Your Personal Information

Simmies and friends!

My sincerest apologies for not addressing this earlier. In typical fashion, I wanted to give you all the information you could ever want & more about how I handle your personal information. I am in between my mom's house and my old/new house so have hardly been at my computer to give you a proper explanation. (Side note: I am ~officially~ back in my house... kinda. I spent 14 hours cleaning yesterday, did some unpacking, and tomorrow is carpet cleaning. I should have internet installed this weekend so I should be fully back up and running in a few days. I can't tell you how much better life is already feeling!) More on this another time, for now let's talk about your personal information.

First, there are privacy policies in place that detail how your personal data is handled. You can read Patreon's privacy policy here and you can also find my website's privacy policy here (also located in the footer of every page).

This can be a bit of legal/technical jargon and confusing to understand (when I made mine last year it took me a full week to understand all of the intricacies). This also doesn't offer protection to you in cases like information disclosed in private conversations via direct messages or through other apps like Discord. So I wanted to make it very clear how I handle your personal information.

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First and foremost, all of you get the same exact download using the same google drive link. The link I give you all early access is the same link that is posted publicly after early access. I am not concerned or have any interest in tracking down patrons that share my content to places like TS4 rebels or similar. There are far, far more of you that have the best of intentions and at the end of the day, I am able to pay my bills and stock my fridge thanks to your generous, loving support. So if there are some low-income simmers who are getting early access mods for free then that is okay with me. Also, it is already ~incredibly~ hard to manage versions and an accurate database as it is... I cannot imagine trying to manage multiple files of the same version just to try to track down someone. Outside of the moral implications, that just sounds like an absolute logistics nightmare that I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole.

The only link that ever changes is the all-in-one download which gets updated (ideally) every two-ish weeks. The only reason this link changes is because I zip all of my CC/mods within google drive which creates a new file, therefore, creating a new link. This is different than single CC/mods which I upload new versions to an existing file, therefore, maintaining the existing link. I included screenshots of my google drive folders at the end of this post showing this.

In the past, I did ask for patrons to DM me for the all-in-one download link; however, I never had bad intentions with this in any way. I like to keep all posts unlocked to every level of patron because patreon doesn't always recognize custom pledges correctly. If any of you ever want to downgrade to a $1 custom pledge due to financial restrictions (which you can do at any time - read my post here how to do it), I don't want you to miss out on something. The method of DMing for the link was a temporary solution until I got my website correctly linked to Patreon. In retrospect, I see how this can be seen as a method of collecting user data but I promise you that was never my intention. I truly apologize if this method of delivery ever made anyone feel uncomfortable.

Now that my website links directly to Patreon (using the plugin developed by Patreon), all it does is link your Patreon account with an account on my website. When you attempt to access a page locked by level (such as the all in one download), it checks your level and either displays the page with the link or an error page. All of this is done automatically without any input from me. The only time I have gone into user accounts on my site is to reset an account due to it not linking correctly.

I have monetarily invested in a website host and infrastructure that is very secure. I am very proactive in updating my plugins and maintaining my website to ensure it is not vulnerable to attacks. None of your financial information is stored on my site in any capacity - that data is stored on Patreon's servers. There is always the potential for hackers to attack my site, which is true for any website, but I promise you I have done everything in my power to prevent this scenario. 

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What I have discussed so far only partially covers the protection of personal information you have entered in Patreon's account form (or similar). I consider personal information to be *anything* that can be used to identify you including any and all conversations I have with you. It doesn't matter if it is a DM, on discord, through comments, or elsewhere - anything we discuss will be kept private. This is one of the reasons I keep my patreon posts permanently private and release CC publicly on my website instead - this lets your comments, discussions, and thoughts posted on my Patreon posts to be visible only to my other patrons and not publicly.

There have been cases where I have shared a screenshot of a comment or request during a livestream/social media post but this was always done with permission. If I didn't get permission to share a request, for example, all identifying information was removed. The other scenario that I will "share" a conversation publicly is if it was asked through Tumblr or by responding to a comment on social media.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me privately on here. As soon as I get a chance (hopefully in the next few days) I will set up a general form where you can ask questions/submit feedback anonymously as well.

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I love you all so, so much! I can't wait to be back here full-time, thank you so much for your patience and love. Life is looking up and things do get better!

💗 rava