Privacy Policy
Last updated 4 October 2026
This policy explains what information Bowls Captain collects, why it is needed and how it is handled for the clubs and leagues that use the service.
Who this covers
Bowls Captain is a web app operated for lawn bowls clubs to manage availability, team selection, duty rotas, fixtures, results and related club administration. If you are a player, captain or administrator using Bowls Captain for your club, this policy applies to you.
Your club as data controller
Where data is held about you as a player — your name, email address, phone number, availability answers and match records — your club is the data controller for that data. Bowls Captain acts as a data processor on the club's behalf: it stores and processes the data only to provide the service the club has engaged it for, and not for any independent purpose.
The relevant contacts at your club are your club captain and club secretary. For anything they cannot handle directly, or for a request you would prefer to make independently, contact Bowls Captain at [email protected].
Lawful basis for processing player data
Player data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). Your club has a legitimate interest in organising its teams, collecting availability, running its duty rota and communicating with its members about fixtures and selection. As a playing member you would reasonably expect this processing to take place, and it is limited to what running a bowls team requires.
You have the right to object to processing on this basis at any time — see Your rights below.
What we collect
Information your club gives us — player names, optional player email addresses, club and league contact details, availability responses, comments, transport information, fixtures, match results, team selections, duty rota information, notes and optional performance ratings.
Account information — individual captain and administrator accounts use Neon Auth. The service therefore holds the identity information needed for those accounts, including name and email address. Players who use individual login links also need a verified email address recorded against their player record.
Terms and Privacy acceptance evidence — where individual account acceptance is required, we record the person's identity reference, name, email address, the Terms and Privacy document versions, the time of acceptance and a one-way keyed hash derived from the request IP address. This evidence may be kept after an account is deleted where needed to establish or defend legal claims.
Server and security logs — the hosting and security platforms used by Bowls Captain keep normal web-service logs such as request time, requested address, response status and source IP address. They are used to operate, diagnose and protect the service rather than to profile individual users. Application logging is retained for 30 days.
Team Plan acknowledgements — where the Team Plan asks a player to confirm they have seen it, Bowls Captain records the selected player name and confirmation time for that fixture. The old anonymous Team Plan visitor/IP counter has been removed.
Player names and public links
A player's name is required for core functions such as matching availability answers, displaying team selections, recording results and allocating duties. Names are normally added by a club captain or administrator.
Some information is available through shared links without login. A generated Team Plan may show player names, positions, rinks, duties and fixture information to anyone who has that link. Clubs should therefore use an appropriate form of player name for their circumstances, for example a first name and surname initial where that is sufficient.
For an away game, the Team Plan also lists who has said they can drive, who can offer spare seats and who needs a lift, so that lifts can be arranged. These come from the optional transport questions on the availability form, which are asked only for away games.
Availability comments, private captain notes, player email addresses and performance ratings are not published on the shared Team Plan.
Player email addresses and reminders
A captain may record an email address for a player. It is optional. It is used for Bowls Captain functions such as individual login links, verification/privacy notices and availability reminders where those features are enabled. It is not used for third-party advertising or sold to advertisers.
Availability reminder emails include an unsubscribe mechanism. A player can also ask their captain to remove their address or contact us directly using the details below.
Removing and erasing players
Removing a player from an active squad and erasing their personal data are different actions. A normal squad removal can preserve legitimate historical club records. An erasure request removes or anonymises personal data across the application's player-related records.
Past match results are kept, because a rink's score is the club's record of that game: the erased player is removed from the rink rather than the result being changed, and anywhere that rink is shown, Former player appears in their place. Ratings of the player are deleted, since a rating is one person's opinion of how somebody played and removing it changes no result.
Free-text notes written by captains can require manual review if they contain a player's name, because automatically deleting arbitrary words from a captain's note could alter its meaning.
How we use information
- Providing availability collection, team selection, fixture, duty rota, results, standings, account and communication features.
- Sending operational emails and player notifications requested by the service.
- Sending club administrators occasional news about Bowls Captain, unless they opt out (see Emails to club administrators below).
- Calculating travel information and weather for fixtures.
- Providing optional AI-assisted analysis where a captain deliberately uses an AI feature.
- Operating, troubleshooting and securing the service.
Bowls Captain does not sell personal data and does not use club or player data for third-party advertising. Player data is never used for marketing.
Emails to club administrators
When you sign up a club, Bowls Captain becomes responsible for your own account details as the person who signed up, and uses your email address to run the service you have engaged it for.
Service messages. These are emails about your club's use of Bowls Captain: account and billing messages, price changes, changes to the Terms or this policy, planned maintenance, problems affecting your club, and changes to how the app works that you need to know about. They are part of providing the service, so they are sent whatever you choose below.
