Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

We collect information in two ways: what you give us directly, and what's generated by using the Service. (If we add paid subscriptions, a third source — confirmation data from a payment provider — will be added here. See Section 1.3.)

We also store publicly listed information about padel venues so we can show courts on the map. That information is about venues, not about you, and is described in Section 1.6.

1.1 Account & profile information

• Username (display name), email address, and password
• Profile details you choose to add: avatar/photo, home city, country, and skill level
• An optional contact number. If you add one, it is shared with your matched opponent once a challenge is accepted, so you can arrange your match. See Section 4.

1.2 Gameplay information

• Court records: which court you own, have claimed, or are challenging, tied to that court's fixed map location (sourced from open map datasets as described in Section 1.6)
• Match results, ELO rating and rating history, win/loss records, challenge history, and defense streaks

Court positions shown on the map are fixed, publicly sourced map data about the courts themselves, not about you. How we use your own device location is described in Section 1.7.

1.3 Payment information

Pattle does not currently process payments or offer a paid subscription. If we introduce one, your payment will be handled by a named third-party payment processor (see Section 4), we will receive only confirmation of your subscription and billing status, never your full card number, and we will update this policy before that feature goes live.

1.4 Device & usage information

Standard technical data generated by using a web app: IP address, browser type, device type, general usage/session data, and error logs needed to keep the Service running and to fix bugs. We use this operationally, not to build advertising profiles.

1.5 Notifications

Pattle sends in-app notifications (for example, "your court was challenged" or "your challenge was accepted") that appear in the app's notification centre. We do not send marketing email or SMS. If we contact you directly by email (for example, in response to a support request), we retain the content needed to respond to you. If we introduce email or SMS notifications, this section and Section 6 will be updated first to describe exactly what's sent and how to opt out.

1.6 Information about padel venues

To show courts on the Pattleground map, we store publicly listed information about padel venues: venue name, address, map coordinates, and venue category. This comes from open map datasets: OpenStreetMap and Foursquare Open Source Places. We do not store venue phone numbers, email addresses, or social media handles from these datasets. If you run a venue and want its listing corrected or removed, email hello@playpattle.com.

1.7 Location information

If you allow it, Pattle uses your device's location to work out which city you are in and to show you the padel courts near you. Your browser asks for your permission before sharing your location with us, and you can say no.

We use your location only for these two purposes: identifying your current city and finding courts near you. We do not use it to record your movements, to build a location history, or for advertising.

If you don't allow location access, or turn it off later in your browser or device settings, you can still use Pattle. The app will use the home city in your profile instead, and you can browse courts by city on the map.

2. How we use your information

We use personal data only to:

• Operate your player profile and the app's core features (court claiming, challenges, ELO/stats, leaderboards, competitions)
• Identify your current city and show courts near you, if you allow location access (see Section 1.7)
• Share your contact number with a matched opponent once a challenge is accepted, if you've added one
• Send you the in-app notifications you've opted into
• Maintain the security, integrity, and basic functionality of the Service
• Comply with legal obligations
• Process your subscription and manage billing, if and once Pattle offers a paid tier (see Section 1.3)

We do not use your personal data for:

• Selling or renting it to third parties
• Third-party advertising or ad targeting
• Training AI models (Pattle does not send your personal data to AI systems)
• Any purpose unrelated to your player profile and the Service

If this ever changes — for example if we introduce an AI-powered feature that processes your input — we will update this policy first, name the provider, describe exactly what's sent, and, where required, ask for your consent before turning it on.

3. Legal basis for processing (GDPR / UK GDPR)

If you're in the UK, EU, or European Economic Area, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract: processing your account, profile, and gameplay data is necessary to provide the Service you signed up for.
• Consent: for your device location (see Section 1.7), for optional profile fields like your contact number, and for any marketing email if we introduce it in future.
• Legitimate interests: for basic security, fraud prevention, and service reliability, balanced against your rights.
• Legitimate interests (venue listings): showing publicly listed padel venues on the map is necessary to operate the game. Venue listings contain business information, not information about our players.
• Legal obligation: where we must retain or disclose data to comply with the law.

