Legal

Privacy policy

Last updated

This is the plain-English version of how we handle your data at My Pickleball Connect. We tried to write something a real person can read in 5 minutes. The short version: we collect very little. We do not sell your personal information. We show ads through Google AdSense. You can ask us to delete what we have at any time.

Who we are

My Pickleball Connect is a player-built directory of pickleball courts, open play, tournaments, and editorial content. The site (mypickleballconnect.com and the My Pickleball Connect brand) is owned and operated by Blessed and Highly Favored, LLC, a New Mexico limited liability company located at 2105 Vista Oeste St NW, Suite E-1111, Albuquerque, NM 87120, United States. The data controller for the purposes of GDPR and the business for the purposes of CCPA is the same entity. Contact us anytime at hello@mypickleballconnect.com.

What we collect

Information you give us

  • Email address, if you sign up for the newsletter or contact us.
  • Account information (email and a display handle), if you create an account to comment. Sign-in is by magic-link email; we do not store passwords.
  • User-submitted content, if you submit a court correction, post a comment, or send us photos. We treat this as content you have chosen to share publicly with the site.

Information we collect automatically

  • Analytics: we use Google Analytics 4 to count page views and understand which pages help players most. GA4 sets first-party cookies and sends pseudonymous event data to Google. We do not link analytics data to anything personally identifying we already have, and we do not share data with brokers. Our GA4 setup allows Google signals and ad personalization signals for regular visitors. If Google signals is turned on in our Google Analytics account, Google may associate this data with Google accounts whose owners have turned on ad personalization, and may use it to personalize ads. You can manage this at Google Ads Settings.
  • Product analytics: Microsoft Clarity records how visitors use pages (clicks, scrolling and page content) to help us improve the site. Microsoft processes the data for us and also uses it for its own purposes under the Microsoft Privacy Statement. See the Cookies section below for the cookies it sets and how to opt out.
  • Server logs: our hosting provider (Vercel) keeps standard request logs (IP address, user agent, timestamp, requested URL) for operational and security reasons. We do not use these for marketing.
  • Affiliate click-throughs: when you click a deal link, the retailer may set a cookie to credit the referral. That happens at the retailer's domain, not ours.

How we use it

  • To send you what you signed up for (newsletter, account confirmations).
  • To run the site (load pages, route requests, prevent abuse, debug issues).
  • To understand which content is helpful and which is not.
  • To comply with the law (e.g., respond to lawful requests).

Apart from Google AdSense and the Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity settings described on this page, we do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or resale.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of service providers to run the site. Vercel, Supabase, OpenAI, and our email provider process data on our behalf to provide their service. Google (Analytics and AdSense) and Microsoft (Clarity) also use the data they collect for their own purposes under their own privacy policies, as does Meta for the Instagram embed described below. Our service providers:

  • Vercel (hosting, analytics-light).
  • Google Analytics 4 (page analytics).
  • Microsoft Clarity (session recordings and click heatmaps).
  • Email provider for the newsletter (currently we route via the same email address listed above; if we move to a managed sender, we will list it here).
  • Supabase (authentication and database for signed-in accounts and comments).
  • OpenAI Moderation API (text classification for spam and abuse on submitted comments). Only the comment text is sent; no identifying account information.

We never sell your personal information. We do not share it with data brokers. Google AdSense, our ad provider, sets its own cookies to serve and measure ads, as described under Advertising below.

Advertising

We show ads through Google AdSense, which loads on every page of the site and can set its own cookies to serve and measure ads. Google AdSense may use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other sites. You can opt out of personalized ads at Google Ads Settings.

What we do not do

  • No selling of personal data.
  • No retargeting pixels or marketing-attribution trackers of our own. The third parties we use (Google AdSense for ads, GA4 for page analytics, Clarity for UX research) are described above.
  • No dark patterns around consent. If you hit unsubscribe, you are unsubscribed immediately, on the first attempt.

Cookies

Our own cookies are first-party. Third-party services can also set cookies: Google AdSense, which loads on every page; Microsoft Clarity, through the Microsoft identifier sync described below; and Instagram's official embed on pro-clip guide pages, which may set Meta cookies. The full list:

