Privacy Policy
PLAYHER Sports Media Inc. (“PLAYHER”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a corporation incorporated pursuant to the Canada Business Corporations Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-44. PLAYHER operates a digital media and content platform dedicated to women’s sports, providing live scores, schedules, news, player and team statistics, and related content and features, provided through our website and our iOS and Android mobile applications (the “Platform”).
Further to our Terms and Conditions of Use, available at playher.co/terms (the “Terms”), this Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, store, use, and disclose personal information in connection with the Platform. This Privacy Policy is available at playher.co/privacy. Unless otherwise indicated, any capitalized terms in this Privacy Policy have the same meaning attributed to them in our Terms. Your access to and use of the Platform is governed by the Terms, including their governing-law and forum provisions (the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, with the courts of the Province of Ontario sitting in Toronto having exclusive jurisdiction).
By agreeing to our Terms, or by accessing or using the Platform, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
As the Platform continues to evolve, we may, at any time, revise this Privacy Policy by updating this page. The date of the last version of this Privacy Policy is posted above. We will provide you with no less than thirty (30) days’ prior written notice of any material amendments to this Privacy Policy by sending an email to the address associated with your account (if you have one) and/or by displaying a notice within the Platform. Material amendments include, without limitation, changes to the types of personal information collected, the purposes for which personal information is used or disclosed, data handling practices, third-party sharing arrangements, or any other provision that materially affects your privacy rights or obligations under this Privacy Policy. Non-material amendments (such as corrections of typographical errors or minor clarifications that do not affect your rights or obligations) may be made by updating this page without prior notice. Where a material amendment requires your affirmative acceptance, we may present you with an in-Platform prompt requiring you to review and accept the updated Privacy Policy before continuing to use the Platform. Your continued use of the Platform on or after the effective date of any other amendment constitutes your acceptance of the amended Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with a material amendment, you may terminate your account within the thirty (30) day notice period.
No Account Required. Visitors to the Platform are not required to create an account or provide any personal information in order to view most content. Creating an account is optional and is used to save your preferences (such as favourite teams, players, leagues, and sports), to synchronize those preferences across your devices, and to access certain features that require an account. However, if you use the Platform without an account, we may still collect certain information automatically, such as your IP address, device identifiers, browser type, referring URL, pages visited, and session duration, through the use of cookies and similar technologies as described in Part IV below.
If you voluntarily provide personal information (for example, by completing a contact form or sending us an email), you consent to our collection and use of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Operated from Canada; Global Access. The Platform is operated by us from Canada, and our privacy practices are designed to comply with Canadian privacy law, including the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) (“PIPEDA”) and applicable provincial privacy legislation. The Platform may be accessed from outside Canada. If you access the Platform from outside Canada, you acknowledge and consent to your personal information being processed and stored in Canada and the United States as described in this Privacy Policy.
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, the following terms have the meanings set out below:
- “Data Providers” means third-party providers of sports data, including scores, schedules, and statistics, whose data feeds are displayed on the Platform;
- “Derived Data” means data derived from personal information or other data collected through the Platform that has been aggregated, de-identified, or anonymized — anonymized data meeting the standard for anonymization under applicable privacy legislation — such that it can no longer be used, alone or in combination with other reasonably available information, to identify an individual;
- “Platform Infrastructure Providers” means third-party providers of hosting, cloud computing, database management, security, and content delivery services engaged and managed by PLAYHER in the ordinary course of operating the Platform (currently including for example, Amazon Web Services);
- “Sign-On Providers” means third-party identity and authentication providers through which you may register for or sign in to your account (which may include Google, Apple, or Facebook, and our passwordless “magic link” authentication provider); and
- “Third-Party Providers” means our suppliers, partners, independent contractors, and service providers who may have access to personal information in providing services to us or to you through the Platform.
If you believe that we have not adhered to this Privacy Policy or would like to request an amendment to personal information being held by us, please contact our Privacy Officer by email at legal@playher.co (or such other address as we may post on the Platform).
