Privacy Policy
Last updated: [20]/[02]/2024
Thank you for using our products and services! We respect your concerns about privacy and appreciate your trust and confidence in us.
This privacy policy(“Policy”) explains when, how and why when it comes to the processing of your personal information and sets out your choices and rights in connection with the game services, which has been operated by FLOW TECHNOLOGY HK LIMITED ("we", "us", and "our"). Please read it carefully – it is important for you to understand how we collect and use your information, and how you can control it.
If you do not agree to the processing of your personal information in the way this Policy describes, please do not provide your information when requested and stop using the Game. By using the Game, you are accepting our rules regarding your personal information as described in this Policy.
Unless otherwise specified in the Policy, the Policy does not apply to products and/or services independently provided to you by any third party accessed through our products and/or services, for example, content of external links featured in our products and/or services. Please note that if you provide your personal data toa third party while using a third party's products and/or services, your data is subject to the third party's privacy policy or similar policies. We are not liable for any third party's improper use or disclosure of the data you provide to any third party.
This Policy will help you understand the following:
I. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Data
II. Cookies and Similar Technologies
III. Sharing Your Personal Data with Third Parties
IV. How We Protect Your Personal Data
V. How We Retain Your Personal Data
VI. Push Notifications
VII. Policies Regarding Children
VIII. Other Related Matters Needing Attention
IX. Your Rights to Your Personal Data
X. International Transfers of Your Personal Data
XI. Revisions to the Policy
XII. Contact Us
Please carefully read the following content regarding the protection of privacy.
I. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Data
1. Information You Provide Us With (either directly or through a third party).
Once you have registered and/or use the Game, we will collect data on your actions in the game, including but not limited to all personal data and data related to identifying you that you provide upon registering your account (hereinafter referred to as "personal data").
(1) Account registration information (direct via email)：When you set up an account to register for the Game via email，We will collect your email address、password for the purposes of account login, password recovery and promotion of related events; We only receive this information if you voluntarily provide it.
(2) Account registration information (via social media accounts): When you choose to log into the Game with your social media account (Apple, Google, Facebook), We will collect Google/Apple/Facebook authorization data to provide our third-party account login services in accordance with your request. Specifically:
Ÿ Google: We will collect your authorization ID, nickname, profile picture(if any);
Ÿ Apple: We will collect your authorization ID;
Ÿ Facebook: We will collect your authorization ID, nickname, profile picture(if any);
(3) We will collect your username for the purpose of user identification and collect your nickname for the purpose of profile display in accordance with your request.
(4) We will collect your transaction records (including order number, UID, purchase method, transaction amount, currency, product ID, purchase quantity, order creation time, purchase time, transaction completion time, username, role ID, role name, game server ID, game server name, SDK version number, application store version number, client IP, device Id, IDFA, device model, network operator,, network type, system version number, root or jailbreak, resolution, platform, language) to record our users in-game payment information to avoid missing orders, etc. We do not receive and/or process any of your actual payment details such as card number or security code.
(5) We will collect your chat data (solely in the form of text) in order to deliver your messages to other users and ensure a harmonious and healthy online environment in the Game, we collect the above information to avoid some words that may offend or distress others (which breaches the Terms of Service, (e.g. pornographic content) .It is in our legitimate interest to ensure the security of our services and a harmonious online environment within our services.
(6) We will collect your chat data from sessions of customer service to get a clearer picture of your customer service experience. We will use this information to help you solve issues in accordance with your request. It is necessary to perform our contract with you to resolve customer service issues and support the Game.
(7) We will enable the camera permission of your device with your consent so that we can provide you with AR related services in the Game. If you refuse, you will not be able to use related functions, but it will not affect your use of other functions or services of the Game.
(8) If you agree to participate in a survey conducted by us, we may collect survey information(e.g. Country, Age, Profession, Email, and content of survey response) with your consent to improve our services .
In addition, in order to provide you with better services, we may conduct an internal research on the number, preferences and behavior of all users; this research is based on the analysis of the overall behavior of all users, and does not analyze individual users.
2. Information Collected When You Use the Game Services
(1) Guest log in information: A new OpenID will be generated every time you log into the Game as a “guest”.
