HIARCS Chess Software

Privacy Policy 2.0

This Privacy Policy was superseded on 1st January 2021. See our latest Privacy Policy here

Privacy Policy version 2.0 (previous privacy policy is here)

This policy applies to users of our website and customers of our products and services, and is effective from 25th May 2018. We are compliant to the best of our knowledge with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and follow the guidance of the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

  1. About Applied Computer Concepts Ltd and HIARCS

    2. Applied Computer Concepts Ltd was established in 1991 and is registered with the UK Government at Companies House (registration number 02622033). Companies House is the United Kingdom’s registrar of companies.

    Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. is also registered (registration reference A8286364) with the UK Government Data Protection organisation known as the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

    Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. has a long and strong reputation for providing premier chess software to chess players and enthusiasts. Our principle activity is the development of World Class chess software under the brand name of HIARCS.

  2. Privacy Statement

    3. Your privacy is important to Applied Computer Concepts Ltd. and its brand HIARCS ("HIARCS" or "we" / "us"). We want to make sure that you have a positive experience of HIARCS products now and in the future. Protecting your privacy and your personal data is an important aspect of the way we run our business on-line and off-line.

    Personal data is information that can be used directly or indirectly to identify an individual. This personal data includes information such as your e-mail address and name etc.

    The purpose of collecting and using your personal data is to fulfil your order, provide product service, support and updates as well as discounted upgrades to you. We use partners like MyCommerce to collect payments for our products and email services to deliver emails and newsletters where we need to use your email address and name. We do not share your personal data with third parties.

    We do not collect and store information that can be used to personally identify visitors to our Web sites without their explicit consent.

    Users and customers of our website, servers and products are technically known as data subjects under data protection regulations.

    If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you should first contact our Data Protection Officer, Mark Uniacke, by writing an email to: privacy email.

  3. Website Links

    4. Our Web site includes links to third party Web sites that are governed by their own privacy policies and statements, and we are not responsible for their operations, including but not limited to their information practices. Anyone submitting information to or through these third party Web sites should review the privacy statements of these sites before providing them with personally identifiable information.

    Purchases of HIARCS products are primarily made through the service supplied by MyCommerce (A Digital River company) who maintain a secure ecommerce service for the purchase and initial delivery of software products via email and downloads.

  4. Purpose Specification and Data Collection

    5. You can access our Web site home page and browse our site without disclosing personal data, although we do need to use the IP address supplied by your browser to respond with the web page requested.

    When and if you choose to purchase one of our products we direct you to the MyCommerce service (a Digital River company) who collect your payment and process your personal details to fulfil your order. We do not collect or store any of your personal financial details whatsoever.

    When you place an order we process your name, e-mail address and registration details that you provide for the product purchase in question. We use this contact information to provide product support, updates and upgrade information electronically, primarily by email. We use your name and email to keep you updated about the product you purchased. We do not collect, hold or process your financial data, that is the purpose and function of the MyCommerce service.

    We retain email correspondence in order to provide better support, and measure and improve our Customer Service, and to investigate potential fraud. We may, over time, delete these records as permitted by law.

  5. HIARCS Chess Servers

    6. HIARCS Chess servers provide chess data to our products such as HIARCS Chess Explorer. All HIARCS products which access our chess servers give you the option to prevent the product accessing our chess servers. In HIARCS Chess Explorer this is found in the Preferences:Advanced dialog.

    In order for the HIARCS Chess Server to fulfil requests by the data subject for chess related data held on our servers we need to hold or process the following data:

    1. We need to process and use the IP address from which the request was made in order to respond to the data request. We have the lawful basis of contract and legitimate interests to do this.
    2. We need to process and store your license name and code, license data, login and password information in order to authenticate access and protect our servers. This data is encrypted. We have a lawful basis of contract and legitimate interests to do this.
    3. We need to process and store your product purchases and a user number in order to authenticate that the license relates to a valid purchase. This data is encrypted. We have a lawful basis of contract and legitimate interests to do this.

    The data we process and store is never shared by us with any third-party. While chess data is non personal we recognise your chess work is private to you. We do not record which chess positions a user of our chess servers access so you can be assured your analysis work is private.

    Were we to introduce a service for the customers to share their chess analysis with other customers and in return see a database of shared chess information this will only be done with your explicit clear opt-in permission.

  6. Product updates and upgrades

    7. When you purchase a product and supply your name and email address we need to use the email address you supply to fulfil the initial product delivery as well as provide emails on product service, updates and upgrades. All emails sent to fulfil the purchased product with license keys or login & passwords have the lawful basis of contract and hence you cannot opt-out of being sent these emails unless the contract is cancelled.

    Subsequent emails to give information about the product options, updates and upgrades are sent under the lawful basis of legitimate interests and existing customers may receive emails about the same product family under PECR. You can at anytime opt-out of receiving updates and upgrades by email by emailing us at privacy email or using the link we provide in email communications or replying to the emails we send with your request. Please be aware if you choose to not be contacted we will not contact you with any update or upgrade information and you will not be given upgrade discounts at the time of major product upgrades.

  7. Electronic Newsletters

    8. You may explicitly opt-in to receive general promotional or marketing information about HIARCS products from us. We provide you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving promotional or marketing information from us in every newsletter email we send you. You may opt out at any stage by emailing us (privacy email) a request to remove your email address from our marketing email lists, or replying to the emails we send with your request. Once you opt-out, you will no longer receive further promotional or marketing information from us. You will have the opportunity to opt-in again on our website where we allow opt-in by email confirmation.

  8. Individual Rights

    9. Under GDPR an individual may have the following rights:

    • the right to be informed about how your personal data is processed
    • the right of access to the personal data we hold on you
    • the right of rectification
    • the right of erasure
    • the right to restrict processing
    • the right to data portability
    • the right to object
    • the right not to be subject to automated decision-making

    If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact privacy email with your request, we will respond to requests without undue delay and within one month of receipt of the request allowed under GDPR. This period may be extended by a maximum of two months depending on the complexity and number of requests, in the unlikely event this was the case you would be informed about this within one month.

    When you exercise any of the above rights we first have to establish your identity. The GDPR regulation explicitly enables controllers to require data subjects to provide proof of identity before giving effect to their rights. This helps to limit the risk that third parties gain unlawful access to personal data. However, the GDPR does not oblige controllers to seek out information to identify data subjects. Under the GDPR the controller is exempt from its obligation to comply with certain rights of data subjects if it cannot identify which data in its possession relate to the relevant data subject.

    The right to object does not apply to personal data used under a lawful basis of contract. The right to object does not apply to consent but the right to withdraw consent is applicable.

  9. Notification of Changes

    10. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes in this area of our Web site. If there is a material change in our privacy practices, we will indicate on our sites that our privacy practices have changed. We will provide the new policy on our site and additionally we will provide a link to the old privacy statement. You can read our previous privacy policy here.

    Your continued usage of our web site will mean you accept these changes. If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please contact our data protection officer Mark Uniacke on this email address: privacy email