An examination of RuneScape's Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy and Data Protection Policy.

1. RuneScape
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy
Data Protection Policy
A Selective Examination
by Mark Jeffery

2. What Is RuneScape?
Runescape is a MMPORPG ‑ a massively multi-player online role playing game.
It's something like World of Warcraft, somewhat lighter in tone and, it always
seemed to me, aimed at a younger audience.
As with just about any online interaction, users must agree to certain conditions.
In this case, the procedure is: By clicking 'Join Now' I agree to the Terms and Conditions
and Privacy Policy.
I know that I didn't bother to read the relevant conditions and policy when I signed
up to RuneScape, and I doubt that very many others have. What follows is an
examination of what we all agreed to.

3. Part 1:
Terms and Conditions

4. T&C: Definitions
❖ Jagex Product(s)" is used ...
❖ References to "Stopping" an account This is pretty much the sort of stuff you
include ... would expect to find in these things:
standard legalese about what some of
the words that follow are taken to mean.
❖ "User Content" means all information
of any kind (including text, images,
video, information and messages) uploaded
or sent by users on or in connection with
Jagex Products.

5. T&C: Applicability
A
gain, pretty standard stuff here.
Please read these terms and conditions
carefully. Your accepting them in full is a
B
asically, playing the game denotes
condition of your use of a Jagex Product your acceptance of the terms and
(whether or not you subscribe). If you don't conditions, whether you've actually
agree with any part, please don't accept them bothered to read them or not.
or use the Jagex Product.
If you have any questions about these terms
It might seem a tad draconian, bit is no
and conditions, please contact us via email at doubt necessary to preclude the "but I
and do not use the site until you are satisfied didn't read that" defence.
with and can accept these terms and conditions
in full. Tough as it might sound, it's pretty basic
and obvious.

6. T&C: Changes
We may change these terms and conditions to
reflect: changes in applicable laws; regulatory
or security requirements; relevant guidance or This one's worth quoting almost in full.
codes of practice; technical alterations to Jagex
Jagex may change the rules whenever
Products; and to improve clarity and they like, for pretty much any reason
consistency. Please check the terms and they like. Whether you read the rule
conditions whenever you use a Jagex changes or not, you are still bound by
Product. If you are not a subscriber, we will them.
treat your continued use of a Jagex
Product as acceptance of these changes
from their effective date as shown above. If Once again, while it might seem over
you are a subscriber, we will treat you as the top, it's obviously necessary to
bound by the changes on the first renewal protect Jagex and allow them to take
date for your subscription after the action against rule‑ breakers.
effective date ...

7. T&C: Age Restrictions
❖ Jagex Products are not targeted to users
under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 I found this bit interesting, as I was
years of age, ... you will not be inroduced to RuneScape by my youngest
permitted to create an account for any son, who was definitely pre‑ teen at the
of these products.... time, and I always perceived the game as
being aimed at a younger market than
❖ If you are under 18, by using our website many MMORPGs.
you are representing ... that you have
consent from your parents / guardian ... Given this, the explicit banning of
under‑ 13s is surprising, at the very
❖ If we are told by a parent / guardian that least.
their child has lied about their age when
registering for Jagex Products, we will I
t appears from the full wording to be a
Stop the account provided we have relatively recent addition.
information which satisfies us that the
reporting person is indeed the parent or
guardian.

8. T&C: User Content
A bit of an easy way out here for Jagex:
• You will comply with and be bound by our you will obey their rules, but they won't
policies relating to User Content, take the trouble to make sure that you
including our content standards policy ... do.
b
ut: It basically allows them to act upon
complaints about user‑ uploaded
nasties, without having to spend the
• We are under no obligation to (and do not) time and effort (both of which are
monitor User Content. equivalent to "money") to ensure
compliance with their rules.

9. T&C: Intellectual Property (1)
By posting chat or other materials on any
Jagex Product, you grant us a
non‑ exclusive, perpetual, royalty free, A
nd, buried deep in the text, we come to
worldwide licence to use and/or modify the nasty stuff ...
such materials on any Jagex Product as we
see fit. You waive any moral rights to the
extent allowed by law.

