Privacy updates to our API and Profiles

Anders Ekman -

TL;DR

  • We’ve seen a sharp increase in privacy-related requests that appear to be automated or coordinated (usually originating from cheating communities), which has become difficult for our small team to handle at scale.
  • We will be introducing a profile hide option, so players can reduce public visibility of their Leetify profile.
  • For compliance and data-minimization reasons, our public APIs will no longer return data for non-users.
  • We may adjust our approach or even revert some of these changes as we complete a more thorough legal and operational review.

Background

Over the last several months, we’ve received a high volume of requests asking us to remove or restrict visibility of Leetify profiles. Based on consistent patterns we’re seeing (including repeated templates shared in public videos and forums), we believe the vast majority of these requests are linked to accounts seeking to avoid cheat-related scrutiny.

Regardless of the source, we take privacy requests seriously. At the same time, the volume and repetitiveness of these templatized requests has made it way more difficult to address legitimate feedback and support requests. 

Our goal with the changes below is to free up team capacity and take a cautious approach on privacy and compliance while we complete a full review—without materially reducing the usefulness of Leetify for players who rely on it.

How Leetify profiles work

Leetify analyzes match data generated by the game (for example, replay/match event information) and displays a performance summary. Profiles also display identifiers that are publicly visible on Steam (such as a Steam ID / Steam profile identifier, alias, and avatar).

Leetify is designed around gameplay performance. Leetify profiles don’t reveal real-world identity, and profiles contain only game-related information. That said, interpretations of privacy laws and expectations vary a lot based on the context. This means that pending a full legal review, we have to err on the side of letting too many people hide their profile rather than too few.

We analyze replay files and related match data that users choose to provide. Due to the nature of competitive games and the interaction between players, generating the match reports that our users ask us for requires processing match data for all participants in a match, including players who are not registered to Leetify.

Hiding your profile

We’re adding an option to hide your Leetify profile from public view.

How it will work

  • You will be able to hide a profile by signing in with Steam to confirm you control the Steam account associated with the profile.
  • Once hidden, your profile page will no longer be publicly visible on Leetify.

Important notes

  • Hiding your profile will also delete your Leetify account and disable access to Leetify features tied to that account.
  • Data from matches will still need to be processed and retained to provide accurate reports and service functionality for other users (for example, when you play in a match with a registered user). It is not possible to delete performance data such as what can be seen in our match reports, as it’s shared with other users and would render the match reports incomplete. This setting is only designed to control profile page visibility. 

Timing

  • We’re aiming to ship this within the next 1–2 months, but timelines can change as we finalize the implementation and compliance requirements.

Removal of non-user data from our Public API (effective immediately)

Separately from profile visibility, we’re making a change to our Public API. Going forward, Public API will return data only for users registered to Leetify. Note that this change only affects our Public API and not using Leetify itself.

We understand this may break some existing integrations, and we apologize for the disruption. When we launched the API, we didn’t fully anticipate how its scope could affect privacy and compliance considerations, so we’re narrowing it now. We don’t expect changes like this to be common, and we intend to keep future breaking changes rare.

We still believe there are many valuable projects that can be built using user-scoped data, and we’re excited to keep supporting developers building on top of Leetify. Keep letting us know about projects you build so we can share them with our community!

Notice: This post is provided for transparency about product changes and reflects our current approach as of the publication date. It is not legal advice and does not create any contractual rights or obligations. We may update our implementation and policies as we continue to review our privacy practices and as applicable guidance evolves. For formal privacy requests, please contact our support.