Privacy Policy

Last updated: 1 October 2026

Who we are

Rust Server Manager is the seller of RSM Web and the controller for the personal data we collect about users of this site and the customer portal — we decide what is collected and why. “Rust Server Manager” is our registered legal name and also the name the product trades under; there is no separate trading name.

Our principal place of business is Pretoria North, Gauteng, South Africa.

For any privacy question, or to exercise the rights set out below, email support@rustservermanager.com.

What we store

• Your email address and a bcrypt hash of your password — never the password itself.
• Session metadata when you sign in: IP address, browser user-agent string, and last-active time, so you can see and revoke your own active sessions.
• Machine metadata for each RSM Web installation connected to your account: a machine label you (or RSM Web) provide, its IP address when the machine was registered, and when it was last seen — used only to enforce the three-machine limit and let you manage your own machines.
• If you ask us to verify a pre-existing purchase, we look up matching PayPal transactions for the email you provide and keep a record of that search (who searched, what was found) for our own audit trail.
• If you connect a Discord account from your account page: its Discord user ID, username and display name, and whether it currently holds the Customer role on our Discord server. We use Discord's sign-in once to add you to the server and then discard the access it gave us — we never store it, and it never let us read your private messages or act as you on Discord.
• If you post on our Discord server, whether or not you have an account with us: the messages you post in its channels, with your Discord user ID, username and display name, the channel, the time, and the names and sizes of any files you attach — not the files themselves. If you edit or delete a message we keep the earlier text and the time it was changed or removed. Our moderation bot records this so we can deal with spam, scams, raids and compromised accounts. It cannot see direct messages or anything outside our server.
• If you join our Discord server while an unusual number of accounts are joining at once: your Discord user ID, username and display name, when your Discord account was created, whether it has an avatar, and when you joined, left or were removed. Our moderation bot records this so we can tell a raid from ordinary members.

Anonymous reports from RSM Web

RSM Web, the program that runs on your own machine, can send us anonymous usage figures and error reports, so we can see which versions and features are in use and what is breaking. It asks first — in the setup wizard on a new install, or the first time an administrator opens it after the update that added this — and sends nothing until that choice has been saved. The switch is on when the question is shown and can be turned off there, or at any time afterwards under Settings → Privacy in RSM Web. The same screen shows an example of exactly what that install would send.

• Usage figures, once a day: the RSM Web version; the operating system, its release and the processor type; how many processor cores and how much memory the machine has; whether a Rust server is installed and running, which modding framework it uses and how many plugins it has; how many RSM Web users, automations and API keys exist; and whether the Discord bot, a Steam API key, a RustMaps API key, starting with the system and starting the Rust server automatically are in use. These are counts and on/off switches. They hold nothing about your players, chat or server settings.
• Error reports, when something breaks: the RSM Web version and operating system, where in RSM Web the error happened, the error message and its stack trace. RSM Web removes file paths, web addresses, IP addresses, Steam IDs, email addresses and anything long enough to be a key or token before the report is sent.

Each report goes out under a random ID that RSM Web makes up for this purpose alone. It is not your licence or your account, and we store nothing next to a report that would lead back to you: no account, no licence, no IP address and no country. Switching the reports off makes RSM Web forget the ID, and switching them back on creates a new one. Because a report cannot be traced to a person, we cannot look yours up, correct it or delete it on request; switching the reports off stops them, and what was already sent ages out as described below.

Like every request to our servers, a report arrives from an IP address. Our web server and Cloudflare record the address and time of each request in their ordinary access logs, as they do for the rest of this site. Those logs do not record what a report contains or the ID it was sent under.

