UnicornFork

Privacy policy

What UnicornFork collects, why, who else gets it, and how to delete it. Last updated 7 October 2026.

In short

Who is responsible

UnicornFork (unicornfork.com) is run by:

Arne Vogel
Stettiner Str. 8
27442 Gnarrenburg
Germany
privacy@unicornfork.com

"We" and "us" in this policy mean Arne Vogel. Write to the address above about anything in this policy.

What we collect and why

Your account

Your account is your email address and the date you signed up. If you came through an invite link (unicornfork.com/invite/…) and signed up from the page it opened, your account also keeps the link's invite code, so we can see which invitations bring people to UnicornFork. Each login email has a code and a link; we store them only as hashes, they work for 10 minutes, and a day after that we delete them together with the address they were sent to and any invite code (unless the address has an account). When you log in, a cookie keeps you logged in for 30 days or until you log out; we store only a hash of it.

Games you analyse

When you paste a link to a game or pick one of your recent games, our server loads the game from lichess.org or chess.com and stores its link and its record (PGN). The record contains what those sites publish about the game, such as the players' usernames and ratings, the date and the result. We also store Stockfish's evaluation of every position.

Your chats with the coach

We store every question you ask about a game, with the position you asked it in and the coach's answer, so the chat is there when you come back and the coach can follow up on it. "Clear chat" on the analysis page deletes a game's chat. For every question we also store when you asked it, which model answered and what the answer cost us, because Pro includes the paid models up to a monthly limit. We also look at what each subscriber spent in their current month, with their email address, to check that the limit fits and to spot misuse. Clearing a chat doesn't delete these records; deleting your account does.

Linked lichess.org and chess.com accounts

If you link an account, we store its username, and our server loads that account's latest public games from the site to show them to you. We don't check that the account is yours, and we get no access to it. You can unlink it on your account page at any time.

Prompts, votes and your public username

We store the coaching prompts you write, the shared prompts you add, your votes and the prompt you chose. When you share a prompt, every logged-in user can see it with the public username you picked, add it to their own prompts and copy it. Copies are theirs and stay when you delete yours.

Pro subscriptions

Paddle (Paddle.com Market Ltd, United Kingdom) sells Pro subscriptions as our reseller (merchant of record). Paddle collects your payment details, billing address and tax information under its own privacy policy; we never see your card. When you open the checkout, we pass Paddle your email address and your account's ID, and we store what Paddle tells us about your subscription: its ID, your Paddle customer ID, the plan, its status and its dates. Paddle's script is loaded from cdn.paddle.com on the plan page only. "Manage subscription" on the plan page and "Cancel subscription" in the footer take you to Paddle's customer portal, where you cancel, change your card and get invoices; to log you in there, we ask Paddle for a link with your Paddle customer ID.

Usage statistics

To see whether UnicornFork is useful to people, we record which weeks you use it: for each week, whether you visited the site while logged in, whether you asked the coach a question and whether you linked a lichess.org or chess.com account, together with the week you signed up. We record only weeks, not days or times, which pages you opened, what you asked or which usernames you linked. We look at these records only as totals per signup week, such as "of the people who signed up in the week of 7 September, 40% came back the week after".

We also count, per day, how many people used UnicornFork while logged in, by the week they signed up. Those counts say nothing about who. So that you count only once a day, your account keeps the last day it was counted, and nothing more: no earlier days, no times. That day is deleted with your account.

To see where signing up could be easier, we also record, for your account and without any date, whether you agreed to our emails when you signed up, whether you ever asked the coach a question or linked an account, and whether you came back on a later day than the one you signed up on, together with the week you signed up. Before there's an account we only count, per week, how often the sign-up page was opened and how many addresses asked for a code; those counts say nothing about who.

To find out which version of a page works better, we sometimes show new accounts one of two versions of it (an A/B test), such as what you see first after signing up. Your account keeps which version it got of each test, so you keep seeing the same one, and we compare the versions only as totals, such as "of the people who saw the first version, 40% asked the coach a question". Which versions you got are deleted with your account. When a Pro model has answered your first questions, we also store when you chose to go on with the free models, until you delete your account.

These records need no cookie of their own and no outside analytics service. When you delete your account, we keep them without any link to you: all they say then is that someone who signed up in a certain week used the site in certain weeks, and got to certain steps.

Server logs

Our server logs every request: your IP address, the date and time, the address requested and whether it worked. We use the logs to keep the site secure and to find errors, and delete them after 14 days.

Legal basis

We process your account, games, chats, linked accounts, prompts and subscription to provide the service you signed up for (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). We keep server logs because of our legitimate interest in a secure, working site, usage statistics because of our legitimate interest in finding out whether UnicornFork is useful and improving it, the invite code you signed up with because of our legitimate interest in knowing which invitations bring people to UnicornFork, and look at subscribers' spending because of our legitimate interest in a fair limit and in preventing misuse (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). We send the emails you asked for, and note which of them you opened a link in, with your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time.

The AI coach

The coach's answers are written by a large language model run by an outside AI provider. Which provider depends on the model you choose in the analysis page's settings. A Pro model answers a new account's first five questions: the settings show it as chosen, and you can choose another there. With every question we send the provider:

We don't send your email address, your usernames or the game's player names. Anything you type into a question goes to the provider as you wrote it, so please don't put personal information in your questions.

These providers are outside the EU. The USA and China may protect personal data less than EU law does, and their authorities may be able to access it. That's why we send them only what the coach needs, never your account details.

Other services we use

OVH and Brevo process data only on our behalf, under data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR). Paddle, lichess.org and chess.com are responsible for their own processing.

Cookies and browser storage

Both are needed for things you asked for (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG), so they need no consent. We use no analytics cookies or services, no ads and no tracking (our usage statistics come from the requests you make while logged in), and our fonts come from our own server. Paddle's checkout, on the plan page only, may use its own cookies.

Emails

We email you login codes and links when you ask for them. Paddle emails you receipts and news about your subscription.

Anything else only if you tick the box for it, when you sign up or under Emails on your account page:

For these emails we store when you agreed, which ones we sent you and when, and whether you opened a link in one (we see that only when you open it logged in to UnicornFork; there are no tracking pixels). Every one has a link to unsubscribe, which needs no login; you can also untick the box on your account page. Unsubscribing deletes when you agreed; the record of emails sent goes when you delete your account.

How long we keep your data

Your account and everything in it stay until you delete them; we don't delete inactive accounts. After that, only the usage statistics stay, without any link to you. Server logs are kept for 14 days and backups of the database for 30 days, so data you delete is gone from them 30 days later at the latest. Paddle keeps its records of your payments for as long as tax law requires.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

Write to privacy@unicornfork.com; we answer within a month. You can also complain to a data protection authority, for example the one where you live, or ours: Die Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Niedersachsen.

Age

UnicornFork is for people aged 18 and over.

Changes

When we change this policy, we update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use your data, we'll tell you by email or on the site before it takes effect.