Privacy Policy

Dear Parent/ Guardian,
Your child’s league has decided to implement the Sports Wall of Fame (SWF) program into their league website Heartwellpony.com (HWP). Before we are able to collect any personal information about your child and before we can allow them to have a profile on the HWP site, we are legally required to inform you about the policies and practices of our site and obtain your consent. Our Online Privacy Policy Regarding Children under 13 is provided below. The privacy and safety of our members is very important to HWP/SWF. We have made every effort to ensure that the information on this site is protected and that members have complete control over who can view their information. To ensure that our members are well informed and feel comfortable participating in HWP/SWF, we have provided this detailed privacy policy explaining:  what information will be collected, how information is collected, why we want to collect this information, how it is used, how we will protect the information, and other details regarding the HWP/SWF site and its practices. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy policy or anything regarding SWF, we have provided our contact information and encourage you to get in touch with us- we would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
SWF/HWP takes additional privacy measures to ensure the security of all of our members regardless of age, but we also comply with the policies outlined in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (also known as COPPA). In COPPA and in our privacy policy, a “child” and “children” are defined as an individual or individuals under the age of 13. On April 21, 2000, the Federal Trade Commission established rules and regulations that website operators must abide by in order to protect the privacy of children using the World Wide Web; those rules are outlined in COPPA. One of the requirements is that a website operator obtains parental consent before a child is allowed to participate in a website that collects personal information. If interested, you can view COPPA by clicking this link.

Types of information we collect
HWP/SWF will be collecting information that is required for participation and usage of the site. “Players” (referring to all team members in the league, regardless of age) will have the option of providing additional information for their profile; the disclosure of this information is completely voluntary and can be provided at the discretion of the player and/or parent.
               
                Required information
This is the information that players and/or parents must provide in order to register as a member and use the features of the site. It includes contact information such as:  first and last name, date of birth, username and email address. This information will be collected at the beginning of the season when a parent signs up his/her player for the league. We will provide a consent form for each parent and it will request the above information and a signature.

                Optional information
Players will have the option of providing personal information in their profiles. Types of information that may be provided includes:
-gender
-position played
-what arm they throw with
-what arm they bat with
-height
-weight
-hometown
-favorite professional team
-favorite professional athlete
-Year of high school graduation

How much (if any) additional personal information included in the player profile is completely controlled by the player. Members may also choose to provide a profile picture. Players and/or parents have the option of giving permission for HWP/SWF to include a player’s “game-by-game performances” in their profile. “Game-by-game performances” refers to the statistics that are normally collected during games. Refer to figure 1 below for a list of what statistics are collected. We do not collect more personal information than is necessary for participation in the site.

How will this information be collected?
The required information listed above will be provided by the player and/or parent while registering for the HWP site. The optional information a player may include in their profile will be provided by the player when they create or update their profile information.
The game-by-game performances are typically collected by a parent, league official, coach, or a volunteer who is appointed to keep the official score and game statistics for the league and/or each team. The team coach will be in charge of inputting the game-by-game performances and statistics onto the website.
                We will not be collecting any personal information from the child/player through passive mechanisms like cookies. We will not request additional information in order for the child to use any of the site’s features other than creating a player profile.

Why are we collecting this information?
By tracking and compiling players’ game-by-game performances, HWP/SWF will be able to calculate a player’s lifetime statistics. The HWP/SWF site will be able to calculate statistics from each season and continually calculate a player’s performance statistics as long as the player is a member of SWF and the league the player participates in has signed up for the SWF software. For years, coaches and players have spent countless hours calculating and organizing statistics; a benefit of becoming a member of HWP/SWF will be the site’s ability to automatically calculate these numbers for you and keep a running total as your career progresses.

As a player progresses and advances in their level of play, it will be useful to have a lifetime record of their sports career. If a player wants to play for a travel team, to participate in college-level sports or aims to become a professional athlete, providing a potential coach, scout, university, etc. with one’s career stats can be useful and give a player an advantage. This information can also be used when applying for scholarships or to stand out among competitors when trying to make a team. Even if a player doesn’t have the intention of playing at such an advanced level, it is fun to see all of this information clearly organized and available at your fingertips!