Part I: Collection of Personal Information
The Personal Information of Other Individuals
To the extent you provide us with, or upload to the Platform, personal information about another individual, you represent and warrant that you have obtained all necessary consents and authorizations required by applicable law to provide us with such information and to permit our use of it in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the Terms, including for the purposes of de-identification, aggregation, and generation of Derived Data. If the required consents and authorizations have not been obtained, you agree not to upload or provide us with any such information.
Information We Collect, or have Access to, Automatically from All Visitors
Whether or not you create an account, when you access the Platform we may automatically collect:
- IP address, device identifiers, browser type, operating system, and approximate location data inferred from your IP address;
- Platform usage and analytics data (pages and screens visited, features used, content viewed, session duration, crash and error data, and similar telemetry); and
- information collected through cookies and similar technologies as described in Part IV below.
Information We Collect If You Create an Account
Creating an account is optional. If you choose to create an account, we may collect:
- your email address, which we use to authenticate you by sending sign-in links (a passwordless or “magic link” method);
- if you register or sign in through a Sign-On Provider, the information that provider makes available to us in accordance with your settings with that provider, which typically includes your name, email address, and profile photograph;
- your display name and any optional profile information you elect to provide;
- your preferences, including favourite teams, players, leagues, and sports, and the content you choose to follow;
- if and when interactive features are offered in the Lounge, your entries and participation data, such as bracket picks, predictions, fantasy team selections, scores, and standings, and any age declaration or age-verification information we require to administer the age-gated portions of the Platform;
- communications you send to us, including support requests and feedback; and any other information you voluntarily provide on or through the Platform.
Merchandise Purchases
PLAYHER-branded merchandise is sold through an online store operated using the Shopify e-commerce platform (the “Store”). When you make a purchase through the Store, your order, shipping, and payment information is collected and processed by Shopify and its payment processors in accordance with Shopify’s own terms and privacy policy (available at https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy). We do not receive or store your full payment card number, but we will have access to certain order and transaction information sufficient to fulfil, refund, reconcile, and support your orders.
Notices and Communications
We may send you notices about the Platform, including notices of changes to the Terms and this Privacy Policy. We may also send you confirmation emails and other messages relating to the Store, including information about the Store and the orders you place. If and when newsletters are made available and you subscribe to them, we may send you those newsletters, and you may unsubscribe from such newsletters at any time by following the unsubscribe links contained in the newsletter.
Part II: The Use of Personal Information
We do not sell personal information to third parties, including to advertisers or sponsors. We may, however, use personal information to:
- operate, maintain, and provide the Platform, including authenticating you through sign-in links or Sign-On Providers, saving your preferences, and synchronizing your preferences and account across your devices;
- administer the Lounge and any gamification or interactive features, including brackets, predictions, fantasy teams, and any future chat or discussion features, and enforce the age restrictions applicable to those features;
- personalize the ads and content displayed to you, including based on the teams, players, leagues, and sports you follow;
- communicate with you about your account, the Platform, support requests, security alerts, and similar service messages;
- send you, with your consent (express or implied) and in accordance with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, marketing or promotional materials about the Platform and new features, from which you may unsubscribe at any time;
- use advertising and analytics tools such as Google AdSense, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and similar software, through which advertising may be targeted to you and through which those third-party providers may collect or hold personal information about you that they use to target advertising to you;
- conduct platform analytics, debugging, and product improvement;
- train, improve, and operate machine learning, large language model, and other artificial intelligence features of the Platform using only de-identified data and Derived Data;
- generate Derived Data for any lawful business purpose, including but not limited to product development, research, benchmarking, audience measurement, and reporting (including aggregate audience metrics shared with sponsors and advertisers, which do not identify you);
- detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, security incidents, and violations of our Terms, including misuse of age-gated features;
- comply with applicable laws, regulatory requirements, and lawful requests, and to assert, exercise, or defend legal rights, including in any actual or threatened litigation, arbitration, or regulatory proceeding; and
- any other purpose to which you have consented or that is permitted or required by applicable law.
