Privacy Policy

Effective: August 24, 2026

The short version. This website collects nothing: no cookies, no analytics, no trackers. The waitlist runs on beehiiv, which collects your email when you sign up there. The app, when it launches, collects what the game needs to work: your birth year, your sign-in, your progress, and whether your membership is active. We do not sell your information, we do not build advertising profiles, and members never see ads.

1. Who we are

Wickmate (“we”, “us”) is a chess game published by StarChart, based in Florida, USA. This policy covers two things: this website, and the Wickmate iOS app. You can reach us any time using the contact details in section 15.

2. This website

This site is a static page. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads no third-party trackers, fonts, or scripts. Everything it shows is served from the site itself. We do not collect any personal data from your visit. Our hosting provider may keep standard, short-lived server logs (IP address, page requested) to run and secure the service, as every host does.

3. The waitlist

The “Join the waitlist” buttons take you to our newsletter on beehiiv (wickmate.beehiiv.com), a third-party newsletter service with its own privacy policy. If you sign up there, beehiiv collects your email address, along with standard signup metadata such as the time and a tag in the link telling it which button on our site you clicked, and stores it on our behalf so we can email you about Wickmate's launch. Your browser is told not to send the usual referrer header, so beehiiv learns only what that tag says. We use it for nothing else, we never sell or share the list, and every email includes an unsubscribe link that works immediately. You can also email us (section 15) and we will remove you from the list and delete your address.

4. Who can use Wickmate

Wickmate is a general-audience game intended for players aged 13 and over. It is not a children's app and is not directed to children under 13.

When you first open the app we ask for your birth year before anything else (a neutral question, asked once, before any other data is collected). If you are under 13, we stop there: you cannot create an account, and we collect nothing further. We keep only the fact that the device was found ineligible, so we don't ask again. If we ever discover we hold personal data from a child under 13, we delete it.

5. What the app collects

Birth year, from the age screen. We store the year only, never a full date of birth.
Account details: your email address, or the identifier provided by Sign in with Apple or Google if you use those. Sign in with Apple's private relay is fully supported, so you can hide your real address from us.
Your progress: puzzle rating, streaks, campaign and keeper results, the moves of games you play in the app, Pawns balance, energy balance, and which cosmetics you own.
Membership status: whether your trial or subscription is active, and when it renews. We receive this from Apple through RevenueCat.
Active time in the app, used for the Reclaimed Time feature. This measures only the time you spend inside Wickmate. It does not and cannot see your usage of any other app.
A push notification token, if you allow notifications.
Basic technical data: device type, operating system version, app version, and crash and error reports.

6. What we do not collect

We do not collect your location, your contacts, your photos, your microphone or camera, your health data, or any advertising identifier (IDFA). We do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not build advertising profiles.

Because we do not use the IDFA or track you across other companies' apps and websites, Wickmate does not ask for App Tracking Transparency permission. If it ever needs to, iOS will ask you first and the answer is yours. The app stores some things on your own device so it can work offline and remember where you were, such as your settings and your progress since the last sync. That stays on your phone, is not an advertising identifier, and goes when you delete the app.

The app contains no third-party ad networks today. Members will never see ads. That is a standing rule, not a current state. If the free version ever adds optional rewarded videos, we will update this policy first and it will describe exactly what the ad provider receives before any ad is shown.

7. How we use what we collect, and on what basis

To run the game: save your progress, rank your puzzles, keep your streak, and meter energy. (Performing our contract with you.)
To confirm your membership status, so the app knows what you've paid for. (Contract.)
To generate your game commentary and weekly recap. (Contract: see section 8.)
To send the notifications you have agreed to receive. (Consent: off until you allow them.)
To fix crashes and understand which parts of the app work, in aggregate. (Legitimate interest in a working product.)
To detect abuse of the currency, trials, energy, or leaderboards. (Legitimate interest in a fair game.)

We do not use your data to make decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects, and there is no automated profiling beyond ranking your puzzles by skill.