News. We may also occasionally email you news about Bowls Captain, such as new features and improvements. The sign-up form lets you opt out when you give us your address, and every news email includes a way to stop receiving them. You can also opt out at any time by emailing [email protected]. Opting out does not affect service messages.
News is sent only about Bowls Captain itself. Your details are not shared with anyone else for their marketing.
Where club data is stored
The club application's operational data is stored in dedicated PostgreSQL databases hosted by Neon in London, UK. The earlier migration from the club's Google Sheets workbooks is complete: fixtures, players, availability responses, duty rotas, league history, locations, results, team plans and related application state are no longer stored in those retired club-data sheets.
There is one separate Google integration that may still be used by a league: the Record Results for League feature can fill a configured Google Sheets scoresheet template and export it as an Excel attachment. That scoresheet workbook is an output/template integration, not Bowls Captain's primary club-data store.
The application itself runs on Google Cloud infrastructure.
AI features
Optional features such as player/team analysis and AI-assisted team selection can send the relevant player names, results, ratings and selection context to Anthropic's API to generate a response. This happens when an authorised user deliberately uses the feature, rather than as a background process. AI output should be treated as decision support rather than an automatic final decision.
Data location: Anthropic processes API requests on infrastructure based in the United States. When an AI feature is used, the data sent (player names, results, ratings and selection context) is transferred outside the UK and European Economic Area. Anthropic is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and their API usage policy prohibits using submitted data to train models without consent. Only the minimum data needed to answer the specific request is sent; it is not stored in Bowls Captain's UK database as part of the AI request.
Other services we rely on
- Neon — PostgreSQL database hosting and account authentication.
- Google Cloud — application hosting and supporting cloud services. Google Sheets/Drive are also used for the optional league scoresheet-template/export feature described above, and Google mapping services may be used for travel calculations.
- Resend — hosted outbound email and the inbound weekly-results email path used by supported league integrations.
- Anthropic — optional AI-assisted features.
- Cloudflare — DNS, security and reliability services in front of Bowls Captain. Cloudflare R2 object storage (EU region) is also used for daily per-club database backups. Backups are encrypted with GPG AES-256 before upload, stored within the European Union, and retained for 60 days; Cloudflare does not have access to the unencrypted data.
Cookies and analytics
Bowls Captain uses a signed, HTTP-only session cookie to keep authenticated users signed in. It is not an advertising or cross-site tracking cookie.
With your permission, Bowls Captain also uses Google Analytics to understand visits to the public website and how the application is used. Analytics is disabled unless you choose Accept analytics. If you decline, the Google Analytics script is not loaded.
Analytics is configured without Google Signals or advertising-personalisation signals. Bowls Captain does not deliberately send player names, email addresses, telephone numbers, availability comments or other club-entered personal information to Google Analytics. Your analytics choice is stored in your browser so that we can remember it.
How long we keep information
Club data is kept while the club actively uses Bowls Captain and as required for the service's account, legal and deletion processes. When a club requests cancellation, its data is kept until the last day of access the club chose, and permanently deleted 30 days after that, unless an outstanding legal or contractual matter requires it to be kept longer.
Your rights
If UK data-protection law applies to you, you have the following rights in relation to personal data your club holds about you:
- Access — ask what is held about you.
- Rectification — ask for inaccurate data to be corrected.
- Erasure — ask for your record to be deleted. See Removing and erasing players above for what this means in practice.
- Restriction — ask for processing to be limited while a query is resolved.
- Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests. The club must stop unless it can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests.
- Portability — receive data you have provided yourself, processed by automated means, in a portable format.
In many cases your club captain or administrator can correct or remove information directly. For anything they cannot handle, or for a request you would prefer to make independently, contact us at [email protected].
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.
Security
Account passwords are handled through the authentication system rather than stored as readable passwords in Bowls Captain. Application credentials and API keys are held in managed secret/configuration facilities rather than embedded in public pages. Traffic to the service is encrypted over HTTPS. Daily database backups are encrypted with GPG AES-256 and stored in EU-region object storage for 60 days.
In the event of a personal data breach, Bowls Captain will notify the UK Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours where required by law, and will inform affected individuals without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms.
Children
Bowls Captain is not designed as a service for children to administer themselves. Where a club includes junior players, their records should be managed by an appropriate adult captain or administrator and in accordance with the club's own safeguarding and data-protection responsibilities.
Changes to this policy
When this policy changes materially, the document version and date are updated. Where Bowls Captain requires account holders to accept or acknowledge a newer version, the application records that acceptance against the new document version.
Contact
Questions, requests or concerns: [email protected].