(2) We will collect your game data for the purpose of providing the Game Services and provide troubleshooting such as addressing and remediating technical issues and bugs. Specifically:
Ÿ Basic Game data: including open ID, game ID, operating system, area ID\game server ID, area ID, player nickname, character ID, character level, player balance, account status, account binding status, registration time, latest login time, player type.
Ÿ Game behavior data: including Game Matchup Information;
Ÿ Game log information and game statistics: including Character ID, game account, user nickname, country code, device system version, device brand, IDFV, device model, device manufacturer, device name, screen resolution, screen orientation, CPU model, GPU information, RAM, client export IP , Mobile phone memory, login channel ID, operator name, network type, signal strength.
(3) When you use the Game on a mobile platform, We may collect your device data (including application version, unique device identifier, advertisement identifier, system language, model, device name and type, the version of your operating system, MAC address,) every time you log in to the Game or make an in-game purchase for the purpose of ensuring game security and verification , identify and address bugs and assess game function for optimization, and monitor the success of our advertising and marketing programs (if any).
(4) We will collect your IP address to determine the country or religions you are in and lock the game region to that, to allow you to connect to the Game and we may use your IP address to help to solve disputes concerning game account.
(5) We will generate a unique user ID for you to track your usage and store your Game Data, and we collect and store your Game play statistics (e.g. level, scores) in order to provide you with feedback and information about your Game play and progress.
(6) We will collect Security-Related Information (including SDK log data, server IP, Open ID, system information(system version, brand, CPU architecture , country language) , root status,, application version, device information(including device type, IDFA, network type, brand, language region), jailbreak status (iOS) for security purposes in order to detect offensive and sensitive wording to provide a fair and secure gaming environment.
3. APP permission When You Use the Game Services
Depending on your device or App permission settings, the App may automatically collect the following information from your device:
1. Photos (may allow the App to access stored pictures)
2. Other information (for example, the App may be able to receive data from Internet,
prevent device from sleeping, view your network connections, and obtain full network
access)
If you do not consent to our collection of App permissions then this may impact on our ability to provide products, services, or features to you and the functionality of the App.
4. We use your personal data within the scope of fulfilling the purposes of the agreement. Except for if we have your explicit consent, and in the following situations, we will not use your personal data beyond the scope of the specific purposes of the Policy:
(1) Where it is related to national security and national defense security.
(2) Where it is related to major public interests, public security and public health.
(3) Where it is directly related to criminal investigations, prosecutions, trials and enforcement of judgments, etc.
(4) Where it is for the purpose of protecting the life, property or other fundamental legal rights of you or other individuals, and when it would be difficult to obtain your consent.
(5) Where the personal information collected is voluntarily disclosed to the public by yourself or through legitimate and public channels (such as legitimate news reports, government information disclosures, etc.).
(6) Where it is necessary for the signing or implementation of related agreements or other written documents.
(7) Where it is necessary to maintain a safe and stable operation of the products or services provided by us, such as for discovering and dealing with issues of such products or services.
(8) Where it is required by the authorities or other circumstances as stipulated by laws and regulations.
In specific cases, we may collect other personal data apart from the categories stated herein based on your consent. When this occurs, we will, upon requiring your additional consent, provide more information about any change to the way or purpose of our collection or processing which might be different from or not clarified in the details in this Privacy Policy. Under any circumstance where our collection or processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you may withdraw such consent at any time with no impact on the validity and lawfulness of collection or processing based on the consent made before its withdrawal.
II. Cookies and Similar Technologies
1. Cookies
We use cookies and other similar technologies (e.g. web beacons, log files, scripts and eTags) (“Cookies”) to enhance your experience using the Game Services. Cookies are small files which, when placed on your device, enable us to provide certain features and functionalities.
2. Clearing/Disabling Cookies
We will only enable cookies or similar technologies after obtaining your explicit authorization and consent, and collect your information through cookies. You can enable cookies or perform related actions by managing cookies and cookie preferences in any of the popular browsers disclosed below. We will strictly comply with your wishes on using cookies and similar technologies.
