputes, or protect the rights and interests of BoardGameLink and its Users, provided that these interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

Legal obligations: where processing is necessary to comply with applicable laws, including accounting, tax, regulatory, or other statutory obligations.

Consent: where you have given permission for a specific purpose, such as subscribing to marketing communications, using optional analytics or external media, or making Event attendance publicly visible. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.

3. Minors

BoardGameLink is intended for professional users in the board game industry and is not intended for individuals under the age of 16. If we process personal data of an individual under the age of 16, we do so exclusively with the consent of a parent or legal guardian. By creating an Account or providing personal data to BoardGameLink, you represent that you are at least 16 years old or, if you are under 16, that you have obtained consent from a parent or legal guardian. If we determine that a person in our database is under 16 and consent for the processing has not been provided by a person with parental authority, we will delete the personal data.

If you have any reason to believe that we are processing personal data of a person under the age of 16 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian, please contact us at info@boardgamelink.nl so that we can delete the relevant data.

4. Retention Period for Personal Data

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected and processed. The applicable retention period depends on the nature of the data, the purpose of the processing, applicable legal requirements, and whether the information is necessary for security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal rights.

When an Account or company profile is permanently deleted, Account and profile information that is no longer necessary is deleted or anonymized. Certain information may remain where this is necessary for one of the purposes described below or where it forms part of communications or published content involving other Users.

Signup, company-claim and verification records are generally retained for up to twelve (12) months after the relevant request has been approved, rejected, withdrawn, or otherwise finally completed.

Email delivery records containing recipient-level personal data are generally retained for up to ninety (90) days after final delivery processing.

Support and feedback records are generally retained for up to twenty-four (24) months after the relevant case or conversation is closed.

Page-view measurement data are temporary browser identifiers used solely to prevent duplicate counting are retained for up to forty-eight (48) hours. After that period, BoardGameLink retains only non-identifying view statistics.

Business Inquiries and other inbox conversations are generally retained for up to twenty-four (24) months after the last activity in the conversation. Because such communications involve other Users, they may remain available to the other participants after the sender’s Account or company profile has been deleted until the applicable retention period expires.

Document access records are generally retained for up to twenty-four (24) months from the date of the relevant viewing or download activity, including where the underlying document, game, Account, or company is subsequently removed from the Platform. Limited identity information, such as the name and company associated with the access, may remain during this period where necessary to preserve the integrity of the access history.

Historical event-organiser or partnership information may be retained for up to five (5) years after the relevant event where necessary to preserve an appropriate historical record. Where the underlying Account or company has been deleted, such information is retained as limited historical information and is no longer linked to an active profile. Event attendance information linked to an Account or company is removed when the attendance status is withdrawn or where the relevant Account or company is permanently deleted, unless continued retention is otherwise required by law.

Published contributions, such as comments or recommendations, may remain available after an Account or company profile is deleted where they continue to form part of a public discussion, recommendation, or other published content. In such cases, unnecessary links to the deleted Account or company are removed. Recommendations relating to active companies may remain for as long as they continue to be intentionally published.

Opportunity outcome feedback that may contain identifying information or free-text comments is generally retained for up to twenty-four (24) months. After that period, identifying information and free-text feedback are removed, while non-identifying outcome statistics may be retained.

Records showing which version of the Terms of Use was accepted and which version of the Privacy Policy was acknowledged, as well as records demonstrating notification of material changes, may be retained for the duration of the Account and for up to five (5) years after the Account is terminated or deleted, where necessary to demonstrate the terms applicable to the relationship or to establish, exercise, or defend legal rights.

Financial and administrative records are retained for the periods required by applicable accounting and tax laws. Where the Dutch statutory fiscal retention period applies, relevant records are generally retained for seven (7) years.

Newsletter subscription information is retained until you unsubscribe or the subscription is otherwise terminated.

Authentication and security information is retained only for as long as necessary for the relevant security or authentication purpose. Expired authentication tokens are removed in accordance with our retention procedures.

Where reasonably necessary in connection with suspected misuse, a dispute, a legal claim, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal rights, relevant records that would otherwise reach the end of their normal retention period may be retained for longer for the duration of that specific matter.

