Privacy Policy
For the app on Apple devices · Effective date: 30 October 2026
The Grandpa's Checkers app for Apple devices (the "app") is made by William Termini (ABN 47 283 458 067), Australia ("we", "us"), reachable at privacy@termini.me. There are no accounts, no device identifiers, no tracking and no analytics code in the app. The only third-party code in it is the Go runtime the computer opponent is built with, and that sends nothing anywhere.
1. Kept on your device
- Your settings, such as sound, move hints and chat, and which country, if any, you have chosen to show your opponents.
- Your record of games won, lost and drawn.
- A game against the computer in progress, so it is still there if the app is closed.
- A resume token: a random code our server gives the app, kept on your device and sent each time the app connects, so you can get back into a game after a dropped connection. It identifies a session, not you, and does not last: once the app has been disconnected for a short while the session expires, and the server issues a new token the next time it connects.
- Whether you have agreed to our Online Terms of Use and acknowledged this policy: the version of each and the date, shown in the app's Settings, and the latest versions our website has reported to the app.
- Whether you are old enough for online play (14, or the higher age some countries set), if the app asked the year you were born (and the month, when the year alone does not tell) because Apple could not tell it or you chose not to share your age range: only whether you are old enough, the age it was measured against, and the date. The year itself is not kept, and none of it is sent to us. If you are not old enough, the app asks again after a year, or when your App Store country's age is different.
- How many times you have opened the app and how many games you have finished, so it knows when to ask whether you would like to rate it. The request is Apple's own, which Apple shows at most a few times a year; any rating you give goes to Apple, under Apple's privacy policy.
Of these, only the token, your chat setting and your choice of country are sent to our server. Deleting the app deletes all of it, and stops it contacting us. The computer plays on your device, and your games against it are never sent to us or anyone else.
2. Our game server
Once you have acknowledged this policy, and if you are old enough for online play (section 4), the app fetches its current settings from our website and connects to our game server when it opens, so it can show whether anyone is around and offer you an online game. Until you first acknowledge it, nothing is sent to us. After that, the app also checks our website for a newer version of this policy or of our Online Terms of Use each time it opens (and when it comes back after several hours away). If there is one, it asks you to take a look before it connects to our game server again. (Opening one of our pages from the app, such as this one, is a visit to our website, covered by its own Privacy Policy.) Once connected, it sends the version of the protocol it speaks (one number, the same for every copy of the app), your resume token, your chat setting, which is shown to your opponent, and which country, if any, you have chosen to show your opponent. Its connection also names the app's version and whether it runs on iOS or macOS. While you play the computer it tells the server only that you are open to an online game, so you can be offered one; your game itself stays on your device. In an online game it sends your moves and the set phrases you choose, which are passed to your opponent. Nothing sent carries a name, an account or a device identifier. Your IP address could sometimes identify you, so we treat it as personal information and keep it only as described below.
While you are connected, the server holds in memory only:
- the game in progress, your resume token, a random label for your session, your chat setting, your choice of country and when you were last active;
- your IP address, to stop any one network from overloading the game (our proxy also counts recent connections and requests per address, and forgets an address ten minutes after its last connection or request); and
- the country your connection comes from. It is looked up from your IP address in a database on our own server, with no request to anyone else, and is never more precise than the country (IP Geolocation by DB-IP). It is shown to your opponent only if you choose to show it. You can choose a country yourself instead, or show none, which is how the app starts.
Games between two people are not saved: their moves are held only in memory for the game and never written to disk. What the server does write to disk is:
- game results: when a game was played, which side won, how it ended and how many moves it took, with nothing about who played (no name, address, IP address, country, device, session or label), and we don't try to link them to anyone. We use them to see how much the game is played and how games go. Game results are kept for as long as the service runs. Because they hold nothing about who played, we can't find or delete any one person's results.
- logs with IP addresses: access logs with the address of each request, and the security logs and block lists of addresses refused or blocked for failed logins to the server. They are used only to run and protect the service, and every log is deleted within 14 days.
3. Why, and who else handles it
We use your IP address and what is linked to it, and your email if you write to us, under our legitimate interest in running the game, keeping it secure and answering you (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). Apart from your chat setting and any country you choose to show, shown to your opponent as described above, only the company that hosts our server and our email provider handle it, and we disclose it otherwise only if the law requires. They may store or process it outside Australia and the European Union. The company that hosts our server does not access what is on it except as needed to run the server or when the law requires, and our email provider handles emails under its own privacy policy. We may retain any email you send us unless and until you expressly ask us to delete it. We do not guarantee that any email will be retained for any period, and we may delete emails at any time without notice. Apple handles your download under its own privacy policy, and passes us anonymous crash reports only if you have chosen to share them with developers.
4. Children
Grandpa's Checkers is made for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13, or the higher age at which your local law lets you consent for yourself (14 in Quebec). There are no accounts, and we collect no personal information from anyone beyond the connection details described above. We use connection details only to run and protect the game, never to contact anyone or build a profile. If we learn that a child under that age has sent us personal information, for example by email, we will delete it. Parents can contact privacy@termini.me.
Online play in the app is for players 14 and over, or the higher age the law of your App Store country sets (15, 16 or 18 in some countries). Each time the app opens, before it first contacts our website or our game server, it asks Apple for your age range, and only whether you are that age or over, where your device can (iOS, iPadOS or macOS 26.2 or later). Apple's answer stays in your device's memory while the app is open, is never sent to us or stored, and is used only to decide whether you can play online. If Apple cannot tell, or you choose not to share your age range, the app asks the year you were born instead, as described in section 1. If you are not old enough, the app does not contact our website or our game server at all: you can play the computer, but not people online.
5. Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR, the Australian Privacy Act or the CCPA), you may have the right to access, correct or delete information about you, to receive a copy of it, to restrict or object to its use, and to complain to your local data protection authority. We hold almost nothing that identifies you, but you are welcome to ask and we will answer within 30 days. We don't sell or share personal information, as US state privacy laws use those terms.
6. Changes and contact
Each version of this policy is dated, and earlier versions are listed at grandpascheckers.com/apps/apple/privacy/history. When we make a change, the app shows you the new version and asks you to acknowledge it before it connects to our server again.
Questions, requests or complaints: privacy@termini.me. We will reply within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au) or your local authority.
Do Not Track: we don't track anyone across websites or apps, and no third party can do so through Grandpa's Checkers, so we treat every visitor as if a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal were on.
Online Terms of Use · Support · The website's Privacy Policy · Earlier versions