                The required information listed above [see above section, Types of information we collect] is needed to register and become a member of the site. Once you are a registered member of the site, you will have access to HWP/SWF features. Children’s participation in the site will NOT be conditional to giving more personal information; all player activities and features can be accessed once registered.

How will this information be used?
As explained above, the game-by-game performance statistics will be used to calculate a player’s lifetime statistics. The required information we gather upon registration with the site [see above section, Types of information we collect] is used to obtain parental consent. By law, before HWP/SWF is able to collect or use a child’s personal information, a verifiable form of parental consent is necessary [see above section, Compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)]. The required information is also necessary to register and become a member of the HWP/SWF site. Any of the optional information a parent, child, and/or player provides will only be used in the player’s profile.
                The information we require and additional information you provide is only used by SWF employees to maintain and update the HWP/SWF site. We will not use this information for any other purposes or for any third parties.

 How will this information be disclosed?
SWF will not use, sell, or distribute this information to third parties. The only circumstance in which HWP/SWF will release personal information is if we are required to by law and/or to comply with any legal proceedings that make the disclosure of information necessary. The information on this site is used by SWF employees exclusively for the maintenance and upkeep of the HWP/SWF site.  It is completely up to the player and/or parent if they choose to distribute this information to third parties.
               
How will this information be protected?
HWP/SWF is a public website that can be viewed by any web user. In order to protect and comply with each HWP/SWF member’s privacy needs, we have included flexible privacy settings for player profiles. Each player will be able to choose the level of security placed upon their profile, controlling who can and cannot view it.

Children and parents do have the option of exporting their information to other leagues; for example if they advance to a higher level of play they can have their stats from previous leagues roll over to the next league (if that league has signed up for the SWF software). Children and parents also have the option of exporting their statistics to third party websites (for example, social networking websites like Myspace or Facebook). However, once information has been released to third parties or has been posted on other websites, HWP/SWF is not responsible for the protecting that information; SWF is only responsible for and able to protect information that is on the HWP/SWF website.

How can this information be accessed?
Any web user is able to access and view the HWP/SWF website. Access to specific player profiles is controlled by the privacy settings.

Who will own and control the players’ personal information?
HWP/SWF is acts as a storage space for the information provided at registration and the information displayed on the player profile. Parents and players have full ownership over that information. They have full control over if, how, and how much information is collected and displayed on the site. They have full control over who views their player profile. They have the option of deleting their profile at any time. A HWP/SWF member can still use some of the features of the site (e.g. receive announcements, read league news, view schedules, etc.) without having a player profile.

How can you stop your personal information from being collected?
Players and/or parents may delete their player profile at anytime. Although this will not stop the league from collecting the official game statistics, this will keep the individual player’s statistics from being posted online. To delete your account please login into your account and click “Delete Profile”. An email will be sent with the account deletion link. Another way of deleting your account go to the league contact page and request a profile to be deleted. (takes 24-48 hours to delete account) After registration, besides any optional information added to the profile and league statistics, no other information will continued to be collected.

Additional SWF/HWP features
A feature of the HWP/SWF website is the league photo gallery. These pictures will be posted on the league home page and will be provided by parents and/or league members. Typically, these pictures will be of league activities (games, tournaments, fundraisers, trophy ceremonies, etc.). Any player may be in the pictures posted on the website. Players have the option of “tagging” themselves in pictures posted in the league gallery; by “tagging” themselves, the picture will then be posted upon the player’s profile. Tagging pictures is completely voluntary and is up to the player/ parent if they want additional pictures linked to a player’s profile.

How can you contact us?
Sports Wall of Fame, LLC, may be contacted by mail, email, or telephone. We have provided you with this information below and additionally there will be contact links on the SWF website.                                                                          

Figure 1: Game-by-game performance statistics collected at each game
Game-by-game statistics