Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

The Sportspal — thesportspal.com

Last updated: 29 September 2026

1. Introduction

The Sportspal ("we", "us", "our") operates the website thesportspal.com (the "Platform"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our Platform.

By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Platform.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

When you register for an account or update your profile, we may collect your name, email address, date of birth, gender, city, country, profile photo, and sport preferences.

Ask Sportspal: When you use Ask Sportspal, our conversational race search, we keep the questions you type and the answers you receive, and, unless you switch it off, the things you tell it about your racing: your home place, the sports you do, your level and goals, the distances you target, the kind of course or swim you prefer, how far you travel, your season, your budget and practical constraints such as "weekends only". Each remembered item is shown to you as a chip in the conversation and on My Account, where you can remove any of them, turn remembering off, or forget everything at once. Ask Sportspal never records anything about your health, injuries, medication or disability, even if you mention them.

2.2 Information from Third-Party Authentication

You may register or log in using third-party services such as Google, Strava, or Facebook. When you do so, we receive certain information from these providers as described below.

Google: When you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile photo. We use this to create or link your account and pre-fill your profile.

Strava: When you sign in with Strava, we receive your name, profile photo, city, country, and gender from your Strava profile. With your authorisation, we also access your recent activity data (activity type, distance, duration, and date) and athlete statistics (all-time and yearly totals for running, cycling, and swimming). We use this data to auto-detect your sports and display a private training summary on your account page. Strava activity data is only visible to you, the authenticated user, and is never displayed publicly or shared with third parties.

Facebook: When you sign in with Facebook, we receive your name, email address, and profile photo. We use this to create or link your account and pre-fill your profile.

Apple: When you sign in with Apple, we receive a unique identifier and the email address Apple shares with us, which may be a private relay address that forwards to your real inbox. We use them only to recognise your account.

2.3 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit the Platform, our servers may automatically record standard log information including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URL, pages visited, and the date and time of your visit. This information is used for security, troubleshooting, and to improve the Platform.

The Sportspal app: The Sportspal app for iPhone and Android shows the same service as the website. When you use the app we record which app you used (so we can measure and support it) and, if you turn on notifications, a push token issued by Apple or by your browser's push service so we can deliver them. We keep a record of each notification we send you and whether you opened it. You can turn notifications off in the app under Account → Notifications, or in your phone's settings; the token is removed when you do or when the app is uninstalled.

Location: If you allow location access, your device converts your position into a city name using Google's geocoding service; we receive only the city, never your coordinates. When you sign up we may also look up an approximate location from your IP address.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

Create and manage your account.

Pre-fill your profile with information from third-party authentication providers.

Auto-detect your sports based on your Strava activity history (with your authorisation).

Display a private training summary and recent activities on your account page (Strava data, visible only to you).

Show you relevant events, coaches, training groups, shops, and services based on your sports and location.

Personalise your experience on the Platform, including sport-specific navigation and content.

Answer your questions in Ask Sportspal, and make later answers start from what you have already told it about your racing. Ask Sportspal answers only from what is shown publicly on the Platform, including what organisations have said they offer (for example what a shop sells, or a coach's format and audience); it has no access to anything an organisation has not made public. We also keep a log of questions the Platform could not answer (for example "is this race wetsuit-legal" when we do not hold that information) so we know which race details to add next; this log describes the data, not you, and is separated from your account when you ask to be forgotten.

Classify event and organisation listings so they can be found and filtered, for example a race's course character, what a shop sells, a coach's format and audience or a service's type. Where the owner of a listing has not set these, we may derive them from the listing's public description using automated tools, including Anthropic's AI service. Derived settings can be changed or removed by the owner at any time from their dashboard, and we never overwrite settings an owner has made themselves.

Communicate with you about your account, events you have expressed interest in, and Platform updates.

Maintain the security and integrity of the Platform.

Comply with legal obligations.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Service providers: We may share information with trusted third-party services that help us operate the Platform (e.g. hosting, email delivery). These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and may only use it to provide services to us.

Our current service providers are Amazon Web Services (hosting in Ireland and image storage), Cloudflare (delivery and security), Mailgun (email), Anthropic (the AI behind Ask Sportspal and the result reader), Google (sign-in, geocoding and, only with your consent, analytics), Apple (Sign in with Apple and push notifications), your browser's push service (Mozilla, Google or Apple), Stripe (payments by organisers), Open-Meteo (weather data with no personal information) and Strava (sign-in). Each acts only on our instructions; none may use your data for its own purposes.

