Privacy Notice

Who we are

The Clubhouse is an independent international table tennis community operated in the United Kingdom by Nick Howard, trading as The Clubhouse. Nick Howard is the data controller responsible for the personal information described in this notice.

For privacy enquiries, to exercise your information rights or to ask about this notice, email hello@clubhousett.com. Please do not send sensitive information or identity documents unless we explain why they are needed.

This notice covers the website, free Clubhouse membership and associated community administration. Some events, third-party services and standalone products may provide additional privacy information when relevant.

Information we collect

When you apply for free membership, we ask for your display name, email address, country, confirmation that you are aged 18 or over, and acceptance of the Membership Terms and Code of Conduct. The optional Clubhouse newsletter checkbox is unticked by default. Joining without ticking it does not subscribe you. If you tick it, we record your affirmative consent and queue your address for the existing EmailOctopus newsletter list using single opt-in; no separate newsletter confirmation is required.

We also record the information needed to run membership: your internal member identifier, email-verification and joining dates, current status, your permanent membership number and any applicable Founding Member recognition, plus records of privacy notices, agreements and marketing choices where those features are enabled. A membership card displays your chosen name, membership number and applicable recognition, not your email address.

For security and access we process short-lived email codes or link records, token digests, browser and member sessions, card-access records, sign-out or revocation information, and request rate limits. Hosting providers may receive technical information including IP addresses, device or browser details and request metadata. Hashed identifiers used for rate limiting can still constitute personal data.

If you contact us, we receive your correspondence and the information needed to reply. We may keep proportionate records of complaints, corrections, safety concerns and decisions. We do not ask you to send unnecessary sensitive information about yourself or anyone else.

The public website also contains sporting and editorial material: player names, portraits, results, reports, biographies and photographs or video from leagues and events. These may be provided by leagues, participants, contributors and event organisers. Public sporting records are treated separately from the private membership database.

Why we use personal information

We process information for the following purposes and legal reasons under UK data protection law:

• Operating free membership, verifying identity, issuing numbers and cards, and providing essential account communications: our legitimate interests in delivering and maintaining a reliable community service that people have asked to join (Article 6(1)(f)).
• Protecting the website, preventing abuse, handling enquiries, safeguarding community participation and responding to reasonable objections: our legitimate interests in security, fair administration and a trustworthy sporting community (Article 6(1)(f)).
• Publishing proportionate sporting and editorial information: the legitimate interests in reporting and celebrating table tennis, subject to assessment of the circumstances and individuals' rights, or another appropriate lawful basis where necessary.
• Sending optional news and promotional emails: your separate, freely given consent (Article 6(1)(a)), together with applicable electronic-marketing rules. Membership and essential account emails do not depend on this consent.
• Meeting particular legal duties and handling legal claims: a legal obligation or another applicable lawful basis where specifically justified. We do not use this as a blanket reason to retain everything.

We assess our legitimate interests against the effect on individuals, and you can object to processing based on those interests.

Your membership, card and Connections

Membership is free and intended to continue without annual renewal or inactivity expiry. Genuine members receive a unique membership number, which is not reassigned even if they leave. Founding Member recognition, where applicable, is recorded as part of the membership identity.

We use private verification and sign-in links or codes, rather than requiring a member password. These are time-limited and protected by security controls. Depending on the service, an authenticated member session can remain active for up to 30 days unless it expires, is revoked or you sign out. Your membership number or saved card image is not a password or proof of current account status. Once you save or share a card, copies outside our systems cannot be recalled remotely.

Your membership email address and private contact details are not automatically made public.

Connections is not currently available. If introduced, participation will be optional, and we will explain what information members may choose to share before enabling any member discovery.

News emails

Clubhouse news is optional. The membership checkbox asks: “Send me Around the Leagues and occasional Clubhouse news by email. Unsubscribe anytime.” We record your choice, exact wording, notice version, source and time. A saved request is consent evidence, not proof of provider delivery. Membership email verification is separate and remains required for membership activation. Newsletter provider failure does not prevent activation. You may also subscribe through the existing independent newsletter form.

