Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible

We are the controller of personal data processed to operate the Service (accounts, profiles, matches, ratings, support).

When you buy a paid plan, the Merchant of Record named at checkout (we intend to use Creem) is a separate controller of the payment itself: card details, billing address, invoices, and tax. We do not receive your full card number. That provider’s privacy notice applies to that processing.

If you sign in with Google or Apple, that provider is a controller of your account with them. We receive the identifiers they send us to create or recognise your Ladder account (typically name, email, and profile image).

2. What we collect

We collect:

• Account: email address, sign-in provider, email verification time, session tokens.
• Profile: display name, first and last name, date of birth (collected at onboarding; not shown on your public profile), photo (from Google/Apple or an image you upload), home city, gender (to place you on the correct ladder and matches), preferred side of the court.
• Phone number, if you create or join matches. It is required for that and is not shown on your public profile.
• Match and community data: matches you create or join, results, confirmations, disputes, partners, notifications, medals, achievements, and our audit log of important actions.
• Ratings and standings: Ladder Rating, Quarter Points, ladder rows, and the history needed to compute and explain them.
• Subscription status we receive from the Merchant of Record (plan, period, customer/subscription ids, whether a payment succeeded or was cancelled). Not your full card number.
• Technical data: IP address, device and browser type, approximate location derived from IP, pages viewed, and crash or performance data, including via Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights.
• Support: what you write to us, and what we need to answer.
• Content you choose to post (match notes, photos).

We do not require payment data to use a free account. We do not sell your personal data.

3. How we get it

Directly from you (sign-in, onboarding, profile, matches, support). Automatically from your device when you use the Service. From Google or Apple if you choose those sign-in methods. From the Merchant of Record for paid plans. From other users when they include you on a match or report a result. From our own calculations (ratings, standings).

4. Why we use it and legal bases

We process data to run the Service you asked for (contract): creating your account, showing ladders, organising matches, calculating ratings, sending transactional mail (sign-in links, match notices), and providing paid features you subscribe to.

We process data where we have a legitimate interest that is not overridden by your rights: keeping the Service secure, preventing fake accounts and match-fixing, improving the product, understanding aggregate use, defending legal claims, and showing public ranking information that is the point of a ladder.

We process some data with your consent, which you can withdraw: optional profile fields you can leave blank, cookies or analytics that are not strictly necessary (where consent is required), and marketing we may send only if you opt in. We do not currently send marketing newsletters.

We process data where the law requires it: tax and accounting records related to subscriptions, responding to lawful requests, and keeping records of bans or disputes.

Gender is used only to operate men/women/open ladders and match rules, not for advertising. Date of birth is used only to apply our age policy and to follow up with anyone who appears under 16; it is not shown to other users. Phone numbers are used only to let accepted players on the same match reach each other and for account security or abuse handling.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal data only as follows:

• Other users, as the product is designed: public profile (name, photo, city, rating, medals, plan badge, match-related history the Service shows). Phone number only with players accepted on the same match.
• Service providers that process data for us under contract: hosting and delivery (Vercel), database (Neon / PostgreSQL), email delivery for account confirmation, password resets and notices, and error/performance analytics (Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights).
• Sign-in providers (Google, Apple) as needed to authenticate you.
• The Merchant of Record and its payment processors, to start checkout, confirm payment, handle invoices, taxes, refunds, and cancellations.
• Sponsors only see what we already publish (for example a public leaderboard or a medal). We do not sell them your email or phone.
• Venues do not receive your data from us as a list, except that a match listing may show who is playing if that is visible in the Service.
• Authorities, venues, or other users if we must to comply with law, enforce these terms, or protect someone’s safety.
• A buyer of the Service if we reorganise or sell the operation, under the same protections.

We do not allow other users to download a directory of phones or emails. Do not scrape the Service.

6. International transfers

We are based in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some providers (including Vercel, Neon, Google, Apple, and a Merchant of Record) may process data in the United States, the European Union, or other countries. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the provider’s published transfer mechanisms (for example Standard Contractual Clauses) and their security commitments.

If you access the Service from the EU/EEA or UK, your data may be transferred outside that region as described above in order to provide the Service.

7. How long we keep it

Account and profile data last for as long as the account is open. You can delete your account yourself at any time, in the Account section at the bottom of your profile (in the app or on the website); your personal identifiers (name, email, phone, photo, bio) are then deleted or anonymised at once. If you ask us to close it instead, we do the same within 30 days. In both cases, except as follows.

Match results and rating history that affect other players’ ratings are part of a shared, zero-sum record. We keep those rows in anonymised form (for example “Former player”) so other people’s history and the ladder stay consistent. We do not use anonymised rows to identify you.

Audit logs, ban records, and records needed for disputes, security, or legal claims may be kept up to 5 years, or longer if a claim is outstanding.

Subscription and invoice data held by the Merchant of Record follows their retention rules (often legal accounting periods). We keep the subscription ids and plan history we need to honour access and support.

Backups are rotated on our host’s schedule and fall out of backup after that window.

Confirmation links, password reset links and session data expire automatically.

8. Security

We use HTTPS, hashed session tokens, access-controlled admin tools, and least-privilege database access. Photos you upload are cropped and reduced in your browser before they are sent, and we check on arrival that the file really is a PNG, JPEG or WebP and is within our size limits. We do not strip metadata such as location that your camera may have written into the file, so remove it yourself first if that matters to you. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. You can reduce risk by using a unique email password and by not posting other people’s private data in match notes.

9. Your rights

You can access and update much of your profile in the Service. You can delete your account yourself in the Account section of your profile. You may also email info@ladder.ba to request: access to the personal data we hold about you; correction of inaccurate data; deletion (with the rating-history limit in section 7); restriction of processing; objection to processing based on legitimate interests; and portability of data you provided, in a common machine-readable format where technically feasible.

You may withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, without affecting earlier lawful processing.

We will respond within 30 days, or the longer period allowed by law if the request is complex. We may need to verify it is you. We may refuse requests that are unfounded, excessive, or would break the integrity of other players’ ratings, explaining why.

You may lodge a complaint with the personal data protection authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Agencija za zaštitu ličnih podataka u BiH) or, if you are in the EU/EEA or UK, with your local supervisory authority. We would rather fix the issue first: info@ladder.ba.

10. Automated rating

Ratings and standings are produced automatically from reported results and published rules. That is the Service. It does not by itself produce a legal or similarly significant decision about you in the sense of credit, employment, or insurance. You can dispute a reported result in the product and contact us if you believe a calculation is wrong. We may still apply automatic anti-abuse limits (for example weekly caps or inactivity decay) as described in the product.

11. Cookies and similar technology

We use cookies and similar storage that are necessary to run the Service: a session cookie so you stay signed in, and a locale cookie so the site stays in Bosnian or English after you choose. These are required for the Service to work.

We use Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights, which are designed to be privacy-friendly (no advertising cookies, no cross-site tracking for ads). They help us see which pages fail or are slow.

We do not use third-party advertising networks. If we ever add non-essential tracking that the law treats as requiring consent, we will ask before it runs.

12. Children

The Service is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly create accounts for anyone under 16. If you believe we have, email us and we will delete the account. Paid subscriptions are for users 18 or older.

13. Changes

We may update this Policy. The new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. If a change is material, we will also notice it in the Service or by email where we have a working address. Continued use after the effective date means you accept the updated Policy.

14. Contact

Privacy and data requests: info@ladder.ba.

Please write from the email on your account so we can verify the request.