8. Game commentary and AI

When you ask for a written review of a game, we send the moves of that chess game to Anthropic, an AI provider, whose API writes the commentary you read. We send the moves and nothing else: no name, no email, and no account identifier. Anthropic processes this under its commercial API terms and does not use it to train its models. The app tells you this is how the feature works before you first use it, and the feature never runs unless you ask for a review.

Reviews are generated automatically and are meant to help you learn chess. They are written by software and can be wrong.

9. Who we share data with

We use a small number of service providers, who process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Supabase: hosts our database and handles sign-in. (privacy policy)
RevenueCat: manages subscription status and validates purchase receipts. (privacy policy)
PostHog: product analytics, so we can see which screens work. Used in aggregate, not to identify you, and never before the age screen. (privacy policy)
Anthropic: generates the written game commentary. See section 8. (privacy policy)
Apple: handles all payments and delivers push notifications. (privacy policy)
beehiiv: runs the email waitlist and newsletter. See section 3. (privacy policy)

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or ourselves. If Wickmate is ever sold or transferred, your information may transfer with it, and we will say so here first.

10. Payments

All purchases (the membership and any Pawn bundles) are handled by Apple through the App Store. Your card and billing details are entered on Apple's systems, never ours. We never see or store your payment information. We receive only a confirmation of what you bought and whether it is still active.

11. How long we keep data

Your account and progress: for as long as your account exists. If your membership lapses we keep your progress, so it is still there if you come back.
Game commentary: kept with the game it describes, and removed with your account.
Analytics: retained in aggregate; individual event records are removed after 12 months.
Crash reports: up to 90 days.
Waitlist emails: until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them, or until we retire the list after launch.
Records of an under-13 age check: only the minimum needed to avoid re-asking.
Purchase records: as long as tax and accounting law requires, typically seven years.

12. Your rights and choices

You can access, correct, export, or delete your data. The simplest route is Settings → Delete account and data in the app, which permanently removes your account, progress, commentary, and analytics records: the whole account, not a deactivation. Deleting your account does not cancel your subscription: cancel that through your Apple subscription settings, or you will continue to be charged.

We honor access, correction, deletion, and portability requests from residents of any U.S. state, whether or not a specific state law technically applies to a developer our size. Email us and we will act on it within 45 days. If we refuse a request, we will say why, and you can appeal by replying to our decision; a different person will review it. We do not sell personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of selling, and we will never discriminate against you for exercising any right.

Some browsers can send a Global Privacy Control signal, and some devices carry a Do Not Track setting. We treat a GPC signal as a valid opt-out of any sale or sharing of personal information, and we do not track you across other apps or websites in the first place, so there is nothing for either signal to switch off. We are telling you this so you do not have to take our word for the sentence above.

If you are in the EU, UK, or a country with similar laws, you additionally have the rights to restrict or object to processing, to withdraw consent at any time, and to complain to your local supervisory authority. Our legal bases are listed in section 7.

13. Players aged 13 to 17

We know some of our players are minors, and we hold their data to a tighter standard: we collect the minimum needed to run the game, we never sell it, and we never use it to target advertising. The app shows no third-party advertising today; section 6 explains what would have to change first, and we would describe any change here before it reached anyone. Purchases are controlled by Apple's own family features, including Ask to Buy. Where Apple provides age-range signals required by state law (such as Texas), we use them only to meet those obligations. If you are a parent or guardian and want your child's account removed, email us and we will delete it.

14. Security and international transfers

Data is transmitted over HTTPS and stored with reputable providers under written data-processing agreements. No system is completely secure, so we cannot promise absolute security. Our providers are based in the United States; where data is transferred from the EU or UK, it is protected by each provider's certification under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework or by Standard Contractual Clauses, whichever that provider offers.

If a breach ever affects your personal data, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of it where the law requires that, and we will tell you directly, without undue delay, whenever the breach is likely to put you at risk. We will say what happened, what data was involved, and what we are doing about it.

15. Contact us

Email: wickmate@outlook.com
Post: StarChart, 21218 St. Andrews Blvd #720, Boca Raton, FL 33433, USA

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the product changes, and we will update it before a change in practice, not after. The date at the top is the version. If a change meaningfully affects how we use your data, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.