Part III: The Disclosure of Personal Information
We Do Not Sell Personal Information
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to advertisers, sponsors, or any other third party. Sponsors and advertisers may receive aggregate, de-identified audience metrics and Derived Data, which do not identify you.
Sharing Personal Information and Content if Required by Law
We may share personal information and any content collected, uploaded, or provided to us if required by law, such as in response to a subpoena, court order, regulatory order, or other legal process in any jurisdiction. If we are required by law to make any disclosure of your personal information or content, we may, but are not obligated to, provide you with written notice of such disclosure, if permitted by law.
Sharing Personal Information to Cooperate with Investigations and Law Enforcement
Absent a court order, subpoena, or other legal requirement to disclose personal information or content in our possession or control, you agree that we may also share personal information and content you upload, or which is associated with your account, to cooperate with law enforcement and other governmental or regulatory authorities in the investigation of any matter, in each case only to the extent permitted by applicable privacy law, including the grounds for disclosure without an individual’s consent under PIPEDA, and where we reasonably believe doing so is necessary to protect public safety, the integrity of the Platform, or the safety of any user or third party.
Sharing Personal Information with Third-Party Providers
Our Third-Party Providers, Platform Infrastructure Providers, Sign-On Providers, and our employees and contractors may have access to personal information in connection with the purposes for which the information was collected and the operation of the Platform. As of the last revision date of this Privacy Policy, the principal categories of Third-Party Providers that may have access to personal information include the following (the specific providers in each category may be updated from time to time):
- hosting and cloud computing: Platform Infrastructure Providers, currently Amazon Web Services, operating data centres in Canada and/or the United States;
- authentication and sign-on: our passwordless (“magic link”) authentication provider and the Sign-On Providers through which you choose to register or sign in;
- e-commerce and payment processing for the Store: Shopify Inc. and its payment processors;
- messaging and notifications: email and push-notification providers used to deliver sign-in links, service messages, and (with your consent) marketing communications;
- app distribution and mobile platform providers: Apple Inc. and Google LLC, in respect of the download, installation, and operation of the PLAYHER mobile applications, including crash, performance, and diagnostic reporting;
- analytics, error tracking, and product telemetry: third-party analytics, error-monitoring, and performance providers; and
- legal, audit, and professional advisors: our external counsel, auditors, accountants, insurance brokers, and similar professional advisors, in each case bound by professional duties of confidentiality.
For greater certainty, our Data Providers supply sports data to us for display on the Platform; we do not provide your personal information to Data Providers, other than technical information (such as IP addresses) that may be processed incidentally in delivering their data feeds to your device.
Third-Party Providers may have their own agreements and privacy policies governing the personal information that we or you provide them. We will use reasonable efforts to engage Third-Party Providers that maintain appropriate privacy and security practices. If you would like to learn more about the Third-Party Providers we engage in any category listed above, you may contact our Privacy Officer and we will provide you with the name of the relevant provider, after which you may contact that provider directly to inquire about its privacy practices. In any event, by accessing or using the Platform you consent to our engagement of, and disclosure of personal information to, Third-Party Providers in each of the categories described above.
Data Residency and Cross-Border Transfers
The Platform and certain Third-Party Providers, including Amazon Web Services, Shopify, and the Sign-On Providers, are or may be hosted on servers located in Canada or the United States. Personal information may be processed and stored in jurisdictions outside your province or country of residence, including the United States. By using the Platform, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your personal information to jurisdictions outside Canada, including to our Third-Party Providers, which may have servers in the United States or other jurisdictions. Personal information stored or processed outside Canada may be subject to the laws of the foreign jurisdiction, including lawful access requests from foreign authorities. We take reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information receives a comparable level of protection regardless of where it is processed or stored. If you have questions about our data storage practices, please contact our Privacy Officer.
Sharing Personal Information if Our Business or Platform is Acquired
We may share personal information with our successors (if our business or the Platform is acquired by another legal entity) or any assignee of our assets relating to the Platform, including in the context of a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or insolvency proceeding. Disclosure in such circumstances is governed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada).
