Who is responsible

PC Master Studio (www.pcmasterstudio.com) is run by Brian Sanchez, who decides how the data described here is used. For anything about your data, write to briansanchezaguilar@gmail.com.

Visit statistics

The site keeps its own statistics to know which pages and tools are used. Each time you open a page or use certain features (for example, choosing a country in the electricity calculator, following a shop link or sharing a page), the site's server records:

  • the type of event and the page it happened on;
  • your IP address, and the country and region estimated from it;
  • the date and time;
  • only if you accept statistics cookies in the consent banner: a random identifier stored in your browser, used to tell a returning visit from a new one. It contains nothing about you.

If you decline statistics in the banner, these events are not sent at all. The records are used only for aggregate statistics about the site, are not sold or shared for advertising, and are kept only for as long as they are useful for that purpose. You can ask for the records linked to your IP address to be deleted at any time.

Google Analytics is loaded only if you accept statistics in the consent banner; before that, nothing is requested from Google Analytics. Once you accept, it sets its own cookies (_ga and _ga_*) to count visits and the pages and tools used, and sends Google your IP address, browser and device details and the pages you open. Google describes its handling in How Google uses information from sites that use its services. If you later decline from "Cookie settings" in the footer, it is switched off and its cookies are deleted.

What is stored in your browser

The site uses your browser's local storage to remember things between visits; the only cookies it sets are Google Analytics' own, and only if you accept statistics. None of this is sent to the server except where stated above:

  • your language and theme preferences, and your choice in the consent banner;
  • builds you save in the simulator or configurator, the build in progress and the challenges you have completed;
  • which guide chapters you have marked as read;
  • the time of your last visit, used only to tell you how many articles are new since then;
  • the statistics identifier described above, if you accepted it.

You can delete all of it by clearing the site data in your browser settings. The site can also be installed as an app, in which case its pages are kept in a local cache so they open without a connection.

Service providers

Running the site involves a few providers that receive your IP address and technical request data as part of delivering it to you:

  • The website and its data server (the hardware catalogue, articles and the statistics described above) run on a virtual private server rented from Contabo, which therefore handles every request to the site. Its server software keeps short-lived technical logs.
  • Cloudflare provides the domain's DNS only: it tells your browser where the site is, but page requests do not pass through it and it sets no cookies on this site.
  • The electricity cost calculator asks ipapi.co for your approximate country so it can preselect a price. Your browser sends that request, so ipapi.co receives your IP address. Nothing else on the site uses it.
  • The "can it run" pages show game artwork loaded from Steam's image servers, which therefore receive your IP address when those images load.
  • Share buttons only contact a social network when you press one; nothing is loaded from those networks before that.
  • The Mellowtel support widget gives visitors an optional, consent-first way to support the site by sharing unused internet bandwidth. It is loaded from Mellowtel's CDN (cdn.mellow.tel), which receives technical connection data. Mellowtel does not track personal browsing history, cookies, or user profiles. More details are available in Mellowtel's Privacy Policy.

Amazon affiliate links

PC Master Studio is a participant in the Amazon Associates programme. When you follow a link to Amazon, Amazon may set cookies on its own site to attribute a purchase to this site. The site receives only aggregated reports of clicks and sales, never who bought what. Amazon's handling of your data is described in Amazon's privacy notice.

Advertising

Every page except the embeddable widgets loads the Google AdSense script, so Google receives your IP address and browser details when a page opens. The site shows no ads from any other network. When Google ads are shown, the following applies:

  • Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites.
  • Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
  • You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info.
  • How Google uses the information it collects is explained at How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
  • Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked for consent through a certified consent tool before any personalised ads are shown, and can change that choice at any time.

If you write to the site

If you send an email, your address and your message are kept in order to answer it and, for corrections, to keep a record of what was changed. They are not added to any mailing list.

Legal bases

Where data-protection law such as the GDPR applies, the data above is processed on these bases: legitimate interest in running, securing and measuring the site (server records, providers, cookieless statistics); your consent for the statistics identifier and for personalised advertising, which you can withdraw at any time; and legitimate interest in answering messages you send.

Your rights and choices

  • You can ask for access to the data held about you, and for it to be corrected or deleted, or its use restricted, by writing to briansanchezaguilar@gmail.com. For statistics records, include your IP address so they can be found.
  • You can object to processing based on legitimate interest, and withdraw consent at any time using the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page.
  • If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you can also complain to your local data-protection authority.

Children

The site is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent personal data, write to the address above and it will be deleted.

Changes to this policy

When the site starts collecting something new, or stops, this page is updated and the date at the top changes. Significant changes are also reflected in the consent banner.