Privacy policy

Effective and last updated: 25 October 2026

This policy describes the Chadtopia website and launcher diagnostic processing, maintained by the Chadtopia community.

In the current Windows and Linux launcher, diagnostic sharing starts OFF. An always-visible “Share diagnostic logs” checkbox lets you choose whether to send reports. Older installed or downloaded versions may still send automatic reports without this control until updated. Reports are not guaranteed anonymous.

Website and launcher connections

The launcher contacts chadtopia.net for updates, server status and diagnostics. It also connects to Steam for Workshop content and the game, GitHub for PZOptimization, and Cloudflare R2 for hosted content. As part of normal connections, the hosts receive information such as your IP address, request, time and user agent.

The main website uses Google Fonts and can store a theme preference locally in your browser. This privacy page uses system fonts and no external assets, third-party scripts or trackers.

What diagnostic reports contain

The current launcher displays a persistent random Support ID, stored in .chadtopia-console-id, with a Copy button. It uses this same ID for game and launcher reports; it is pseudonymous, not proof of anonymity. Older versions also used .chadtopia-launcher-log-id. When sharing is ON, reports can include tails of game console logs and launcher logs (up to 4 MiB per upload), timestamps, event or reason, log size and digest. The transmitted size may be adjusted to account for redaction changing the payload length.

Log contents can include player or Steam identifiers, local file paths, server addresses, errors, mod details and text recorded by the game or mods. That text may include chat or other personal information. The current launcher removes dedicated operating-system user, machine and player-name upload headers, and redacts the actual operating-system username, hostname and home-directory prefixes from the outgoing log body and note/reason metadata. It preserves local logs. Older versions may still send user and machine labels. Reports are not guaranteed anonymous: free text may remain identifying, and there is no assurance that all sensitive values are redacted. Do not intentionally send passwords, tokens or private material in logs or support notes.

Hardware diagnostics can include your operating system, CPU, memory, storage, uptime, performance and installation state. These details help troubleshoot reliability and performance. The current launcher no longer reads Windows Defender status; older installed or downloaded versions may still include Windows Defender real-time protection status when readable until updated.

Normal login information is stored locally through the game's own account handling. The launcher does not intentionally ask you to upload passwords, but raw logs may incidentally contain sensitive values.

When reports are sent and your choices

When diagnostic sharing is ON, automatic game reports can be sent after 5 and 10 minutes, periodically while the game is running, and on close or crash. Launcher reports can be sent after checks, subject to rate limits, and on errors. User- or admin-triggered log requests can send additional reports with a note or reason. Older launcher versions may also send a player label.

In the current launcher, “Share diagnostic logs” is always visible outside Advanced and remains accessible while operations run. It starts OFF unless you explicitly enable it. The preference is stored locally per Zomboid folder and checked again immediately before upload; missing, unreadable or malformed preferences mean OFF. Switching it OFF stops subsequent diagnostic uploads, including pending captured reports. It cannot recall a report already sent or a request already in progress. Explicit and admin-triggered requests return “disabled” when sharing is OFF.

Closing the launcher while the game runs does not necessarily stop its diagnostic watcher. The watcher checks the current preference on disk before sending later reports. Older installed or downloaded versions may lack the upload control and continue their previous automatic reporting behavior until updated.

Starting a session directly through Steam without the launcher avoids starting a new launcher watcher for that session. This does not stop an already-running watcher or ordinary server logs. Turning diagnostic sharing OFF does not stop update/status requests, game connections, ordinary IP/request logging by hosts, or provider/server logs. Contact a community admin before using automatic reports if you want to discuss this processing.

How reports are used and shared

Reports are used for troubleshooting, reliability and performance. They are stored by Chadtopia host and operator support tools and may be mirrored for support. Support alerts may go through Discord.

Selected reduced diagnostic facts, errors and hardware summaries are sent through Anthropic Claude for automated triage. The pipeline strips designated player, operating-system user, machine, client ID and player-note fields and redacts paths where supported. This does not guarantee that every identifier has been removed.

External providers process information under their own terms and privacy policies. Relevant provider policies are:

Retention

Diagnostic systems keep bounded history, with separate support copies and derived facts. We do not currently promise a fixed automatic deletion period for all diagnostic records. Support copies and summaries may be retained until removed.

Requests and contact

For access, correction or deletion requests, contact Chadtopia admins through a private message or ticket in the existing community Discord. Include the Support ID shown in the launcher and an approximate session time so admins can locate the relevant records. For older versions without a displayed Support ID, ask an admin privately what information is needed. Do not post full logs, credentials or private information in public GitLab issues.

We will review requests and explain any information we need to locate the records.

Policy updates

Changes to this policy will be reflected in the effective and last-updated date above. Publishing this policy alone does not update an installed launcher or add controls to an older version. The current downloads include these controls. Older installed versions retain their previous behavior until updated and reopened.