You can choose to disable cookies by modifying your browser settings. Some functions of our products and/or services rely on cookies. If you disable or clear cookies, you may not be able to log in or use some of our services or functions that rely on cookies.
3. Similar tracking technologies
l AppsFlyer: AppsFlyer is a service provided by AppsFlyer for mobile attribution and marketing analytics. AppsFlyer may collect and receive certain device information about you such as your device type, IP address, device ID and information about your engagement with the webpage, applications and ads. For more information about how AppsFlyer collects and processes your information, please visit the privacy policy of AppsFlyer at https://www.appsflyer.com/services-privacy-policy/. To opt-out of AppsFlyer you may visit https://www.appsflyer.com/optout.
l Adjust：We use Adjust to aid in the analysis and optimization of mobile advertising campaigns and user activities on the internet. For more information about how Adjust collects and processes your information, please visit the privacy policy of Adjust at https://www.adjust.com/terms/privacy-policy/.You may opt-out of Adjust by contacting us.
l Firebase: Firebase is an analytics service provided by Google. We use Firebase to understand how our users use our Services and measure the effectiveness of our advertising. Firebase may use your mobile advertising IDs like AdID for Android and IDFA for Apple with your consent. For more information about how Google may process and use your information, please visit https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy/. You may opt-out of Firebase by contacting us.
III. Sharing Your Personal Data with Third Parties
Only where necessary will we share your personal information with third parties or allow third parties to collect this information from our Services in the following circumstance :
1. We may share some of your personal information with third parties that provide services in support of the Game Services according to your request:
(1) When you use the Game, your device information and other personal data may be shared with our market analysis service provider (such as AppsFlyer, firebase，Adjust) in order to optimize advertising effectivity and conduct market analysis. We will only share necessary personal information. If we adjust our purpose of using and processing personal information, we will once again ask for your authorization and consent.
(2) We may share your personal data with logistics service providers who provide shipping services such as delivering physical prizes to users.
(3) We will provide Facebook with your email address for the purpose of ad attribution. Please be assured that we will only provide hashed and encrypted data , Facebook will only be able to perform a match and send us the match result, and will not be able to identify you.
(4) Other contractors if any for the purpose of providing our services to you.
Each third-party has its own privacy policy and security measures for processing data and information, so when specific third-parties are involved in collecting data and information, please participate in their privacy policies. Since those contractors may access, collect, or process your data as the data controller and operate under their own privacy policies, please refer directly to their privacy policies on their official websites and learn more about their data processing practices.
Where we share your information with third-party service providers and business partners, we ensure that we have appropriate agreements in place to protect your information (as required by applicable data protection laws).
2. We may provide a certain portion of your personal data to judicial or administrative authorities as so requested. Besides, we may disclose certain portion of your personal data within a strictly limited scope of recipients when we reasonably think it is necessary to protect us, our users or a portion of the public. In addition to be required by applicable laws, we reserve the right to disclose your personal data in the cases if we, in our good faith, believe that disclosing such data is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you, if (a) you are violating any other agreement(s) between you and us, such as the Terms of Service, this Privacy Policy or otherwise damage us; (b) you are infringing third-parties’ rights and interests (including but not limited to intellectual property rights); and/or (c) we believe that it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activities.
3. We will only share your data with third parties (such as our affiliate companies or suppliers) under the following circumstances:
(1) Where we obtain your permission (including permissions stipulated in the Policy).
(2) Where we share your data in reasonable and necessary circumstances for the purpose of fulfilling contracts.
(3) Where, if your data is anonymous or presented in aggregate form, others cannot identify that it is your personal data.
(4) Where it is necessary for us to share data so as to fulfill our legal obligations as a data controller.
(5) Where it is necessary for protecting the rights and interests, property or safety of our users or other individuals.
4. Should we sell our properties or reorganize our corporation, or should the right of control change for us or any of our affiliate companies, or prepare to implement any of the aforementioned changes, we will require the new transferee company or organization holding your personal information to continue to be bound by the Policy, adopt the same standards and requirements to process and protect your data; otherwise, we will require that said company or organization requests your authorization and consent anew. If we do not transfer your personal data to said company or organization, we will fully inform you and delete or anonymize all your personal data under our control.
