Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 2026

Purpose

The purpose of our privacy policy is to explain how we collect data from our users, when we collect data and for which purposes. This privacy policy applies to the products offered by Choue on its web and mobile applications.

Contact Information

When you use or subscribe to one of our services, such as creating an account on chouebg.com or, when available, purchasing a subscription, signing up to an email newsletter, entering a competition, joining an online community, we will ask you to provide limited information so that we can provide you with the services requested.

Online Identifiers

When you visit our website, we collect information about your web visit, such as how long you visited, what sites you visited or which pages you accessed.

How We Use Your Personal Information

At Choue we collect different types of information about people for three main reasons:

• To provide personalized services unique to individual users.
• To monitor and improve the services we offer.
• To market products and services which we think would be relevant to you.

We will not make the email you provided to Choue available to any third parties unless required by law. Your name will be displayed together with your username to other players in the same Chouette Session. Your username is not considered personal information.

Your Rights

As a consumer, you have rights when it comes to your data:

• The right to be informed. Whenever we collect your data we will inform you of why it is being collected and how it is being processed.
• The right of access. If you wish to see what information we hold on you, you may send us a "Subject Access" request. We will require photocopies of two pieces of identification from the email account that is linked to the account on Choue that you are requesting access to. We will respond within 30 days of receipt of your request. There is no cost to you in requesting to see your data, but please note that we reserve the right to charge you if you make subsequent requests. You can use the contact details below for a Subject Access Request.
• The right to rectification. We offer the opportunity to amend your personal information by contacting us using the details below.
• The right to erasure. You can delete your account yourself at any time: open your Profile and choose Delete account, on the web or in the apps. What the deletion removes and what it keeps is described below under Deleting Your Account. If you have used more than one account, delete each of them; if you cannot sign in to an account, contact us using the details below from the email address linked to it.

Deleting Your Account

Deleting your account takes effect immediately and signs you out on all devices. It cannot be undone. An account cannot be deleted while you are still playing in a game or a chouette session (running or suspended), or while a chouette you own has a running or scheduled session; finish, resign, leave or end those first.

When you delete your account, we delete:

• Your email address, password, real name, time zone, description, photo and avatar, and the link to a Google or Apple sign-in.
• Your preferences and settings, and your sign-ins on all devices.
• Your friends and friend requests, and your private messages, both those you sent and those you received.
• Your statistics (such as your performance rating), the ratings other players gave you, and your progress in lessons.
• Your position library (saved positions and variants with their notes) and your saved queries.
• Your open challenges and match searches.
• Your token balance.

We keep, without any personal information attached:

• Your username. Games are a shared record of everyone who played them, so past games and sessions keep showing your username, without a profile. The username cannot be registered again.
• The games and sessions you played, including their chats. A chat in a game or chouette session is part of that match, like its moves, and is preserved for the other players after your account is deleted.
• Your posts, comments and attachments in Discuss, shown under your username.
• Records of your purchases and memberships (what was bought, when and for how much), as bookkeeping requires. They hold no card or payment details: those stay with the payment provider (Stripe, the App Store or Google Play). A membership ends with the deletion; a subscription bought in an app store is ended in that store.
• Ratings you gave other players, which are part of their profiles.
• Your chouettes, archived: their sessions and history remain for everyone who played in them, but no new sessions can be started.

Copies of the deleted data that remain in our internal records and backups are removed within 30 days of the deletion.

When Will My Data Be Deleted

We will store your personal data as long as is necessary for the purposes named in this Privacy Policy, especially for the fulfillment of our contractual and legal obligations. We may also store your personal data for other purposes if or as long as the law allows us to store it for particular purposes, including for defence against legal claims.

Cookies and Similar Technology

Choue uses cookies and your browser's local storage in two categories. The first time you visit, we ask which you allow. Necessary cookies are always on; analytics only with your consent. You can change your choice at any time: Cookie settings, also in the footer of every page and in the account menu of the app.

Necessary

These make the service work and remember what you chose. They are set by Choue only, never shared with others, and hold no information for tracking you.

• auth_token (cookie, 7 days): keeps you signed in. Deleted when you sign out.
• signed_in_before (cookie, 5 years): this browser has been signed in before, so our pages offer it Sign in rather than Sign up. It holds no account data.
• cookie_consent (cookie, 12 months after accepting, 6 months after declining): your choice in this dialog. When it expires, we ask again.
• Local storage in your browser: your sign-in, the settings you chose (such as the theme), the games and tutorials you have open and unsaved drafts. It stays in your browser.

Analytics (only with your consent)

• Google Analytics (cookies _ga and _ga_<id>, up to 2 years), provided by Google: which pages are visited, for how long, and from what kind of device and region, so we can see how the service is used and improve it. It is not linked to your Choue account. Google's handling of the data is described in Google's privacy policy.

If you do not consent, or withdraw your consent, Google Analytics is not loaded and its cookies are deleted. The service works the same either way.

Blocking Cookies in Your Browser

Your browser also lets you refuse or delete cookies; its help pages explain how. Without the necessary cookies and local storage you cannot sign in.