Privacy Policy
This policy explains what information When Kings Fall ("we", "the site") processes when you visit whenkingsfall.com and play the game, why, and what choices you have. We collect as little as possible.
Who is responsible
The controller of your data is the operator of When Kings Fall. You can reach us at any time through our contact form.
Without an account
You can play, watch and learn without an account. The game then stores the following only on your device (browser local storage), never on our servers: your settings (sound, camera, battlefield), your rating against the computer, your lesson stars, a short memory of recent pre-battle dialogues (so they do not repeat), cached tournament data, and your cookie choice. You can delete all of it by clearing your browser's site data.
With an account
If you create an account we store: your e-mail address, your display name, your password as a salted one-way hash (we never see or store the password itself), your rating, your lesson progress, your online games and their moves, and the dates of these records. We use these data only to provide the account features (signing in, keeping your progress, online play) and to keep the service secure. The legal basis is the contract you enter into by creating the account (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in a secure service (Art. 6(1)(f)).
We send you e-mail only when it is needed for your account: to confirm your address and to reset your password. We do not send newsletters unless you explicitly ask for them.
Technical data
Like every website, our hosting provider receives technical data with each request (IP address, browser, time of the request) to deliver the pages and protect them against abuse. These logs are kept only for a short time.
Cookies and similar technologies
- Necessary: a session cookie keeps you signed in (only if you have an account); local storage keeps your settings, progress and cookie choice. These cannot be switched off because the game needs them.
- Advertising (only with your consent): when ads are enabled, Google may use cookies or similar identifiers to show, personalise and measure ads. Until you give consent, only non-personalised ads may be requested and Google's advertising storage stays disabled (Google Consent Mode).
You can change your choice at any time under Cookie settings (also in the footer of every page).
Advertising
We use (or will use) Google AdSense to show ads on menus and information pages - never during a battle. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to this and/or other sites on the Internet. You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google's Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies at www.aboutads.info. How Google uses information from sites that use its services is explained at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland we ask for your consent through a Google-certified consent tool before personalised ads are shown.
Services we use
- Vercel - hosting of the website and its server functions.
- Vercel Web Analytics - anonymous visit statistics (which pages are viewed, country, device type). It uses no cookies and does not identify you; IP addresses are not stored.
- Neon (through Vercel) - the database that stores accounts and games.
- Resend - delivery of account e-mails (address confirmation, password reset).
- Google Fonts, jsDelivr and cdnjs - fonts and open-source libraries are loaded from these networks, which therefore receive your IP address.
- Lichess - the Tournaments page asks the open Lichess API for tournament data directly from your browser.
- Google AdSense - advertising, as described above.
Some of these providers process data outside your country, including in the United States. Where this happens, the transfer is protected by appropriate safeguards such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
The chess engine (Stockfish) runs on your own device; your positions are not sent to us for analysis.
How long we keep data
Account data are kept for as long as the account exists. When you delete your account we delete your personal data within 30 days, unless the law requires us to keep something longer. Games against other players may be kept in anonymised form (without your name or e-mail) so your opponent's game history stays complete.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the EU/UK GDPR or the Turkish Personal Data Protection Law, KVKK), you have the right to access your data, to have them corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to their processing, to receive them in a portable format and to withdraw your consent at any time. Contact us through the contact form. You also have the right to complain to your data protection authority.
Children
When Kings Fall is suitable for chess players of all ages, but accounts are intended for people aged 16 or older (or the minimum age required in your country). If you believe a child has created an account without permission, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes
If we change this policy we update the date above; important changes are announced on the site.