Privacy Policy

Last updated November 3, 2026

Turtle Leap LLC ("we", "us") makes the Slate Chess app and operates the slatechess.com website. This policy has two parts. The app collects nothing. This website holds only what you choose to send us.

Part 1: The app

1. The app collects nothing

Slate Chess has no analytics, no tracking, and no account. It does not measure how you play, what you study, or which features you use. There is no Slate Chess server for it to send anything to.

Apple tells us how many people downloaded the app, roughly how many use it, and whether it crashed. Those reports come from Apple, are already aggregated, and are not about you individually; we could not identify you from them if we wanted to.

On the App Store, Slate Chess is listed as Data Not Collected.

2. Your games are in your iCloud, not ours

Slate Chess stores your games, analysis and ratings in your own iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit. That is what lets the same library appear on your iPhone, iPad and Mac.

This is your storage, not ours. We have no access to it and no way to read it; Apple's privacy policy and your Apple Account settings govern it.

3. Purchases and beta testing

• Purchases. Apple handles payment through your Apple Account. We never see your card or payment details.
• Beta testing. If you join the beta through TestFlight, Apple shares with us the email address you used to be invited, and any crash reports and feedback you choose to send.

4. Optional features

Game Center. You can connect Slate Chess to Game Center by tapping to do so. If you do, the app can see your Game Center display name so it can show it beside your games. Nothing happens unless you tap, and the app works completely without it.

Progress report cards. Slate shows a weekly progress report card in the app. If you share it as a PDF, you choose who receives it; it goes from your device to them, and we never see it.

Importing from Lichess or Chess.com. If you ask Slate Chess to import your games, your device contacts lichess.org or chess.com directly and downloads games that are already public on those sites. The app asks for a username and nothing else. There is no sign-in, no password, no account connection, and no access to anything private. The request does not pass through us, and we never see it. Each site's own privacy policy covers what it does with the request.

Part 2: This website

5. The contact form and email

If you use the contact or early-access form on slatechess.com, we collect what you enter: your email address, your message if you write one, and the kind of contact you chose (for example player or press). If you email us at support@slatechess.com instead, we receive your email address, your name if it appears in your message, and whatever you write. We use this to reply to you, to run early access and the beta, to send news only if you asked for it, and to decide what to build. The form is for people 13 and older. Please don't send payment or other sensitive information.

6. Server logs and cookies

Like most websites, our hosting records basic technical information about each request (such as IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time) in server logs. We use these logs for security, reliability and troubleshooting.

The website does not use advertising or tracking cookies and does not use third-party analytics.

Engine downloads. When you download the Slate engine from slatechess.com, our server records the request (IP address, time, file and browser details) in its normal server logs and counts the download; we use this only to count downloads and keep the site secure. The engine itself collects nothing: it writes no files, makes no network connections and sends no data.

7. Support forum

Our support page (slatechess.com/support) links to a public bug tracker and discussion forum hosted on GitHub. What you post there, including your GitHub username, is public and is handled by GitHub under its privacy statement. Please don't post personal or payment information. To remove something you posted, delete it or contact us.

8. Who processes it

The website and form submissions are hosted on Google Cloud (Google App Engine, Cloud Logging and Google Sheets) in the United States, and our email is handled by our email provider. Google processes this information on our behalf under its cloud terms. We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for advertising. We may disclose information if the law requires it or to protect our rights and users' safety.

9. How long we keep it

We keep emails and contact-form submissions for as long as we need them to respond and to run early access and the beta. We delete them when you ask us to.

Both parts

10. Your choices and rights

You can ask us to tell you what we hold about you, correct it, or delete it, and you can opt out of emails at any time by replying or writing to us. Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or California) you may have additional rights, including to object to or restrict processing and to complain to your data-protection authority. Write to support@slatechess.com; we may need to confirm it is you before acting.

11. Security

We use reasonable measures, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), to protect information we hold. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure.

12. International transfers

Information you send us through the website is stored in the United States. If you contact us from elsewhere, you understand it will be transferred there.

13. Changes to this policy

We will post any changes here and update the date above; for material changes we will tell you in a more prominent way where appropriate.

14. Contact

Turtle Leap LLC, support@slatechess.com.