Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how FCScout ("FCScout," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you use fcscout.com and related websites, applications, and services (the "Service"). FCScout operates a soccer club directory and player recruitment profile platform.

This Policy applies to visitors, account holders, club claimants and owners, athletes who create player profiles, parents or guardians who provide consent for minor athletes, and anyone who submits a Request to Connect inquiry or a report. It should be read together with our Terms of Service.

Effective / last updated date: September 6, 2026. Contact for privacy matters: info@fcscout.com.

We collect information in the categories below. What we collect depends on how you use the Service.

Account information (via Clerk)

Authentication is provided by Clerk. Clerk processes account identifiers such as your email address, name (if provided), and authentication credentials or OAuth tokens. We store Clerk's user identifier in our database to associate your account with player profiles, club ownership, claims, reports, and (when signed in) certain analytics events. We may also store a role in Clerk public metadata (for example, member, player, or admin) to authorize features of the Service.

Club owner and claim information

If you claim a club listing, we store your Clerk user id, the email address associated with your account at the time of the claim, the relationship you assert to the club (for example, coach, director, staff, owner, or board), any optional note you submit, and claim status and review metadata. If a claim is approved, we associate your user id as the club owner. Club profile content you later edit (name, description, location, staff names, tryouts, media, and similar directory fields) is also stored so it can be displayed on public club pages.

Player profile information

If you create a player recruitment profile, we may store: first and last name; date of birth; positions; current club name; nationality; height, weight, preferred foot, and jersey number; bio; recruiting preferences (such as level sought, willingness to relocate, and target regions); career history; season statistics; achievements; uploaded photos and video (and captions); a public URL slug; publish status; and coach endorsement details you enter (including coach name, optional coach email, relationship, and statement).

Date of birth is collected specifically to enforce our age requirements and guardian consent process (minimum age 13; guardian consent required before public publish for athletes ages 13–17). On a published public profile we display a computed age, not the full date of birth.

Guardian information (athletes ages 13–17)

For minor athletes, we collect a parent or legal guardian email address, a consent status (pending or confirmed), a consent confirmation timestamp when consent is given, and a secure consent token used to complete the consent link. This information is collected solely to obtain and record parental or guardian consent before a minor's profile can be published publicly, and to communicate about that consent. See Section 3 (Children's Privacy).

Payment information

If you purchase or manage a geographic sponsorship, payment card details are collected and processed directly by Stripe; FCScout does not store full card numbers. We may store Stripe customer, subscription, and price identifiers, and sponsorship placement details (club, tier, region, status, and billing period), so we can fulfill and administer the sponsorship.

Usage and analytics data

We operate first-party product analytics for internal product improvement, sponsorship operations, and administration — not third-party advertising pixels or ad networks. We may record events such as page views, club and player profile views, map pin clicks, filter usage, search-related parameters (for example ZIP code, state, radius, or club name queries), tab switches, registration-link clicks, claim submissions, sponsorship purchases, and certain button or CTA clicks. Events may include a club or player identifier, path, and (when you are signed in) your Clerk user id. We also set a first-party anonymous visitor cookie (see Section 12). We do not record IP address or User-Agent strings in our analytics event pipeline as currently implemented.

Inquiry and message data

If you submit a "Request to Connect" form on a public player profile, we store the inquirer name, optional organization, email address, and message, and associate them with that player profile so the athlete can review them in their dashboard. We may also store profile reports you submit (description and optional reporter user id) for moderation.

Information from data sources (not from you)

Club and geographic reference data may be imported from public or third-party datasets (including openfootball club lists and GeoNames city data) and from our own research or admin imports. Those sources supply directory content; they are not recipients of your personal account or player data.

FCScout takes special care with information related to athletes under 18. This section explains our practices in plain language.

Under 13. FCScout.com does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Account creation and player profile setup are blocked for anyone who indicates an age under 13 (based on date of birth). If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete that account and related profile data as promptly as reasonably practicable.

