Effective 25 August 2026

Privacy Policy

This policy covers Gambit, the iOS chess puzzle app published by John Palmer ("I", "me"). It is written to be read, not to be survived.

What the app collects

Nothing. Gambit has no servers, no back end, and no code that opens a network connection. There is no sign-up, no login, and no profile.

The app does keep a record of your play — puzzles solved, coins, badges, streaks, weekly track progress, and your notification preferences. That record is stored only on your device, in the app's own storage. It is never uploaded, never transmitted, and never seen by me. Deleting the app deletes it.

If you have iCloud device backups turned on, your device backup may include that file, in the same way it includes other apps' data. That backup is between you and Apple; I have no access to it.

Purchases and subscriptions

Gambit offers an optional auto-renewing subscription (Gambit Archive) and a coin pack. All purchases are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store and StoreKit.

• I never see, receive, or store your payment details — not your card, not your billing address, not your Apple Account credentials.
• The app asks StoreKit on your device whether a subscription is currently active. That check happens locally against a receipt Apple has already placed on the device, which is why it works offline.
• Apple provides me with aggregate, anonymised sales and subscription reports. These contain no information that identifies you.

Apple's handling of your purchase is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy, not by this one.

Game Center

Gambit can report scores and achievements to Game Center if you are signed in to it. Game Center is Apple's service, and using it is your choice.

• If you are not signed in to Game Center, nothing is reported and the app carries on normally.
• If you are signed in, Apple handles your Game Center identity and any leaderboard or achievement data under Apple's Privacy Policy. I receive no personal information from it.
• You can turn Game Center off for the app in iOS Settings at any time.

Notifications

The optional daily and end-of-week reminders are local notifications, scheduled on your device by the app itself. There is no push server and no device token is ever sent anywhere. Turning them off in the app, or in iOS Settings, stops them completely.

No analytics, ads, or trackers

Gambit contains no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK, no crash-reporting SDK, and no third-party libraries that phone home. There is no advertising identifier, no fingerprinting, and no tracking across apps or websites. Nothing to opt out of, because there is nothing running.

Children

Gambit does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age, because it does not collect personal information at all.

This website

These pages are hosted on Cloudflare Pages. There is no analytics script, no advertising and no tracking cookie on this site. Cloudflare processes standard server request data (such as IP address) to serve and protect the site, as any web host does; see Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.

The contact form

The form on the support page is the only place in Gambit or on this site where you can send me anything.

• What you type — your name, your email address, and your message — is emailed to me so that I can reply.
• It is used only to answer you. It is never sold, shared, added to a mailing list, or used for marketing.
• Correspondence is kept only as long as it is useful for support, and you can ask me to delete it.
• The form uses a simple spam check on the submitted values. It does not use a third-party captcha that profiles you.

Your rights

Data protection law (including the GDPR and the CCPA) gives you rights to access, correct, or delete personal data held about you. In Gambit's case there is nothing held about you to access, correct or delete — the app collects none. If you have written to me through the support form, you can ask me to delete that correspondence and I will.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the effective date at the top of this page changes with it, and the current version always lives at this URL. Material changes that affect what the app does will be described in the app's release notes.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about privacy in Gambit, go through the contact form on the support page. It reaches me directly.

Gambit is an independent app by John Palmer. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Apple Inc.