You can withdraw through a private membership preference link, the unsubscribe link in a newsletter, or hello@clubhousett.com. Withdrawing news consent does not cancel membership. Membership-linked withdrawal and deletion queue suppression on the same list. We retain minimum address-level suppression and reconciliation evidence to prevent unwanted marketing, including after membership deletion or restoration. A new request never clears a known opt-out, bounce, complaint or deletion safeguard. Provider completion is tracked separately; unresolved suppression must be reconciled before campaigns. Dispatch remains disabled pending independent approval and provider safety verification.

Essential messages, such as verification, security notifications and responses to your requests, are separate from promotional news.

How long we keep information

• Active members: necessary membership information is kept while membership continues, subject to periodic review. There is no inactivity-based membership expiry.
• Applications never verified: become eligible for removal after 30 days. Our maintenance is periodic and the operational target is removal within approximately 37 days, rather than an automatic deletion guarantee.
• Members who leave or request deletion: we remove unnecessary personal membership information as soon as reasonably practicable, following proportionate identity checks. A non-reassigned number reservation may remain without unnecessary identifying details attached.
• Delivery and webhook records: application-held routine records are generally eligible for cleanup after around 30 days; activity-based or manual maintenance can mean physical deletion occurs later. Provider-held records follow their own retention arrangements.
• Complaints, bans, suppression and security records: only the proportionate minimum needed for an ongoing safety, legal or operational reason is kept, with its necessity reviewed.
• Private backups: membership backups are handled under a manual rolling 90-day retention policy. Old backup copies are protected from ordinary use and are removed under the backup routine. If a backup is restored, newer deletion, consent-withdrawal, suppression and number-reservation safeguards must be reapplied before normal operation resumes.

Publicly available sporting results or editorial material may have a separate justified retention purpose. Leaving membership does not automatically remove every independently justified match result or photograph, but you can ask us to review particular material.

Who receives information

We use a limited number of services to operate The Clubhouse. These include Cloudflare for hosting, Workers, database and media infrastructure; Resend for essential membership emails; and Apple iCloud Mail for correspondence. We use EmailOctopus for newsletter subscriptions and emails where enabled and iCloud Drive/protected operator devices for private backups. We disclose only the information required for the relevant service, subject to its applicable terms and safeguards.

Public pages may load resources from external services, such as third-party image hosts. Fonts are served locally. YouTube and Vimeo players and the EmailOctopus signup form load only after an explained choice to allow the relevant embed. Those providers may receive technical connection information when their resources load. We also link to external league, social and sporting websites, which operate their own privacy notices.

We do not sell private membership details or share a membership mailing list for other organisations' marketing. We may disclose proportionate information where required by law or needed for an appropriately justified safety or legal matter.

International processing

The Clubhouse is based in the UK, but some service providers and people using the website are overseas. Information may be processed outside the UK, including in the United States. Where UK transfer restrictions apply, we assess and use an appropriate mechanism and any required safeguards. You may contact us for further information about relevant arrangements.

Cookies and similar technologies

The website uses cookies or comparable short-lived storage where needed for private authentication, security, card access and your requested website features. For example, captain/team access and member sessions have different purposes and expiry periods, and member sessions can last up to 30 days. You may remove cookies in your browser, although doing so may sign you out or disrupt private features.

External images may make ordinary network requests, which can disclose connection information without necessarily storing or accessing information on your device. Optional video players and the newsletter form require a choice before loading; their notices explain provider processing, including cookies or similar technologies. The newsletter form may include Google reCAPTCHA bot protection. Loading a form is separate from consenting to receive news. Choices to load embeds are not saved across page visits. You can remove a loaded video or close the form; this does not erase information already received by the provider or cookies already set, which you can remove in your browser. If you use an embedded service, that provider may process technical information under its own notice. We will review this notice if we introduce optional analytics, advertising or tracking technologies.

Your choices and rights

Depending on the circumstances and applicable law, you can request access to your information, correction, deletion, restriction, objection and, where eligible, data portability. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw optional marketing consent at any time. Some rights have legal conditions or exceptions; we will explain these when relevant.

To make a request, email hello@clubhousett.com. We may ask for a proportionate check to ensure information is not disclosed to the wrong person. We normally respond within one month, subject to any lawful extension or a legally permitted extension.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/ without first completing our complaint process. Other rights and regulators may apply depending on where you live.

We do not use solely automated decisions intended to produce legal or similarly significant effects on members. Decisions about community conduct are considered by a person. We date updates to this notice and inform members about material changes; future services will receive appropriate new information and choices.