Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of information, depending on how you use Backgammoner:

Account information

When you create an account we collect your email address, username and first and last name, and store a securely hashed version of your password (we never store your password in plain text). If you choose a country flag or an avatar (picked from our own set of illustrations — we don’t accept photo uploads), we store that choice too. If you tick “Keep me updated” when you sign up, we note that choice; we don’t send marketing emails today, and if we ever do, only people who opted in will receive them.

Sign-in providers

If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account identifier, your verified email address and your first and last name. If you sign in with Apple (“Sign in with Apple”), we receive your Apple user identifier, your email address (or Apple’s private relay address) and, if you choose to share it, your name. We use these to create or match your account. You can also play as a guest without an account, in which case we generate a random guest identifier that stays on your device.

Gameplay data

To run the game and its features, we store data about the games you play: moves and dice, game results, your rating (ELO), win/loss and other statistics, leaderboard standing, analyses of your games, practice and Coach progress, achievements, and (if you use them) social features such as friends and friend requests, game invitations and in-game emoji reactions. Game analysis runs on our own servers; your games are not sent to an outside analysis service.

Purchases (Backgammoner Pro)

If you subscribe to Backgammoner Pro, we keep a record of your subscription: the plan (monthly or annual), its status, its renewal or end date, whether you have used the free trial, and the identifiers the store gives us for it. On the website, payment is handled by Stripe: we store your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, and Stripe receives your email address and username to set up your customer record. Your card details are entered on Stripe’s page and never reach our servers. In the iOS app, payment is handled by Apple through In-App Purchase: the app sends us the signed transaction Apple issues, which we verify on our server, and Apple notifies our server directly of renewals, cancellations and refunds. We never see your Apple payment details.

Push notifications

If you allow notifications, we store your device’s push token (on iPhone, the token Apple Push Notification service gives the app; in a browser, the push subscription your browser creates), your device’s time zone (so we don’t notify you at night), and which kinds of notification you want — friend requests, accepted friend requests, game invitations, achievements and “your clock is running” reminders. Notifications are only for signed-in accounts. You can turn each kind off in Settings, or turn notifications off entirely in your device or browser settings.

Device & usage information

Like most online services, our servers automatically receive technical information such as your IP address, browser or device type, and basic usage and connection data (including your online/presence status while connected and when you were last active). We use this to operate the service, keep it secure, limit abuse, and prevent cheating.

Product analytics, session replay & crash reports

We record how the website and the app are used — which screens are opened, which features are used, and errors and crashes — so we can fix bugs and improve the product. This includes session replay, which records how the screen is used during a visit. See Cookies & analytics below for exactly what is collected and by whom.

Support, feedback & bug reports

When you contact us through our Support page or from the app, we receive your message, its category, the email address you give us so we can reply, and your name if you provide it. A bug report sent from the iOS app’s Support screen also includes your app version, iOS version, device model, your username (or guest identifier) and your last game’s identifier. When you send feedback, we store your rating, your message, the platform and the app version. When you report a bug from a game, we store your note, a snapshot of that game, and diagnostics from your device: app version, device and operating system or browser, screen size, language, time zone, connection health, and the last few game events and errors.

Cookies & analytics

We use a small number of cookies and analytics tools — see Cookies & analytics below.

2. How we use your information

We use the information above to:

• Provide the game — matchmaking, live multiplayer, saving and analysing your games, and playing against our bots.
• Create and secure your account, and authenticate you when you sign in.
• Maintain ratings, statistics, leaderboards, achievements, and social features.
• Process Backgammoner Pro subscriptions and give subscribers access to Pro features.
• Send the notifications you allowed, and the emails the service needs: a welcome email, password resets, email-address changes, and account-deletion confirmations.
• Keep the service reliable and safe — including detecting and preventing cheating, fraud, and abuse.
• Find and fix bugs and crashes, and understand how the product is used so we can improve it (analytics and session replay).
• Respond to your support requests, feedback, and bug reports.
• Send you product updates only if you opted in; you can unsubscribe at any time.
• Comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not use your gameplay data to give any player an advantage in live play.

3. Legal bases (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we process your information on these legal bases:

• Performance of a contract — to provide the game, the account features you ask for, and any subscription you buy.
• Legitimate interests — to keep the service secure, prevent abuse, fix bugs, and improve the product (including analytics and session replay), balanced against your rights.
• Consent — for push notifications (which you allow on your device or in your browser) and optional marketing emails. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with the law, for example purchase records.

