This policy covers two separate things: the Bangalow Chess tournament network (our weekly events at Bangalow and Byron Bay, and this website) and the free game The Aussie Battler. They collect very different information, so they are dealt with separately below.
Last updated: 16 August 2026
The short version. If you sign up to play chess with us, we collect your name, phone number and email address, we publish your results and your name on this website permanently, and we may publish photos of you. If you only play The Aussie Battler, we collect nothing at all unless you choose to post a score to the public leaderboard. You can ask us to remove your details, your results or your photos at any time by emailing bangalowchess@gmail.com.
Bangalow Chess runs a free weekly chess tournament network in the Northern Rivers, New South Wales, Australia, across two venues: the Bangalow Hotel on Tuesdays and The Rails Byron Bay on Wednesdays. We also publish the free game The Aussie Battler. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Bangalow Chess.
Playing is free, but we ask every player to register once, using our online sign-up form. That form collects:
| What we ask for | Why |
|---|---|
| Your full name | To identify you on the pairing sheet and to record your results. Your name is published (see below). |
| Your phone number | To send occasional updates by text message, and to contact you about an event. |
| Your email address | To send occasional updates by email, and to contact you about an event. |
| Your chess experience | To help us pair you sensibly on your first night. |
| The town you want to start playing at | So we know to expect you at that venue. |
You only need to register once. After that you can turn up at either of our venues without signing up again.
Your registration details are held in three places:
We do not sell, rent or trade your details, and we do not pass them to sponsors, venues or anyone else for marketing.
We send occasional updates about events, results and changes to the schedule, by text message and by email. We are not going to spam you.
This is the most important thing to understand before you play. Bangalow Chess is a public competition, and we publish results the way any competition does.
When you play, we record and publish the following against your full name:
This information appears on this website, and it is also held in a public data file on this site (assets/stats-data.js) that anyone can read directly. It is not hidden behind a login.
These results stay published permanently, including after you stop playing, unless you specifically ask us to remove them. If you would rather not have your results public, email us and we will remove them.
We do not publish your phone number, your email address or your home address anywhere, ever.
We photograph and film our events, and we publish those images on this website and on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Player profile cards on the Masters pages use real photographs of players.
When you sign up, you agree to let us use images and video of you in this way. That agreement is not permanent and you are not stuck with it: you can ask us to take down any photo or video of you at any time, for any reason or none, by emailing bangalowchess@gmail.com. We will remove it.
Our official tournaments are 18+. Players aged 16 and 17 may take part in the official tournament if a parent or guardian signs them up and agrees on their behalf. We do not register players under 16.
Anyone under 18 is welcome to come along with a parent or guardian, watch, and see how the night runs. They may be able to play an informal, casual game with one of our regulars. Those casual games are not part of the tournament, are not scored and are not published.
This age limit is not about the venues. It exists because we publish player names, results and photographs publicly and on social media, and we are not willing to do that with children. For the same reason, we do not publish the names, results or identifiable photographs of anyone under 16.
Where a 16 or 17 year old is registered with parental consent, the parent or guardian can ask us at any time to remove their child's details, results or photographs. Email us and we will do it.
If you believe we hold or have published information about a child and we should not have, please email us and we will remove it promptly.
We post leaderboards, results and event photos to Instagram and Facebook. Those posts include player names and, at times, player photographs. Instagram and Facebook are operated by Meta under their own privacy policies, and once something is posted there it is subject to their terms as well as ours. If you want a post about you taken down, email us and we will delete it from our pages.
The game is separate from the chess network. It has no accounts and it is not connected to the player roster in any way. Nothing you do in the game is linked to your chess registration.
Nothing, unless you choose to post a score.
The Aussie Battler runs entirely on your device. Your progress, money, jobs, home, achievements and everything else stay in your phone's memory and are never transmitted to us or to anyone else.
There is one exception. If you finish a game and tap "Post to global leaderboard", the app sends the following:
| What is sent | Why |
|---|---|
| The player name you typed (default: "Bluey") | Displayed on the public leaderboard |
| Your final score | Ranking |
| The number of weeks your run took | Displayed, and used for tie-breaks |
| The difficulty you played | Determines which leaderboard you appear on |
| Your rank title (e.g. "Town Legend") | Displayed |
| Your IP address, temporarily | Rate limiting only, to stop spam. Automatically discarded after one hour and never displayed. |
That is the complete list. Nothing else is sent, and nothing is sent at all unless you tap that button.
This list applies to The Aussie Battler only. It does not describe the chess network, which does collect your name, phone number and email address, as set out in Part 1.
The global leaderboard is public and appears on the game's home screen for everyone who plays. Whatever name you post is visible to all players.
If you would rather not be identified, do not use your real name. Names are filtered for length and offensive content, but are otherwise displayed exactly as typed.
Leaderboard entries are stored using Netlify, which hosts this website and the game's server function. Data may be stored on servers outside Australia. Only the highest scores for each difficulty are retained; older and lower entries are automatically discarded. Data is transmitted over an encrypted HTTPS connection.
Entries are kept while they remain among the top scores. Once an entry falls outside the retained scores it is deleted automatically. IP addresses used for rate limiting are discarded within one hour.
Because the game has no accounts, we cannot look you up. Email us with the player name and approximate score you posted and we will remove the entry.
The game is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. A player who never posts a score leaves no data with us at all.
If you believe a child has posted identifying information to the leaderboard, email us and we will remove it.
bangalowchess.com is a static website. It does not use tracking cookies, advertising or analytics. Our host, Netlify, keeps standard server access logs for security and reliability.
| Service | What it is used for |
|---|---|
| Jotform | Hosts the new player sign-up form and stores submissions |
| Google (Sheets and Drive) | Holds our private working player roster |
| Netlify | Hosts this website, the game leaderboard function, and keeps server logs |
| Instagram and Facebook (Meta) | Where we post results, leaderboards and event photos |
Each of these operates under its own privacy policy, and each may store data outside Australia.
One email address handles all of it. Email bangalowchess@gmail.com and tell us what you want removed. You can ask us to:
You do not have to give a reason. We will action it and confirm when it is done.
Under the Australian Privacy Principles you may ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Use the email address above.
If you are unhappy with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
If this policy changes, the date at the top of this page will change with it. Material changes will be noted on this website.
Questions about this policy, or about privacy generally:
bangalowchess@gmail.com
Northern Rivers, New South Wales, Australia