PRIVACY POLICY

1. SCOPE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect: (a) on and through the Service; (b) in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and the Service; (c) through mobile and desktop applications you download from the Service; and (d) when you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by: (a) us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Company or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries); or (b) any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Service. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties.

2. INFORMATION WE COLLECT

2.1 Categories of Personal Information

We collect several categories of information from and about users of our Service, including:

2.1.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Account Registration Information: When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, password (stored in hashed form), and any authentication tokens from third-party sign-in providers (e.g., Google).
• Profile Information: Information you choose to add to your profile, including organization/school affiliation, job title, phone number (with country code), mailing address, city, state/province, postal code, and country.
• User Content: Any content you submit, post, upload, or otherwise transmit through the Service, including profile photos, videos, documents, messages, chat communications, comments, ratings, evaluations, and any other materials.
• Communication Information: Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses) if you contact us, participate in surveys, or provide feedback.
• Transaction Information: Details of transactions you carry out through the Service, including subscription purchases and billing information. Note: Payment card details are processed by our third-party payment processor (Stripe) and are not stored by us.
• Search and Filter Information: Your search queries, filter preferences, and other information about how you interact with the Service.

2.1.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you access or use the Service, we automatically collect certain information, including:

• Device and Browser Information: Information about your device, including device type, operating system, unique device identifiers, browser type and version, browser language, and mobile network information.
• Log and Usage Data: Information about your use of the Service, including access times and dates, pages viewed, links clicked, features used, the page you visited before navigating to the Service, and other actions taken on the Service.
• Location Information: Approximate geographic location inferred from your IP address. We do not collect precise geolocation data from your device without your explicit consent.
• IP Address: Your Internet Protocol (IP) address, which we may use for security, fraud prevention, analytics, and to infer approximate location.

2.1.3 Information from Third-Party Sources

We may receive information about you from third-party sources, including:

• Authentication Providers: If you sign in using a third-party authentication provider (e.g., Google), we receive information from that provider, such as your name, email address, and profile picture, as authorized by you and the provider's privacy settings.
• Payment Processors: We receive transaction confirmations, subscription status, and related billing information from our payment processor (Stripe).
• Analytics Providers: We may receive aggregated or anonymized analytics data from third-party analytics providers.
• Other Users: Other users may provide information about you when they submit content that includes information about you (e.g., a coach submitting player information).

2.2 Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as web beacons, pixels, and local storage) to collect and store information about you when you use the Service. Cookies are small data files stored on your device that help us improve the Service and your experience, see which areas and features of the Service are popular, count visits, and for authentication and session management.

Types of Cookies We Use:

• Essential Cookies: Necessary for the operation of the Service, including authentication, session management, and security. You cannot opt out of these cookies.
• Functional Cookies: Enable personalized features and remember your preferences (such as language and locale settings).
• Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with the Service by collecting and reporting information anonymously.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. However, if you block or delete cookies, some features of the Service may not function properly.

2.3 Do Not Track Signals

Some web browsers may transmit "do not track" signals to websites. Because there is no common industry standard for interpreting these signals, the Service does not currently respond to "do not track" signals.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

3.1 Purposes of Processing

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including to:

• Provide and Maintain the Service: Create and manage your account, process transactions, provide customer support, and deliver the features and functionality of the Service.
• Personalize Your Experience: Customize content and features based on your preferences, interests, and behavior on the Service.
• Communicate with You: Send administrative messages, technical notices, security alerts, and support and account-related communications. With your consent, we may also send promotional communications.
• Process Payments: Process subscription payments and manage your billing relationship with us through our payment processor.
• Improve and Develop the Service: Analyze usage patterns, diagnose technical problems, develop new products and features, and conduct research and analysis.
• Security and Fraud Prevention: Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, abuse, security breaches, and other illegal activities, and protect the rights and property of Company and others.
• Legal Compliance: Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes, including responding to lawful requests and legal process.
• Enforce Our Terms: Enforce our Terms of Service and other agreements.
• Other Purposes: For any other purpose disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or with your consent.

3.2 Legal Bases for Processing (EEA/UK Users)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom (UK), we rely on the following legal bases for processing your personal data:

• Contractual Necessity: Processing necessary to perform our contract with you (i.e., to provide the Service).
• Legitimate Interests: Processing necessary for our legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. Our legitimate interests include operating and improving the Service, marketing, fraud prevention, and network security.
• Consent: Processing based on your specific consent, which you may withdraw at any time.
• Legal Obligation: Processing necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

4. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

4.1 Categories of Recipients

We may share your information with the following categories of recipients:

4.1.1 Service Providers and Vendors

We share information with third-party vendors, consultants, and service providers who perform services on our behalf and require access to your information to carry out their work for us. These include:

• Cloud hosting and infrastructure providers (e.g., Supabase, Vercel)
• Payment processors (e.g., Stripe)
• Authentication providers (e.g., Google)
• Email and communication service providers
• Analytics providers
• Customer support platforms

4.1.2 Other Users

Certain information you provide may be visible to other users of the Service. For example, if you are a Player, Recruiters may be able to view your profile information. If you send messages through the Service, the recipients of those messages can see your messages and associated information.

