ChessMate
Privacy policy
Last updated 29 August 2026
What ChessMate records about you, why, and who else can see it. Written against what the app and its server actually do.
What is recorded
- Your account
- A display name you choose, when it was created, and whether it is a guest account.
- An age bracket, never a date of birth
- The app asks your age once and keeps only the answer it needs: under 13, under 18, or adult. The date itself is not stored. Three questions depend on this — whether voice chat is allowed at all, whether it starts switched off, and nothing else — and a bracket answers all three without holding a birthday that would then have to be protected.
- How you sign in
- Which method you used (Google, Apple, Play Games, Game Center, this device, or an email address) and that provider's own stable identifier for you. Where you sign in with an email address, the address and a cryptographic hash of your password — the password itself is never stored and cannot be recovered from the hash. Through Google or Apple, no password ever reaches ChessMate.
- Your play
- Games and their moves, results, clocks, ratings, tournament and private room membership, and a tally of games played offline against the engine.
- Notifications
- If you allow them, a push token issued by Google so your device can be told it is your move.
- Blocks and reports
- Who you have blocked, and any report you file. A report carries a reason from a fixed list — abusive voice, abusive chat, cheating, stalling, or something else — and no free text. There is deliberately no box to type in, because a box invites writing things that would then have to be stored and read.
What is not recorded
- Voice chat is never recorded. Audio passes between players while a game is live and is not written down anywhere, by the app or the server.
- Your date of birth — only the bracket above.
- Your contacts, photos, location, or files.
- Free-text abuse reports, for the reason given above.
Permissions the app asks for
- Microphone
- Only for voice chat during a game, and only if you turn it on. Under-13 accounts cannot use voice at all; for under-18 accounts it starts off.
- Camera
- Only to scan a QR code when joining a private room. No image is stored or sent anywhere — the camera is read to find a code in it.
Who else sees any of this
These are the only third parties involved, and what each one gets:
- Google Firebase
- Analytics, Crashlytics, Cloud Messaging and Remote Config. These receive app usage and device information — device model, operating system version, and an app instance identifier — under Google's privacy terms.
- LiveKit
- Carries voice audio between players during a game. It transports the audio; it does not store it.
- Google Play
- Distributes the app, and handles sign-in if you use Play Games.
Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared with advertisers.
Other players
Your display name, rating and finished games are visible to people you play and on the leaderboard. Choose a display name accordingly — it does not have to be your real one.
Children
ChessMate is not aimed at children under 13. If an account states it is under 13, voice chat is refused outright rather than merely defaulted off. If you believe a child has given us information you would rather they had not, write to the address below and it will be deleted.
How long it is kept
Account and game data is kept while the account exists. When an account is deleted, it goes. Deletion requests made through this site are kept as the record that the request was made and honoured.
Deleting your data
You can delete your account from inside the app, under Settings, which removes it immediately. If you cannot reach the app, use the deletion form. Both are described in full on that page, including exactly what is removed.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and a material change will be announced in the app before it takes effect.