Disclaimer and Warning About Sharing Personal Information Online
You acknowledge that the technical processing and transmission of personal information through the Platform involves transmissions over networks not owned or controlled by us, and that there is always a risk of unauthorized access to or use of personal information transmitted online. You acknowledge these inherent risks, which we cannot fully eliminate. Nothing in this paragraph limits or waives any right you have under applicable privacy legislation. If and when the Platform offers features that allow you to post content visible to other users (such as chat or discussion features in the Lounge), you should be cautious about disclosing personal information in those features, and you should never disclose payment information or sensitive personal information in any public-facing portion of the Platform.
Retention of Your Personal Information
We keep your personal information only for as long as it is required for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law (including for record-retention obligations under tax or accounting legislation, or in respect of legal claims, regulatory inquiries, or audits). There is no single retention period applicable to the various types of personal information collected. Please contact our Privacy Officer if you would like to delete personal information we hold about you following the termination of your account or your use of the Platform; we will give effect to your request subject to any legal obligation to retain the information.
Account Deletion. You may delete your account at any time from within your account settings on the Platform, including from within the PLAYHER mobile applications. You may also request deletion of your account and of the personal information associated with it by contacting our Privacy Officer at legal@playher.co. On deletion, we will delete or de-identify the personal information associated with your account within a reasonable period, except where we are required or permitted by law to retain it, and except for Derived Data that has been aggregated, de-identified, or anonymized and can no longer be associated with you. You may withdraw your consent to our collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information at the same address, subject to legal and contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.
Part IV: Our Use of Cookies
By using the Platform, you consent to our use of cookies. This Part IV explains what cookies are, how we use them, and how Third-Party Providers may also use cookies on, or in connection with, the Platform.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files sent to and automatically downloaded by your web browser (assuming you have cookies enabled) when you visit a website. A cookie file is stored in your web browser and allows the Platform and Third-Party Providers we use to recognize you, track your activity, and (typically in conjunction with logging your IP address) provide functionality such as session continuity. Cookies can be “persistent” or “session” cookies. Persistent cookies remain on your device when you go offline; session cookies are deleted when you close your web browser. Mobile applications may use similar local-storage technologies to deliver equivalent functionality.
Can you block the use of Cookies?
Most web browsers allow you to disable the use of cookies. However, the Platform or certain components of it may not operate properly, and you may not be able to access and use the Platform, if you disable cookies.
Can you delete Cookies once downloaded?
Most web browsers also permit you to delete cookies. This is typically done via your web browser’s settings, which vary depending on which web browser you use.
How we use Cookies
We use cookies primarily to:
- authenticate your identity and maintain your session when you are signed in to the Platform;
- remember choices you have made on the Platform, including your preferences and the teams and players you follow;
- collect analytics data about how users interact with the Platform, including page views, feature usage, and performance metrics, to help us improve the Platform; and
- deliver service messages and (with your consent) marketing communications.
Part V: Your Privacy Rights and How to Contact Us
Privacy Officer
PLAYHER has designated a Privacy Officer who is responsible for overseeing compliance with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy legislation. You may contact our Privacy Officer by email at legal@playher.co.
Your Rights
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to: (a) request access to the personal information we hold about you; (b) request correction of any personal information that is inaccurate or incomplete; (c) withdraw your consent to the collection, use, or disclosure of your personal information, subject to legal or contractual restrictions (noting that withdrawal of consent may affect your ability to use your account or certain features of the Platform); and (d) request deletion of your personal information, subject to any legal obligations that require us to retain it. To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information above. We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request.
Children
The Platform is intended only for users who are 18 years of age or older, consistent with our Terms. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 18. If you believe a person under the age of 18 has provided us with personal information, or has accessed the Platform, please contact our Privacy Officer and we will take appropriate steps to delete the information and close any associated account.
Complaints
If you are not satisfied with our response to a privacy-related inquiry or complaint, you have the right to file a complaint with the applicable privacy regulator. For matters governed by PIPEDA, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (www.priv.gc.ca). Depending on your province of residence, you may also contact your provincial privacy regulator. We encourage you to contact our Privacy Officer first so that we have an opportunity to address your concern directly.