Why we're allowed to hold it

Each thing above is held on one of these grounds:

• To perform our contract with you — your email address and password hash, your licenses, and the machine metadata that enforces the three-machine limit. Without these we cannot give you an account or a working license.
• Our legitimate interests — session metadata and the purchase-verification audit trail, which exist to keep accounts secure, let you revoke your own sessions, and let us resolve disputes about who owns a license; the log of messages posted on our Discord server and the record of who joined during a raid, which exist to keep that server safe from spam, scams and abuse; and the anonymous reports from RSM Web, which exist to show us what is in use and what is breaking. Those reports are sent only once an administrator of the install has saved that choice, and can be switched off at any time.
• Your consent — marketing email, if you ever opt in, and a linked Discord account, if you connect one. You can withdraw either at any time — disconnecting Discord deletes the link between that account and your portal account. Messages already posted on our server stay in the moderation log until they age out.
• A legal obligation — where we're required to keep or disclose something by law.

Email

We send account-related email only: verification, password resets, and license-related notices. No marketing email unless you separately opt in somewhere that says so.

Who else sees it

We don't sell your data and we don't share it beyond what running the service requires. The categories of recipient are:

• Paddle, our reseller and the merchant of record for purchases made through this site. Paddle handles the sale, payment, tax compliance and invoicing, and processes refunds and chargebacks. Paddle collects your payment details directly and is an independent controller of that data — we never see or store your card details. See Paddle's privacy notice.
• PayPal, for purchases made before we moved to Paddle, and when you explicitly ask us to verify one.
• Discord, only if you connect a Discord account: to add you to our server, we tell Discord which of its accounts is a customer by giving it the Customer role. Discord is an independent controller of your Discord account. See Discord's privacy policy.
• Service providers who host and operate the service on our behalf — our hosting and email providers, and Cloudflare, which sits in front of this site and the portal to route traffic and block abuse.
• Professional advisers (legal, accounting), and authorities, where required by law or to protect rights and safety.

We don't run third-party advertising trackers on this site or the account portal.

How long we keep it

Account data — your email address, password hash, licenses and machines — is kept for as long as your account exists. Delete your account and it goes with it, except where we're required to keep a record for longer (for example, transaction records Paddle and we must retain for tax purposes). Session metadata is kept only while the session is active and for a short period afterwards so you can review recent sign-ins. The purchase-verification audit trail is kept while it remains relevant to proving who owns a license. Messages posted on our Discord server, and the record of who joined during a raid, are kept for 60 days and then deleted; if you have connected your Discord account, deleting your portal account deletes them straight away. Usage figures from RSM Web keep no history: each day's report replaces the one before it. An install's figures, and each recorded error, are deleted once 90 days pass without hearing from that install or seeing that error again.

Keeping it safe

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data: passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes and never in plain text, traffic to this site and the portal is encrypted in transit with TLS, and access to production systems is restricted to the people who need it.

Cookies and local storage

Strictly necessary only. There are no analytics or advertising cookies on this site or the portal, so there is nothing to opt in or out of. The anonymous reports described above come from the RSM Web program, not from your browser, and use no cookies.

• Your sign-in token is held in your browser's local storage (or session storage, if you didn't tick “remember me”) rather than in a cookie. It stays on your device and is sent only to our API.
• One small cookie, rsm_session_hint, is set across rustservermanager.com. It contains nothing but the fact that someone is signed in — no identifier, no email, no role — and exists only so this site's header can show a “Customer Portal” link instead of “Sign in”. It is never used to authenticate anything.
• Cloudflare sets its own cookies for the anti-abuse check on the sign-in and registration forms, and for basic security and traffic routing.

Signing out, or clearing site data in your browser, removes all of these.

Your data, your account

You can ask us to:

• Access — get a copy of what we hold about you.
• Correct — fix anything inaccurate.
• Delete — erase your data. Deleting your account also revokes any license tied to it.
• Restrict or object — limit how we use it, or object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Port — receive your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent — where we relied on your consent, withdraw it at any time.

Email support@rustservermanager.com and we'll respond within one month. If you think we've handled your data badly, you're entitled to complain to your local data protection authority.

Changes

We may update this policy; material changes will be reflected here with an updated date.