Ages 13–17 — guardian consent. Athletes ages 13 through 17 may create an account and draft a player profile, but the profile cannot be published publicly until a parent or legal guardian confirms consent. We ask the athlete for a guardian email address, generate a unique consent link, and (when email delivery is configured) send that link via our email provider. The guardian is asked to confirm that they are the parent or guardian of the athlete and that they consent to the athlete's recruiting profile being published publicly when the athlete chooses. Consent emails describe that a published profile may include name, age, club information, bio, media, and recruiting preferences, and that raw contact details are not shown publicly.

Until guardian consent is confirmed, the profile remains unpublished (not publicly visible). Publishing remains a separate, deliberate step controlled by the athlete after consent is on file.

Guardians' rights. A parent or legal guardian may, at any time: (a) request to review the information we have collected about their child in connection with a player profile; (b) request corrections to that information; (c) revoke consent and ask us to unpublish and/or delete the child's profile; and (d) ask questions about how the child's information is used. To exercise these rights, email info@fcscout.com with the subject line "Guardian / Child Privacy Request" and enough information for us to locate the profile (for example, the athlete's name and public slug, if any). We may need to verify your identity and relationship to the child before fulfilling the request.

Age misrepresentation. If we discover that a user misrepresented their age to create an account or profile (including to bypass the under-13 block or the guardian consent requirement), we may suspend or delete the account and unpublish or remove the profile.

We use the information we collect to:

• Operate, secure, and maintain the Service, including authentication, authorization, and account features;
• Display public club pages and published player profiles as configured by the user (and, for minors, after guardian consent is confirmed);
• Process club claims, ownership, and profile management for claimed clubs;
• Process and fulfill sponsorship purchases and billing through Stripe when that feature is enabled;
• Send guardian consent emails and other transactional messages via Resend when email delivery is configured;
• Deliver Request to Connect inquiries to the athlete's private dashboard (currently in-product; not emailed by default);
• Run first-party analytics to understand product usage and improve the Service;
• Respond to support requests, privacy requests, and reports;
• Enforce our Terms of Service and moderation policies, including unpublishing or removing content and investigating abuse;
• Comply with law and protect the safety and rights of users, including minors.

We do not sell personal information. We do not sell personal information as that concept is commonly understood, and we do not share personal information with third parties for their independent advertising or marketing purposes.

We share information with service providers that process data on our behalf to run the Service:

• Clerk — authentication and account identity;
• Neon — hosted PostgreSQL database storage;
• Cloudflare — application hosting/delivery and object storage for uploaded media (R2), including public or proxied media URLs;
• Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing for sponsorships;
• Resend — transactional email delivery (currently used for guardian consent emails when configured).

GeoNames and openfootball are sources of public club and geographic reference data that we use to build or enrich the directory. They are notrecipients of our users' personal account, player, guardian, payment, or inquiry data.

We may also disclose information if required by law, legal process, or governmental request; to protect the rights, safety, or security of FCScout, our users (especially minors), or the public; or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, subject to appropriate confidentiality and this Policy's principles where applicable.

Published profile and club content is visible as described in Section 6.

Profiles default to unpublished (draft). Publishing is a deliberate action. For athletes ages 13–17, publishing is only available after guardian consent is confirmed. You (or a guardian, by contacting us or via available product controls) can unpublish a profile later; unpublishing removes public visibility of the current profile page, though cached copies or search-engine indexes may take time to update, and prior shared links may stop working or redirect depending on slug changes.

We do not display raw contact information such as email address or phone number on public player profiles. Outside contact is intended to happen through the "Request to Connect" form. The athlete (and, as applicable, guardian) must actively review and choose whether to respond to inquiries in their private dashboard. Submitting an inquiry does not entitle the inquirer to a reply.

