Privacy Policy
The Chess Timer is a free chess clock that runs in your browser. You don’t create an account and you never type in personal details. This page explains what data is involved when you use the site and what you can do about it.
Who is responsible
The Chess Timer team is responsible for this website (thechesstimer.com). For anything about your data, write to [email protected].
What stays on your device
The clock saves your settings and the game in progress in your browser’s local storage, so they are still there after a reload or when you come back. This data stays on your device: the stored values themselves are never sent anywhere. What we measure with analytics is described below.
| Key | What it holds |
|---|---|
tct:v1:settings |
Your last time control and display preferences (layout, sound, low-time warning, theme and similar) |
tct:v1:game |
The game in progress, so you can continue it after a reload. Deleted when the game ends or is reset. |
tct:v1:stats |
How many games you have finished on this device, so that the install suggestion only appears after your first game |
tct:v1:install |
When you dismissed the install suggestion |
tct:v1:consent |
Your answer to the analytics question, and when you gave it |
tct:v1:wakelockTipSeen |
That you have seen the tip about turning off auto-lock |
This storage is needed for the clock to work the way you set it up and to remember your choices (§ 25(2) no. 2 of the German TDDDG). To delete all of it, clear the site data for thechesstimer.com in your browser settings.
When you add The Chess Timer to your home screen or use it offline, your browser also keeps a copy of the site’s files (pages, styles, fonts and icons) in its cache. That copy contains no personal data.
Hosting
The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, a service of Cloudflare, Inc. (USA). Like any web server, Cloudflare processes technical data when your browser requests a page – your IP address, the address requested, the time and your browser’s user agent – to deliver the site and protect it against attacks. We do not use Cloudflare Web Analytics and have no access to individual request logs. Cloudflare is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Where the GDPR applies, the legal basis is our legitimate interest in running a secure website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Details are in Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
All fonts and files come from our own domain. Apart from Google Analytics (see below), the site loads no third-party content: no Google Fonts, no social media buttons and no ads.
Google Analytics
To learn which time controls and features people actually use, we use Google Analytics 4, provided by Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) and Google LLC (USA).
In Europe, we ask first. When your device is set to a European time zone, a banner asks whether you allow analytics. Google Analytics is not loaded until you choose “Accept”; if you choose “Decline”, it is never loaded. You can change your choice at any time with the “Cookie settings” link in the footer. If you withdraw your consent, we delete the Google Analytics cookies and stop sending events; a Google Analytics script that is already loaded keeps running without cookies until you reload or leave the page. As a second safeguard, Google Analytics sets no cookies by default for visitors whom Google locates in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and, for storing cookies, § 25(1) of the German TDDDG).
Everywhere else, Google Analytics loads after the page has finished loading.
What we measure: the pages you visit, and these events: the time control you pick; when a game starts, ends, is reset or is continued after a reload (with its length and number of moves); whether you opened the site as an installed app; settings you change; language switches; and the install suggestion. Google also records technical information such as your browser, device type and an approximate location (country or city) derived from your IP address. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. We do not use Google’s advertising features or Google signals, and we never combine analytics data with anything that identifies you.
Google Analytics sets the cookies _ga and _ga_<ID>, which expire after at most 2 years. Event-level data is deleted automatically after 2 months; after that, only aggregated reports remain. Google may process data in the USA; Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. You can also block Google Analytics with your browser’s cookie settings or the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. More in Google’s privacy policy.
Your rights
Where the GDPR applies, you have the right to access your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its processing, to data portability, and to withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority. Because we never ask for your name or email address, we usually cannot link analytics data to you, but if you write to us we will help as far as we can. The data on your device is in your hands: clearing the site data removes it.
Children
Players of all ages use The Chess Timer, and it never asks for personal information. If you are under 16, please ask a parent or guardian before you allow analytics.
Changes
If we change how the site handles data, we will update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions about privacy: [email protected]