Privacy Policy

In this Privacy Notice, terms such as “we”, “us, “our” or similar expressions shall mean Leagues OpCo Limited.

This Privacy Notice explains what personal data we collect when you: access our website https://womensleagues.thefa.com/, (the “Site”); engage with us (or we engage with your content) on social media platforms (including our Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter), YouTube and Instagram pages); and/or when you otherwise interact or communicate with us. It also explains how we may use this data, and what rights you have in relation to such data.

For information on how we collect, use and store personal data relating to players and other people associated with them and Leagues OpCo Limited please refer to our Player and Related Persons Privacy Notice.

We keep our privacy practices under review and may change this Privacy Notice from time to time by posting changes on the Site or otherwise notifying them to you. This version of the Privacy Notice is dated 14^th August 2024.

1. Background

We, Leagues OpCo Limited, are a “controller” under the UK GDPR and other applicable data protection legislation (Data Protection Law). This means we are responsible for deciding how we use the personal data that we collect about you and, in accordance with the Data Protection Law.

We shall be accountable for and able to demonstrate our compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Law, and this Privacy Notice is one of the ways in which we do that.

2. Personal Data We Collect About You

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. We may collect, store, transfer and use various types of your personal data:

• Identity Data: We also ask you to provide identification information when we provide other elements of the Site: name, age, gender and social media handles/ usernames.
• Contact Data: When we want to communicate with you, or you with us, we use your email address, telephone numbers, social media handles/ usernames and location (country/ place of residence).
• Media Data: We use images from photographs and video footage of crowds and fans and other media content created by us (or on our behalf) at matches and events or provided by you for our use. We may also use some of your user generated content in social media as further described below.
• Marketing and/or Communications Data: We retain your preferences in receiving marketing messages from us and our Clubs and commercial partners, and your communication preferences.
• Technical Data: Certain data is automatically generated and collected by us when you use the Sit such as your IP address, MAC address and other device identifiers; your clickstream to, through and from the Site (including date and time); pages you viewed or searched for; length of visits to certain pages; page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs); methods used to browse away from the page.

3. How We Collect Your Personal Data

You provide us with your personal data when you:

• access or use the Site;
• request marketing to be sent to you;
• request information, marketing and other communications to be sent to you;
• enter a competition, promotion or survey;
• complete surveys or provide us with your feedback; and
• otherwise interact or correspond with us (including via email, social media or telephone).

We collect the Technical Data automatically as you interact with our Site by using cookies and other similar web technologies. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to personalise content and advertising to make our content function better. [Please refer to our Cookie Policy for more information.]

We also use third party tools to help us manage and analyse our social media presence, and report on comments, mentions and other content that is posted about us on social media platforms and other public channels and forums. These third parties’ activities, and their information collection and sharing practices, are subject to the terms of the relevant social media platform, channel or forum. We will use this information in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us, for example a new address or email address.

4. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data where Data Protection Law allows us to. Data Protection Law says we can collect and use personal data on the following bases:

1. it is necessary for us to be able to perform an agreement with you.
2. it is necessary for our legitimate interests (and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests);
3. if we have your consent (which you can withdraw at any time); or
4. to comply with a legal obligation (eg rules laid down by courts, statute or regulation).

Data Protection Law says we can only collect and use your Sensitive Personal Data where an additional basis applies: for reasons of substantial public interest, including when preventing or detecting unlawful acts or in connection with our regulatory and oversight functions in sport; in connection with legal claims; cases where you have made the data public yourself; or where you have given explicit consent.

Accordingly, we lawfully use your personal data in the following ways:

Operating the Site: We use the Technical Data in order to operate and administer the Site including as necessary for testing, analysis, maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data. Therefore, we use this data on the basis that it is necessary for our legitimate interests of operating the Site in this way. We also use Technical Data together with certain Identity Data and Contact Data to assist in security and fraud prevention, system integrity (such as preventing hacking, cheats and spam) and/or to facilitate our response to a legal process. Therefore, we use this data on the basis that it is necessary both for our legitimate interests in protecting the Site in this way and in order that we can comply with a legal obligation.

Competitions and promotions: We use Identity Data and Contact Data and any other personal data related to the entry (for example, a photograph) in order that we can administer and operate contests, prize draws, competitions or other promotions including selecting the winners, delivering the prizes and publishing the results (as required by UK advertising regulations). Therefore, we use this data on the basis that it is necessary for us to be able to perform our agreement with you (ie the terms and conditions of the relevant promotion) and in order that we can comply with a legal obligation. If we want to use the personal data for any other purpose we will notify you and, if necessary, seek your consent at that time.

Marketing communications: We use the Identity Data and Contact Data to inform you of news, offers, events, competitions and promotions by specified media (including, if requested, by way of calendar notifications) which may be of interest to you and/ or we provide such data to our Clubs and/or our official commercial partners so that they can do this. We give you the option of providing opt-in consent to receive different kinds of direct marketing communications from us or these third parties or deciding not to do so.

Opting out: You can withdraw your consent and opt-out of marketing communications from us at any time via the unsubscribe option in the email.

Our fixtures and calendar communications function is delivered by ECAL and you should contact ECAL directly, if you want to stop receiving these communications. A copy of ECAL’s privacy policy is available here.

Media coverage: We use the Media Data together with Identity and Contact Data for related publishing and media coverage. Except where you are not the subject of the Media Data, for example in general crowd shots, we will seek your consent and provide you with information about our intended use of such information.

Other purposes: We might have to use your personal data to protect your or someone else’s vital interests for example to make contact in rare emergency situations. We could also have to use your personal data in connection with legal and regulatory matters such as our maintenance of business records, compliance with external reporting requirements and internal policies and procedures and responses to requests by government, law enforcement, regulators, courts, rights holders or other third parties including in respect of the use or misuse of intellectual property, such as our brand or media rights, or those of our licensees/commercial partners or their parties. Therefore we use this data on the basis that it is necessary both for our legitimate interests in protecting, defending and enforcing rights and interests in this way and also so that we can comply with legal obligations. We may also use your personal data when we process Media Data as part of our dedicated reporting and take-down programme helping to fight serious abuse against players, coaching staff and their families in social media. We use this data for our legitimate interests in fighting abuse and, where Sensitive Personal Data is involved, in order to prevent or detect unlawful acts, in connection with legal claims and where you have made the data public yourself.

Before using your personal data for our legitimate interests, we make sure that we take into account any potential impact that such use may have on you to ensure that your interests and fundamental rights and freedoms do not override those interests. In other words, we have determined that we have a legitimate need to process your personal data and we are not aware of any reasons that, on balance, mean we should not be doing so. If you have concerns about our processing please refer to 10. YOUR RIGHTS below or contact us using the details here 12. CONTACT US.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it as described above, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

If you would like to find out more about the legal condition for which we process your personal information, please contact us using the details here 12. CONTACT US.

5. Disclosure of Your Personal Data

We may disclose or share your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Third Party Service Providers. We engage third party businesses to provide services to us or to you on our behalf, such as support for the internal operations of our Site (and related services), communications, data storage and delivering communications (including calendar notifications). Our service providers may access, receive, maintain or otherwise use personal data on our behalf. Our service providers only use your personal data in accordance with our strict instructions to provide the relevant services and are not permitted to use your personal data for their own purposes, unless authorised by us to do so. Where this is the case you will be notified by us and provided with their privacy policies so you can understand how they will treat your personal data.
• Commercial Partners. We may also disclose your personal data to our commercial partners where you have consented or requested that we do so. For example, when you enter a competition or sweepstake which is a joint promotion, or you request to receive certain marketing communications. You will be given clear information in each case before we disclose share your personal data.
• Publicity and media. We may disclose your personal data publicly via the media, social media or on the Site. For example if you win a competition or promotion we may disclose your name online. In such cases, we will clearly notify you of the sharing, and you will have the choice not to participate or to otherwise object to such sharing, subject to our other legal obligations.
• Where you allow us to, we will share your personal data with your favourite Clubs to help our Clubs interact with their fans or where for example it is necessary for the fulfilment of a competition (e.g. you have won tickets to a Club match). This Privacy Notice applies to our use of your personal data only, and you should refer to the relevant privacy notice of each relevant Club to understand how they use your personal data.
• Legally Required. We may also disclose your personal data if we believe we are required to do so by law, or that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with legal processes or the enforcement of our rights where we receive evidence we deem sufficient to justify such disclosure or in the event of a re-organisation of the legal or ownership structure of Leagues OpCo Limited.

Please read carefully any additional privacy notices which we may provide to you so that you are aware of and understand any other circumstances in which we may disclose or share your personal data which are specific to your use of the Site and/or your relationship with us.

Notwithstanding anything else in this Privacy Notice, we may share aggregate or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, analytics and other purposes, provided such information does not identify a particular individual and the individual cannot be re-identified.

6. Transferring Your Personal Data Outside the UK and EU

Some countries outside of the UK and the European Union (EU) do not have laws that protect privacy rights and personal data as extensively as the UK and other countries within the EU. We do not generally or routinely transfer personal data outside of the UK and the EU but some of the organisations to which we may disclose personal data may be situated outside of the UK and the EU. If we do transfer your personal data outside of the UK and the EU, we will take all necessary steps to ensure that transfers of your personal data are handled in accordance with this Policy and with the Data Protection Law. We do this by ensuring that such transfers are limited to countries which are recognised as providing an adequate level of legal protection by the UK and the European Commission or one of the specific safeguards approved by the European Commission is in place. You can find further information about these safeguards at https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en. In the event that there is any change in the law such that one or all of the safeguards are no longer valid or applicable, we will ensure that we are satisfied that alternative arrangements / safeguards are in place to protect your privacy rights as required by the Data Protection Law.

If you would like further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the UK and the EU you can contact us using the details provided below.

7. Security of Your Personal Data

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed (a Data Security Breach). In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only use your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.  In relation to third party service providers whom we appoint to process your personal data on our behalf, we take steps to ensure that those service providers are contractually bound to protect your personal data.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected Data Security Breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.

8. Links to Other Sites

This Site may contain links to other websites, applications and environments that are not owned or controlled by us (the “Other Sites”). The owners and operators of those Other Sites are responsible for their collection and/or use of your personal data and you should check their respective privacy policies. Unless specifically referred to otherwise, this Privacy Notice applies to this Site only and not the Other Sites.

9. Data Retention

We will generally only keep your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for  (see 4. WHY WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA), in accordance with our internal Data Retention Policy. However, in some circumstances we may retain personal data for other periods of time, for instance where we are required to do so in accordance with legal, tax or accounting requirements, or if required to do so by a legal process, legal authority, or other governmental entity having authority to make the request.

To determine the appropriate retention period, we review – in addition to the purposes of use and how we can achieve them – other relevant factors such as the nature and scope of the personal data, the potential risks to data subjects from a Data Security Breach, and the applicable legal requirements, for example the limitation period for which legal claims can be made in court.

In accordance with our internal data retention policy and the Data Protection Law, after the applicable retention period has ended, your personal data will be securely deleted or destroyed or anonymised (for example, where the data will be used in aggregated/generic form for statistical purposes).

Specific details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available upon request by using the contact details provided below.

10. Your Rights

Under Data Protection Law, you have certain rights (depending on the circumstances) in connection with your personal data, which include:

• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are using it lawfully, provided always that this does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of other people;
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. Where any of the information we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete we will act promptly to rectify this, including where you have requested us to do so;
• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to use it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to our use (see below);
• Object to use of your personal data where we are relying on our legitimate interests (see above) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to our use on this ground;
• Withdraw your consent to our use of your personal data where we do so in reliance on your consent. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer use your personal data for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law;
• Request the restriction of use of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the use of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for using it; and
• Request the transfer of the personal data you have provided, on the basis of consent or for a contract with us, to you or a third party where technically feasible.

We are committed to respecting your rights. You may action your rights (as may be applicable) by contacting us using the details provided below (12. CONTACT US). We will make every reasonable effort to comply with your requests within a reasonable period and in any event within the timescales provided by the Data Protection Law, unless we have a lawful reason not to do so. Requests should be made in writing and to ensure that personal data is dealt with carefully and confidentially we will require the requestor to provide verification of their identity and all applications must be accompanied by copies of at least two official documents, which show your name, date of birth and current address (for example, driving licence, birth/ adoption certificate, passport, recent utility bill).

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection authority. The ICO’s contact details as are follows: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF; Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate); https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

11. Children and Privacy

It is important to us that children can enjoy our Site in a responsible manner. We encourage parents and guardians to supervise their children’s online activities by, for example, adopting control tools available from online services and software suppliers that help provide a child-friendly online environment including by preventing children from disclosing their personal data online without parental permission.

We are committed to safeguarding children’s personal data collected online, and to helping parents and guardians and their children learn how to exercise control over personal data while exploring the Internet. We encourage parents and guardians to read these with their children.

12. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle your personal data, please contact us using the following contact details:

Leagues OpCo Limited

Wembley Stadium

PO Box 1966

London

SW1P 9EQ

Info@womenspro-game.com