Privacy Policy

Future Football Stars (“we”, “us”, or “our”) operates the community football platform at futurefootballstars4u.com (the “Platform”). We are the data controller responsible for your personal data as described in this Privacy Policy.

For all privacy-related enquiries: privacy@futurefootballstars4u.com

Representative in the European Union. We are established outside the European Union. Our processing of the personal data of people in the EU is presently occasional and small in scale, and we currently rely on the exemption in Article 27(2)(a) GDPR. That exemption is narrow. We will appoint and publish an EU representative here before we begin processing the personal data of people in the EU on a regular or larger scale, and in any event before we knowingly publish the images of people resident in the EU beyond an occasional basis. Until then, people in the EU may exercise every right described in this Policy by writing to the address above, and we will answer within the same time limits.

We collect the following categories of personal data:

• Registration data: name, email address, birth year, country of residence, and account type (Player, Scout, Coach, Agent, or Other User). Birth year is validated at registration to confirm the account holder is 18 or over.
• Player profile data: the player’s name, screen name, playing position, preferred foot, gender, country, club or academy affiliation, biography, profile photo, and YouTube highlight video links. Every player profile must describe a person aged 18 or over; the birth year submitted with the profile is validated to confirm this.
• Professional details (scouts, coaches, agents): legal name, phone number, organisation or club affiliation, and optional credential information such as FIFA licence numbers or national FA registration numbers, collected to help reduce impersonation and fraudulent accounts. We do not independently verify, endorse, or guarantee the professional credentials or standing of any user.
• YouTube video metadata: video titles, thumbnails, view counts, and channel information retrieved via the YouTube Data API v3.
• Community content: comments posted on news articles, and emoji reactions to other users’ comments.
• Voting & leaderboard data: records of votes cast, points accumulated, and monthly leaderboard rankings associated with your account or with player profiles you manage, retained to operate the community voting and leaderboard features and to detect manipulation.
• Profile photos: images uploaded to player profiles, stored on Amazon Web Services S3.
• Server logs: IP address, browser user-agent string, pages visited, timestamps, and referrer URLs, retained automatically by our hosting infrastructure.
• Terms acceptance record: timestamp and record of acceptance of these Terms at registration, retained for legal compliance.

We do not collect payment card data, government-issued identification numbers, or precise geolocation. The Platform is for adults: only people aged 18 or over may hold accounts, and every player profile must describe a person aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly collect or hold personal data about anyone under 18, from any source and by any route.

We use the data described above for the following purposes:

• Providing and operating Platform services, including player profile display and community features.
• Enabling community discovery: making player profiles available to other registered users on the Platform in accordance with user visibility settings.
• Operating community engagement features, including recording votes and points and generating monthly leaderboards and rankings.
• Age-rule and safety enforcement: enforcing the 18-or-over requirement for account holders and for the players that profiles describe, removing under-age profiles and their content, and acting on reports of inappropriate conduct.
• Professional user verification: reviewing scout, coach, and agent registration details to reduce impersonation and fraudulent accounts.
• Content moderation: reviewing flagged comments and community content for safety and compliance with these Terms.
• Communicating service updates, account notifications, and privacy change notices via transactional email.
• Complying with legal obligations, including data subject rights requests and supervisory authority enquiries.
• Protecting the Platform and its users against fraud, misuse, and prohibited conduct.

For users in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom (“UK”), we rely on the following legal bases under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR:

• Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): processing of optional profile data (photos, biography, video links); community comment posting; participation in voting and leaderboard features. Consent is given by adults for their own data, or by an account holder who confirms they have the adult player’s permission to submit it.
• Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)): account registration data and core profile data necessary to provide the Platform services you have requested.
• Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): server log processing for security and abuse prevention; fraud detection; professional user verification; content moderation; improving Platform performance. Our legitimate interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms.
• Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): retaining terms acceptance records; responding to data subject rights requests; breach notification to supervisory authorities.

Because the Platform is restricted to adults and we do not knowingly process any child’s personal data, Article 8 of the GDPR — which governs consent for information society services offered to children — does not arise.

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

• Right to Know: the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected about you.
• Right to Delete: request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Correct: request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: Future Football Stars does not sell personal information to third parties.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights.

To exercise your California rights, contact privacy@futurefootballstars4u.com. We will verify your identity before processing your request.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We share data only as follows:

• Cloud hosting & database provider (Hostinger): our infrastructure provider stores Platform data on servers operated under appropriate data processing terms and security measures.
• Cloud storage provider (Amazon Web Services S3): profile photographs uploaded to player profiles are stored and served via AWS S3 under appropriate data processing terms.
• Transactional email relay: we use a third-party email service to deliver account notifications and verification emails. This provider processes email addresses and message content only on our instructions.
• YouTube / Google (API services): we retrieve video metadata via the YouTube Data API v3. Use of this API is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.
• Law enforcement and regulatory authorities: where required by law, court order, or to protect the safety of any person, including where content involving a child is discovered on the Platform.

All subprocessors are contractually bound to process data only on our instructions and to maintain appropriate security measures.

The Platform is hosted on servers which may be located inside or outside the EEA. Where data is transferred outside the EEA or UK to countries that do not benefit from an adequacy decision, we implement appropriate safeguards including Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum (“UK IDTA”) as applicable.