IV. How We Protect Your Personal Data
1. The safety of your personal data is of utmost importance to us. We will do our best to implement technologies and procedures reasonable at the time, including but not limited to physical, technical, and organizational safeguards to protect all personal data against unauthorized access, disclosure, misuse, alteration, damage and loss. Unfortunately, as the Internet is not entirely secure, we cannot guarantee that the information you transmitted via the game will not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed in the event of a security breach. While we strive to protect your personal data, we also remind you to be aware of hacking, cyber-attacks, and other risks on the Internet.
2. We strongly urge you to take every possible precaution to protect your personal data when using our services, including but not limited to changing your passwords from time to time, not reflecting your real name or other personal data in registration, using a combination of letters and numbers when creating passwords, using a secure browser and/or taking other possible security measures.
3. Please be aware that advertisers or websites with links to and/or from our websites may collect personal data about you and this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and cannot control the activities of, those other advertisers or websites. We highly recommend that you read the privacy policy of such third-party websites which you may be directed to before providing any personal data.
V. How We Retain Your Personal Data
1. We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes stated in the Policy or to provide services to you. The retention time for personal data we collect is the shortest period necessary to achieve the collection purposes described in the Policy. After the necessary period expires, we will delete or anonymize your personal information, unless extending the retention period is for the purposes of satisfying any legal or regulatory requirements, or assisting us in resolving user disputes, preventing fraud, deception, foul behavior, or helping us fulfill the content stipulated in the Policy. We will retain your personal data after you delete your account or after we stop providing the services to you.
2. Should we stop operating some or all of our products or services due to special reasons, we will promptly inform you and stop the collection and processing of your personal data in related products or services, and at the same time, we will delete or anonymize your personal data we possess related to said products or services, unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations.
VI. Push Notifications
We may send you push notifications with your consent from time to time through our game application to inform you of game updates, high score lists and other service-related notifications that may be important to you. You can access your device settings such as tapping Settings – Notifications and choose to disable this function to disable our push notification services at any time. The specific process depends on your operating system.
VII. Policies Regarding Children
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these ages for any purpose. If you are considered a minor (usually considered to be under the age of 18, depending on where you reside) under the laws of the jurisdiction where you connect to the Services, you must not use the Services for any purpose, except where your parent or guardian has provided consent (to the extent this option is available in your jurisdiction). If you believe that we have personal information of a child under these ages without parental or guardian consent, or if you are the parent or guardian of the user and wish to withdraw the consent, please contact us and we will delete such information immediately after verification.
For users located in certain regions We have listed the relevant minimum age as of the date of this privacy policy in the table below. You should in any case refer to the laws in your jurisdiction to ensure you are above the relevant legal minimum age.
Brazil：18
Canada：13
European Economic Area：16
Indonesia：21
Japan：18
Malaysia：18
Philippines：18
Singapore：18
South Korea：14
Vietnam：16
Thailand：20
United States：13
United Kingdom：13
If you are a parent or guardian of a child and are required to provide your email address as part of the verification process, we will process such email address for the purposes of notifying you of changes to processing or this privacy policy, and for verifying data subject requests from you, in each case in accordance with our legal obligations.
VIII. Other Related Matters Needing Attention
1. Please keep your password and any personal data safe, and do not provide any personal data, especially your password, to anyone. If you no longer use our services, you can choose to delete your account.
2. All types of personal data that you voluntarily disclose through the Internet, such as posting your email address or birthday in comment sections, chat rooms, etc., may be collected and used by others. If you publish personal data that can be read by others, you may receive unsolicited emails from other entities. Therefore, you are solely responsible for the confidentiality of your password and any account data. Treat your personal data with care and be sure to ensure its safety.
IX. Your Rights to Your Personal Data
We respect your rights to your personal data. The following is a list of the rights you enjoy in accordance with the applicable law and regulations and how we will protect your rights, except for when we are unable to confirm your identity.
1. Right to information: We inform you how we handle your personal data by publishing the Policy. We are committed to ensuring transparency in the use of your information. You may also find our policy for the protection of your personal data on our website.
