Effective date: 27 August 2026 · Last updated: 27 August 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Xiangqi Academy (“the app”, “we”, “our”) collects, uses and protects your information when you play. By installing or using the app, you agree to the practices described below.
Questions about this policy: nguyenduyanhuit1989@gmail.com.
The short version. There is no sign-up and no account. We never ask for your real name, email, phone number, photos, contacts or location. The app plays fully offline — every opponent is an AI running on your own device, and no move you make is ever sent anywhere. The only thing that leaves your device by choice is a nickname and an optional country flag, and only if you decide to appear on the Academy leaderboard. You can erase all of it from Settings → Delete my data, inside the app.
1. Information we collect
1.1 Stays on your device
Stored locally and never uploaded:
- Your settings — piece labels (Vietnamese or Chinese characters), move notation, legal-move hints, caro win rule, sound and haptics, screen rotation.
- Games in progress, saved as the list of moves played.
- Your win / loss / draw record per game and per difficulty.
- Which Academy lessons you have solved.
1.2 Published, only if you choose to
The Academy leaderboard needs something to label a row with. If — and only if — you open the leaderboard and set a display name, we store:
- the nickname you type (2–20 characters, screened for offensive words);
- an optional country, which you pick from a list and may leave unset;
- the number of Academy lessons you have completed;
- an anonymous identifier generated by Firebase Authentication, which is not linked to any account, email or device identifier and exists only so your own row can be updated and deleted.
Nothing else is published. We do not upload your games, your statistics, or your settings. If you never set a display name, nothing about you is stored on our servers at all.
1.3 Collected automatically
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Crash reports and error logs (device model, OS version, stack trace) | To find and fix crashes. Firebase Crashlytics. |
| Anonymous usage events — which game mode was started, which difficulty, whether a lesson was completed, screen views | To understand which parts of the app are used. Firebase Analytics. These events never contain your nickname, country or any free text. |
| Advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS, Advertising ID on Android) | Used by Google AdMob to serve ads. See section 2. |
2. Advertising
The app shows ads supplied by Google AdMob: a banner on the home screen and an occasional full-screen ad after a finished game. Ads are never shown over a board while you are playing, and never over the result of a game you just finished.
AdMob may use your device’s advertising identifier to select ads and measure them, which constitutes tracking under Apple’s definition. Your choices:
- iOS: the app asks for permission through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt. If you decline, you still get ads, but non-personalised ones. You can change your mind at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
- Android: you can reset or delete your Advertising ID in Settings → Google → Ads.
- European Economic Area, UK and Switzerland: the app shows Google’s consent form on first launch and honours your choice. You can reopen it from the app.
Ad content is capped at the “G — General audiences” rating, and sensitive categories (gambling, alcohol, dating, politics, references to sex) are blocked at the account level.
3. Third-party services
| Service | What it receives | Policy |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdMob | Advertising identifier, IP address, coarse ad-interaction data | policies.google.com/privacy |
| Firebase Crashlytics | Crash traces, device model, OS version | firebase.google.com/support/privacy |
| Firebase Analytics | Anonymous gameplay events, anonymous identifier | firebase.google.com/support/privacy |
| Firebase Authentication (anonymous) | Nothing you provide — it mints an anonymous id | firebase.google.com/support/privacy |
| Cloud Firestore | Your leaderboard row only: nickname, optional country, lesson count | firebase.google.com/support/privacy |
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone beyond the services above.
4. There is no online play
Worth stating plainly, because many board-game apps work differently: Xiangqi Academy has no online multiplayer. You play against an AI that runs on your own device, or against another person on the same device. No game state, no move and no chat ever crosses the network, and you are never matched with a stranger. Every opponent is labelled as an AI in the app — none of them is a person, and no person is ever presented as a bot.
5. Purchases
The app contains no in-app purchases and no subscriptions. We never receive or store payment information of any kind.
6. Your rights and choices
6.1 Deleting your data — in the app
Open Settings → Delete my data and confirm. This removes, in one action:
- your leaderboard row on our servers, including your nickname and country;
- every local setting, saved game, statistic and Academy record on the device;
- all scheduled reminder notifications.
The action is irreversible and requires no email to us. Uninstalling the app also removes everything stored locally, but it does not remove a leaderboard row — so use the in-app button first if you have set a display name.
6.2 Other choices
- Never set a display name, and nothing about you is stored on our servers.
- Turn reminder notifications off in your device settings.
- Opt out of personalised ads as described in section 2.
- Write to nguyenduyanhuit1989@gmail.com to ask what we hold about you. Because there is no account, please include the nickname you used so we can find the row.
7. Notifications
The app can send local reminders — a daily practice nudge and a note if you have not played for a while. They are generated on your device by your device; no notification is pushed from a server, and no notification contains personal information. Permission is asked for once and can be revoked in your device settings at any time.
8. Children’s privacy
The app is rated for ages 13 and over and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided information, contact us and we will remove it.
9. Security
Data in transit uses HTTPS. Leaderboard rows are protected by server-side rules that let each anonymous identifier read the public board but write and delete only its own row. Because we collect no passwords, email addresses or payment details, there is no credential of yours for us to lose.
10. Data retention
Local data stays until you delete it or uninstall. A leaderboard row stays until you delete it. Crash and analytics data is retained according to Google’s Firebase retention settings.
11. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes we will update the “Last updated” date above, and material changes will be noted in the app’s release notes.
12. Contact
Dragonball Studio — nguyenduyanhuit1989@gmail.com