YouTube video metadata retrieved via the YouTube Data API v3 is processed by Google in accordance with Google’s own privacy framework and applicable adequacy decisions or SCCs.

The Platform is accessible globally. Users in Australia, Canada, Brazil, and other jurisdictions with national data protection laws are advised that we comply with applicable law to the extent reasonably practicable and that requests regarding your data rights can be submitted to privacy@futurefootballstars4u.com.

Future Football Stars is an adults-only platform. We do not knowingly collect, process, or hold personal data about anyone under 18. Account holders must be 18 or over, and every player profile must describe a person aged 18 or over. There is no route by which a child’s data is meant to reach us: not directly, and not through a parent, guardian, or other adult submitting it on a child’s behalf.

The Platform previously allowed an adult account holder to create and manage player profiles for children. It no longer does. Profiles that did not meet the current age rule have been removed, along with their photographs and video.

The age rule is enforced at each point where age can be established:

• An account cannot be registered by anyone under 18. This is checked by an age-confirmation checkbox and birth-year validation at registration.
• A player profile cannot be created with a birth year that would make the player under 18. The server refuses it; it is not merely hidden in the form.
• Video cannot be attached to a profile that does not meet the age rule, so a profile created before the rule, or edited afterwards, still cannot publish.
• Profiles and video are reviewed by a person before they appear publicly.

We rely on the birth year given by the account holder. We do not carry out formal age verification and we do not collect identity documents, so the rule depends in part on accurate submissions and on reports from the public.

If we discover that we hold personal data about a person under 18, we delete it — the profile, the photographs, the video files, and the associated records — rather than merely withdrawing it from public view, and we terminate the account that submitted it. To report a suspected under-age profile, or to ask us to delete a child’s data, write to privacy@futurefootballstars4u.com. You do not need an account and you do not need to explain your interest. Deletion is completed within 72 hours of a verified request.

Because we do not knowingly process any child’s personal data, the regimes that govern it — the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), Article 8 of the UK and EU GDPR, and the UK Age Appropriate Design Code — should not arise in our processing. We describe the rule here because it still needs stating, and because being able to report a suspected under-age profile matters more than the label on the policy.

For full details, see our Age Policy & Child Safety.

Depending on your country of residence, you may have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Access: obtain confirmation of whether we hold data about you and receive a copy.
• Rectification: request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure: request deletion of your data, subject to applicable legal retention requirements.
• Restriction: request that we limit how we process your data in certain circumstances.
• Portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format (where processing is based on consent or contract).
• Objection: object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, withdraw that consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, submit a written request to privacy@futurefootballstars4u.com. We will verify your identity before processing your request and respond within 30 days. For complex requests, we may extend this period by a further 60 days with notice.

We use cookies and similar technologies for session management and Platform security only. We do not use advertising, behavioural tracking, or third-party analytics cookies. YouTube video embeds may activate Google cookies when you interact with embedded video content.

We do not require a cookie consent banner as we do not use non-essential cookies at this time. If this changes, we will update this policy and implement an appropriate consent mechanism.

We retain personal data for the following periods:

• Profile data: retained while your account is active, plus 12 months following account closure or deletion request.
• Profile pictures: an uploaded photograph is deleted from our servers as soon as you replace or remove it, and within 30 days of account deletion. It is not kept for the 12-month period that applies to profile data.
• YouTube video links: purged from your profile within 30 days of account deletion.
• Community comments: retained while your account is active. Deleted upon account deletion, except where retention is required for safety or legal reasons.
• Server logs: retained for 90 days.
• Voting & leaderboard data: vote records, points totals, and leaderboard rankings retained while the associated account is active, plus 12 months following account closure, for community-integrity and dispute-resolution purposes.
• Terms acceptance records: retained for the duration of your account plus 5 years.

Data may be retained for longer periods where required by law or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including:

• Encryption of data in transit using TLS (Transport Layer Security).
• Access controls restricting data access to authorised personnel only.
• Input sanitisation and content safety checks on community-submitted content.
• Rate limiting and abuse detection on account creation and community features.

In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware. Where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to you, we will also notify you directly without undue delay.

While Future Football Stars implements reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, the Platform is not liable for any loss, damage, or harm arising from:

• unauthorised access to personal data caused by a user’s failure to maintain the security of their account credentials;
• personal data shared voluntarily by a user with another user or third party in connection with the Platform;
• personal data contained in User Content (including video content or community comments) that the user chose to make publicly accessible;
• the data practices of third-party platforms, including Google/YouTube, whose services are accessed via the Platform;
• data loss resulting from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including hardware failure, cyberattacks by third parties, or force majeure events.

Users are solely responsible for the personal data they choose to include in their profiles, linked video content, and community posts. Future Football Stars strongly advises users not to include sensitive personal data (such as precise home address, financial information, health data, or school name) in any publicly visible profile field or community comment.

This section does not limit your rights under applicable data protection law, including the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority.

For privacy-related enquiries: privacy@futurefootballstars4u.com

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in your country of residence. For UK residents, the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk. For EU residents, contact the national data protection authority for your member state. For Australian residents, contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our data practices, Platform features, or applicable law. Material changes will be communicated to registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. The revised policy will be published on this page with an updated effective date.

Continued use of the Platform following the effective date of a revised policy constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. If you do not agree to the revised policy, you must close your account before the effective date.