Privacy policy

Who we are

This site is AFA APAC, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) in Asia-Pacific, for fans and partners across the region. It is operated by Sports Cloud Australia. In this policy "we" means the operator.

We follow the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Information Privacy Principles in New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020. Questions and requests: privacy@afa-apac.com or the contact form.

What we collect, and why

We collect only what each feature needs. You can browse the whole site without giving us anything.

• Newsletter. Your email address, and your city if you give it. We use it to send the newsletter, after you confirm by email. We also note which page of the site you signed up on (its address only, such as the page of a match), so we can count which pages bring readers to the newsletter. Before we send anything, we check the address can receive email: we ask Cloudflare's address book of the internet (DNS) about the part after the @, never the whole address. The newsletter is the only email we send to people who have not written to us.
• Fan wall. A first name or nickname, a city, your story, the year it started if you give it, and a photo if you add one. We do not ask for your email. Your browser makes the photo smaller before it is sent, which removes its location and camera data. Our team reads every story; once approved it is public on the wall, and your name also appears on the fan map at the centre of the city you chose (unless you chose "somewhere else"). If you send your story on Instagram or by email instead, we publish it only with your permission, and keep when you gave it and who in our team added it. Ask us at any time and we take a post down.
• Fan map. A suburb or town, and if you choose, a nickname, where in Argentina you are from and your local team. We never ask for an address. The position we keep is the centre of your suburb rounded to about one kilometre. Your team is only ever counted ("fans from 24 clubs"); it is not shown with your pin.
• Suggesting a place for the fan map. The place's name, what it is and where, and a link, a note and your email if you give them. We use them to check the place and to reply to you. Nothing you send is published as it is.
• Quizzes. Your answers and results are stored without your name.
• Partnership enquiries and contact messages. Your name, company, role, email, phone if given, and what you write, so we can reply.

If you do not give us the details a form marks as required, we cannot provide that feature (for example, we cannot send a newsletter without an email address).

What we collect automatically

• No advertising or tracking cookies. We do not use them, so there is no cookie banner.
• Visit statistics. We do not run visitor analytics at present. If we switch it on it will be Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies and without identifying you, and this page will say so.
• Security checks. Forms are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which decides whether a visitor is a person. To limit abuse we keep a one-way, salted fingerprint of the internet address a form was sent from. We do not store the address itself.
• On your own device. Your browser remembers your chosen city for kick-off times, whether you asked to hide scores, your progress in a quiz, and, once you add yourself to the fan map, the suburb and city of your pin (so the map can offer you your share card). These stay on your device. "Near me" on the fan map asks your browser where you are only when you press it; the answer is used in your browser to move the map and is never sent to us or kept.
• Instagram. The home page shows the latest posts of our Instagram account. The pictures are copies kept on this site, so showing them tells Instagram nothing about you. Instagram only hears from you if you open a post or our account, which takes you to Instagram itself.
• The fan map. The map's background comes from OpenFreeMap, a map service. Your browser fetches the map tiles from it directly, so it sees your internet address and which part of the map you look at, as any website you visit would. When you search for a suburb, the search goes through our own server to Photon, a place-search service run by Komoot; it receives the words you typed and nothing about you. "Get directions" is an ordinary link to a maps site, which you only reach if you follow it.

Who sees it

Fan wall posts and approved map pins are public. Everything else is seen only by the small team that runs the site.

We use these service providers, who process data for us and under our instructions:

• Cloudflare (hosting, database, file storage, security checks, and visit statistics if switched on);
• Resend (sending email), when email is switched on;
• Google (a copy of the newsletter list in Google Sheets, kept by our team), when it is switched on.

These providers store and process data on servers outside Australia and New Zealand, including in the United States. By using the forms on this site you understand that your details will be handled there. We do not sell personal information and do not share it with sponsors or partners.

How long we keep it

• Fan wall stories and map pins we decline: deleted 30 days after the decision.
• The same items still waiting for review after 90 days: deleted.
• Partnership enquiries, contact messages, places suggested for the fan map, requests for the partnership deck and unconfirmed newsletter sign-ups: deleted 24 months after the last update.
• An address given for the newsletter that we cannot send to (a typing mistake, a throwaway inbox, a domain that takes no email): deleted after 30 days.
• Newsletter subscriptions, with the record of when and where you signed up: until you unsubscribe. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link; using it deletes your address straight away, and from our copy of the list in Google Sheets within a day at the latest.
• The scrambled fingerprint of the internet address a form was sent from: removed after 30 days.
• Fan wall posts, with their photos, and approved map pins: until you ask us to remove them or the feature closes.

Your choices and rights

• See or correct what we hold about you.
• Delete it. Ask us and we will remove your details, your post or your pin.
• Unsubscribe from any email with one click.

Write to privacy@afa-apac.com or use the contact form and choose "Privacy request". We answer within 20 working days, and usually much sooner. We may need to confirm it is you before acting.

If you are not satisfied with our answer you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au) or, in New Zealand, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (privacy.org.nz).

Children

If you are under 16, please ask a parent or guardian before sending us anything for the fan wall, adding yourself to the map or giving us your email. If we learn that a child's details were sent without permission, we delete them.

Keeping it safe

Data is encrypted in transit, access to the admin tools requires an approved account, and every action taken there is logged, including who added or removed a fan wall post. Only a member of our team can put a photo on the wall. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach is likely to cause serious harm we will tell the people affected and the regulator.

Changes

We will post any change to this policy here and update the date at the top. If a change is significant we will say so on the home page or by email to subscribers.