Gear Play
Last updated: November 8, 2026
Gear Play (“the app”) is published by Gear Studio. This policy explains which data the app and this website use, why, and the rights of players. In short: only the data the games need is kept, data is never sold, and there are no ads or trackers.
Data controller
Gear Play is a hobby project. Gear Studio is not a company: it is the name under which one individual publishes apps in their free time. This individual is the data controller. Questions and requests can be sent to gearplay@gearstudio-hub.com.
Playing without an account
Chess against the AI and on one phone work without an account. In that case, games stay on the device only, and no data about the player is received.
Data collected with an account
| Data | Purpose | Visible to |
|---|---|---|
| Email address and a technical user ID | Creating the account and signing in with a code sent by email | Nobody else |
| Username, avatar, friend code, date of the last username change | Showing the profile and letting friends find you | Players who search your username or code, and your friends |
| Friend list and friend requests | Adding friends and playing with them | The two players concerned |
| Finished chess games (moves, result, dates, AI level) | Stats, trophies and leaderboards | You and your friends |
| Games with friends (moves, result, dates, Elo change) and quick reactions | Playing online and keeping the history | The two players of the game |
| Elo rating | Ranking between friends | You and your friends |
| Notifications sent to you, read or not | The in-app notification list | Only you |
| Push notification token of the phone, phone language, notification setting | Sending notifications in the right language | Nobody else |
Reactions are chosen from a fixed list of phrases and emojis: there is no free text chat. Email addresses are never shown to other players.
Emails
Sign-in codes are sent from noreply.gearplay@gearstudio-hub.com. This address does not receive replies. No newsletters or marketing emails are sent. Messages sent to gearplay@gearstudio-hub.com are only used to reply and to improve the app.
Data stored on the device
The app saves the game in progress, the history of finished games, the profile (to work offline) and the settings (language, appearance, music and sounds) on the device. Games played offline while signed in are sent to the account once the device is back online.
What the app does not do
- No advertising, and no advertising identifier.
- No analytics or tracking tools in the app, and no cross-site tracking on this website.
- No selling or renting of data, and no sharing for marketing.
- No access to contacts, photos, location or microphone.
Service providers
A few trusted services are used to run the app. They only process data to provide their service.
- Supabase: database and accounts (sign-in, profile, friends, games, ratings, notifications).
- Resend: sending of sign-in codes by email.
- Expo (650 Industries): delivery of push notifications to the phone, and building of the app.
- Apple: delivery of notifications on iPhone, and distribution of the app through the App Store and TestFlight, under its own privacy policy.
- Cloudflare: forwarding of emails sent to the contact address.
- Vercel: hosting of this website, and anonymous audience measurement of it.
Some of these services may store data outside the player’s country, including outside the European Union. In that case they rely on the safeguards required by law, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
Legal basis (EU and UK)
Account data is used to provide the requested service (performance of a contract).
Retention
- Account, profile, friends, games, ratings and notifications: until the account is deleted.
- Push notification tokens: until you sign out on that device, or the account is deleted.
- Emails received: as long as needed to reply and to improve the app, then deleted. Sooner on request.
Rights
Players can access, correct, export or delete their data, and object to or limit its use.
- Deletion: write to gearplay@gearstudio-hub.com from the email address of the account. The account, profile, friends, games, ratings and notifications are deleted permanently. A button to do it from the app is coming before the App Store launch.
- Notifications: they can be turned off in the app (Settings, Notifications) or in the phone settings.
- Other requests: by email. Requests are answered within one month.
Players in the EU can also lodge a complaint with their data protection authority (in France, the CNIL).
Children
The app is not intended for children under 13, and their data is not knowingly collected. An account created by a child will be deleted on request.
This website
This website uses no cookies or trackers and loads no third-party content. Visits are counted anonymously and without cookies by Vercel Web Analytics (page viewed, referring site, country, device and browser type). Visitors are not identified: the anonymous identifier changes every 24 hours and IP addresses are not stored. The host keeps standard technical logs (such as IP addresses) for a short time for security.
Changes
Any change to this policy updates the date at the top of this page. Important changes are also announced in the app.