I am currently developing a puzzle game where the player initially has the option to enter a "NIckname" of his choice ( might also be his name - its up to him what to enter) so that his time score ( app is based on the best win times) can appear on a World Leaderboard of the top 10 times performed of the users played the game.
My question: is the nickname held on my database considered as personal Data since it can be anything and also a user might enter a name that might point to other people (since anyone can choose anything)? If nickname is not consider by itself something that direct or indirect points to a specific person then i will go for it otherwise i may choose for each player a random ID.
My database data will be permanent ( not ephemeral) because i need to track down the best achieved times and display only the top 10.
Also the player will have the option to skip this step ( so no nickname for him ) and also if a nickname has been chosen the player will the option to delete his profile.
thank you