Privacy policy

Board Game Check is a board game rankings and community site, on the web and in our phone apps. This page says what we collect, why, and what you can do about it. We don't sell your data, and we don't show tracking ads.

What we collect

• Your account: your email address, the display name and handle you choose when you sign up (both editable in Settings), when you accepted these terms, and, if you sign in with Google or Apple, the profile photo they share. Your bio and pronouns if you add them.
• What you add: ratings, reviews, matchups, your collection (and, if you add them, what you paid, its condition and notes, which only you see), posts, comments, and the games you log, including who you played with (friends, or guest names you type), where (if you say), scores and notes.
• Your taste: your answers to the taste quiz and the games you tapped in it, used for your suggestions and your player type; the achievements you've earned and the title you choose to show. Your player type is only visible to others if you turn its public link on.
• Friends: who you're friends with, requests, and who you've blocked.
• Supporter payments: on the website, handled by Stripe; in the apps, by Apple or Google, through RevenueCat. We never see or store your card. We keep your Stripe customer number, the dates your membership runs, and whether it came from the website or a store.
• Events: the events you say you're going to and the venues you follow. Venues only ever see how many people are going, never who; your friends can see which of them are going.
• Your location: we never store it. If you use "Near me", your browser's position is rounded to about a kilometre and kept in a cookie on your device, along with any ZIP code you type, so the Events page remembers where to look. You can clear it from the Events page.
• Venues: for a venue that lists events, its business details and a contact email for us. We look its address up with the U.S. Census Bureau's free geocoder to place it on the map; only the venue's address is sent.
• Phone app: if you allow notifications, a notification token for your device. If you use "Near me", the app asks for your approximate location, used as above and never stored by us. We don't collect your contacts, and we only get a photo if you choose to upload one (publishers and venues adding pictures).
• Blog by email: if you subscribe, your email address, kept until you unsubscribe (one click in any email) or, if you never confirm, for a week. We send new blog posts and nothing else.
• Automatic screening: what you post is checked against a word list before it's saved, and pictures posted to the community, and posts and comments that look hateful or explicit, are sent to OpenAI's moderation service to be scored (the picture or text only, nothing about you), then refused or held for a moderator. Text that was refused or held is kept for our moderators for 90 days.
• Messages to us: if you write through the contact page, the name, email address and message you give us, so we can reply. If you were signed in, we note which account it came from.
• Server logs and error reports: like every website, our servers record each request (your IP address, browser, the page and the time) to keep the site running and safe, and to stop abuse such as floods of password-reset emails. When something breaks, an error report records what went wrong and, if you were signed in, your member number.
• Usage and speed statistics: Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights count which pages are visited, where visitors came from, their browser, device type and country, and how fast pages load. They use no cookies, aren't tied to your account, and don't follow you from one day to the next or onto other sites.
• Cookies: one to keep you signed in, a few short-lived ones while you sign in, and one remembering where to look for events if you choose a location. No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

How long we keep it

• Your account and what you add: until you delete it, or delete your account.
• Usage and speed statistics: kept only as totals, in Vercel's reports.
• Server logs: up to 30 days. Error reports: up to 90 days. Abuse-prevention counters: two days.
• Password-reset links: one hour. App sign-in codes: one minute.
• Messages to us: until we've answered and no longer need them. Deleting your account unlinks it from them but doesn't delete them; ask us and we will.
• Our database host keeps backups for up to 7 days, so deleted data is gone from those within a week.
• Payment records Stripe, Apple and Google must keep by law stay with them, under their own policies.

Who can see it

Your profile, ratings, reviews, posts and comments are public. Your plays, stats and Wrapped follow the setting you choose in Settings (friends only, by default). Sharing a Wrapped makes that one summary public.

Who we share it with

Only the services that run the site for us, and only what each needs: Vercel (hosting, and the usage and speed statistics above), our database host, Resend (password-reset, newsletter and contact emails), Google and Apple (if you sign in with them), Stripe (website payments), Apple, Google and RevenueCat (app payments), Google Firebase (app notifications), Sentry (error reports), the U.S. Census Bureau (venue addresses only) and OpenFreeMap (map tiles: when you open the events map, your browser fetches map images from them, so they see your IP address). We share data with authorities only when the law requires it.

Your choices

• See or copy your data: write to us or email info@boardgamecheck.com and we'll send you a copy, free. Supporters can also download their plays and collection in Settings.
• Correct it: edit your profile, ratings and plays any time.
• Delete it: Settings → Delete account removes your account and what's in it straight away. Friends who logged games with you keep their own logs, with you shown as a guest.
• Notifications: turn them off in Settings or in your phone's settings.

Children

Board Game Check isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.

Contact

Questions or requests: the contact page, or info@boardgamecheck.com.