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Privacy Policy
DRAFT - pending attorney review. This page is a working draft and is not yet final legal terms.
Last updated: October 20, 2026
This notice explains what Black & Gold Dispatch ("we", "us") collects, why, how long we keep it, and your choices. Operator: Black & Gold Dispatch, 1026 Sophia Lane, Mars, PA 16046. Contact: [email protected], call or text (412) 748-1640, or the Contact form.
What we collect
- Fan accounts (forum, Grade the Team, Pick 'Em and Trivia). If you make an account: your username, email, a one-way scrambled (hashed) version of your password (we never see or store the password itself), display name, favorite-player flair, short bio, chosen preset avatar, post count, and what you do on the forum: posts, threads, reactions, reports you make, player grades, Pick 'Em picks and trivia results. At sign-up we ask your date of birth only to check you're 13 or older; we don't store it.
- Profile pictures. Picture uploads are turned off. You can pick only one of our preset avatars or use your initials.
- What others see: your display name, flair, avatar, bio, join date, post count and what you post. Your email is never shown. Player grades are shown only as averages.
- Contact & Suggestions form. Your message and topic, plus your name and email only if you give them, and a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address to stop spam. We use it only to read and answer your message.
- Sign-in cookie. When you sign in we set one essential cookie,
bgd_s, so you stay signed in on that device. See the Cookie notice. - Abuse protection. To stop spam and abuse we count requests over short time windows using a scrambled form of your IP address, and we record a scrambled IP with each forum post.
- Cloudflare logs. The site is hosted on Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes request data (IP address, browser type, page requested, time) to deliver and protect the site, and may receive browser network-error reports (NEL). Cloudflare handles this under its own privacy policy. We don't keep our own copy of these request logs.
- Data saved only in your browser (localStorage): Pick 'Em picks and trivia answers when you're signed out, player-grade votes in progress, mock drafts, the podcast and YouTube shows you follow, and your cookie and privacy choices. This stays on your device; we don't receive it.
- The Daily Huddle newsletter. If you sign up, your email address (and first name, if you give it) is sent to Kit (formerly ConvertKit), the service that stores our email list and sends the newsletter. Sign-up is double opt-in: nothing is sent until you click the confirmation link in Kit's email, and every email has an unsubscribe link. Kit handles this data under its own privacy policy and may record when emails are opened or links are clicked. We use a scrambled form of your IP address for a short time to stop sign-up spam; we don't keep your email on our own servers.
How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account profile (username, email, password hash, display name, flair, bio, avatar) | Until you delete your account |
| Posts and threads | Until you or a moderator delete them. If you delete your account they show as "Deleted user", or are removed if you choose that. |
| Reactions, grades, Pick 'Em picks, trivia scores | Until you delete your account |
Sign-in sessions (bgd_s cookie) | 90 days after you sign in, or until you sign out |
| Contact form messages (with scrambled IP) | About 13 months, then deleted automatically (sooner if we delete them after answering) |
| Scrambled IP recorded with forum posts | 90 days |
| Newsletter subscription (email, optional first name, held by Kit) | Until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it |
| Spam and abuse counters (scrambled IP) | Minutes to hours |
| Ban and rule-break records | As long as the account exists (a deleted account keeps an empty record so a ban still applies) |
| Material reported as illegal (for example child sexual abuse material) and the related account details | 1 year, as federal law requires (18 U.S.C. 2258A), or longer if law enforcement asks |
| Database backups | Deleted data can remain in Cloudflare's automatic backups for up to 30 days |
Deleting or downloading your data
- Delete my account: on your forum profile, open "Delete my account" and confirm with your password. We remove your profile, email, avatar, sign-ins, reactions, grades, picks and trivia scores right away. Your posts stay but show "Deleted user", or you can tick the box to remove them too. We keep only what the law requires (see the table above).
- Download my data: on your forum profile, tap "Download my data" to get a JSON file of your account information and activity.
- Sign out everywhere: on your forum profile. This ends your sign-ins on every device.
- Can't sign in? Use the Contact form or email us from the address on the account. We'll confirm it's you before acting. Moderators can't help with accounts in the forum.
- Contact form messages: ask us and we'll delete yours.
How we use data
To run and secure the site, remember your choices, send emails you asked for, run accounts and the forum, and (if launched) show ads. We do not sell personal information today. The site is free; we do not process membership payments.
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
We do not currently sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. If that changes (for example when ads launch), you can opt out here at any time, and we treat a Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal as a valid opt-out request.
Checking your browser's Global Privacy Control signal…
Children
Black & Gold Dispatch is for people 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn we have, we delete it. Parents can contact us at [email protected].
Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, the EU or UK), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your data and to opt out of sale, sharing or targeted ads. Contact [email protected]. We will not discriminate against you for using these rights. Signed-in users can delete or download their data themselves from their profile. For other requests we confirm it's you (for example, a message from the email on the account) and answer within 45 days.
Sharing
Our hosting provider (Cloudflare), our newsletter service (Kit, only if you sign up for the newsletter), and when required by law. We report apparent child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement as the law requires. If we add ads, analytics or email, we will update this notice first.
Security and retention
We use reasonable safeguards: passwords are stored only as salted one-way hashes, sign-in cookies are secure and http-only, the site runs over HTTPS, and only the owner and moderators can use moderation tools. We keep data only as long as listed above.
Changes
We will post changes here and update the date above.