2. Right of access: You have the right to access personal information we hold about you, how we use it, and who we share it, including your username, registration time, etc.
You can query and access your personal data through the User Center, or by contacting us via the contact information disclosed in the Policy to request access. We will process your request and give feedback within the time required by laws and regulations.
3. Right to rectification: Should you notice that your personal data processed by us is wrong or incomplete, you have the right to request us to make corrections or supplements.
You may contact us with a request to make corrections or supplements through the contact information disclosed in the Policy. We will process your request and give feedback within the time required by laws and regulations.
4. Right to erasure: You may contact us with a request to delete your personal data if we collect and use your personal data in a manner that violates the Policy through the contact information disclosed in the Policy. We will process your request and give feedback within the time required by laws and regulations.
Should you share your data on any social network or third-party platform through the Game, the content of your data will be controlled by the aforementioned social network or third-party platform, and we may not be able to revise or delete any data shared with us via third-parties through your use of our services (for example, if you allow friends to interact with your accounts on social networking platforms), because the aforementioned data is not under our control. We will notify third-parties immediately and give feedbacks to you.
5. Right to cancel account: We provide you with the service of account cancellation. You may contact us (or customer service) to request cancellation through the contact information disclosed in the Policy. Should you choose to cancel the Game account, we will delete or anonymize all relevant personal data generated by you in the Game in a timely manner in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, unless otherwise required by laws and regulations. Should you choose to cancel your Flow Game platform account, you are particularly reminded that once you do, you may not be able to access any data of any games on the platform previously associated with your account (including but not limited to levels or scores reached in the game, or any virtual items (currency) associated with the account). Once the cancellation is complete, your account cannot be restored again, so please exercise this right with caution.
We may need to retain personal information if there are valid grounds under data protection laws for us to do so (for example, for the defence of legal claims or freedom of expression) but we will let you know if that is the case.
6. Right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data. This means that we can retain your personal data but cannot process it. We will only retain the data needed for responding to your future requests. You may contact us to request for your exercising of the right to restrict processing of your data through the contact information disclosed in the Policy. We will process your request and give feedback within the time required by laws and regulations. Please note, however, that if we stop processing the personal information, we may use it again if there are valid grounds under data protection laws for us to do so (for example, for the defence of legal claims or for another’s protection).
7. Right to data portability: You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format in accordance with related laws and regulations. For instance, should you decide to change to a new service provider, this right allows you to reliably, securely and easily copy or transfer your personal data between our IT system and their IT system without hindrance. We would like to note you that this right is highly depend on technical support.
8. Right to object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data. You may contact us to request for your exercising of the right of objection through the contact information disclosed in the Policy.
9. Right to withdraw consent: Each part of the services we provide require some basic personal data to realize its full features (Please refer to the content under the "How We Collect and Use Your Personal Data" section of the Policy). You may change the scope of the authorized personal data collection by deleting your personal information or cancelling your account, or contact us to withdraw your consent through the contact information disclosed in the Policy.
Should you not want to receive commercial advertisements (if any) sent to you by us, you have the right to opt out from these at any time. Simply follow the unsubscribe process clearly stated in the marketing emails.
Should you withdraw your consent or authorization, we may no longer continue to provide you with the services related to the withdrawal of the consent or authorization, and will no longer process your related personal data. However, your decision to withdraw your consent or authorization will not affect the processing of personal data previously carried out based on your authorization.
10. Right to refuse automated decision-making: You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling. Should any such decision notably affect your legal rights, you may contact us to request your exercising of the right to refuse automated decision-making through the contact information disclosed in the Policy. We will respond to your request and take appropriate measures when necessary.
11. Right to complain: You have the right to lodge a complaint with us through the contact information disclosed in the Policy, or lodge a complaint regarding how we process your personal data with your local data protection authority.
We will respond to your request within 30 days from the date of receiving your request and communicate with you in an appropriate way. If necessary, we may extend the aforementioned period (for up to 30 days), and inform you of the reason for the extension within 30 days from the date of receiving your request. If we have reason to believe that there is no need to take any action on your request, we will inform you of our decision within 30 days from the date of receiving your request and provide an explanation. If you are not satisfied with the response you received, you can lodge a complaint with or report to a supervisory authority within your jurisdiction, or file a lawsuit to a judicial authority within your jurisdiction.
