Privacy Policy – Puddletown Chess

Last Updated: 2026-April-24

Puddletown Chess respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect information when you visit our website, register for classes or tournaments, use our homework app, communicate with us, apply for scholarships, make payments, participate in events, or otherwise interact with Puddletown Chess.

Our website is: https://www.puddletownchess.org.

Puddletown Chess is an Oregon-based nonprofit chess organization. Our mission is to promote chess education, scholastic chess opportunities, leadership, inclusion, and community in Oregon and beyond.

By using our website or services, you agree to this Privacy Policy.

1. Who This Policy Applies To

This Privacy Policy applies to:

Parents and guardians
Students and minors
Coaches
Volunteers
Tournament participants
Website visitors
Homework app users
Scholarship applicants
Donors and supporters
People who communicate with us by email, forms, messaging, or social media
People who attend our classes, tournaments, camps, meetings, or events

Because many of our students are minors, parents and guardians should review this Privacy Policy carefully.

2. Parent and Guardian Involvement

Most students who participate in Puddletown Chess programs are minors. Registrations, payments, account creation, scholarship requests, and program participation are typically handled by parents or guardians.

If a child uses our website, homework app, classes, tournaments, messaging tools, or other services, the parent or guardian is responsible for supervising that use.

If your child is under 13, you must authorize their use of our online services, including the homework app, account features, comments, messages, forms, class tools, and any other features that collect personal information.

Parents and guardians may contact us at puddletownchess@gmail.com to review, correct, or request deletion of their child’s personal information, subject to identity verification, safety needs, administrative records, legal requirements, accounting requirements, and program-related needs.

3. Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of information.

A. Registration and Contact Information

When you register for a class, tournament, training program, office hours, camp, event, scholarship, or other service, we may collect:

Parent or guardian name
Student name
Email address
Phone number
Mailing address or city/state
Student age, grade, school, or graduation year
Chess rating or chess experience
Class level or training group
Emergency contact information
Registration preferences
Attendance information
Notes or questions submitted through forms

B. Account and Homework App Information

If students, parents, coaches, or volunteers create accounts or use our homework app, we may collect:

Username
Login credentials
Account profile information
Homework assignments
Homework answers and submissions
Puzzle responses
Chess games or notation
Coach feedback
Student progress information
Comments
Messages
Chat or communication history, if chat is added in the future
Timestamps and activity logs
Technical logs related to app use

We may review account activity, homework submissions, comments, messages, and related information for educational, safety, moderation, technical, and administrative purposes.

C. Scholarship and Accessibility Information

If you apply for scholarships, financial assistance, accessibility support, or accommodations, we may collect information such as:

Financial need
Self-reported disability, ADHD, autism, neurodivergence, learning differences, or related needs
Parent-provided information
Student-provided information
Information provided by partner organizations
Checkbox responses
Free-form written responses
Program fit or availability information
Accommodation requests
Relevant communication history

We treat scholarship and accessibility information with extra care. We use it to evaluate scholarship requests, support students, administer programs, coordinate with families, and meet our mission.

Puddletown Chess does not provide medical, psychological, clinical, educational diagnosis, or therapy services. Any disability, ADHD, autism, neurodivergence, or learning-related information is used only for program, scholarship, accessibility, and support purposes.

D. Payment and Donation Information

We may collect payment-related information when you register, donate, sponsor, or pay for a program.

Payments may be processed through third-party services such as Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or similar providers. We generally do not store full credit card numbers or complete payment credentials.

We may collect or receive:

Payment status
Amount paid
Date of payment
Program or event purchased
Donor name
Donation amount
Transaction confirmation
Refund or credit history
Payment-related communications

Third-party payment processors may collect additional information under their own privacy policies and terms.

E. Event, Tournament, and Participation Information

For classes, tournaments, camps, and events, we may collect:

Attendance records
Tournament section
Pairings
Game results
Ratings or performance information
Awards or standings
Volunteer assignments
Coach assignments
Incident reports
Behavior or conduct reports
Safety concerns
Venue-related notes
Parent or student communications

Tournament results, awards, ratings, standings, and photos may be shared publicly or semi-publicly as part of normal chess tournament operations, community updates, newsletters, websites, social media, or rating submission processes.

F. Photos, Videos, and Media

We may take photos, videos, livestreams, or recordings at classes, tournaments, award ceremonies, camps, volunteer activities, and community events.

These may include:

Student images
Parent or volunteer images
Group photos
Award photos
Tournament hall photos
Video clips
Class or event recordings
Testimonials
Names, first names, team names, or achievement highlights

We may use these materials for:

Website updates
Social media
Newsletters
Marketing
Flyers
Community announcements
Fundraising
Grant applications
Volunteer recognition
Student achievement recognition
Press or media outreach

Our general photo/video approach is opt-out. If you do not want yourself or your child to appear in identifiable photos, videos, or marketing materials, please notify us in writing at puddletownchess@gmail.com. We will make reasonable efforts to honor opt-out requests going forward.