  • Google Analytics 4 sets _ga and _ga_* cookies (24 months) to count unique visitors and page views. You can opt out browser-wide via the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
  • Microsoft Clarity sets _clck and _clsk cookies (1 year and 1 day respectively) for session recordings and heatmaps. Clarity's script also syncs a Microsoft identifier with c.bing.com, a Microsoft advertising domain, and its configuration lists the Microsoft Advertising cookies _uetvid and _uetmsclkid, so Microsoft may connect Clarity data with Microsoft Advertising. You can opt out of Clarity through the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out (select Microsoft) at optout.aboutads.info, and Clarity honours Global Privacy Control signals. You can also block its cookies in your browser settings. Microsoft explains how it uses this data in the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
  • Google AdSense loads on every page and can set its own cookies to serve and measure ads.
  • Instagram embeds: pro-clip guide pages embed Instagram videos using Instagram's official embed. The player loads with the page, without a click, and the embed may set Meta cookies.
  • Court distance lookup: when you type an address, hotel or ZIP code on a city page to see the nearest courts, our server sends that text to the US Census Bureau geocoder and, if needed, to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to turn it into map coordinates. We do not save the address, and neither service sets cookies on our site. Choosing "Use my current location" instead keeps your location in your browser.
  • Sign-in session (local storage, not a cookie): accounts are optional and you need one only to comment. Sign-in is by magic-link email through Supabase. When you sign in, Supabase stores a session token in your browser's local storage, under a key starting with sb-, so you stay signed in. The token refreshes automatically and is removed when you sign out.

Apart from the third parties noted above (Google AdSense, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and the Instagram embed on pro-clip guide pages), we do not add third-party advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or cross-site tracking of our own. Any cookies set by retailers when you click an affiliate deal link are set on the retailer's domain, not ours.

You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings at any time. Blocking analytics cookies will not affect your ability to use the directory, the play finders, or any other feature on this site.

Your rights

Regardless of where you live, you have the following rights with respect to your data:

  • Access: request a copy of what we have about you.
  • Correction: ask us to fix anything inaccurate.
  • Deletion: ask us to delete what we have about you.
  • Opt-out: unsubscribe from any email at any time. The link is in every email; you can also email us directly.
  • Portability: request your data in a machine-readable format.

If you are in the European Union or the UK (GDPR)

Our lawful basis is consent for the newsletter, and legitimate interest for running the site and keeping it secure. Google Analytics, Google AdSense and Microsoft Clarity use cookies or similar technologies that, for visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, generally require your consent under EU and UK law. We do not yet ask for that consent through a consent tool. Until we do, you can block these cookies in your browser, use the opt-outs in the Advertising and Cookies sections (including Global Privacy Control for Clarity), or email us to object, and we will act on your request. You can withdraw your newsletter consent at any time and lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority. We do not currently transfer data outside the European Economic Area beyond what is required to use our US-based service providers (Vercel, Google, Microsoft, Supabase, and OpenAI). Where required, we rely on the transfer safeguards these providers offer, such as Standard Contractual Clauses. Meta provides the Instagram embed on pro-clip guide pages; it is not one of our service providers, and its own terms apply to the data that embed collects.

If you are in California (CCPA / CPRA)

You have the right to know what personal information we have about you, to delete it, to correct it, and to opt out of any "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell your personal information. To opt out of personalized ads from Google AdSense, use Google Ads Settings. To opt out of Google Analytics, use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on listed in the Cookies section. Microsoft Clarity records session recordings and heatmaps of how you use the site; Microsoft explains how it handles that data in the Microsoft Privacy Statement. We do not collect sensitive personal information beyond what is listed above. We do not use or disclose sensitive information for purposes other than what we have stated.

How to exercise your rights

Email hello@mypickleballconnect.com with your request. We will respond within 30 days (45 days for CCPA requests). For CCPA verifiable consumer requests, we may ask you to confirm an identifying detail (typically the email address associated with the request) before acting.

Children

The site is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted information, email us and we will delete it promptly.

Data retention

  • Newsletter email: until you unsubscribe, then within 30 days.
  • Analytics data: GA4's default retention (currently 14 months for user-level data).
  • Account data: for the life of the account. On deletion, we remove the account record and most associated content within 30 days, except for what we are legally required to keep (e.g., transaction records).
  • User-submitted content: as long as it is published, plus a short retention window after removal for moderation history.
  • Server logs: typically 30 days, longer only if needed for security investigations.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS only. Sign-in is by magic-link email; we do not store passwords. Database access for signed-in users is gated by row-level security policies that limit reads and writes to the row owner. Submitted comments are screened by an automated moderation classifier before publishing, and a human moderator reviews anything queued for manual review. We do our best, and like any service on the public web, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

International data transfers

Our hosting and analytics providers are based in the United States. If you access the site from outside the US, your data will be transferred to and processed in the US. For EU/UK users, where required, we rely on the transfer safeguards our service providers offer, such as Standard Contractual Clauses.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we will update the date at the top and, for material changes, post a banner on the homepage for at least 30 days. Your continued use of the site after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the changes.

Contact

Email hello@mypickleballconnect.com with any privacy question, request, or complaint. A real person reads every email.