Who we are
Modern Chess Academy is operated by Giorgi Sibashvili. This policy covers https://modernchess.academy and the Academy features accessed through our mobile apps. For privacy questions or requests, use our contact page.
Academy accounts and training data
We store the account information you provide, including your name, email address, account identifier and profile information. We use this information to sign you in, manage access and provide support. Your saved course progress, study and review results, puzzle activity, ratings, Coins and preferences are associated with your Academy account so that you can continue training across sessions and devices. PGN files and annotations that you save to My Files are also associated with your account.
Where you participate in Academy leaderboards, your displayed identity and ranking or score may be visible to other users. You can manage leaderboard participation in your profile preferences.
Sign in with Apple
Where Sign in with Apple is available, we use the Apple account identifier and any name or email address Apple provides to create, connect or authenticate your Academy account. If you choose Hide My Email, we receive Apple’s relay email address instead of your personal email address. We do not receive your Apple password.
Memberships and payments
If you purchase a membership through the Android app, Google Play processes your payment. Modern Chess Academy uses purchase references and subscription status to verify your purchase, link membership access to your Academy account, restore access and handle renewals, cancellations, refunds and expiry. Purchase verification takes place on our server. We do not receive your full payment-card details from Google Play. You can manage or cancel your Google Play subscription at Google Play subscription management. Deleting your Academy account or uninstalling the app does not automatically cancel your Google Play subscription. Cancel renewals in Google Play if you do not want further renewal charges. Google retains its own transaction records under its policies.
Payment records and providers
We keep purchase and membership records, including the purchased plan or course, payment status, transaction references and access dates, to provide paid access, administer renewals and handle support. Billing information you provide during checkout is processed for these purposes. Where Stripe checkout is used, Stripe may collect device identifiers, device characteristics and interaction data to process payments, prevent fraud and analyse the performance of its services. See Stripe’s Privacy Policy for details. Website payments use payment providers such as Stripe or PayPal; those providers process payment details under their own privacy policies. Available payment methods vary by platform.
Usage statistics
We use WP Statistics to understand visits and page activity, including approximate geographic information derived from IP addresses. Our current WP Statistics configuration enables IP anonymization and hashing. Account-linked training records, such as course progress and puzzle results, are separate from these website statistics.
Account deletion and privacy choices
Signed-in students can request permanent account deletion from Profile settings > Delete account, or open the account-deletion page. After the final confirmation, you are signed out and automatic account cleanup begins. No administrator approval or email approval is required. Account deletion removes access to your Academy account and its associated training data. Records that must be retained for legal, accounting or security purposes may be kept as described below.
Deleting an Academy account does not automatically cancel recurring subscriptions. Before deleting your account, cancel renewals with the provider that bills you. The deletion page provides links to Academy membership management, Apple subscription management and Google Play subscription management. Payment providers may retain their own records under their policies and legal obligations. You can also contact us to request access to, correction of, export of or deletion of your personal data.
Google sign-in
Where Google sign-in is available, choosing it lets us receive your Google account identifier, name, email address and profile picture, where available. We use this information to create or identify your Modern Chess Academy account and sign you in. An existing Academy account with the same email address may be linked to your Google account.
Google sign-in does not give us your Google password or access to your Gmail inbox. We use login cookies to keep you signed in; you can end your Academy session by logging out.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we use cookies to maintain your authenticated session and remember display choices. Selecting “Remember Me” enables a persistent session, subject to expiry and security checks. Logging out ends your current Academy session. You can also manage cookies through your browser or device settings; disabling necessary cookies may prevent sign-in or other account features from working.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who we share your data with
We use service providers for hosting, authentication, payment processing, transactional email, spam protection and delivery of embedded content. These providers receive the information needed to perform those functions. We do not sell student information or share it with advertising services for our advertising, and we do not currently send newsletters or promotional emails. Account, security, purchase and support messages are operational communications. If you request a password reset, information about the request may be processed by our email and security services.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
We keep account and training information while your account remains active so that we can provide the service. You can manage available profile fields and request account deletion using the controls described above. Authorized administrators can access account information for support and administration. Some transaction and security records may remain after deletion where needed for accounting, legal obligations, fraud prevention or resolving disputes; payment providers also apply their own retention policies.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.