Because events may include group settings, public tournament halls, third-party venues, social media posts by other families, or content already published, we cannot guarantee complete removal from every image, video, or repost.

G. Website, Cookies, and Technical Information

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect:

IP address
Browser type
Device information
Operating system
Pages visited
Referring pages
Date and time of visit
Approximate location based on IP address
Cookie identifiers
Login/session information
Security logs
Spam-detection information

We may use cookies and similar technologies to support website functionality, login sessions, comment features, analytics, security, spam detection, and user convenience.

4. Comments

If visitors leave comments on our website, we collect the data shown in the comment form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection and security.

An anonymized string created from your email address, also called a hash, may be provided to the Gravatar service to see whether you use it. The Gravatar privacy policy is available on Automattic’s website.

After approval of a comment, your profile picture may be visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Parents should supervise any comments submitted by minors. We may moderate, delete, or refuse comments at our discretion.

5. Media Uploads

If you upload images to our website, homework app, forms, or other tools, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data, such as EXIF GPS data.

Visitors or other users may be able to download and extract location data from images if those images are publicly posted. We recommend removing location metadata before uploading images.

Students and parents should not upload images of other children or families without permission.

6. Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for convenience so you do not have to fill in your details again when leaving another comment. These cookies may last for one year.

If you visit our login page, we may set a temporary cookie to determine whether your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is usually discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we may set cookies to save login information and screen display choices. Login cookies may last for two days, and screen options cookies may last for a year. If you select “Remember Me,” your login may persist for two weeks. If you log out, login cookies should be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie may be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and indicates the post ID of the article you edited. It may expire after one day.

We may also use cookies or similar tools for security, spam detection, analytics, account functionality, homework app functionality, and site performance.

7. How We Use Information

We may use information to:

Operate our website
Register students for classes, tournaments, and events
Create and manage user accounts
Provide homework assignments and feedback
Communicate with parents, students, coaches, and volunteers
Run tournaments and submit rating-related information when applicable
Provide coaching, office hours, and educational support
Evaluate scholarship and financial assistance requests
Support accessibility and accommodation requests
Process payments, refunds, credits, donations, and receipts
Coordinate volunteers and coaches
Send newsletters, announcements, reminders, and program updates
Recognize student, coach, and volunteer achievements
Publish event photos, results, or community highlights
Improve our curriculum, programs, website, and homework app
Detect spam, fraud, abuse, cheating, security issues, or misuse
Enforce our Terms of Service, tournament rules, and community standards
Protect students, families, coaches, volunteers, venues, and our organization
Comply with legal, tax, accounting, insurance, safety, and regulatory obligations

8. How We Share Information

We do not sell personal information.

We may share information with:

Coaches, volunteers, leaders, and staff who need it to run programs
Parents or guardians of participating students
Payment processors such as Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle
Website, hosting, homework app, email, analytics, security, and spam-detection providers
Tournament directors, chess organizations, rating organizations, or event platforms when needed
Venues, when needed for safety, logistics, or incident management
Partner organizations involved in scholarships, referrals, or program support
Professional advisors, such as attorneys, accountants, insurers, or auditors
Government authorities, law enforcement, or courts when required or appropriate
Other people when you ask us to share information or give permission

We may share de-identified, aggregated, or anonymized information for reporting, fundraising, grant applications, impact summaries, or program improvement.

9. Embedded Content and Third-Party Services

Our website, homework app, forms, emails, or program materials may include embedded content or links from other websites, such as videos, images, articles, registration tools, payment processors, chess platforms, Google tools, Zoom, social media, or other services.

Embedded content from other websites behaves as if you visited that website directly. Those websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with their content, including if you have an account and are logged into that website.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or services. Please review their privacy policies.

10. How Long We Retain Information

We keep information for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

For example:

Comments and comment metadata may be retained indefinitely so we can recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

Account information may be retained while the account is active and for a reasonable period afterward.

Homework submissions, coach feedback, and student progress records may be retained for educational, program, quality, and administrative purposes.

Registration, payment, donation, refund, scholarship, and accounting records may be retained as needed for tax, accounting, legal, insurance, and audit purposes.

Tournament results, standings, ratings, and award records may be retained as part of normal tournament history and chess community records.

Photos, videos, newsletters, social media posts, and marketing materials may remain published unless we agree to remove them or are legally required to remove them.

Safety, conduct, incident, or dispute records may be retained as needed to protect students, families, volunteers, venues, and our organization.

We try not to keep personal information longer than reasonably necessary.

11. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information.

