Chess Game Story
Privacy Policy
Last updated:
Chess Game Story is a public chess video website with a private production Studio used by one administrator. Visitors never need an account. This page explains what information the service handles, including data received from Google and YouTube.
Who we are
Chess Game Story is a chess education channel and website. It publishes narrated videos of chess games and a public library of those videos at this website. The website and its private production tool, Chess Game Story Studio, are operated by the channel’s owner, who is the only person with an account. In this policy “we” and “us” mean Chess Game Story.
Information we collect
Visitors to the public website
You do not need an account to browse or watch, and there are no visitor accounts, comments, likes or other social features. We do not ask you for any personal information, and the public website does not use analytics or advertising trackers.
Like any website, our hosting provider may process standard request information — such as your IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time of the request — in order to deliver the page and keep the service secure. If you use the search box, your search words are sent to our server as part of the page address so that results can be shown.
The Studio administrator’s account
Chess Game Story Studio is private and used only by the channel’s administrator. Signing in uses an email address and password managed by our authentication provider. We store the account’s email address, an optional display name and the administrator role.
Chess project and content data
To produce videos, the Studio stores the material the administrator works with, including:
- chess games in PGN form, imported from public tournament broadcasts, a game archive the administrator imports, or pasted by hand — these include the players’ names, ratings and the event details recorded in the game;
- engine analysis of those games, story plans and narration scripts;
- generated narration audio, rendered video files and thumbnail images;
- photographs of players that the administrator uploads for thumbnails and title cards, with the source, credit and licence note the administrator records for them;
- publishing details such as titles, descriptions and tags, and the public catalogue of published videos shown on this website;
- limited technical diagnostics about failed operations (for example an error category, an HTTP status and a request identifier), which are kept for at most 30 days.
YouTube and Google connection data
When the administrator connects a YouTube channel, we store the channel’s identifier and title and an OAuth credential for that channel, described in the next sections. We do not request your Google account’s email address or profile.
How we use Google and YouTube data
The Studio connects to YouTube only when the administrator clicks Connect YouTube in the private Studio. It requests a single permission (scope): https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl. It does not request the email or openid scopes.
That permission is used only to:
- upload a video the administrator chooses to publish;
- update that video’s title, description, tags and privacy setting;
- set that video’s thumbnail.
We do not read your other videos, subscriptions, comments, viewing history or any other YouTube or Google data beyond what these actions need. Google user data is not sold, is not used for advertising, and is not transferred to anyone except as necessary to provide this publishing feature.
Chess Game Story’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Chess Game Story uses YouTube API Services. By using the YouTube features you also agree to the YouTube Terms of Service, and Google’s handling of your information is described in the Google Privacy Policy.
OAuth credentials and tokens
- The YouTube refresh token is stored on the server only, encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) in our database, and is never sent to a web browser.
- Short-lived access tokens are obtained when needed and are not stored.
- A deployment may instead hold the refresh token in its server environment configuration, which is likewise never exposed to a browser.
How we use information
- to show the public library of published videos;
- to let the administrator sign in to the Studio and keep it secure;
- to analyse chess games, write and voice narration, and render videos;
- to publish videos to the connected YouTube channel when the administrator chooses to;
- to diagnose and fix failures in the service.
Service providers
We rely on these services to run Chess Game Story. Each receives only what its job requires:
- Supabase — database, administrator sign-in and private file storage.
- Vercel — hosting for this website.
- AI text providers (Anthropic, or OpenRouter where configured) — receive verified facts about a chess game, such as moves, players’ names and the event, to write narration text.
- OpenAI — converts narration text into speech.
- Lichess — we download publicly available tournament broadcast games from it.
- Google / YouTube — the YouTube Data API for publishing, and the YouTube video player embedded on video pages.
Chess engine analysis (Stockfish) runs on our own processing server, not with a third party. We do not sell personal information.
Data retention
Project data is kept until the administrator deletes the project. Published videos stay in the public catalogue until they are unpublished. Technical diagnostics are kept for at most 30 days. The YouTube credential is kept until the channel is disconnected. Player photographs are kept until they are removed.
Security
The Studio is closed to everyone but the administrator: every private page, action and data request checks the administrator role, database tables are protected by row-level security, and project files are kept in private storage. Sign-in cookies are HTTP-only and sent only over HTTPS in production. No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, but we work to protect the information we hold.
Your choices and disconnecting YouTube
The administrator can disconnect YouTube at any time in the Studio’s Settings. Disconnecting removes the stored credential and asks Google to revoke it. Access can also be revoked directly at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
Disconnecting stops future access; it does not delete videos already published on YouTube.
Deleting data
Deleting a project in the Studio removes its stored data and files, including its narration audio, rendered videos and thumbnails. Videos already published to YouTube are managed in YouTube itself. If you are a player shown in one of our videos, or you otherwise want information about you corrected or removed — for example a photograph — contact us at chessboardstory@gmail.com and we will review the request.
Children’s privacy
The public website requires no account and asks for no personal information, from anyone. The Studio is used only by the channel’s administrator. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
If the way Chess Game Story handles information changes, we will update this page and the “Last updated” date above.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your information: chessboardstory@gmail.com. See also our Terms of Service.