WBF Privacy Policy

Publication date: 17th November 2022

This privacy notice for the World Bridge Federation (‘Company‘, ‘we‘, ‘us‘, or ‘our‘,), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share (‘process‘) your information when you use our services (‘Services‘), such as when you:

Visit our website at http://www.worldbridge.org, or any website of ours that links to this privacy notice
Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or events

Questions or concerns? Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at privacy@worldbridgefed.com

1. What information do we collect?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us. See Section16 below.

Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:

names
email addresses
date of birth
gender
country of residence
country of birth

Sensitive Information. We do not process sensitive information.

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

In Short: Some information — such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our Services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Services, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies. You can find out more about this in our Cookie Notice: http://www.worldbridge.org/cookies-policy/ .

The information we collect includes:

Log and Usage Data.Log and usage data is service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our Services and which we record in log files. Depending on how you interact with us, this log data may include your IP address, device information, browser type, and settings and information about your activity in the Services (such as the date/time stamps associated with your usage, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take such as which features you use), device event information (such as system activity, error reports (sometimes called ‘crash dumps’), and hardware settings).
Device Data.We collect device data such as information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access the Services. Depending on the device used, this device data may include information such as your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, location, browser type, hardware model, Internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, operating system, and system configuration information.
Location Data.We collect location data such as information about your device’s location, which can be either precise or imprecise. How much information we collect depends on the type and settings of the device you use to access the Services. For example, we may use GPS and other technologies to collect geolocation data that tells us your current location (based on your IP address). You can opt out of allowing us to collect this information either by refusing access to the information or by disabling your Location setting on your device. However, if you choose to opt out, you may not be able to use certain aspects of the Services.

2. How do we process your information?

In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.

We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:

To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
To send administrative information to you. We may process your information to send you details about our products and services, changes to our terms and policies, and other similar information.
To save or protect an individual’s vital interest.We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.
Date of Birth.To determine the person’s eligibility to participate in age-restricted events
To determine the person’s eligibility to participate in gender-restricted events

3. What legal bases do we rely on to process your information?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e. legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfil our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfil our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e. consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
Performance of a Contract.We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.
Legal Obligations.We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
Vital Interests.We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.

We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e. express consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e. implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time.

In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:

If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way
For investigations and fraud detection and prevention
For business transactions provided certain conditions are met
If it is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim
For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin
If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse
If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province
If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records
If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced
If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes
If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations

4. When and with whom do we share your personal information?

In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following third parties.

Vendors, Consultants, and Other Third-Party Service Providers. We may share your data with third-party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents (‘third parties‘) who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. The third parties we may share personal information with include but are not exclusively :

National Bridge Organisations
Editors of the WBF Website, publications and bulletins

We also may need to share your personal information in the following situations:

Business Transfers.We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.

5. Do We Use Cookies And Other Tracking Technologies?

In Short: We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Notice: http://www.worldbridge.org/cookies-policy/

6. How long do we keep your information?

In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

7. How do we keep your information safe?

In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organisational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorised third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.

8. What are your privacy rights?

In Short: In some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), and Canada, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information. You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; and (iv) if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by emailing us at privacy@worldbridgefed.com

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. You can find their contact details here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm.

If you are located in Switzerland, the contact details for the data protection authorities are available here: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by emailing us at privacy@worldbridgefed.com.

However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

Cookies and similar technologies: Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Services. To opt out of interest-based advertising by advertisers on our Services visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. For further information, please see our Cookie Notice: http://www.worldbridge.org/cookies-policy/

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at privacy@worldbridgefed.com.

9. Controls for do-not-track features

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track (‘DNT’) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage no uniform technology standard for recognising and implementing DNT signals has been finalised. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.

10. Do California residents have specific privacy rights?

In Short: Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the ‘Shine The Light’ law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have a registered account with Services, you have the right to request removal of unwanted data that you publicly post on the Services. To request removal of such data, please contact us using the contact information provided below and include the email address associated with your account and a statement that you reside in California. We will make sure the data is not publicly displayed on the Services, but please be aware that the data may not be completely or comprehensively removed from all our systems (e.g. backups, etc.).

