RPS ChessCookies
The short version: we use a little local storage to keep you signed in and to remember your theme. Advertising on the website is supplied by Google, which sets its own cookies once adverts are being served — and no advertising cookie is set before you have given consent for one. See section 3 for where that stands today.
1. Cookies and local storage — what's the difference?
They do similar jobs and are covered by the same rules, so it helps to know both terms:
- Cookies are small files a website asks your browser to store, and sends back with your requests.
- Local storage is a similar store built into the browser. It stays on your device and is never sent to a server automatically.
We use local storage rather than cookies for the game itself, because the game is a web application and does not need to send that data with every request.
2. What we store ourselves
All of this is strictly necessary or functional — it is what makes the site work at all. None of it is used to track you, and none of it is shared with anyone.
| What | Why | Type |
|---|---|---|
Your login session |
Keeps you signed in between visits and refreshes. Without it you would have to log in again on every page. | Strictly necessary |
Theme and settings |
Remembers your board theme, language, sound and difficulty preferences, so the game looks the way you left it. | Functional |
Ad frequency counters |
Counts how many games you have played, so we do not serve the same adverts too often. See section 4. | Necessary for the ad cap |
You can clear all of it at any time through your browser settings. Doing so signs you out and resets your preferences — nothing else is lost, because your account and progress live on our servers, not in your browser.
3. Advertising cookies
Advertising on the website is supplied by Google AdSense, a service of Google LLC. Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to select the adverts you see and to measure how they perform.
Where that stands today: no advertising cookie is set on this site. Adverts are not being served while the site goes through its advertising review — the advertising code on the page is only the loader, and no ad unit is configured. An ad unit is what sets these cookies. When adverts begin to be served, consent for them is requested first (section 4).
These are third-party cookies: they are set by Google, not by us, and we cannot read them. Google requires publishers to make the following statements, so we reproduce them exactly:
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
- You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting aboutads.info.
Where the ads appear
On the website, adverts appear in two places: inside the left-hand sidebar, and in a single column on the right-hand side of the menu screens. The right-hand column is removed automatically while a game is in progress, so nothing covers the board.
4. Your choices
If you are in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, consent for advertising cookies is requested before any of them is set, by Google's consent message (a Google-certified consent management platform). You can accept or decline, and you can change your mind at any time from the Google Ads Settings link below.
Declining does not restrict the game in any way. You may still see adverts, but they will not be personalised — they will be chosen from the page content rather than from a profile of your browsing.
Beyond that notice, you can control advertising cookies through:
- Google Ads Settings — turn personalisation off across Google's services.
- aboutads.info — opt out via the industry-wide tool.
- Your browser's own cookie controls. Every major browser lets you block third-party cookies entirely.
Blocking advertising cookies is fine, and the game keeps working. A large number of people browse with adverts blocked, and we would rather you played than not.
5. What we do not use
Some of this is worth stating plainly, because it is unusual:
| Category | Used? |
|---|---|
| Analytics or tracking cookies of our own | No — we do not run any. |
| Third-party analytics SDKs | No — none are included. |
| Social media tracking pixels | No — the social links in the footer are ordinary links, nothing more. |
| Cross-site tracking by us | No — we do not follow you to other websites. |
| Selling your data | No — we never sell personal information. |
The only cross-site advertising cookies are Google's, they are described in section 3, and you can opt out of them.
6. Other third-party requests
A few things on the page are fetched from other services. These are image requests rather than cookies, but they do mean the provider sees your IP address, so it is worth knowing about them:
- DiceBear — draws the default player avatars. The only thing sent is the player's username, which acts as the seed.
- FlagsAPI — serves the small country flags shown next to players. Only a two-letter country code is sent.
- Google Fonts and animated emoji delivery.
The Privacy Policy covers these in full.
7. The mobile app
The app stores the same login session and preferences described in section 2, in its own private storage rather than in a browser. Advertising in the app is supplied by Google AdMob rather than AdSense, and on iOS you are asked for permission before any tracking-based advertising.
8. Changes to this page
If we add or remove something that stores data on your device, we will update this page and its "last updated" date.
9. Contact
Questions about cookies or privacy: rpschesshelp@gmail.com