CleatScout

Privacy Policy

This policy explains what CleatScout collects, why we use it, and the choices you have. It is written in plain language for players, parents, teams, and tournament directors. It is not legal advice.

Effective date: November 12, 2026

Who we are

CleatScout is a baseball and softball recruiting and tournament product at cleatscout.com. Contact privacy requests at privacy@cleatscout.com.

What we collect

Account data — email, password (stored as a one-way hash), name fields, account type (player, parent, team, or director), and date of birth for players (used for age gating and parent approval).
Profile and recruiting content — sport, school, city/region, stats, about text, photos, highlights, Cleat Card numbers, and similar profile fields you choose to publish to signed-in members.
Team and event data — team names, coaches, logos, tournament listings, brackets, scores, reservations, and related ops notes you enter.
Messages and media — team/tournament chat, stories, feed posts, reactions, and uploaded images or video you share inside the product.
Payments — when Stripe is connected for tournament reservations, Stripe processes card payments. CleatScout stores reservation status and Stripe session/payment identifiers, not full card numbers.
Technical data — session cookies, approximate IP used for rate limiting and abuse prevention, and basic request logs needed to run the service.
Product analytics (first-party) — page path, referrer host, optional campaign parameters (UTM), approximate device/browser, and recent activity timestamps. Used so CleatScout operators can see whether people are visiting the site and where signups come from. This stays in CleatScout systems; we do not sell it or send it to advertising networks.

Why we use it

Create and secure accounts, and keep you signed in.
Show recruiting profiles, teams, chats, live scores, and tournaments to signed-in members.
Send transactional email (verification, parent approval, password-related, and similar notices).
Process tournament reservations when payments are enabled.
Prevent spam, abuse, and unauthorized access.
Improve reliability and fix bugs.
Understand site traffic and signup sources so we can operate and grow CleatScout responsibly.

Players under 18

CleatScout is built with youth athletes in mind. Self-declared under-18 player signups require a parent or guardian email approval before login. Parents can control recruiting listing and chat-join approval for linked minors. Profiles and member directories are limited to signed-in members; they are not meant as a public open web listing. We do not knowingly sell children's personal information.

Who can see your information

Signed-in members can see listed recruiting and team content according to product privacy settings.
Login emails stay private for authentication and account recovery.
Staff contact details on team pages stay hidden until the team opts in to show them.
Service providers that help us operate CleatScout (for example hosting, database, email, and payment processors) receive only what they need to provide that service.

Cookies and sessions

We use httpOnly session cookies to keep you logged in. These are required for the product to work. We also use first-party cookies for an anonymous visitor id and short-lived signup attribution (campaign/landing hints) so operators can measure traffic inside CleatScout. We do not use third-party advertising trackers as part of the core CleatScout experience.

How long we keep data

We keep account and content data while your account is active and as needed to operate the product, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes, and prevent abuse. Pending under-18 signups that are never approved expire after a short window. You can ask us to delete an account as described below.

Access, correction, and deletion

You can update much of your profile and team information while signed in. To export or delete an account, email privacy@cleatscout.com from the address on the account. We may need to verify ownership before acting. Some records (for example paid tournament receipts or safety logs) may be retained where the law or fraud prevention requires it.

Security

We use hashed passwords, signed session cookies, same-origin checks on sensitive form posts, and rate limits on auth and signup. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure. Report suspected security issues as described in our Terms and the project SECURITY.md when published.

Changes

We may update this policy as CleatScout grows. The effective date above will change when we do. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@cleatscout.com