How we look after your information.

Who we are

The Bootroom is built and run by Alan, as an individual rather than a company. Alan is the data controller for the website and the app, which means he decides how personal information is used and is responsible for looking after it.

For anything about privacy, including requests to see or delete your information, email coach@the-bootroom.com.

The website

If you join the waitlist on this site we store:

• your email address and the role you picked (coach, parent or club secretary)
• the page that linked you here, if your browser shares it
• your browser's language and type (for example "Chrome on Android")
• when you signed up

We use this only to tell you when The Bootroom is ready for your team, and to understand who is interested. When you sign up, we email ourselves a notification with these details.

If you say yes when the site asks, we use Google Analytics to count visits. It records which pages are viewed, roughly where visitors are (country or city), their device and browser, and how they found the site. It sets cookies starting _ga that last up to two years. We only use this to see whether people are finding the site. It isn't linked to waitlist sign-ups or used for advertising. If you say no, Google Analytics isn't loaded and no cookies are set.

Your browser remembers your choice, and you can change it at any time in cookie settings.

The site uses no other cookies and no advertising trackers. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google to download them, which shares your IP address with Google.

The app

Your account

You sign in with your Google account. We receive your name, email address and, if you have one, your Google profile picture. We never see your Google password.

Coaches

• Your phone number, if you add one, so parents and other coaches on your team can reach you.
• Your coaching and safeguarding certificates: name, issuer, completion and expiry dates, and any reference number. We use these to remind you before they expire.
• Your role on each team (for example head coach or helper), and match-day roles you volunteer for.
• Optional extras such as the team you support.

Parents and guardians

• Your phone number, and an emergency contact name and number, if you add them.
• Your link to your child, your relationship to them, and whether you're an emergency contact or allowed to collect them.
• Whether you've given consent for your child to appear in photos.
• Your replies to availability requests and offers to help on match day.

Players

Coaches and parents can add the following about a child. See Children below.

• First name, surname, nickname and shirt number.
• A photo, if a parent or guardian has consented.
• Favourite positions.
• Injury details, including what happened, since when and when they're expected back.
• Medical notes such as allergies, conditions or medication, so coaches can keep the child safe.
• Attendance at matches and training, games played, line-ups, and notes and shout-outs from coaches.
• A few optional "All about" answers for their player card, such as their favourite player, best skill and goal celebration.

Matches, training and messages

• Fixtures, results, scorers, match reports, training plans and session notes.
• Team wall posts and private messages, and whether each has been read.
• The locations of grounds and pitches your team uses.

Your phone

• Notifications. If you allow them, we store a notification token for your device so we can send reminders and messages. We do this through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging.
• Location. If you allow it, the app uses your phone's location only to centre the map when you're picking a ground. We don't store or share your location.
• Photos. The app only reads a photo when you choose one to upload.

Children's information

Most players are under 16. Children don't sign in or use The Bootroom themselves. Their information is added by their coaches or by their parents and guardians.

• Coaches should only add what they need to run the team safely, and parents can see what's held about their child.
• Photos are only for children whose parent or guardian has given photo consent in the app.
• Medical and injury information is only visible to the child's team coaches and their own parents and guardians. It is never visible to other families.
• We don't rank children against each other, and we don't make any automated decisions about them.

If you're a parent and want to see, change or remove anything about your child, ask your coach or email us.

Who sees what

We don't sell personal information or share it with advertisers. We only share it with the service providers listed below, who run parts of The Bootroom for us, or if the law requires it.

Why we're allowed to use it

UK data protection law requires a legal reason for each use of personal information. Ours are:

• Legitimate interests. This covers running the team tools you've chosen to use, such as availability, line-ups, match day, messages and certificates, and keeping the service secure. These are things coaches and families would reasonably expect.
• Consent. This covers photos of children, push notifications, your phone's location, joining the waitlist and analytics cookies on the website. You can withdraw consent at any time: turn it off in the app, your phone's settings or the website's cookie settings, or email us.
• Health information. Medical notes and injuries are a special category of data. We only hold them when a parent, guardian or coach chooses to add them, to keep the child safe while they play. Parents can ask for them to be removed at any time.

Where it's kept, and who helps us

App and waitlist data is stored on Google Cloud in London (europe-west2). It's encrypted in transit and at rest. These providers process data for us:

Some of these providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, they use legal safeguards approved under UK law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

How long we keep it

• Your account: for as long as you use The Bootroom. Ask us to delete it and we'll remove your personal information within 30 days. How to delete your account.
• Players and teams: while the team is using The Bootroom. When a coach deletes a team, it's hidden straight away and kept for a short while in case it was a mistake. Ask us and we'll permanently erase it, along with its players' information.
• Waitlist: until we've invited you to join, or until you ask us to remove you.
• Website analytics: Google Analytics keeps visit data for 2 months, then deletes it.
• Backups: deleted information can stay in our encrypted backups for a short time before it's overwritten.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the information we hold about you or your child
• correct anything that's wrong
• delete your information
• restrict or object to how we use it
• send your information to you in a portable format

Email coach@the-bootroom.com and we'll reply within one month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint. We'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we use personal information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll also tell you in the app.