10. T&C: Intellectual Property (2)
R
ead it again. And again. It doesn't
You agree that by submitting any material of matter how often you re‑ read it, the
any kind to us for any purpose connected with meaning won't change.
any Jagex Product (non‑exhaustive examples
are suggestions and ideas for any game or
contributions to any Gallery page), you are E
very single little thing you upload
giving us a non‑ exclusive, perpetual, during the game, words included,
worldwide, royalty-free licence to use becomes the property of Jagex, for them
and/or modify the submitted materials as we see to use however, whenever and wherever
fit. You agree to waive any moral rights to the they want.
extent permitted by law and that you will not
withdraw the submission or attempt to make a U
sers certainly aren't aware, and
charge for its use. Furthermore you guarantee anecdotal evidence seems to indicate
that you are the exclusive copyright holder in that they don't care, but they are signing
relation to the submission and that the away their rights simply by playing the
submission in no way breaches the rights of game.
any other person or entity.

11. T&C: Functioning
We will use reasonable endeavours to maintain
operation of Jagex Products and rectify faults
as quickly as possible. We may have to suspend E
ssentially, it's a basic legal bit of CYA:
operation of a Jagex Product without notice for if anything goes wrong with the service,
repair, maintenance, improvement or other they accept no liability.
technical reason. If so, we will do our best to
ensure that the suspension is as short as
possible. We cannot accept responsibility for Of course, it's nice to see that they will
such suspensions or for any interruption or do their best to fix any such problem.
error caused by circumstances outside our
reasonable control.

12. Part 2:
Privacy Policy

13. Privacy Policy (1)
❖ We are committed to protecting your
privacy and take special measures to ensure
the confidentiality of personally T
he first paragraph is pretty much the
identifiable information collected from or
meaningless wittering you'd expect to
about you. find early on in just about any privacy
policy, repeated so often, and in so
❖ Please read this policy carefully. Your many places, that it's become
accepting it in full is a condition of your meaningless. It's the online version of
use of our websites (whether or not you are "Your call is important to us."
a subscriber). If you do not agree with this
policy, or any part, please do not use our T
he second is a repeat of the business
websites. Your using any of our websites is we saw earlier about the rules applying
treated as an acceptance of the version of whether you read them or not.
this policy in effect at the time of your use.

14. Privacy Policy (2)
We collect and store information which you
voluntarily provide via forms or otherwise on
our websites, electronic or other T
ranslation: You don't have to let us
communications with us. You may opt‑out of collect personal information about you.
providing any such information by simply You only have to if you want to actually
choosing not to complete the form requesting play the game.
the information, and hence choosing not to use
that particular service.

15. Privacy Policy (3)
O
nce again, the nasty stuff is buried
deep in the text. This is basically the
RuneScape business model: attract
users, sell targeted advertising. The
advertising will be targeted based on the
personal information they extract from
The information we collect may be used: you.
• vi. For our own internal marketing and
demographic studies and to help us The main ‑ the important ‑ thing they do
improve our websites or to show you with your personal information is sell
adverts on our site which are relevant to it.
your demographic profile.
On a personal note, I play RuneScape ‑
a browser-based game - with Adblock
running, so I don't see any ads. That
doesn't mean, though, that they aren't
selling information about me.

16. Part 3:
Data Collection Policy

17. Data Protection Policy
If, for data protection purposes, you are This policy might seem reasonable, but
concerned that the above personal information closer examination reveals that is is not
maintained by Jagex is not correct, or should so straighforward as it might first seem.
you wish to have your personal information
removed from our records, please follow the
T
he request must be sent to a postal
steps below:
address in England, along with a copy of
your driving licence or passport, and the
1. Request in writing & contact details small matter of ten quid.
2. Proof of identity T
he procedure could have been made
quite a bit simpler while retaining its
security, so I can only conclude that it's
3. Request fee designed to make things difficult.

18. Summary
In summary, RuneScape's conditions represent a fairly typical mix of the
mundane, the interesting, and the ugly.
• Mundane: Definitions of terms; the basic requirements that by playing the
game a user agrees to the condition, and that Jagex may change theconditions
whenever it likes.
• Interesting: The ban on under‑ 13s and the requirement for under-18s to seek
parental approval. I don't know why these conditions exist, and could only ill-
informed speculation as to the reason for their inclusion.
• Ugly: The use of personal information to sell targeted advertising; the
wholesale appropriation of absolute, global rights to everything that users
upload.

19. References
RuneScape ‑ Data Protection Policy. (2012). Retrieved October 18, 2012, from
http://www.jagex.com/g=runescape/privacy/dataprotect.ws
RuneScape ‑ Privacy Policy. (2012). Retrieved October 18, 2012, from
http://www.jagex.com/g=runescape/privacy/privacy.ws
RuneScape ‑ Terms & Conditions. (2012). Retrieved October 18, 2012, from
http://www.jagex.com/g=runescape/terms/terms.ws