Athletes Ranked

1. Introduction

Athletes Ranked (“we,” “our,” or “us”) operates the athletesranked.com website. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use our services. We are committed to protecting your privacy in compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable Canadian privacy legislation.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of information:

Account Information: Your email address, if you choose to sign in. There is no password — sign-in is by emailed link — so we hold no credentials.
Voting Data: Every vote is recorded with the two athletes, which panel you clicked, and the time. Votes are attributed to your account only if you are signed in.
Anti-abuse Data: Your IP address, a signed anonymous session identifier, and a coarse fingerprint derived from your browser’s user agent, language and platform. These exist to stop ballot-stuffing — rate limits and pattern detection are counted against them — and for nothing else.
Usage Data: Only if you accept analytics cookies. Nothing is sent to an analytics provider before you do.
Cookies: As described in Section 6.

3. How We Use Your Information

To provide and maintain our services
To personalize your experience
To communicate with you about your account or our services
To analyze usage patterns and improve our platform
To ensure security and prevent fraud
To comply with legal obligations

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We may share data with:

Service Providers: The services that run the site — hosting, the database, and (only with your consent) analytics. There is no payment processor, because nothing here is for sale.
Legal Requirements: When required by law, court order, or government regulation.
Business Transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

5. Data Security

Traffic is encrypted in transit, the database is encrypted at rest and reachable only with credentials held by the operator, and sign-in never involves a password we could lose. No method of transmission over the Internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Cookies

We use essential cookies for site functionality and optional analytics cookies to understand how our platform is used. You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings or our cookie consent banner. Essential cookies cannot be disabled as they are necessary for the site to function.

7. Your Rights

Under Canadian privacy law, you have the right to:

Access your personal information
Request correction of inaccurate data
Withdraw consent for data processing
Request deletion of your data
Receive your data in a portable format

8. Data Retention

There is no self-serve account-closure button yet. To close an account or have your data removed, email us through the contact page and we will do it within 30 days.

One thing to be clear about, because it is unusual: votes themselves are not deleted. Every published rating on this site is derived by replaying the whole vote log, so removing rows from it would make those numbers unreproducible. What we delete on request is the link between you and your votes — your account, your email and the attribution — after which the votes remain in the log as anonymous ones, exactly like the votes of everyone who never signed in. Anti-abuse data (IP, fingerprint) ages out on its own; anonymised analytics may be retained indefinitely.

9. Children's Privacy

Our services are not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us immediately.

10. Contact Us

For privacy inquiries, write to hello@athletesranked.com