Privacy Policy

Who we are

Blackbox Chess operates blackboxchess.app, a chess analysis platform that generates personalized reports, training drills, and opening videos from your game history.

What we collect

When you use Blackbox Chess we may collect and store the following:

• Your chess username (Chess.com or Lichess) or uploaded PGN game data
• Your email address if you create an account or opt in to notifications
• Your game history as fetched from Chess.com or Lichess public APIs
• Generated analysis reports, drill libraries, and opening fact sheets tied to your account
• Payment records (order IDs and status only - card data is never stored by us)
• Your IP address and browser user agent in standard server access logs
• Anonymous usage events (page views, report generation, drill answers) tied to a visitor ID

Opening videos and AI processing

When you purchase an opening video, your game data and opening analysis are processed by the following AI services to generate the video:

• Google Gemini - generates the voiceover script from your opening analysis data
• Microsoft Edge TTS - converts the script to audio
• OpenAI Whisper - transcribes the audio to align timecodes
• Stockfish - performs chess engine analysis (runs on our servers, no third party)

Generated videos are stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS S3). Download links expire after 48 hours. The video script and voiceover are AI-generated based on your game data. They are reviewed for accuracy but are not guaranteed to be error-free.

Social media posting

By purchasing an opening video, you consent to Blackbox Chess posting your video to its social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube). You may choose whether your chess username appears in the video or is anonymized - this choice is presented at checkout. Social media platforms (Meta, TikTok, Google/YouTube) receive your video content as part of this posting process and handle it under their own privacy policies. Videos posted to social platforms may be subject to those platforms' content policies and may be removed by them independently of any action by Blackbox Chess.

Cookies and technical data

We use cookies and browser storage for site functionality: keeping you logged in, security, rate limiting, and remembering your preferences. We use PostHog for anonymous product analytics. PostHog may set cookies to track usage patterns. Server access logs containing IP addresses are retained for a limited period for security and debugging purposes.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store your card number, CVV, or full payment details on our servers. Stripe handles all payment data under their own privacy policy and PCI compliance program.

Third-party services

We use the following third-party services that may process your data:

• Stripe - payment processing
• Resend - transactional email delivery
• Supabase / PostgreSQL - database hosting
• Render - application hosting
• Amazon Web Services (S3) - video and audio file storage
• PostHog - product analytics
• Google Gemini API - AI script generation for videos
• OpenAI (Whisper) - audio transcription for video timecode alignment
• Microsoft Edge TTS - text-to-speech audio generation
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram API) - social media posting
• TikTok Content Posting API - social media posting
• YouTube Data API - social media posting

Data retention

Reports and associated game data are retained indefinitely to allow you to access your analysis history. You may request deletion of your data by contacting us at the email below. Video files on AWS S3 are retained until manually removed or until your download link expires.

Your rights

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting us. If you are located in the European Union, you have additional rights under the GDPR including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

California residents (CCPA)

Blackbox Chess does not sell your personal information to third parties. California residents may request access to or deletion of their personal data by contacting us at the email below.

Contact

Privacy questions or data requests: blackboxchess@gmail.com