You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before you withdrew it. For location, you withdraw consent by turning off location access in your browser or device settings.

4. Who we share information with

We name every recipient of your data here, not "our partners" — actual names.

Your matched opponent. Your opponent receives your display name, avatar, and contact number, only if you've added a contact number and only after a challenge between you is accepted, so you can arrange your match.

Vercel (hosting). Vercel receives application hosting data and server logs, so we can run the Service.

Neon (database). Neon stores the account, profile, and gameplay data described in Section 1, so we can store and retrieve your data.

Pattle does not currently use a payment processor, analytics tool, error-tracking service, or email/SMS vendor, so we don't have data to share with any of them yet. The day any of that changes, the new vendor is named in this section before the integration goes live, not after.

Your location is not shared. We do not share your device location with other players or with any third party. Other players see the courts you own or challenge, not where you are.

Where our court data comes from. Court locations are built from open datasets: OpenStreetMap and Foursquare Open Source Places (downloaded via Hugging Face), with city boundaries looked up through OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service. Our servers fetch this data directly. None of these sources receives any information about you: not your location, your account, or your IP address. They are data sources, not recipients of your data, which is why they aren't listed as recipients above.

We do not share personal data with advertisers or data brokers, and we never sell it.

5. Your rights

If you're in the UK/EU/EEA (GDPR)

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate data
• Request erasure ("right to be forgotten")
• Restrict or object to certain processing
• Receive your data in a portable format
• Withdraw consent at any time
• Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority

If you're a California resident (CCPA/CPRA)

You have the right to:

• Know what personal information we collect, use, and disclose
• Request deletion of your personal information
• Correct inaccurate personal information
• Limit the use of your precise location to what is necessary to provide the Service. We already use it only for that purpose (see Section 1.7)
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. As stated above, we do not sell or share your personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you retain this right
• Non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights
• Designate an authorized agent to act on your behalf

Everyone, everywhere

Regardless of where you live, you can email hello@playpattle.com to request access, correction, or deletion of your data, and we will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law (or within 30 days where no specific timeframe applies).

6. Communication preferences

Pattle currently sends in-app notifications only. We do not send marketing email or SMS. You can turn off court/challenge alerts at any time from Settings → Notifications; this does not affect your ability to use the app.

If we introduce email or SMS notifications in the future, every one will include a working, no-login opt-out (an unsubscribe link for email, reply STOP for SMS), and this section will be updated before that happens, not after.

7. Account age eligibility

Pattle is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. By creating an account, you confirm and acknowledge that you are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly permit anyone under 18 to hold an account.

If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we will take steps to close the account and delete the associated personal data, consistent with our data retention practices in Section 8.

8. Data retention

We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy:

• Account & profile data: retained while your account is active.
• Device location: used to identify your city and find nearby courts when you use the app. We do not keep a history of your locations.
• Account closure: Pattle does not yet have a self-serve "delete my account" button in the app. Until it does, email hello@playpattle.com to request deletion, and we will delete or anonymize your account and profile data within 30 days, except where we must retain limited records to comply with law or resolve a dispute. We're building an in-app deletion flow; when it ships, this section will point to it directly.
• Payment records: not applicable today (see Section 1.3). Would be retained as required by tax and accounting law if this changes.

If this policy states that we delete something, that deletion is implemented as an actual process in our systems, not just a sentence here, and we periodically verify that it runs.

9. Data security

We use industry-standard safeguards to protect your data, including encryption in transit, access controls limiting who inside Pattle can view personal data, and authentication requirements on all data stores (no publicly accessible databases or storage). No system is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security, but we treat "who can access this without logging in" as a question we check, not assume.

10. International data transfers

Because Pattle serves users globally, your data may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers, such as Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers out of the UK/EEA.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy — including adding a new third party, adding AI-based processing, or changing our account age eligibility rules — we will update the "Last updated" date above and, where the change is significant, notify you directly (for example, by email or in-app notice) before it takes effect.

12. Contact us

Pattle
Email: hello@playpattle.com

If you are in the UK/EU and believe we haven't resolved your concern, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.