Chess Shorts privacy policy
Summary. Chess Shorts analyses and renders your games entirely on your iPhone. None of your content is transmitted to Whiteforge — there are no Whiteforge servers in the data path. The app contains no analytics, no telemetry, and no advertising SDKs. The only outbound connections are: to Lichess or Chess.com to fetch the moves of a public game when you paste its link, and to Apple’s App Store for purchases. Finished videos are saved to your Photos library at your request.
1. Introduction
This policy explains how Chess Shorts handles your data. Chess Shorts is an iOS application published by Whiteforge Technologies Ltd (“Whiteforge”, “we”), a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17224707). It turns a chess game — supplied as a PGN or a Lichess/Chess.com link — into a vertical video.
This policy is for the Chess Shorts app. The whiteforgetech.co.uk website has its own privacy policy.
2. Data Whiteforge receives
None. Chess Shorts does not transmit your games, your videos, your settings, or any other personal data to Whiteforge. There are no Whiteforge servers in the data path. The app contains no analytics SDKs, no crash-reporting SDKs, no advertising SDKs, and no third-party tracking libraries of any kind.
3. What is stored on your device
Chess Shorts stores the following locally on your device:
- The game you are working on — the PGN and the engine evaluations, held in memory while you preview and export. This is not written to a persistent database.
- App settings — your selected board theme, whether Chess Shorts Pro is unlocked, and a count of how many free videos you have made. Stored in iOS UserDefaults.
- Rendered videos — when you choose “Save to Photos”, the finished video is written to your Photos library. A temporary copy is created during rendering and removed afterwards.
None of this data leaves your device except through iCloud backup if you have it enabled, which is under your control and subject to Apple’s privacy policy, not ours.
4. Importing games (Lichess & Chess.com)
If you paste a Lichess game link, Chess Shorts requests that game’s PGN from Lichess’s public export endpoint (lichess.org). If you paste a Chess.com game link, Chess Shorts requests that game’s public information from Chess.com (chess.com and api.chess.com) in order to retrieve its PGN. In both cases the only information sent is contained in the public game link you provided (for example the game identifier, and — for Chess.com — the public usernames and date needed to locate the game). No account credentials are involved, and Chess Shorts does not sign you in to either service. These requests are governed by the privacy policies of Lichess and Chess.com respectively. If you paste a PGN directly instead of a link, no such request is made.
5. Photos access
Chess Shorts requests add-only access to your Photos library, used solely to save the videos you create. It does not read, browse, or access any existing photos or videos in your library. You can review or revoke this permission at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos → Chess Shorts.
6. Clipboard
Chess Shorts reads your clipboard only when you tap “Paste from clipboard” on the import screen, so it can place the copied link or PGN into the text field. It does not read your clipboard at any other time.
7. Purchase validation
Chess Shorts is free to download, with a limited number of free videos. Removing the watermark, lifting the video limit, and unlocking all themes requires a one-time in-app purchase (“Chess Shorts Pro”). When you make or restore a purchase, the transaction is processed entirely by Apple through the App Store using Apple’s StoreKit framework. Your entitlement is verified on-device against Apple’s signed transaction record — no purchase data is sent to Whiteforge or any third-party service. Apple’s handling of your payment is governed by Apple’s privacy policy.
8. Network activity
Outside of the two cases above — fetching a game you import by link, and completing or restoring a purchase — Chess Shorts makes no network connections. Engine analysis and video rendering run entirely on-device.
9. Third parties
Chess Shorts contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs. It bundles the Arasan chess engine (MIT licence) and the ChessKit library (MIT licence), both of which run locally on your device and make no network connections. Chess piece artwork by Colin M.L. Burnett is used under the BSD licence. Purchases are handled by Apple’s StoreKit; all other functionality uses Apple’s system frameworks.
10. Children
Chess Shorts is a general-audience creative tool and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
11. Your rights
If you are in the UK or the EU, you have rights under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR — including the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, and the right to lodge a complaint. Because Chess Shorts does not transmit personal data to Whiteforge, these rights are effectively exercised by controlling the app and your device directly. You can delete all app data by deleting the app from your iPhone. You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the “Last updated” date at the top. Material changes will be summarised at the top of the policy for a reasonable period.
13. Contact
For privacy questions about Chess Shorts:
Whiteforge Technologies Ltd
support@whiteforgetech.co.uk