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mcserverscout
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Privacy policy

We collect as little as we can. There are no user accounts, and we never store your IP address in our database.

Last updated: 19 October 2026

Who is responsible for your data

This policy covers the website at https://mcserverscout.com. The site is operated by the MCServerScout team, which is the controller of the personal data described below. You can reach us at [email protected] with any privacy question or request.

MCServerScout has no user accounts. You can browse servers, vote, write reviews and add servers without giving us your name or email address.

What we collect and why

Votes

When you vote, we store the server, the time of the vote, the Minecraft nickname you entered (unless you vote anonymously) and a keyed hash of your IP address. The nickname is public: it appears in the vote API so the server can reward you. The hash lets us enforce one vote per day per connection.

Reviews

When you write a review, we store the signature, rating and text you entered, the time, and a keyed hash of your IP address. The signature, rating and text are published on the server page. The hash lets us limit reviews to one per server and five per day per connection. It is never published.

How the IP hash works

We don't save your IP address in our database. Instead we store an HMAC-SHA256 hash of it, made with a secret key. Without that key the hash can't be turned back into an address. For IPv6 we hash the /64 network prefix, because a single household usually gets a whole prefix. Your IP address is also kept for a few minutes in temporary memory for rate limiting, then discarded automatically.

Added servers

When you add a server, we store the address you entered. Everything else on a server page (status, version, MOTD, icon, player count) comes from public status pings that any Minecraft client can make. We don't record who added a server.

Emails

If you write to us, we keep your message and email address for as long as needed to answer and follow up on it.

Server logs

Like any website, our web server keeps technical logs (requested address, time, browser, IP address, errors) to keep the service secure and working. Logs are kept for a short time and are not used to identify visitors.

Under the GDPR we process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)): running a fair ranking, preventing spam and vote manipulation, and keeping the site secure. Personalised advertising cookies are used only on the basis of your consent (Article 6(1)(a)).

Services we use

Google reCAPTCHA

Forms for adding servers, voting and reviews are protected by Google reCAPTCHA v3, which analyses how you interact with the page to tell people from bots. It may set cookies and sends data to Google. Google's privacy policy and terms apply.

Google AdSense

The site shows ads from Google AdSense (Google Ireland Limited). Google and its partners may use cookies and similar identifiers to show ads, personalise them based on your interests and measure their performance.

Visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland see a consent message from a Google-certified consent management platform on their first visit. Personalised ads are shown only if you agree; otherwise you may still see non-personalised ads, which use cookies only for frequency capping, reporting and fraud prevention. You can learn how Google uses data at policies.google.com/technologies/ads and change your preferences in Google's ad settings.

Content moderation and descriptions

New reviews are checked automatically for spam, abuse and personal data, which may involve sending the review text (never your IP or its hash) to an AI service provider. Server descriptions and game modes are generated the same way from public server data.

Hosting

The site runs on servers rented from a hosting provider that processes data only on our behalf. Some of the providers above may process data outside the European Economic Area under the safeguards required by the GDPR, such as standard contractual clauses.

We don't use Google Analytics or any other analytics tool, and we never sell personal data.

Cookies

  • Essential: a session cookie and an XSRF-TOKEN cookie that protect forms against forgery and let us show a message after you submit one. They're required for the forms to work securely, so they don't need consent.
  • reCAPTCHA: set by Google to protect forms against bots.
  • Advertising: set by Google AdSense, within the consent you gave.

You can delete or block cookies at any time in your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies will stop the forms from working.

How long we keep data

  • Votes and their IP hashes: as long as the server is listed, because they make up its vote history.
  • Reviews: as long as they're published, or until you ask us to remove them.
  • Servers: until they are removed by us, at the owner's request, or automatically after 30 days offline.
  • Emails: as long as needed to handle your request.

Your rights

You have the right to access your data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing. Because we don't store IP addresses or emails alongside votes and reviews, we may ask you for details that let us find your entry, such as the server, nickname or signature, and the date.

To use any of these rights, or to ask us to remove a server, a review or a vote, write to [email protected]. We reply within 30 days. If you think we've handled your data unlawfully, you can also complain to the data protection authority in the country where you live.

Children

The site is open to players of all ages, but it doesn't ask for or knowingly collect information that identifies a child. If you believe a review contains a child's personal data, tell us and we'll remove it.

Changes to this policy

When we change how we handle data, we'll update this page and the date at the top.