Privacy policy
Chess Anywhere collects no data.
There are no servers, no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking. The app has no networking code at all — it cannot reach the internet. Everything happens on your device, or over a direct Bluetooth link to the phone sitting next to you.
Chess Anywhere is published by Clem Ziroli. Questions about this policy go to clem@clemziroli.com.
| Collected | Status |
|---|---|
| Name, email, or account | No — none exists |
| Location | No |
| Device identifiers | No |
| Analytics or usage events | No |
| Crash reports | No |
| Anything, minimized or anonymized | No |
What we collect
Nothing. We do not collect, store, transmit, sell, or share any personal information. We could not identify you, or one device from another, from anything the app does. The app contains no network client, no analytics SDK, no crash reporter, and no third-party libraries of any kind.
What is stored on your device
Chess Anywhere saves your preferences locally, in the standard iOS settings store for the app:
- The display name you choose
- Board theme, appearance (light or dark), and whether coordinates are shown
- Sound and haptic toggles
- Whether the board turns around in Pass & Play
- Your last-used clock setting and computer difficulty
It also saves your finished games so you can look back at them. Each saved game records the date, the two player names as they appeared at the time, which colour you played, whether it was a Bluetooth, Pass & Play or computer game, the clock setting, the moves, the final position, and the result. The most recent 100 are kept and older ones are discarded automatically.
None of this ever leaves your device, and none of it is tied to any account. You can delete a single game by swiping it away in Settings → Game history, delete every saved game with Clear, or remove everything by deleting the app. Because it lives in the app's own storage, it is included in your device and iCloud backups — deliberately, so your history survives getting a new phone.
Games in progress are not saved. If you tap Copy PGN or Share, the game text goes wherever you send it — that is your action, not ours.
What is sent over Bluetooth
When you play against a nearby phone, the two devices talk directly to each other. No server sits in between and nothing is relayed anywhere else. What crosses that link:
- Your display name, so your opponent knows who is challenging them
- The moves you play, plus your remaining clock time
- Game-control messages: challenge, accept, decline, draw offer and its answer, resignation, flag fall, leaving, rematch, and a periodic keep-alive
- A per-launch session identifier, so the two phones can tell they are still talking to each other. It is generated fresh every time the app starts and is never stored, so it cannot identify you or your device from one launch to the next
- When a dropped connection comes back, a resume message — the session identifier, which colour you are playing, the move count, both clock readings, and the current position — so both phones can confirm they agree before play continues, or a reply saying the game can't be resumed
That's the entire protocol. Two things worth being explicit about, since they concern what other people see:
- Your display name is broadcast to everyone within Bluetooth range (a few meters) while Chess Anywhere is open, even before you accept a game. It is part of the app's Bluetooth advertisement, so other Chess Anywhere players can see it, and so can anyone nearby using a general-purpose Bluetooth scanning app. A short fragment of the per-launch session identifier is broadcast with it. Broadcasting stops when you leave the app. The name defaults to a randomly generated one like "Swift Knight" — not your device name, and nothing tied to your identity. You can change it in Settings at any time.
- There is no chat. There is no way to send text to another player, by design.
Permissions
Bluetooth is the only permission Chess Anywhere requests, used solely to find a nearby opponent and exchange the messages above. It is not used for location, proximity marketing, or analytics. The app does not request notifications, location, contacts, photos, the microphone, the camera, or anything else.
Children
Chess Anywhere is suitable for all ages. Because it collects no data, there is nothing to handle differently for children. There is no chat, no accounts, no advertising, no in-app purchases, and no third-party links. The only outbound links are "Support & contact" and "Privacy policy" in Settings.
Tracking and third parties
Chess Anywhere does not track you across apps or websites and does not use the Advertising Identifier, so it never shows the App Tracking Transparency prompt. There are no third parties: no SDKs, analytics providers, ad networks, cloud services, or payment processors.
Your rights
Because no personal data is collected, there is nothing for us to disclose, correct, export, or delete on request — we hold nothing. To remove what is stored on your device, delete the app. Chess Anywhere therefore processes no personal data within the scope of the GDPR, the CCPA, or comparable laws.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here with a new date, and material changes will be noted in the App Store release notes.
Last updated 30 September 2026.