12. California Users’ Rights
If you are a California resident, you may be able to exercise additional rights granted by California law in relation to the Personal Information about you that we have collected (subject to certain limitations).
The Right to Know. You have the right to request any or all of the following information relating to the personal information we have collected about you or disclosed in the last 12 months, upon verification of your identity:
Ÿ The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you;
Ÿ The categories of personal information we have collected about you;
Ÿ The categories of sources of the personal information we have collected about you;
Ÿ The categories of personal information that we have disclosed about you to third parties for a business purpose, and the categories of recipients to whom this information was disclosed;
Ÿ The categories of personal information we have sold about you, and the categories of third parties to whom this information was sold; and
Ÿ The business or commercial purposes for collecting or selling personal information about you.
The Right to Request Deletion. You have the right to request the deletion of personal information that we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
To exercise your right to know and right to deletion, please submit a request by: Filling out our Personal Data Request Form; or Emailing us with the subject line "California Rights Request". We will need to verify your identity before processing your request. In certain circumstances, we may decline a request to exercise the right to know and right to deletion, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity.
The Right to Opt-Out of Personal Information Sales. You have the right to direct us not to sell personal information we have collected about you to third parties now or in the future. If you are under the age of 16, you have the right to opt in, or to have a parent or guardian opt in on your behalf, to such sales. Unless you have exercised your right to opt-out of personal information "sales", we may "sell" personal information to third parties, as that term is defined under California law.
We do not sell the personal information of consumers we know to be less than 16 years of age, unless we receive affirmative authorization (the "Right to Opt In") from either the minor who is between 13 and 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a minor less than 13 years of age.
In the past 12 months, we have not sold personal data of California residents within the meaning of “sold” in the CCPA.
The Right to Non-Discrimination. You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising any of the rights described above. However, please note that if the exercise of the rights described above limits our ability to process personal information (such as in the case of a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you our products or services .
"Shine the Light". California residents that have an established business relationship with us have rights to know how their information is disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes under California’s "Shine the Light" law (Civ. Code § 1798.83).
Right to Authorize an Agent to Make a Request on Your Behalf. You have the right to authorize an agent on your behalf to make a request to know, delete, or opt out under the CCPA. When you use an authorized agent to submit any request provided above, we may require you to provide signed permission to authorize your agent to do so for the purpose of verifying your own identity, and the official permission by your agent to submit this request. In the case of failure to provide any of the requested materials, to protect the user’s information and data security, we are entitled to deny such request.
X. International Transfers of Your Personal Data
We provide the products and services of the Game across the globe. Therefore, your personal data (including the types of information listed under the "How We Collect and Use Your Personal Data" section of the Policy) may be transferred to or accessed from other jurisdictions outside your country/region of residence. We will access such information remotely within the People's Republic of China for the purpose of (i) the operation of Services concerning you, (ii) the provision of support services,(iii) fulfilling security obligations.
When we transfer your personal information internationally , we will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is treated securely, lawfully, and in the manner we describe here. This may include implementing the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of personal information between our Affiliated Entities, business partners and service providers (where applicable) to protect personal information they process from the UK and the European Countries, or any other lawful solution that permits the lawful transfer of personal information from those countries. Please note that laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so the privacy laws applicable to the places where your information is transferred to or stored, used, or processed in, may be different from the privacy laws applicable to the place where you are resident.
XI. Revisions to the Policy
We reserve the right to amend the Policy as appropriate. If major changes are made to the Policy, we will release the latest version of the Policy on our website or notify you through appropriate channels. Please make sure to check these frequently. Should you not accept all of the amended content, please discontinue usage of the services at once and notify us about terminating this contract. Should you continue to use our services, you are deemed to have fully understood and agreed to be bound by the updated provisions of the Policy.
XII. Contact Us
For any complaints or reports about network information security, or any questions, opinions or suggestions about the Policy and your information, and any questions about the Policy or our privacy measures, please contact us online customer service. We will process your request and give feedback within the time required by laws and regulations.