Spirit of site

The platforms provided by Sportsground Ltd at Sporty.co.nz, Schoolground.co.nz and SportyNews.co.nz are designed for community participation and we appeal to users not to abuse the spirit of these sites. Use of the platforms and the services we provide are subject to our Terms of Use. If you believe someone is abusing the service, please report this to us and we will investigate and take appropriate action as soon as possible.

We are committed to safeguarding your privacy online. The following statement sets our policy in relation to privacy. This policy may change from time to time so please reread this policy periodically.

Data Security

The Sporty platform for New Zealand schools and sports organisations is fully hosted with Microsoft Azure. Microsoft Azure is a trusted cloud-based platform that provides the benefits of cloud computing. Questions such as how secure is cloud data, where is data stored, how is it used, and who can access it are common. These types of questions usually relate to one of three areas – compliance, security and privacy. Please refer to this support article for information about how the Sporty platform uses Microsoft Azure to help address compliance, security and privacy requirements.

Use of your information

Sportsground may collect private information you volunteer when you use the Services ("Private Information"). For the avoidance of doubt, Private Information does not refer to Content as defined in our Terms of Use. It refers to your private information that you elect to not display publicly as Content on your Website. We may record your Private Information in our database to allow us to fulfil your requests and to allow schools, sports clubs and associations to provide their services to you. Any Private Information you provide will only be used by Sportsground or the school, sports club or association it relates to and will not be made publicly available, nor sold to third parties.

Sportsground may disclose your Private Information in special cases where we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating our terms and conditions of use or may be causing injury or interference with our rights, property, our customers or anyone who could be harmed by such activities. We may also disclose this information when we believe, in good faith, that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes necessary to maintain services and improve our products and services.

Our sites have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Please note, however, that no data transmission over the Internet can be considered completely secure. As a result, while we attempt to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you provide to us and you transmit such information at your own risk.

E-mail

You may receive email from your school, sports club or association that is sent by them using our services. We may send you e-mail directly if you provide your e-mail address to us directly when enquiring about the services provided by Sportsground. Your provision of your email address is deemed to be 'opting in' as defined under anti-spam legislation and we are entitled to send you e-mails, including information about our company and promotional material from some of our affiliated partners. Our policy is to immediately cease e-mailing you upon your request. Any newsletters and announcements we e-mail you will contain clear and obvious instructions for how you can remove yourself from that e-mailing list.

Sportsground uses e-mail as a means of receiving feedback, and we encourage you to e-mail us with your questions or comments.

Sportsground may provide facilities to refer a friend to Sportsground or to e-mail a page or other information to a friend. You may not use these facilities to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate our privacy policy or our Terms and Conditions.

TXT

We may send you TXT messages to your mobile phone if you provide your mobile phone number. If you elect to receive TXT messages from Sportsground or its Services, you are 'opting in' as defined under anti-spam legislation related to mobile phones and we are entitled to send you TXT messages, including sports cancellation notices, announcements for your sport/team/club/fixture, and information about our company and promotional material from some of our affiliated partners. Our policy is to immediately cease sending you TXT messages upon your request. Each TXT will include a number you can reply to if you wish to cease receiving TXT messages from Sportsground.

Control of Your Password

We also provide you with ways in which you can alter your personal data online through our site, including changing your e-mail address, password, etc.

You are responsible for all actions taken with your user name, e-mail address and password. Therefore we recommend that you do not disclose your Sportsground password to any third parties. If you choose to share your user name, e-mail address and password or your information with third parties, you are responsible for all actions taken with this information and therefore you should review that third party's privacy policy.

Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored in a browser-related file on your computer when you use our web site. We use cookies to improve the experience of people who use our site. We may also use them to deliver information and fresh content specific to your interests. Cookies are widely used on most major web sites.

Sportsground mostly uses "session" cookies, which are removed from your computer once you leave the Sportsground site or sub-sites. These are used so our service can remember that you have logged in already and prevent you doing so more frequently. Session cookies expire and are deleted after periods of no activity on Sportsground.

Sportsground also uses persistent cookies to personalise the user experience, to help protect our members and to provide us with research information (such as how often members visit Sportsground each month). Persistent cookies allow us to track users on Sportsground and helps us identify users abusing the Sportsground service.

Other information we collect

We use additional information to do internal research on our users' demographics, interests, and behaviour to better understand and serve you and our community. This information may include the URL that you just came from (whether this URL is on our site or not), which URL you next go to (whether this URL is on our site or not), what browser you are using, and your IP address.

Users who login may have their IP addresses recorded. This information can be used to track users who abuse the Sportsground system and will only be provided to legal authorities in cases of suspected fraud. IP addresses can be used, in conjunction with an Internet Service Provider, to find the internet account of a user and, ultimately, further information to identify a user. This information is stored securely and will not be provided to other members or non-authorised parties.

If you choose to post messages in our message areas or leave feedback for other users, we may store such information on our servers. If you send us personal correspondence, such as e-mails or letters, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on the Sportsground site and sub-sites, we may collect such information in a file specific to you.

Advertising and Third Party Links

Sportsground may at its discretion display advertising on the Sportsground site and its sub-sites. These advertisers may request information directly from you, or link to sites that request such information. Sportsground has no control over its advertisers' privacy policies, or the privacy policies of any other sites we link to, and so we encourage you to review such third party privacy policies prior to submitting your personal information to them.

Link to advertisers or other third party sites from Sportsground should not be considered an endorsement of these sites except where specifically stated by Sportsground.

Usage Statistics Tracking

Sportsground collects information such as the number of visitors per day and the number of pages requested per day. To do this, Sportsground has a small piece of code on each page which counts these statistics. These traffic statistics enable us to attract advertisers so we can continue to provide a number of free services to users.

If you have any questions about our privacy policies or any other matter, please contact us.