Legal

Privacy policy

Last updated: 20 April 2026

Footvolley.club is a free, community-driven directory for footvolley clubs, competitions and events. This page explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. We try to keep things simple and honest — if anything here is unclear, contact us.

1. Who we are

Footvolley.club is run as a community project. For any privacy-related question you can reach us at contact@footvolley.club. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller for the information described below.

2. What data we collect

Data you submit

• Club, event and competition submissions — when you add a club or event, we store the details you type in (name, location, contact info, description, logos/posters you upload, and similar).
• Organiser accounts — if you are managing events or clubs through our organiser portal, we store an access token tied to your organisation. We do not store passwords.
• Feedback — when you use the "Feedback" widget, we store your message, the page you sent it from, and optionally the email address you provide so we can reply. This goes to contact@footvolley.club.

Data collected automatically

• Usage analytics — only if you accept cookies, we collect anonymised usage data through Google Analytics 4 (pages visited, clicks on key buttons, device type, approximate country). See Cookies & analytics.
• Technical logs — when errors happen in the browser, we log the error message, the page URL and a short browser identifier so we can fix bugs. IP addresses are hashed (SHA-256) before storage — we never store your raw IP.
• Server access logs — like most websites, our hosting provider records standard access logs (timestamp, URL, status code, user agent). These are kept for a short period and used for diagnostics and abuse prevention.

3. How we use your data

• To run the service — show clubs on a map, display event information, route you to the right page.
• To reply to you — when you email us or send feedback.
• To improve the site — understand which features people use (only with analytics consent).
• To fix bugs — from error logs.
• To prevent abuse — rate-limit submissions and block spam.

We do not sell your data. We do not use it for advertising. We do not build advertising profiles.

4. Legal basis (GDPR)

Under the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Consent — for analytics cookies and similar non-essential tracking.
• Legitimate interests — for publishing the content you submit, keeping the service running, preventing abuse, and fixing bugs.
• Contract — where you use the organiser portal to manage an event.

5. Cookies & analytics

On your first visit we show a cookie banner. We only set analytics cookies if you click Accept. Rejecting cookies does not break any feature of the site.

Strictly necessary (always active)

• Language preference (localStorage.language).
• Cookie consent choice (localStorage.fv_consent).
• Session identifiers used only for error logging during your current visit.

Analytics (only after consent)

• Google Analytics 4 — aggregate usage metrics. Configured with IP anonymisation and Google's Consent Mode v2. You can withdraw consent anytime from the Cookie settings link in the footer.

We do not use cookies for advertising, remarketing, or cross-site tracking.

6. Third-party services

We load a few third-party services to make the site work. Each of them may receive your IP address automatically (as is the case for any resource loaded over the internet):

• Google Analytics (Google Ireland Ltd) — analytics; only after consent.
• Google Fonts, Google Tag Manager (Google Ireland Ltd) — font and script delivery.
• jsDelivr, cdnjs — CSS and JS libraries (Bootstrap, Font Awesome).
• OpenStreetMap / Leaflet — map tiles on club pages and the Find-a-club map.
• Unpkg — hosting for the Leaflet map library.
• Photon by Komoot — city autocomplete on submission forms.

We do not directly share the content you submit with any of these services. They only receive what their public API needs to serve a request (e.g. the city name you're searching for, in the case of Photon).

7. Data retention

• Public content (clubs, events, competitions) — kept for as long as the entity is active. Organisers can request deletion.
• Feedback messages — kept for up to 24 months.
• Error logs — kept for up to 90 days.
• Analytics data — retention period configured in Google Analytics; currently up to 14 months.
• Server access logs — typically 30 days, per our hosting provider's defaults.

8. Your rights

Under GDPR (and equivalent laws in the UK, Brazil, and elsewhere), you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction or deletion of that data.
• Object to or restrict certain processing.
• Request a portable copy of your data.
• Withdraw consent at any time (for analytics, via the Cookie settings link in the footer).
• Lodge a complaint with a data protection authority (e.g. the CNIL in France, BfDI in Germany, AP in the Netherlands, ICO in the UK).

To exercise any of these, email contact@footvolley.club. We aim to respond within 30 days.

9. Security

The site is served over HTTPS. Passwords are not stored. Organiser access uses time-limited tokens. We try to follow basic web security best practices (input sanitisation, rate limits, CSRF-safe forms). No system is perfect — if you spot a security issue, please email contact@footvolley.club rather than disclosing it publicly.

10. Children's data

Footvolley.club is not directed at children under 13 (or 16 in parts of the EU). We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe we have, email us and we will remove it.

11. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For substantial changes we will also post a notice on the homepage or send a notification if we have contact details.

12. Contact us