Anthropic: Anthropic, PBC processes the text of your Ask Sportspal conversations to generate the answers, as our service provider. Under Anthropic's commercial terms that content is not used to train their models. Anthropic also processes the public text of event and organisation listings when Ask Sportspal searches them to answer a question, and when we derive listing classifications from descriptions as described in section 3; it never receives anything a listing's owner has not made public on the Platform. It may be processed outside the UAE, including in the United States; see section 11 on international transfers.

Legal requirements: We may disclose your information if required by law, regulation, legal process, or government request.

Business transfers: If the Platform is acquired or merged with another company, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change.

Race plans you choose to share: if you create a share link for your race plan, anyone with that link can see your first name, your plan title, and the races, dates and notes on it, until the link expires or you end it. Your race results are never included. You can end a link at any time from your plan.

With your consent: We may share information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.

5. Third-Party Services and APIs

5.1 Strava

Our use of the Strava API is governed by Strava's API Agreement. We access your Strava data only with your explicit authorisation via OAuth. You can revoke our access at any time by visiting your Strava settings at strava.com/settings/apps. When you revoke access, we will no longer be able to retrieve new data from Strava, though previously synced profile information (name, photo, sport preferences) will remain on your Sportspal account unless you delete it. Your Strava activity data and training statistics are displayed only to you and are never used to train machine learning models or shared with third parties.

5.2 Google

Our use of Google authentication is governed by Google's API Services User Data Policy. We only request basic profile information (name, email, photo) and do not access any other Google services or data.

5.3 Facebook

Our use of Facebook authentication is governed by Meta's Platform Terms. We only request basic profile information (name, email, photo) and do not access your Facebook posts, friends list, or any other Facebook data.

6. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on secure servers. We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), secure password hashing, and access controls to protect your personal information. Authentication tokens for third-party services are stored securely and are never exposed to other users.

While we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with our services. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymise your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business purposes.

Deleting your account: You can delete your account in the app or on the website under Account → Delete account, or by emailing [email protected] from your account's address. We remove your profile, sign-in details, race plan, results, favourites, notification tokens and Ask Sportspal memory immediately. Reviews you published stay visible without your name unless you delete them first. Records that no longer identify you (page-view and email statistics) are kept in anonymised form.

Cached data from third-party services (such as Strava training statistics and recent activities) is stored temporarily and refreshed periodically. This cached data is deleted when you disconnect the relevant service or delete your account.

Ask Sportspal conversations are kept for twelve months from their last message and are then deleted automatically. Things it has remembered about your racing are kept until you remove them or ask us to forget everything. Records of how much the assistant was used (tokens and cost, with no message content) are kept for accounting.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

Access the personal information we hold about you.

Correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.

Delete your account and personal information.

Withdraw consent for data processing where consent is the legal basis.

Object to or restrict certain types of data processing.

Request a copy of your data in a portable format.

Disconnect third-party services (Strava, Google, Facebook) from your account at any time.

For Ask Sportspal specifically you can, without contacting us: see everything it remembers on My Account; remove any single item there or from the chip in the conversation; switch remembering off; and press Forget everything, which removes every remembered item and deletes your conversations immediately.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the email address provided below. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

9. Cookies

The Platform uses essential cookies that are necessary for the site to function, including session cookies for authentication and security. These cookies do not track you across other websites and are deleted when you close your browser or when your session expires.

We do not currently use third-party analytics or advertising cookies. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and provide you with appropriate notice and controls.

Emails we send you, such as the monthly race digest, may contain a tiny image that tells us when the email was opened and links that tell us which race or page you clicked. We use this only to see whether the digest is useful and to improve it. You can stop the digest at any time from the Unsubscribe link in the email or from My Account.

10. Children's Privacy

The Platform is not intended for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 16, we will take steps to delete that information promptly.

11. International Data Transfers

The Platform is operated from the United Arab Emirates. If you are accessing the Platform from outside the UAE, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the UAE or other jurisdictions where our servers or service providers are located (including the United States, where Anthropic processes Ask Sportspal conversations). By using the Platform, you consent to this transfer.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make significant changes, we will notify you by posting a notice on the Platform or by sending you an email. The "Last updated" date at the top of this policy indicates when it was last revised. Your continued use of the Platform after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://thesportspal.com