Policies

Privacy

National League Privacy Notice

The Football Conference Limited (t/a The National League) (League) ("we", "our", "us") take your
privacy very seriously.

This Privacy Notice sets out how we use and look after the personal information we collect from you. We are the data controller, responsible for the processing of any personal data you give us. We take reasonable care to keep your information secure and to prevent any unauthorised access to or use of it.

What Personal Data We Hold on You

Personal data means any information about an individual from which that individual can be identified.
We collect, use, store and transfer some personal data of our participants [and their parents or guardians], and other League members.

You provide information about yourself and your members when you register with the League, and by filling in forms at an event or online, or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise.

The information you give us may include name, date of birth, address, e-mail address, phone number, gender, and the contact details of a third party in the case of emergency. We may also ask for relevant health information, which is classed as special category personal data, for the purposes of health, wellbeing, welfare and safeguarding. Where we hold this data it will be with the explicit consent of the participant or, if applicable, the participant’s parent or guardian.

Where we need to collect personal data to fulfil League responsibilities and you do not provide that data, we may not be able honour or administer your registration.

Why We Need Your Personal Data

We will only use personal data for any purpose for which it has been specifically provided.

The reason we need participants’ and members’ personal data is to be able to run the League, arrange matches and publicise the competition; to administer registration and provide the League services you are signing up to when you register with the League as a club or participant. Our lawful basis for processing this personal data is that we have a contractual obligation to anyone as a participant or member to provide the services they are registering for.

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Purpose/ Processing Activity	Lawful Basis for processing under Article 6 of the GDPR.
Processing registration forms	Performance of a contract
Organising matches	Performance of a contract
Sending out match or League information and updates	Performance of a contract
To check compliance with our League criteria to participate in the League	Performance of a contract and Legitimate Interests. Our Legitimate Interests are that we need to ensure that participants meet the appropriate criteria to ensure that the matches that are organised are fair.
Sharing data with referees	Performance of a contract
Sharing data with the club you are a member of, county football associations and the FA	Performance of a contract
Sharing data with committee members to provide information about league activities, registration renewals or invitation to social events	The League has a legitimate interest to maintain participant correspondence for league community purposes.
Sharing data with third party service or facility providers	The League has a legitimate interest to run the organisation efficiently and as it sees fit. Provision of some third party services is for the benefit of the League and participants.
Publishing match and league results	Consent. We will only publish personal data in a public domain, including images and names, if we have your consent for us to do so.
Sending out marketing information such as newsletters and information about promotions and offers from sponsors	Consent. We will only send direct marketing if you are an existing member, participant or other associated individual and you have not previously objected to this marketing, or, you have actively provided your consent.

Who We Share Your Personal Data With

When you register with the League, your information, if you are a player may be entered onto the National League player registration database, which is administered by the League and Pitch Hero Limited (Pitchero) and shared with The Press Association Limited (PA). We may also pass your information to County FAs and the FA for affiliation purposes. If you are a club official or if you are another participant your information may be entered onto the National League Handbook database, which is published on annual basis and updated throughout each football season.

We may share personal data with selected third parties, suppliers and sub-contractors such as, coaches or match organisers. Third-party service providers, such as Pitchero who manage the League’s website, will only process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with their privacy policy.

We may disclose personal information to third parties to comply with a legal obligation; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our participants, members or affiliates, or others.

The League’s data processing may require personal data to be transferred outside of the UK. Where the League does transfer personal data overseas it is with the sufficient appropriate safeguards in place to ensure the security of that personal data.

Protection of Your Personal Data

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.

How Long We Hold Your Personal Data

We keep personal data on our participants while they continue to be a participant or are otherwise actively involved with the League. We will delete this data 3 seasons after a participant has left or otherwise ended their registration or affiliation, or sooner if specifically requested and we are able to do so. We may need to retain some personal data for longer for legal or regulatory purposes.

The personal data that may be shared with Pitchero or PA is subject to their privacy policy so we advise you to review that policy together with this notice. If anyone would like their personal data deleted from any database maintained by Pitchero or PA that is not the National League player registration database then please contact Pitchero.

The personal data that may be shared with the County FA or FA is subject to the FA’s privacy policy so we advise you review that policy together with this notice. If anyone would like their personal data to be deleted from a County FA or FA database then please contact the FA.

Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data

As a data subject participants may have the right at any time to request access to, rectification or erasure of their personal data; to restrict or object to certain kinds of processing of their personal data, including direct marketing; to the portability of their personal data and to complain to the UK’s data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office about the processing of their personal data.

As a data subject participants are not obliged to share their personal data with the League. If they choose not to share their personal data with us we may not be able to register them with the League.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time, and will inform you to any changes in how we handle personal data.

If participants have any questions about this Privacy Notice then please contact the League office.

Data

How we collect and use your data

The National League collects information (data) via cookies and other technologies, when you visit https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/. Data includes online behavioural data, information about your device, browser, IP address, MAC address, unique identification number, online identifier, location data port information, logical network address and other identifying information, much of which can be collected when cookies are turned off. For information on managing cookies, please see our section on cookies.

With consent, we use data to:

-analyse user cohorts and behaviours across our website; we build aggregated audiences around key attributes and behaviours. This allows us to improve our content to be of the most interest to fans and make other business improvements.

-facilitate targeted advertising on https://www.thenationalleague.org.uk/, affiliated sites and apps and across the internet. The purpose is to provide relevant advertisements to you and to make effective use of advertising inventory.

-fulfill other commercial interests, including selling sponsorship deals and other revenue-generating partnerships that allow The National League to run successfully.

Technology Providers & Partners

Tech providers

We facilitate the above functions by using advertising technology providers:

Lotame - data management platform, for the purpose of gaining audience insights and enabling consented audience data to be activated on the below platforms. Lotame uses cookies and other identifiers to track online behavioural, demographic and technographic data; they don’t receive information such as your name and email. Lotame can also receive anonymous data segments that The National League sends, such as user IDs associated with people who have been registered members for a certain length of time. Lotame stores data on average for 9 months, and in special cases for up to 18 months. Lotame’s privacy policy: https://www.lotame.com/about-lotame/privacy/lotames-products-services-privacy-policy/.

Google Ad Manager (DFP) - ad server and ad exchange, for the purpose of selling advertising inventory on our site in a targeted manner. Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en-US.

Xandr (Appnexus) - demand side platform, for the purpose of buying audience-targeted advertising across the internet. Xandr’s privacy policy: https://www.xandr.com/privacy/platform-privacy-policy/.

Facebook - social media platform, for the purpose of buying audience-targeted advertising on Facebook. Facebook’s privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Partners

We may also share personal data that we hold on you, in an anonymised and aggregated fashion, with the following types of partners:

Football clubs - to help clubs within The National League learn more about their fans, secure commercial deals and sell tickets.

Sponsors, Advertisers and Agencies - to convey insights on The National League audience, demonstrate how our audiences/customers overlap with each other, facilitate advertising targeting and measurement both on and off our website; secure investment and help keep our league strong.