Privacy: Is the data transferred to the Ranking Engine 'personal data'?

NB:This information relates to the SiSoftware's Official Ranker and NOT any other ranker. Please contact the respective ranker(s) for information on their policies.

Please note that in ALL documentation we ask users NOT to provide us with any personal information as we do not need it nor want it. While the software does try to extract as much hardware and software information as it can, it does not look for any personal information.

Based on the UK's Data Protection Act, 'personal data' can be used to specifically identify a particular individual.

The data uploaded to the ranking engine includes:

• User name*, password hash
• Team name, team password hash
• Computer/Mainboard model**
• Locale*** (language, country)
• Device model (CPU, chipset, memory, disk, etc.)**** (if not market as private), OS name/version, score.

The above data cannot specifically identify a particular individual, thus, to our belief, it is not 'personal data'.

* As the user name is typed by the user, is not necessarily the user's real name (i.e. pseudonym, nickname, etc.) thus not reliable enough to specifically identify an individual. Even if it were, by itself it would not be enough as many people share a name.

Our ranker does not request additional data like e-mail address, etc., though other rankers you can select might do so. If the user does provide one, it is anonymised.

** Computer/Mainboard model is the same for all computers/mainboards within the range and thus not specific enough to identify a computer and thus an individual.

*** While the locale does restrict the pool of users that share other characteristics to a specific country, it is still too broad to specifically indentify an individual

In addition, many systems are set to US/English locale even though located in other countries.

**** Device model cannot be used to uniquely identify a computer, as a specific computer model has a finite number of options/configurations. Even when custom built, the hardware choices are still limited and may not be unique in the World. (i.e. can only use compatible CPU/memory/GPU for a specific board - thus similar configurations)

Even if all the above data were real and provided to the ranker, you would need physical access to their computer to uniquely identify an individual.

Lastly, if you are still concerned about privacy even after reading the above:

• Use this feature anonymously (i.e. do not enter a user name to create an account*)
• Do not use this feature**, i.e. disable it or do not enable it.

* You will lose many features (e.g. results upload/download, certification, etc) but you will be anonymous.

** You will naturally lose all the functionality of this feature.