Privacy Policy
Last updated: 6 August 2026
This policy explains what information SwapChess collects, what it is used for, and who else is involved. SwapChess is operated by Hayden Warfield. If anything here is unclear, or you want data removed, email haydenwarfield19@gmail.com.
There are no accounts and no database. Your games exist in server memory while you play and are gone when you finish. The one thing stored on your device by the site itself is the display name you type. The site shows Google ads, and Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies for that — which is the part of this policy that actually matters.
1. Information the site collects
Information you provide
The only information you can give SwapChess is a display name, entered on the landing page. It is optional; if you leave it blank you appear as "Player". It is sent to the server so your opponent can see it, and it is discarded when the game ends. It is not linked to any identifier and is not retained after the game.
Game data
While a game is in progress, the server keeps the board position, the move history and the room code in memory. This is deleted when the server process restarts and is never written to disk. There is no game archive, no rating system and no history you can go back to.
Technical information
Like any website, the server and its hosting provider receive standard request information — IP address, browser type, requested page and timestamp — as part of delivering the site and keeping it secure. The site is hosted on Railway, whose own privacy practices apply to that infrastructure logging.
2. Storage on your device
| What | Where | Purpose | How to remove it |
|---|---|---|---|
swapchess_name |
Browser local storage | Remembers the display name you typed so you do not retype it each visit. | Clear site data for this site in your browser settings. |
| Offline app cache | Service worker cache | Stores the page, stylesheet and logo so the interface loads without a connection. | Clear site data, or uninstall the app if you installed it. |
| Advertising cookies | Set by Google and its partners | Ad delivery, frequency capping, measurement and, where permitted, personalisation. | See section 3. |
SwapChess itself does not set any cookies. It uses local storage for the single item above.
3. Advertising
SwapChess is free and is funded by advertising. Ads are served by Google AdSense and appear only on the written pages of the site — the rules, strategy and about pages. There are no ads on the game screen.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
- You can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices, or for European users at youronlinechoices.eu.
- Google's own explanation of how it uses data from sites that use its services is at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Opting out of personalised ads does not remove ads. It means the ads you see are chosen without using your browsing history.
Users in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you will be shown a consent message before personalised advertising cookies are used, through a Google-certified consent management platform. You can decline, and you can change your choice later — the consent message can be reopened from the link Google's tool provides, or by clearing this site's cookies and reloading the page. Where you decline, only non-personalised ads are served, which still require limited cookie use for frequency capping, aggregate reporting and fraud prevention.
Users in California and other US states
SwapChess does not sell personal information for money. Some state privacy laws define "sale" or "sharing" broadly enough to include the transfer of advertising identifiers to ad partners. If you wish to opt out of that, use the Google Ads Settings link above and enable Global Privacy Control in your browser, which this site's ad partners honour where the law requires it. You may also email the address in section 8 to make a request.
4. Other third parties
| Service | Why it is used | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdSense | Serving the advertisements that fund the site | Your IP address, browser information and advertising cookies as described above |
| Google Fonts | Loading the two typefaces the site uses | Your IP address and browser information, when the font files are requested |
| Railway | Hosting the server | Standard server request logs |
There is no analytics package on this site. No Google Analytics, no tracking pixels, no heatmaps, no social media widgets, no email list.
5. What the site does not do
- No user accounts, passwords or email addresses are collected.
- No payment information is collected; nothing on the site is for sale.
- No game history, rating or profile is retained about you.
- Personal information is not sold, rented or traded.
- Chat between players does not exist, so no messages are stored.
6. Children
SwapChess is not directed at children under 13, and it does not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided personal information through this site, email the address below and it will be deleted.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or restrict the processing of your personal information, to object to processing, or to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority. Because the site keeps no accounts and no persistent records, there is in practice very little for it to hold about you — the display name is discarded when your game ends, and everything else on your device can be removed by clearing site data. For anything held by Google in connection with advertising, use the Google links in section 3, which give you direct control.
8. Contact
Questions, requests or complaints about this policy: haydenwarfield19@gmail.com
9. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the "last updated" date at the top of the page will change with it. Material changes to how data is handled will be described here rather than made silently.