However, no website, app, email system, payment platform, or internet transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

You can help protect information by:

Using strong passwords
Keeping login credentials private
Logging out of shared devices
Supervising children’s account usage
Avoiding unnecessary personal information in homework, comments, or messages
Contacting us quickly if you suspect unauthorized access

12. Children’s Privacy

We take children’s privacy seriously.

Our programs are designed for youth and scholastic chess participants, and many users are minors. We expect parent or guardian involvement in registration, account creation, payment, scholarship applications, and participation.

For children under 13, we seek to operate with parent or guardian authorization and involvement. Parents may contact us to review, correct, or request deletion of their child’s personal information.

We do not knowingly allow children under 13 to create independent accounts or provide personal information without parent or guardian involvement. If we learn that a child under 13 provided personal information without appropriate parent or guardian involvement, we may delete the information, restrict the account, request parent confirmation, or take other appropriate steps.

We do not use children’s personal information for behavioral advertising or sell children’s personal information.

13. Messaging, Comments, and Student Communications

Our homework app and related services may include comments, messaging, coach feedback, or other communication tools. Chat features may be added in the future.

These tools are intended for program-related communication only.

We may access, review, moderate, store, delete, or restrict messages, comments, homework submissions, or related communications for:

Education
Feedback
Safety
Moderation
Technical support
Program administration
Misconduct investigation
Legal compliance
Enforcement of our Terms of Service

Students should not share sensitive personal information, passwords, private family information, medical details, or unrelated personal content through comments or messages.

Parents are responsible for supervising minor communications.

14. Scholarships, Neurodivergence, Disability, and Sensitive Information

Some scholarship and support programs may ask about ADHD, autism, neurodivergence, disability, learning differences, financial need, or related circumstances.

We collect this information only when relevant to scholarship review, accessibility support, program fit, accommodations, impact reporting, or mission-related services.

We may receive this information from:

Parents or guardians
Students
Forms
Free-form responses
Checkboxes
Partner organizations
Referral sources
Direct conversations

We limit access to scholarship and sensitive information to people who reasonably need it, such as program leaders, scholarship reviewers, relevant coaches, administrators, or partner organizations involved in the scholarship or support process.

We do not use this information to diagnose, provide medical advice, provide therapy, or make clinical decisions.

15. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live and which laws apply, you may have rights to:

Request access to personal information we hold about you
Request correction of inaccurate information
Request deletion of personal information
Request a copy of your information
Withdraw consent where applicable
Opt out of certain uses of information
Ask questions about how your information is used or shared

Parents and guardians may make requests for their minor children.

To make a privacy request, contact us at puddletownchess@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity or authority before responding.

Some requests may be limited by legal, safety, accounting, tax, insurance, tournament, dispute-resolution, or administrative requirements.

16. Oregon Privacy Rights

Puddletown Chess is based in Oregon. Oregon’s Consumer Privacy Act may provide Oregon residents with certain privacy rights, depending on whether and how the law applies to our organization and activities.

If applicable, Oregon residents may have rights related to access, correction, deletion, portability, and opt-out choices for certain data uses.

To submit a privacy request, contact us at puddletownchess@gmail.com.

If we deny a request and Oregon law gives you an appeal right, you may appeal by replying to our decision email or contacting us at puddletownchess@gmail.com. We will review appeals in good faith and respond as required by applicable law.

17. Email and Marketing Communications

We may send emails, texts, or messages about:

Class schedules
Tournament reminders
Homework updates
Office hours
Program changes
Registration confirmations
Payment or refund issues
Scholarships
Volunteer opportunities
Newsletters
Community updates
Fundraising or donation opportunities
Student, coach, or volunteer recognition

You may unsubscribe from marketing or newsletter emails by using the unsubscribe link, if available, or by contacting us.

We may still send transactional, administrative, safety, account, payment, class, tournament, or legal messages even if you opt out of marketing communications.

18. International and Out-of-State Users

Most Puddletown Chess students are in Oregon, but we may serve students, families, coaches, volunteers, or supporters outside Oregon and outside the United States.

If you use our services from outside the United States, you understand that your information may be collected, processed, and stored in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your location.

We may limit or adjust services in certain locations due to legal, privacy, payment, safety, or operational requirements.

19. Data Breach and Security Incidents

If we become aware of a data security incident involving personal information, we will take reasonable steps to investigate, contain, and respond to the incident.

When required by law, we will notify affected individuals, parents/guardians, regulators, or other parties.

20. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

When we update it, we will revise the “Last Updated” date above. If changes are significant, we may provide additional notice through our website, email, registration forms, or other reasonable methods.

Your continued use of our website or services after an updated Privacy Policy is posted means you accept the updated policy.

21. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, your information, your child’s information, photo/video opt-outs, scholarship privacy, account data, or privacy rights, contact us:

Puddletown Chess
Website: https://www.puddletownchess.org
Email: puddletownchess@gmail.com