Welcome to Grand Chess ("we," "our," or "us"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website and use our services.
1. Information We Collect
We collect information in the following ways:
1.1 Information You Provide
When you contact us via our contact form, we collect:
- Name — to personalize our response
- Email address — to reply to your inquiry
- Message content — to address your query
1.2 Automatically Collected Information
When you visit Grand Chess, certain information may be automatically collected:
- Log data — IP address, browser type, pages visited, time and date of visit
- Cookies and similar technologies — session data, preferences
- Local Storage — we store your game preferences (board theme, piece style) locally in your browser. This data never leaves your device.
1.3 Information We Do NOT Collect
- We do not collect or store your chess game history on our servers
- We do not require account registration
- We do not collect payment information
2. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on Grand Chess. Cookies are small data files stored on your device.
2.1 Types of Cookies We Use
- Essential Cookies: Required for the website to function properly (e.g., session management)
- Preference Cookies: Remember your settings such as board theme and piece style
- Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with our website (e.g., Google Analytics)
2.2 Google AdSense and Advertising Cookies
Grand Chess uses Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.
You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings or www.aboutads.info.
2.3 Managing Cookies
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. However, if you do this, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit our site.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to:
- Provide, operate, and maintain our website and services
- Respond to your inquiries and contact form submissions
- Improve and personalize your experience on Grand Chess
- Analyze usage patterns to improve our platform (via aggregated analytics)
- Display relevant advertisements through Google AdSense
- Comply with legal obligations
4. Sharing Your Information
We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share information with:
- Google Analytics — for website traffic analysis (anonymized data)
- Google AdSense — for serving contextual advertisements
- Vercel — our hosting provider (processes server logs)
- Legal authorities — if required by law or to protect our rights
All third-party service providers are bound by their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review their policies for more information.
5. Data Retention
We retain contact form data for a maximum of 12 months after which it is deleted. Analytics data is retained for 26 months per Google Analytics default settings. Browser localStorage data (your preferences) remains on your device until you clear your browser data.
6. Children's Privacy
Grand Chess is intended for users of all ages, but we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@grandchess.app so we can delete that information promptly.
7. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:
- Right to Access — Request a copy of your personal data we hold
- Right to Rectification — Request correction of inaccurate data
- Right to Erasure — Request deletion of your personal data
- Right to Object — Object to how we process your data
- Right to Data Portability — Request transfer of your data
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@grandchess.app.
8. Security
We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your personal information, including HTTPS encryption, secure server infrastructure through Vercel, and Content Security Policy (CSP) headers. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to third-party websites (such as chess databases, FIDE, or Wikipedia). These websites have their own privacy policies. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites and encourage you to review their policies.
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: