Privacy Policy — Planete Football

1. Introduction

Planete Football ("we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal data when you visit our website at planetefootball.com (the "Site"). This policy applies to all visitors, users, and others who access the Site.

We are the data controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. If you have any questions about this policy or our data practices, please contact us at [email protected].

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

We may collect personal information that you voluntarily provide when you:

• Fill in our contact form (name, email address, message content)
• Subscribe to our newsletter (email address)
• Leave comments on articles (name, email address, comment content)
• Correspond with us via email or social media

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device and usage, including:

• Device information: browser type and version, operating system, device type, screen resolution
• Usage data: pages visited, time spent on pages, referring website, click patterns, scroll depth
• Network data: IP address (anonymised where possible), approximate geographic location
• Technical data: timestamps, error logs, page load times

3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

3.1 What Are Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They serve various purposes including remembering your preferences, analysing site usage, and enabling certain functionality.

3.2 Cookies We Use

We use the following categories of cookies:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: Essential for the Site to function. These cannot be disabled without impairing site functionality.
• Analytics Cookies (Google Analytics): We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our Site. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information about page views, session duration, traffic sources, and user behaviour. This data is aggregated and anonymised. Google Analytics may transfer data to servers in the United States. For more information, see Google's Privacy Policy.
• Advertising Cookies (Google AdSense): We use Google AdSense to display advertisements. AdSense may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our Site and other websites. You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings.
• Functional Cookies: These remember your preferences (such as dark mode settings or cookie consent choices) to enhance your experience.

3.3 Managing Cookies

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the Site.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• To provide, operate, and maintain the Site
• To respond to your enquiries and contact form submissions
• To send you newsletters (only with your explicit consent)
• To analyse Site usage and improve our content and user experience
• To display relevant advertisements through Google AdSense
• To detect, prevent, and address technical issues and security threats
• To comply with legal obligations

5. Legal Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, we process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Consent: Where you have given clear consent for us to process your data for a specific purpose (e.g., newsletter subscription, non-essential cookies)
• Legitimate Interest: Where processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (e.g., site analytics, security) and those interests are not overridden by your rights
• Legal Obligation: Where processing is necessary to comply with applicable law
• Contract: Where processing is necessary for a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract

6. Third-Party Services

We share data with the following third-party service providers:

• Google Analytics: Website analytics and audience measurement
• Google AdSense: Advertising services
• Supabase: Database and backend services
• Vercel / Hosting Provider: Website hosting and content delivery

Each of these providers operates under their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review their policies to understand how they handle your data. We only share the minimum data necessary for each service to function as intended.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Specifically:

• Contact form submissions: Retained for up to 12 months after the enquiry is resolved
• Newsletter subscriptions: Retained until you unsubscribe
• Analytics data: Google Analytics data is retained for 14 months
• Server logs: Retained for up to 90 days

8. Your Rights Under GDPR

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of Access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to Rectification: You may request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to Erasure: You may request deletion of your personal data (subject to legal exceptions)
• Right to Restrict Processing: You may request that we limit how we use your data
• Right to Data Portability: You may request your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format
• Right to Object: You may object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected]. We will respond to valid requests within 30 days.

9. International Data Transfers

Some of our third-party service providers may transfer your data outside the United Kingdom. Where this occurs, we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, including Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the ICO, or the service provider being certified under an adequate framework.

10. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include encrypted data transmission (TLS/SSL), secure hosting environments, access controls, and regular security reviews. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Children's Privacy

Our Site is not directed at individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately, and we will take steps to delete such data.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. We will post any changes on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Planete Football, 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you believe your data protection rights have been violated. The ICO can be contacted at ico.org.uk.