Personal data may also remain temporarily in system backups until those backups are overwritten or deleted in accordance with our backup and recovery procedures.

5. Security of Personal Data

We take appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against loss, unauthorized access, unauthorized alteration, disclosure, or other forms of unlawful processing.

• The connection to the website (www.boardgamelink.com) is established via a secure SSL/TLS connection.
• Systems and devices used to process personal data are maintained with appropriate security measures and security updates.
• Access to personal data is restricted to persons who need access for their duties and who are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
• Where an external party processes personal data on our behalf, we enter into appropriate data processing arrangements where required by applicable law.
• Accounts are secured with a personal password. Passwords are stored in an unreadable format and are processed using appropriate security measures.

If you suspect that your personal data is not properly secured or that there has been a breach, please contact us as soon as possible at info@boardgamelink.nl.

6. Sharing Personal Data with Third Parties

We do not sell personal data to third parties. We disclose personal data to third parties only to the extent necessary for the performance of the agreement with you, the operation of the Platform, compliance with a legal obligation, or when we are otherwise legally authorized to do so. We enter into a data processing agreement with parties that process personal data on our behalf, to the extent required by law. The parties with whom we have entered into a data processing agreement include, but are not limited to, IT and hosting service providers, payment service providers (such as Stripe), and providers of communication and email services.

When a User accesses a protected document for which access activity is recorded, certain information may be made available to the User or company that owns or manages that document. This may include the identity of the Account and/or company accessing the document, the type of access, such as viewing or downloading, and the date and time of the activity.

Information that you make public through your profile, games, Opportunities, Event Pages, comments, Event attendance, or other publicly visible features of the Platform may be visible to other Users and, depending on the relevant Platform feature, also to visitors without an Account.

Content or communications that you have shared with other Users may, where appropriate, remain available to those Users or remain published after your Account or company profile is deleted, subject to the retention periods and safeguards described in Section 4.

When you choose to use a publicly visible feature, information associated with your Account or company profile may be displayed alongside that activity. Where relevant, BoardGameLink informs you before information that is not already public is displayed through such a feature.

Where personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area, we rely on an applicable adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, where required. You may contact us for further information about the safeguards applicable to such transfers.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

BoardGameLink uses strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies to operate and secure the Platform, provide functions requested by users, and remember users’ cookie choices. These technologies are necessary for the Platform to function and do not require consent.

With your prior consent, BoardGameLink uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how the website and Platform are used and may load external media from providers such as YouTube and Vimeo. Optional technologies are disabled by default. The legal basis for the use of these optional technologies is your consent.

You can accept, reject, or change your preferences at any time through “Cookie settings” in the website footer. Withdrawing your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

Detailed information about the cookies and similar technologies used by BoardGameLink, including their names, purposes, providers, categories, and retention periods, is available in our Cookie Policy at www.boardgamelink.com/cookies.

8. Rights of Individuals Whose Personal Data We Process

You have the right to access, correct, supplement, or have your personal data deleted. In addition, to the extent provided by law, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data, to restrict such processing, to withdraw your consent (if the processing is based on consent), and the right to data portability. Upon your request, we will provide your personal data in a commonly used digital format to you or to an organization designated by you, to the extent permitted by law. You may send a request to access, correct, delete, restrict the processing of, or transfer your personal data, withdraw your consent, or object to the processing of your personal data to info@boardgamelink.nl.

To verify that a request has actually been made by the person in question, we may ask you to verify your identity or your Account, for example, via the email address we have on file or by another appropriate means. In doing so, we will only request the information necessary to verify your identity.

We will generally respond to your request within one month.

9. Other

9.1. Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions based solely on the automated processing of personal data that have legal consequences for data subjects or otherwise significantly affect them.

9.2. Complaints to the Dutch Data Protection Authority

If you believe that we are not processing your personal data correctly and we are unable to reach a resolution together, you have the right to file a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority. For more information, please visit: autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl.

9.3. Changes

BoardGameLink may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. In the event of significant changes, we will notify you via the Platform, by email, or by other appropriate means. The most current version of this Privacy Policy is always available on our website.

9.4. Contact Regarding Privacy

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the processing of personal data, please contact us at info@boardgamelink.nl.