Privacy Policy

1. Overview

This Privacy Policy explains how Restart Apps ("we", "us", or "our") handles information in Pgnify: Chess Analysis & Stats (the "App") on iPhone, iPad, and Android. Pgnify provides educational chess analysis, game reviews, practice positions, progress summaries, and public player information. The App is intended for adults age 18 and older.

Pgnify does not create an app account and does not provide app-operated cloud sync. Chess analysis, coaching explanations, practice positions, and progress summaries are computed locally on your device.

2. Information stored on your device

The App can store the following in its private storage on your device: your public Chess.com username; your preferences, including appearance, board, sound, automatic-check, usage-analytics, and crash-report settings; the games you sync or import; engine analysis and coaching reviews for those games; earned review-unlock receipts; favorite players and their recently checked public games; a list of Chess.com games you removed, so they are not downloaded again; and cached public responses, such as recent Chess.com game pages, your rating history, player portraits, and opponent profile pictures. Pgnify does not ask for your Chess.com password.

Android app backup and device transfer are disabled. On iOS and iPadOS, the App's local data may be included in an operating-system device backup. Removing the App or clearing its local data removes locally saved information and earned unlock receipts, although restoring an iOS device backup may restore a local copy.

3. Chess.com game and profile data

When you connect a public Chess.com username, Pgnify sends that username and ordinary network information, such as your IP address, to Chess.com's public API. It requests your public profile, ratings, recent games, and monthly game archives (used for the rating trend). Chess.com returns public games, player information, and related metadata under its own terms and privacy practices.

Checks happen when you sync, when you pull to refresh, and, if you leave the automatic-check setting on, when the App opens or returns to the foreground. Opening the Players or Favorites tab checks the public Chess.com accounts of listed titled players at most every ten minutes, and game cards may load your opponents' public profile pictures. Those requests include the other player's public username, not your own. Pgnify does not monitor players in the background or send notifications. See Chess.com's Privacy Policy.

4. PGN imports and local analysis

Importing a file uses your operating system's document picker and reads only the file you choose. If you choose a file from a cloud document provider, that provider may download the selected file to your device. Pasted or imported PGN text is saved only after it is checked as a valid game.

The bundled Arasan engine performs all chess analysis locally, including game reviews, move ratings, the evaluation bar, top engine moves, Explore, and Practice. Practice positions and progress summaries are built from games stored on your device. Pgnify does not use a language model or remote explanation service, and it does not send your PGN text, games, engine analysis, or coaching reviews to us, to advertising services, or to analytics.

5. Public player information and portraits

The player directory shows dated public information bundled with the App, such as FIDE titles, federations, ratings, and rankings, plus facts matched from Wikidata and short English Wikipedia summaries. Country flags are bundled images. Portraits may come from Wikimedia Commons or public Chess.com profiles, and their attribution and license links are shown in the App.

When a visible portrait is fetched, Wikimedia or Chess.com's image service receives the image request and ordinary network information, such as your IP address. These requests do not include your imported games or your Pgnify username setting. Images may be cached locally. See Wikimedia's Privacy Policy and Chess.com's Privacy Policy.

6. Rewarded advertising and consent

Pgnify may offer an optional Google AdMob rewarded ad to unlock a full review for a selected game. Google's AdMob and User Messaging Platform SDKs may process device and advertising identifiers, IP-derived approximate location, ad interactions, device information, and diagnostics for ad delivery, measurement, consent, and fraud prevention. Depending on your region and choices, an ad may be personalized or non-personalized.

Where required, the App presents Google's consent message and offers a privacy-options entry in Settings. The App does not request Apple's App Tracking Transparency permission and does not send a custom user identifier to the advertising SDK. This does not mean that third-party SDK collection is absent. Review Google's Privacy Policy and Google's AdMob data guidance.

7. Usage analytics, crash reports, and Firebase

Pgnify uses Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the App is used. Firebase may collect app-instance and device identifiers, screens viewed, feature-use events (for example syncing games, starting an analysis, opening top engine moves, or solving a practice position), app version, device and operating-system details, and approximate region. Pgnify does not send usernames, player or opponent names, game moves, PGN files, game identifiers, or search text.

Usage analytics are on by default. You can turn them off at any time under Settings, Usage analytics; the choice is saved and stops future collection through Firebase Analytics. Where regional consent rules apply, analytics storage also follows the choices you make in the privacy message and stays denied until that check is resolved. Firebase Analytics is configured not to collect the advertising identifier, and its ad storage, ad user data, and ad personalization permissions are denied. Pgnify does not use analytics to track you across other companies' apps or websites or for advertising. These controls do not change the separate AdMob processing described above.

If the App crashes, Pgnify can send a crash report through Firebase Crashlytics: the crash stack trace, app version, device model, operating-system version, and a Crashlytics installation identifier. Crash reports do not include usernames, games, PGN text, or search text, and are used only to find and fix bugs. Crash reports are on by default; you can turn them off at any time under Settings, Crash reports, which stops future reports. Restart Apps also uses Firebase to distribute beta builds. See Google's Privacy Policy and Firebase's privacy information.

8. Permissions and third-party links

Internet access is used for public game data, public player information, portraits, links, advertising, consent choices, usage analytics, and crash reports. The document picker is used only when you choose a PGN file. Pgnify does not request location, contacts, camera, microphone, notification, or broad device-storage permission.

Social, reference, attribution, and player-site links open in your browser or another app. The destination service's terms and privacy policy apply.

9. Your choices and retention

You can change your public username and preferences, remove saved games from the Games tab, remove favorite players, turn automatic game checks, usage analytics, or crash reports off in Settings, change advertising privacy choices when that option is shown, or remove the App to delete its local data. Local data stays on your device until you remove it. Pgnify has no account-deletion flow because it does not create user accounts or an app-operated cloud account; for data processed by Google, Chess.com, or Wikimedia, use those providers' controls.

10. Security and age eligibility

We rely on platform storage protections and HTTPS for network requests, but no storage or transmission method can be guaranteed completely secure. Third-party providers may process information in the United States or other countries under their own safeguards.

Pgnify is intended only for adults age 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 through the App.

11. Changes and contact

We may update this Privacy Policy as the App changes. We will revise the effective date shown above and provide additional notice when required.

For privacy questions or requests, contact Restart Apps at restartapplication@gmail.com.