odds are
legal
privacy policy
Effective 13 October 2026
In short
- You can play most of Odds Are without an account. Then nothing about you leaves your phone.
- An account holds only a nickname the app makes for you, an avatar, your birth year and, if you add one, an email for signing in.
- No ads, no tracking, no analytics tools, and we never sell or share your data for advertising.
- You can delete your account in the app at any time, and everything linked to it is deleted.
Who we are
Odds Are ("the app", "we") is made by Alon Ben David, an independent developer, who is responsible for your data. Contact: support@oddsare.link.
What stays on your phone
Your game progress, personal bests, the questions you've already seen, settings (sound, read aloud, board style), saved and reviewed chess games, and any names you type for family games or duels are stored only on your phone. We never receive them. They're removed when you delete the app.
What we store if you create an account
Online features (leaderboards, groups, friends and online chess) need an account. Creating one stores:
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Nickname (two words picked by the app, e.g. brave-otter) | How other players know you | Public in the app |
| Avatar (one of the app's pictures) | Shown next to your nickname | Public in the app |
| Birth year | Age rules: under-13s get extra protections | Only you |
| Account ID (a random code) | Links your data to your account | Nobody (internal) |
| Email (optional) | Signing in on a new phone; we only send sign-in codes and links | Only you |
| Scores you set (IQ, ladder, trivia) | Leaderboards | Public with your nickname |
| Groups you create or join | Private leaderboards | Members of that group |
| Friends and friend requests | Friends list and challenges | You and that friend |
| Invite keys | Adding friends; stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, expire after 7 days | Nobody |
| Online chess games (moves, clocks, result) and quick messages | Playing and reviewing games | The two players |
| Online status | Showing friends you're in the app right now; not stored | Your friends, while the app is open |
Like any online service, our providers' servers briefly log technical details such as IP addresses to keep the service secure and working. We don't use them to identify or track you.
What we don't collect
We don't collect your real name, contacts, location, photos, microphone, advertising ID or browsing activity. There's no free-text chat: in online games players can only send preset messages like "good luck!". We don't show ads or use analytics or tracking tools, and we don't sell data.
How we use it
- To run the game's online features you ask for.
- To apply age rules: players under 13 can't play random opponents and only send preset messages.
- To send sign-in emails you request. We never send marketing emails.
- To keep the game fair and safe, for example removing impossible scores or acting on reports.
If you're in the UK or EU, the legal basis is that we need this data to provide the service you asked for (contract), plus our legitimate interest in keeping it secure and fair.
Service providers
We use a few companies to run the app. They only process data on our behalf:
- Supabase: database, accounts and live updates. Data is stored in London, UK.
- Resend: sends sign-in emails (only your email address and the code).
- Vercel: hosts this website and invite pages. An invite link contains the inviter's nickname and a one-time key.
- Apple and Google: distribute the app under their own privacy policies.
The app's voices, pictures and sounds were made before release. Nothing you do in the app is sent to AI services.
Children
Odds Are is suitable for all ages and players under 13 can create an account. For them:
- We collect only the nickname (picked by the app, never typed in), avatar and birth year.
- They can't play random opponents. They can only add friends through an invite key one of them shares, and both must accept.
- They can only send preset messages, never free text.
- To keep their account safe across phones, the app asks for a parent's email, not the child's.
Parents can ask us to see or delete their child's data at support@oddsare.link. See also our child safety standards.
How long we keep it
We keep account data while your account exists. Invite keys expire after 7 days. When you delete your account, your data is deleted straight away. Copies in our providers' backups are gone within 30 days.
Your rights and deleting your account
You can ask to see, correct, export or delete your data. To delete everything, open the app → your profile → delete my account, or see how to delete your account. This removes your profile, scores, friends, groups you own, invites and messages. Chess games you played against someone stay in their history without your nickname. If you're in the UK or EU, you can also complain to your data protection authority.
Security
All data travels encrypted (HTTPS). Database rules mean each player can only read what they're allowed to see, and moves in online games are checked on our server.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update the date above. If a change matters to you, we'll also say so in the app.