4.1.3 Legal and Safety Disclosures

We may disclose your information to third parties if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to:

• Comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request;
• Enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements, including investigation of potential violations;
• Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues;
• Protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of Company, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law;
• Respond to an emergency that we believe in good faith requires disclosure of information to protect the life or safety of an individual.

4.1.4 Business Transfers

We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on the Service of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.

4.1.5 With Your Consent

We may share your information with third parties when you have given us your consent to do so.

4.2 No Sale of Personal Information

We do not sell, rent, or lease your personal information to third parties. We do not share your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes without your consent.

5. DATA RETENTION

We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, the purposes for which we process your information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and applicable legal requirements.

In general:

• Account Information: Retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period thereafter for backup, archival, audit, legal, or business purposes.
• User Content: Retained while your account is active. Upon account termination, we may retain User Content for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business purposes, or as required by law.
• Usage Data: Generally retained for up to 24 months for analytics purposes, though aggregated or anonymized data may be retained longer.
• Communications: Retained for as long as necessary to resolve inquiries and for a reasonable period thereafter.
• Legal Obligations: We may retain certain information for longer periods as required by law, such as tax and accounting requirements.

6. DATA SECURITY

We have implemented and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to protect your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit using TLS/SSL protocols
• Encryption of data at rest where appropriate
• Secure password hashing
• Access controls limiting employee access to personal information
• Regular security assessments and monitoring
• Vendor security reviews

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account.

7. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

7.1 Age Restrictions

The Service is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, you may not use the Service or provide any information on the Service. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information.

7.2 Users Aged 13-17

If you are between 13 and 17 years of age, you may use the Service only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian. Parents and guardians who allow their children to use the Service should be aware that we may collect the personal information described in this Privacy Policy. Parents and guardians may contact us at support@metaafricasports.com to:

• Review personal information collected about their child;
• Request deletion of such information;
• Request that we stop collecting or using such information.

7.3 COPPA Compliance

We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us immediately at support@metaafricasports.com.

8. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

We are based in the United States, and the information we collect is governed by U.S. law. If you are accessing the Service from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States and other countries where our servers are located and our service providers are based.

The data protection laws of the United States and other countries may not be as comprehensive as those in your country of residence. By using the Service, you consent to your information being transferred to our facilities and to the facilities of those third parties with whom we share it, as described in this Privacy Policy.

For users in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate legal mechanisms for international data transfers, including Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission or UK authorities, as applicable.

9. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS AND CHOICES

9.1 Account Information

You may update, correct, or delete your account information at any time by logging into your account and accessing your account settings. You may also contact us at support@metaafricasports.com to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information you have provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

9.2 Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your account by contacting us at support@metaafricasports.com. Upon receiving your request, we will delete your account and personal information, except where we are required or permitted to retain certain information for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business purposes.

9.3 Communication Preferences

You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by following the unsubscribe instructions in those messages. If you opt out of promotional communications, we may still send you non-promotional communications, such as messages about your account, transactions, or our ongoing business relations.

9.4 Rights of EEA, UK, and Swiss Residents

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws, including:

• Right of Access: The right to request access to your personal data.
• Right to Rectification: The right to request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Right to Erasure: The right to request deletion of your personal data, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Restrict Processing: The right to request restriction of processing of your personal data.
• Right to Data Portability: The right to receive a copy of your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format and to request transfer to another controller.
• Right to Object: The right to object to processing of your personal data based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: The right to withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data.
• Right to Lodge a Complaint: The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

9.5 Rights of California Residents

If you are a California resident, you have certain rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), including:

• Right to Know: You have the right to request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources of collection, our purposes for collecting or selling the information, and the categories of third parties with whom we share the information.
• Right to Delete: You have the right to request that we delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Correct: You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sales/Sharing: We do not sell or share (for cross-context behavioral advertising) your personal information.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@metaafricasports.com. We may require verification of your identity before responding to your request.

9.6 Other U.S. State Privacy Rights

Residents of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws may have similar rights. Please contact us at support@metaafricasports.com to exercise any applicable rights.

10. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Service and updating the "Effective Date" at the top of this page. If required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent to material changes.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

11. CONTACT US

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe and in accordance with applicable law.

12. ADDITIONAL DISCLOSURES

12.1 Sensitive Personal Information

We do not intentionally collect sensitive personal information (such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data for identification purposes, health data, or data concerning a person's sex life or sexual orientation) unless you voluntarily provide such information or it is required for a specific purpose disclosed to you.

12.2 Automated Decision-Making

We do not currently engage in automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.

12.3 Data Protection Officer

For privacy-related inquiries, please contact us at support@metaafricasports.com.