4. Cookies & analytics

On the website we use cookies and similar technologies for two purposes:

• Essential — a sign-in cookie (a JSON Web Token) that keeps you logged in as you move around the site, and a small cookie that remembers a guest has played their online game. Your browser’s local storage also keeps your board and game preferences and which tips you have dismissed. Without the sign-in cookie, accounts and multiplayer wouldn’t work.
• Analytics — Vercel Analytics counts page views without cookies, and PostHog, described below, sets no cookies either. We use no advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

We also use PostHog, a product-analytics service, hosted in the European Union. Here is what it does:

• On the website, PostHog keeps everything in memory for the length of a page visit and sets no cookies. The only thing kept on your device is a small list of which features are switched on, with no identifier attached. It records the pages you view and actions such as signing up or starting a game, and errors that occur in your browser.
• In the iOS app, PostHog records the same kinds of actions, when the app is opened or put in the background, and crash reports (sent the next time you open the app).
• On our servers, PostHog receives errors that occur while handling your requests, so we can fix them.
• Your identity in PostHog: when you are signed in, these records are linked to your account identifier, your username and whether you have Pro — never your email address or real name. As with any web request, PostHog receives your IP address.
• Session replay on the website records how the page is used during a visit — what appears on screen, clicks, scrolls and navigation — so we can see and fix bugs. What you type into text fields is masked and never recorded.
• Session replay in the iOS app, where enabled, works the same way using screenshots of the app’s own screens, with text fields masked.

Analytics and session replays are used only to fix bugs and improve Backgammoner. They are never used for advertising and never sold. Backgammoner shows no ads, the iOS app contains no advertising SDK, and the app does not track you across apps and websites owned by other companies (it does not use Apple’s advertising identifier).

You can control cookies through your browser settings, and content blockers can block the analytics scripts. Blocking essential cookies may prevent you from signing in.

5. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who help us run Backgammoner, and only as needed:

• Vercel — hosting for this website, and cookieless page-view analytics.
• Railway — hosting for our game servers and databases, which hold your account, games and the other data described above.
• PostHog (EU hosting) — product analytics, session replay, and error and crash reports, as described in section 4.
• Google — Google Sign-In (if you use it).
• Apple — “Sign in with Apple”, In-App Purchase payments and subscription notifications, Apple Push Notification service (which delivers notifications to your iPhone using your device’s push token), and App Store distribution.
• Stripe — payments for subscriptions bought on the website; receives your email address and username, and handles your card details directly.
• Your browser’s push service — if you allow notifications in a browser, they are delivered through the push service your browser vendor runs (for example Apple, Google or Mozilla).
• Resend — sends our emails (welcome, password reset, email-address change, account deletion) and delivers messages and bug reports you send us to our support mailbox; receives the recipient’s email address and the message.
• Telegram — our private operations channel, read only by the operator, receives a short line when an account is created (username, sign-up method, web or iOS), when a game with a human player starts or ends (usernames and result), and the first 200 characters of each support message with any email address removed. It never receives your email address.

Other players see what Backgammoner shows publicly: your username, avatar, country flag, rating, game counts, and your place on the leaderboards. While your profile is public (the default — you can turn it off in Settings), it also shows when you joined, your Coach statistics and your recent games. Your real name is never shown in full to other players. Your email address is never shown to anyone.

These providers process data on our behalf under their own terms and safeguards. We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of our users and the service.

6. Retention & account deletion

We keep your account and gameplay data for as long as your account exists, so your history, rating, and statistics are available to you. Password-reset and similar email links expire after 30 minutes. Guest play is not linked to an account.

You can delete your account yourself at any time: in the iOS app, go to Profile → Settings → Manage account → Delete account; on the website, go to Settings → Manage account → Delete account. Deleting your account erases your profile, email address, name, rating, friends and friend requests, achievements, practice progress, push tokens, subscription record, and the feedback and bug reports linked to your account. Your finished games stay in your opponents’ history, with your seat left blank — nothing in them identifies you. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke Backgammoner’s access to your Apple ID. A subscription bought on the website is cancelled automatically; a subscription bought through Apple can only be cancelled by you, in your Apple Account’s subscription settings.

Some records are kept by others or for legal reasons: Stripe and Apple keep their own payment records under their legal obligations, and messages you sent us remain in our support mailbox. Analytics, session replays and crash reports in PostHog are linked to your account identifier only; you can ask us to delete them too. To request deletion, or if you can’t use the in-app option, contact us through the Support page.

7. Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information — for example, hashing passwords, using encrypted (HTTPS) connections, and limiting access to data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your data and to respond promptly to any incident.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Delete your account and personal information.
• Restrict or object to certain processing.
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent (for example, unsubscribe from marketing) at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us through the Support page. If you are in France or the EEA and believe we have not handled your data properly, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority — in France, the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés).

9. Children

Backgammoner is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Where local law sets a higher age of digital consent (for example, 15 in France), that age applies. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

10. International transfers

We are based in France, but some of our service providers may process data in other countries, including outside the EEA. Where that happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses) to protect your information.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the product evolves or as the law requires. When we make material changes, we will update the “Effective” date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you in the app or by email.

12. Contact us

If you have questions about this policy or your data, reach us through the Support page. Backgammoner is operated by Mateo Bokobza, an individual based in France.

See also our Terms of Service.