11. Do we make updates to this notice?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time.

The updated version will be indicated by an updated ‘Revised’ date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

12. How can you contact us about this notice?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact us by email at privacy@worldbridgefed.com or by post to:

Anna Gudge
WBF Communications Manager
Mill Cottage Voy
Stromness
Orkney KW16 3HX
United Kingdom

13. How can you review, update, or delete the data we collect from you?

Based on the applicable laws of your country, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it (but see section 14 below).

To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please email privacy@worldbridgefed.com

14. Additional information

Registration of Players

When players and officials register with the WBF in order to participate in WBF Championships, they are required to complete a registration form following which they will be issued with an WBF Code to be used when entering events. The registration form asks for the following information:

Their name
Their registration code with their own National Bridge Organisation to which they are affiliated and intend to represent
Their country of birth
Their country of residence
Their date of birth
Their gender
Their email address

Photographs

Additionally participants are asked to provide a photograph which will be used together with their name and WBF Code on their badge to identify them personally at the Championships as well as being displayed on the website.

As a condition of entry to any WBF event, the Conditions of Contest state that photographs taken during the event may be published on the relevant website for that event and may be used by either the WBF or another bridge organisation for publications relating to that event or for the general promotion of bridge.
The name of the player or official (for example the captain or coach will be shown in the pages relating to registered players at : http://www.worldbridge.org/people-finder/ so that their playing record may be displayed. Their photograph will also be displayed on the page relating to them. They may request an update to the photograph at any time by emailing the WBF Communications Manager anna.gudge@worldbridgefed.com

If they do not intend to participate in events in the future, they may request the removal of their photograph from the website. However, should they subsequently wish to participate in another WBF Event they will be required to provide a new photograph to be used for identification purposes and this will be included on the website.

WBF Commitment forms

All participants (players and team officials) are required to sign the WBF Commitment form (http://www.worldbridge.org/rules-regulations/competitions/participants-commitment/ ) if they are planning to participate in a World Championship noting that this is a different form from that provided for any Zonal Championship.

If a participant is a minor it is a requirement that the Commitment form is signed by a parent or legal guardian of that participant, and signifies their consent to all matters covered by this Privacy Policy.

All signatories (include those of the parent/legal guardian of a minor) recognise that any subsequent changes to the content of the Commitment Form are considered to be binding.

Published data

The WBF will publish certain information on its website as follows

The photograph of the participant
The WBF Code allocated to them at the time of registration
Their country of eligibility as determined at the time of registration or following a subsequent change approved by the relevant Credentials Committee.
The results from any WBF Championship are published on the website for the event and will contain the participant’s name and country of eligibility at the time of the event. Their Master Point record, also containing that data will also be published. Additionally this record will be displayed with their name in the People Finder section of the website. These results are considered to be part of the WBF records for the event and once the event is over cannot be removed..

Data held but not published

The following data are not published or held in a public area:

The date of birth and email addresses for these participants are held separately and not published on the website or in any public area. The exception to this is that, if it is known that a player/official is deceased, their year of birth and year of death will be displayed with their playing record.

The WBF Commitment forms signed by the participants are held securely by the individual organisations and not published but may be used by a committee from the relevant organisation to assist in any investigation undertaken about the individual concerned.

Reasons for the additional data:

The reason for requiring the date of birth and gender of the participant is to enable the WBF to determine their eligibility to participate in age-restricted events (normally junior or senior events) and gender-restricted events (for example Women’s or Mixed Tournaments). This data is never published.

The participant’s email address is required in order to be able to contact individuals before or during Championships that they have entered to assist the smooth running of the event. In addition it may be used for the WBF to contact the individual with regard to other WBF matters.

This additional data held by the WBF is never given / sent / sold to any other organisation but may be shared with other WBF Zonal Authorities or National Bridge Organisations for administrative purposes.