CHESSPrivacy Policy
Effective / Updated: October 14, 2026
1. Operator and scope
This policy applies to the iOS and Android app "Chess" (app ID com.osj.chess), published by Next Studio (an individual developer based in South Korea). Contact: dhalska2@gmail.com.
2. On-device data
Stats, achievements, the list of solved puzzles, lesson/drill progress, the daily-challenge streak, and settings (board theme, piece style, language, sound) are stored on your device by default. The coach voice narration uses only your device's built-in speech synthesis — it never records audio or sends it anywhere. Your saved mistakes from Game Analysis, the counts of your weak spots and your scan-drill results are also kept only on your device.
3. Accounts and online play
Most features work without signing in — the app automatically creates an anonymous account. Playing online (ranked matchmaking, friend invites) and appearing on the ranking store your chosen nickname, country, avatar, badge, and rating on our server against that anonymous account. Signing in with Apple (optional) shares an email address through Apple, used to authenticate your account.
4. Purchases and subscriptions
In-app purchases (remove ads, themes, hints, undos) and subscriptions (monthly/yearly premium) are billed through Apple's App Store. We never receive your payment card details — only whether a purchase or subscription is active is checked and stored on our server.
5. Progress sync
Only when you're signed in with Apple, your stats, achievements, solved-puzzle record, lesson/drill completion, daily-challenge record, and Puzzle Rush best score are stored on our server and merged/synced across your devices for continuity. This sync never happens while you're only playing anonymously. If you are a subscriber, your finished games (moves only) are also kept on our server so you can replay them on any device.
6. Community missions
If you publish a checkmate mission, the position, the number of moves, your public creator name (your nickname, or a generated handle) and the ratings and likes other players give it are stored on our server and shown to other players. You can withdraw a mission; deleting your account removes your missions, ratings and reports. Reports and hides you send about a mission or creator are stored with your account to moderate content and are not shown to others. Missions contain no free text, images or comments. The number of free drills you used today is also counted on our server.
7. Ads and privacy choices
Screens available for free may show Google AdMob ads. The app requests only non-personalized ads and does not show an App Tracking Transparency prompt; it does not track you across other companies' apps or websites. AdMob may still collect device information and an approximate (IP-based) location for ad delivery and measurement. You can remove ads with an in-app purchase.
8. Server retention and cross-border processing
Account, purchase, online-play, and progress data are stored on servers operated by Supabase (our database/authentication provider). These servers may be located abroad and are processed under the laws applicable there. Apple (App Store billing) and Google (AdMob) each process data under their own privacy policies. Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics) are collected only to fix problems in the app and are not used for advertising.
9. Contact and website vendor
Send inquiries or deletion requests to dhalska2@gmail.com. These policy pages are statically hosted on GitHub Pages (GitHub, Inc.); this website itself uses no separate analytics or advertising scripts.
10. Retention and deletion
Server-side account, purchase, and progress data is kept while your account exists, and deleted or anonymized within a reasonable time after a deletion request. Deleting the app removes on-device local data, but server-side data (if you signed in) requires a separate deletion request.
11. User rights, children, and changes
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your data. This app is intended for users 13 and older and does not knowingly collect personal information from children. This policy may change as features change; the date at the top of this page is updated when it does.