Public profiles may show information such as name, photo, computed age, position, club, bio, recruiting preferences, career history, stats, achievements, media, and endorsement text — as configured by the athlete. Full date of birth, guardian email, and inquiry emails are not shown on the public page.

We retain personal information for as long as needed to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When you unpublish a profile, the underlying data may remain in your account in draft form until you delete it or request deletion. When you request account or profile deletion, we will delete or de-identify personal information associated with that request, subject to limited retention needed for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, backups, or dispute resolution.

[PLACEHOLDER — confirm actual retention period with business/legal decision]
Specify concrete retention windows (for example: how long after account deletion analytics events, inquiries, or media objects are purged from primary storage and backups). Do not treat this draft as stating a final numeric retention period until this placeholder is replaced.

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) to the Service, access controls for administrative tools, and storage of application data with our infrastructure providers. Payment card data is handled by Stripe under Stripe's security program.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security. Please use a strong unique password for your account and notify us promptly at info@fcscout.com if you suspect unauthorized access.

Depending on your location and relationship to the Service, you may:

• Access and update account profile details through Clerk and, for athletes, edit player profile content in the player dashboard;
• Unpublish a published player profile using available dashboard controls (when eligible);
• Request correction or deletion of your account or profile data by emailing info@fcscout.com (self-serve full account deletion may be added later; email is the supported path today);
• As a guardian, revoke consent and request that a minor's profile be unpublished or deleted (see Section 3);
• Opt out of non-essential emails by following unsubscribe instructions where provided, or by contacting us. Transactional messages necessary to operate the Service (such as guardian consent links or security notices) may still be sent when required.

For privacy or data requests, contact info@fcscout.com. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the CPRA, may provide rights to know about personal information we collect, to request deletion or correction, and to opt out of the "sale" or certain "sharing" of personal information. FCScout does not sell personal information, and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those practices are commonly described.

[PLACEHOLDER — confirm CCPA mechanisms with counsel]
Confirm with counsel whether CCPA/CPRA thresholds apply to the business and, if so, what consumer-facing mechanisms are required (for example, a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link, authorized-agent processes, or specific notice-at-collection wording). Do not treat this draft as confirming full CCPA operational compliance until those decisions are made.

California residents may submit requests related to these rights at info@fcscout.com.

The Service is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your information may be processed and stored in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate. Those countries may have data-protection laws different from those in your country.

The Service includes international club directory content. That does not by itself mean we are actively targeting account holders in every country where clubs appear.

[PLACEHOLDER — confirm GDPR applicability/mechanisms with counsel if targeting EU users]
If FCScout begins offering or marketing accounts specifically to users in the EEA/UK, confirm with counsel whether GDPR/UK GDPR applies and what mechanisms are required (legal bases, DPA, SCCs, data-subject request workflows, and EU representative if needed).

We use a limited set of cookies and browser storage technologies. As currently implemented:

• Clerk session cookies — required for signed-in authentication and session security;
• First-party visitor cookie (fc_vid) — an anonymous identifier used only for our first-party product analytics (not an advertising tracker);
• Session storage during player signup — temporary browser session storage may hold draft signup fields (such as name, date of birth, optional guardian email, and preference flags) until account setup completes, then is cleared.

We do not currently use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or similar third-party advertising or behavioral tracking SDKs on the Service. Map and directory filters are generally held in page state rather than long-lived localStorage. If we add additional cookies or trackers, we will update this Policy.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above. For material changes — especially those affecting children's privacy or how we share personal information — we will provide additional notice reasonably calculated to inform users (for example, a notice on the Service or an email) where practicable.

Continued use of the Service after an update becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy, except where applicable law requires a different form of consent.

For privacy questions, data access/correction/deletion requests, California privacy requests, and guardian consent or child-data inquiries, contact:

info@fcscout.com

Please include enough detail for us to locate the relevant account or profile. For guardian requests, use a clear subject line such as "Guardian / Child Privacy Request."

See also our Terms of Service and About page.