Privacy Policy
Last revised: September 2026
This page explains what SportingSpy collects when you read the site, why, and the choices you have. It describes how the site is built and configured today.
What we collect
- Reading the site: you can read articles, browse and search without an account. We do not ask for personal details to read.
- Technical requests: like any website, our server receives your IP address and browser information with each request. We use the IP address briefly, in memory, to limit abusive traffic (for example repeated sign-in or search attempts); it is not stored in our database.
- Accounts: staff accounts (and reader accounts, when that feature is on) store a name, e-mail address, role and a securely hashed password. Passwords are never stored in readable form.
- Searches: your search text is used to find results. To learn what readers look for, we keep a daily count per search: the search text, lower-cased and cut to 50 characters (anything that looks like an e-mail address or phone number is replaced), with the number of searches and of searches that found nothing. Nothing about who searched is stored with it. If analytics is active and you allowed it, the same cleaned text may also be reported (see Analytics).
- Contact form: if you send us a message, we store the name, e-mail address, subject and message you enter, and when it was sent, so the editorial team can read and answer it. We do not store your IP address or browser details with it, and the site does not send automatic e-mails.
Site measurement
Our own server counts page views per page and per day, and records how fast pages load and respond (Core Web Vitals) per page type and device class (mobile or desktop). Only these daily totals are stored: no cookies, no IP address, no identifier and no browsing history, so no visit can be traced back to a person. Known search-engine crawlers are not counted. These counts are kept for 25 months.
Analytics
No analytics service is active on SportingSpy at the moment, so nothing about your visit is sent to an analytics provider. If we turn one on, this page will name it and it will run only with your permission.
Advertising and sponsorship
Some pages may show sponsorship placements, labelled Sponsored. They are simple banners served by us, without third-party code, and do not change our articles, search results or rankings.
No third-party advertising network is active at the moment.
Cookies and storage
These are the cookies and browser storage the site itself uses. Necessary and preference items are needed for the site to work and are not used to track you.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Kept for | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sid | Cookie (HttpOnly) | Keeps a signed-in staff or reader account signed in. | 7 days, or until sign-out | Necessary |
| csrf_token | Cookie | Protects forms and account actions against cross-site request forgery. | Browser session | Necessary |
| sportingspy_consent | Cookie | Remembers your privacy choices (no identifier). | 180 days | Necessary |
| sportingspy_theme | Local storage | Remembers light or dark mode when you choose one (not set when following your system setting). | Until you clear site data | Preference |
| sportingspy_account_language | Local storage | Remembers the account-area language, when reader accounts are enabled. | Until you clear site data | Preference |
| sportingspy_logout | Local storage | Signs out other open tabs when you sign out. | Until you clear site data | Necessary |
Staff using the editorial CMS also have a local-storage setting that remembers whether the CMS navigation is collapsed.
Your choices
Optional analytics and advertising are off until you allow them, and you can read the whole site either way. You can change your choice at any time:
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the site will still work, but you may be signed out and asked for your privacy choices again.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: contact@sportingspy.com.