Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

SocraChess.ai (the website, the Android app and the iOS app) is run by SOCRACHESS SINGLE MEMBER P.C., Komninon 1, Kavala 65403, Greece, GEMI 197290130000, VAT EL803457290 ("we"). We decide how your personal data is used, so we are its controller.

Contact for any privacy question or request: support@socrachess.ai (contact person: Angelos Giorgis). We have not appointed a data protection officer.

2. In short

• We use your data to run a chess learning service: your account, your games and their analysis, the AI tutor Socrates, lessons, puzzles and your plan.
• Chess analysis runs on our own servers. Socrates' answers are written by a third-party AI provider (Google Gemini), which receives what it needs to answer (section 5).
• We do not sell your data. We show no ads.
• Our servers are in the European Union.
• You can delete your account yourself on the website.

3. What we collect

We collect what you give us, what the service creates as you use it, and what we receive from the services you choose to connect.

Account. A username, your email address and a password. If you use Continue with Google: your Google account id, email address, name and profile picture.

Profile and settings (optional). A display name, your country, a profile picture, your preferences, and your answers when you start, such as your goal and your training time.

Chess data. Games you play, import or paste, your notes, and the analyses, lesson progress, puzzle results and ratings shown in the app. If you connect a Chess.com or Lichess username, we copy the public games those sites publish for it. Those games include your opponents' usernames and ratings.

Socrates. Your questions, the tutor's answers, the chess evidence behind them, technical details of each answer, your consent to use Socrates where we ask for it, and any rating or reason you give for an answer.

Plan and purchases. Your plan, its limits and your usage. We receive your subscription status and payment references from our payment providers (section 6), never your card details.

Beta programme. If you apply for the beta: your email address, your answers to our questions, your acceptance of the beta terms and your activation.

Launch waiting list. If you join our waiting list, we keep your email address and related sign-up details, such as your language and a record of your consent, and we may note whether you later became a customer. We use them to send you launch emails and occasional SocraChess news and to keep our list up to date. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Support and feedback. What you send us, anything you attach, any rating you give, and our replies.

Reason for leaving (optional). When you delete your account, you can tell us why. We store your answer apart from your account. Please leave personal details out of it.

Trying without an account. You can try parts of SocraChess before you register. We then create a temporary guest profile, identified by a cookie, without asking for your name or email. If you type a Chess.com or Lichess username, we fetch that player's public games to show a first analysis. Guests can ask Socrates a few questions about that game; these go to the AI providers described in section 5. If you register, the guest data moves to your account. Otherwise we delete it after a limited period. We keep a small record to stop repeated guest creation.

Security data. Your sign-in sessions, with the device name and IP address (you can see and end your sessions in My Profile); records that limit abuse; server logs with the IP address, the page requested and browser details; and error reports with technical details and internal identifiers, such as your account id.

4. Why we use it, and on what legal basis

• Account, games, analysis, Socrates, lessons, puzzles, plan, beta, support, trying the service as a guest: contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
• Personalising lessons and explanations from your analysed games: contract.
• Measuring and improving answer quality from your ratings: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• Learning why people leave, from the optional reason given at deletion: legitimate interest.
• Security, abuse prevention, error fixing, staff audit logs: legitimate interest.
• Tax and accounting records for payments: legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).
• Launch waiting list emails: consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time.
• Keeping the waiting list up to date, and keeping a record after you unsubscribe: legitimate interest.

You must give an email address (or use Google sign-in) to have an account. Everything else is optional. We make no decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you by automated means alone.

5. Socrates and the AI providers

• A chess engine calculates, and Socrates explains.
• Google Gemini writes Socrates' answers. To do that it receives what the answer needs: the position and details of the game, the engine's findings, relevant chess knowledge, your question and the recent conversation, your SocraChess username (you can change it in your profile) and a short summary of your chess profile, so answers fit your level.
• OpenAI receives the text of your question, to find relevant chess knowledge.
• We use these providers' paid services, whose terms do not let them train their models on this data. They keep it for a limited time, for example to detect abuse and to meet legal duties. We do not use your conversations to train AI models.
• AI answers can be wrong. Check important conclusions on the board.

6. Who receives your data

We share your data only with those who need it to run the service. Our providers act on our instructions, under data-processing terms that require them to protect your data to the standard of this policy. Our providers include:

• Hetzner: servers, database, backups and file storage.
• Google (Gemini API) and OpenAI: Socrates (section 5).
• Resend: sending account emails.
• MailerLite: sending launch emails and SocraChess news to the waiting list.
• Sentry: error reports.

Independent services, each under its own privacy policy:

• Paddle, the seller of record for website subscriptions, handling payment, tax and invoices.
• Google Sign-In, only if you choose it.
• Google Play and the App Store, for purchases made in the apps.
• Chess.com and Lichess, which receive the username in our request when we fetch public games.

We also disclose data when the law requires it.

Our providers also process data outside the European Union, mainly in the United States. Where they do, we rely on an adequacy decision, including the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for certified providers, or on safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs). To get a copy of these safeguards, write to support@socrachess.ai.

7. Cookies and storage on your device

We use cookies and similar storage on your device that the service needs to work: to keep you signed in, to identify a guest before registration, to complete a sign-up, and to remember your settings and your work in progress. The apps use storage on your device in the same way, and keep your recent Socrates conversations there until you log out.

8. How long we keep data

We keep personal data for as long as the purpose below requires, and then delete it or make it anonymous. Where we say "a limited period", this is no longer than 24 months.

• Account, profile, games, notes, analyses, connected usernames, lessons, puzzles, beta applications and support messages: while your account exists; deleted when you delete it.
• Socrates conversations, answers and ratings: for a limited period, so that you can return to them and we can check answer quality. Questions asked inside lessons: while the account exists.
• Beta applications that never led to an account: for as long as we need them for the beta programme.
• One-time codes, unfinished registrations and abuse-limit records: only for the short time they are needed.
• Guest profiles: until they expire, if you do not register.
• Reasons for leaving: for a limited period, to understand why people leave, stored apart from any account.
• Launch waiting list: until you unsubscribe; after that we may keep a record, so that we respect your choice and can show your consent.
• Backups: for a limited period, to recover from failures; they are then deleted automatically.
• Server and security logs and error reports: for a limited period, to keep the service secure and to fix problems.
• Payment and tax records (kept by Paddle and, where we hold them, by us): as long as tax law requires.

9. Deleting your account

Delete your account on the website: My Profile > My Account > Delete Account. If your account has subscription or payment records, or is a staff account, it can't be deleted there: email support@socrachess.ai from your account's address and we will delete it for you. The steps are also on the Account Deletion page. Deletion is permanent. Copies in backups expire as described in section 8. We keep only what the law requires or what we need for a limited period to protect the service: payment and tax records, security logs, abuse-limit records and error reports. A reason for leaving, if you give one, is kept apart from your account. The waiting list is separate from your account: to leave it, use the unsubscribe link in any email. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription bought through Google Play or the App Store; cancel it in your store account.

10. Your rights

You can ask us to give you access to your data or a copy of it, correct it, delete it, restrict it, or send it to you in a portable format. You can also object to processing based on our legitimate interests. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time; this does not affect what we did before. Write to support@socrachess.ai; we answer within one month and may ask you to confirm your identity. You can complain to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (www.dpa.gr) or to the authority in your EU country.

11. Children

SocraChess is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from younger users. If you believe a younger person has an account, write to us and we will delete it.

12. Security

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, for example encrypted connections and hashed passwords. No system is perfectly secure.

13. Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will tell you in a reasonable way, for example in the app or by email.

Effective date: 6 November 2026.