Last updated: 9 August 2026
Who we are
Castlewellan Town Football Club (“the club”, “we”) runs this website, castlewellantownfc.com, including the Members Club area. The club is the data controller for the personal information described below. You can contact us about anything in this policy through the contact form or by emailing castlewellanfc@gmail.com.
This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices and rights you have. We are a community sports club: we do not run advertising, we do not use analytics trackers, and we never sell personal information.
Information we collect
Member accounts
When you join the Members Club we ask for your name, email address, phone number and date of birth. Your phone number and date of birth are collected for safeguarding and club administration — for example so we can confirm who is an adult, and reach you about teams and events you’re involved in. If you register with a password, it is stored securely hashed; we never see or store it in readable form.
Signing in with Facebook, Google or Apple
You can join or sign in using a Facebook, Google or Apple account instead of a password. If you do, the provider shares only your name, email address and account identifier with us — nothing else. Specifically:
- We never see or receive your Facebook, Google or Apple password.
- We do not receive your friends list, photos, posts, birthday or any other profile information.
- We cannot and do not post to your account.
- We still ask you separately for your phone number and date of birth, because we don’t take these from social accounts.
The sign-in itself happens on the provider’s own website, under that provider’s privacy policy (Meta, Google, Apple). You can disconnect this site at any time in your provider’s account settings (for Facebook: Settings & Privacy → Apps and Websites); your club account will keep working via email sign-in.
Children (parent/guardian registrations)
Parents and guardians can register their children with the club through the Members Club. Because youth players must be registered with the Irish Football Association’s COMET system, we collect what that registration requires: the child’s name, date of birth, place of birth, nationality and gender; a copy of an identity document (such as a birth certificate or passport); and the guardian’s and an emergency contact’s name, phone number and email address.
We treat this as our most sensitive information and protect it accordingly:
- Identity documents are stored encrypted, outside the website’s public media area, and can only be opened by specifically authorised club officials.
- Every registration is held as “pending” until reviewed by a club administrator — nothing is automatic.
- Only a child’s own parent/guardian and authorised club officials can see a child’s record.
- Child details are shared only with the Irish FA for player registration, and with no one else.
Town Talk (members’ chat)
Messages you send in Town Talk are visible to the other members of that channel. Messages are encrypted at rest — the encryption key is not stored in the website’s database, so a copy of the database alone cannot reveal message contents. Club chat moderators can remove messages, and if a member reports a message, it is reviewed by club admins. For safety and abuse prevention we keep a log of chat administration actions (such as who removed a message), which includes the IP address of the person acting.
Everyday members-area activity
- Events and attendance: your yes/no responses to club events are stored and visible to relevant coaches and admins.
- Polls and reactions: your votes and reactions are stored so results can be counted.
- Teamsheets: if you’re selected, your name appears on teamsheets visible to members.
- Online status: the site records when your account was last active, to show an “online” indicator to other members.
- Season tickets: if the club issues you a digital season ticket, we store the ticket, its code and validity dates against your account.
- Club forms: when you submit a club form, we store your answers along with the IP address the submission came from (to prevent abuse). Files uploaded through forms are stored encrypted.
- Contact form: messages sent through the public contact form are delivered by email to the club inbox.
Technical information
Like almost every website, we process IP addresses as part of serving pages, preventing abuse (rate limiting), and keeping security logs. We use only essential cookies — the ones that keep you signed in and protect forms from abuse. We do not use advertising cookies, analytics cookies or any third-party tracking.
Push notifications
If you choose to turn on push notifications (for club news and your Town Talk unread digest), these are delivered by OneSignal, which processes a device identifier and, for signed-in members, an anonymous member reference so your digest reaches the right device. Notifications are entirely optional — you’ll only get them if you accept your browser’s prompt, and you can turn them off at any time in your browser or device settings.
Who we share information with
We share personal information only where it’s needed to run the club:
- Irish Football Association (COMET): youth player registration details, as described above.
- OneSignal: push notification delivery, only if you opt in.
- Meta, Google or Apple: only in the sense that, if you choose social sign-in, the provider knows you signed in to this site.
- YouTube: match replays in the members area are videos hosted on the club’s YouTube channel; playing them involves YouTube (Google) under its own privacy policy.
- Klubfunder: club membership purchases, fundraisers and shop orders happen on Klubfunder’s own website under its own privacy policy. This website only displays public information from our Klubfunder page — no personal or payment details pass through this site, and we never see your card details.
We never sell personal information, and we don’t share it with advertisers.
Our legal bases
Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), we rely on: contract (running your membership and the members area you signed up for); legal obligation and substantial public interest (safeguarding children in sport, and player registration requirements); consent (push notifications, which you can withdraw at any time); and legitimate interests (keeping the website secure and preventing abuse).
How long we keep information
We keep your account information while you remain a member of the site. Child registration records are kept for as long as required for Irish FA registration and the club’s safeguarding obligations. Security logs and form submissions are kept only as long as they’re useful for running and protecting the site. When information is no longer needed, we delete it.
Deleting your account and data
You can ask us to delete your account and personal information at any time by contacting us through the contact form or at castlewellanfc@gmail.com from the email address on your account. We will delete your account, profile details and associated records, except where we must keep something to meet a legal or safeguarding obligation — if so, we’ll tell you what and why.
If you signed up with Facebook, Google or Apple, you can additionally remove this website’s access in that provider’s settings (for Facebook: Settings & Privacy → Apps and Websites → remove “Castlewellan Town FC”). Removing access there stops future sign-ins but doesn’t delete your club account — contact us for that, as above.
Your rights
You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to receive it in a portable format. To exercise any of these, contact us as above — we’ll respond within one month. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal information — for example by adding a new feature to the members area — we’ll update this policy and change the date at the top. Significant changes will be announced to members.
