Privacy and analytics

Updated 12 October 2026. Kickjolly stores account names, email addresses, password hashes and session records to provide sign-in. Verification and password-reset emails are delivered through Resend. Passwords are hashed; reset and verification links expire. Account information is separate from product analytics. Successful sign-ins, method and observed network peer address are retained privately for 30 days for account security. The observed address may belong to a proxy, not the visitor. Last account activity is recorded at five-minute precision.

Basic cookieless audience measurement

We use Plausible, hosted in the EU, to estimate daily visitors and public-page views without an analytics opt-in or a login. This is separate from the optional product analytics below. We do not set an analytics cookie or persistent visitor ID for this measurement. Public page paths and the referring site origin are sent directly from your browser; query strings, URL fragments, search text, form contents, account IDs and email addresses are excluded. Login, signup, account and admin pages are excluded, as are signed-in administrator visits.

Plausible processes the IP address and browser user-agent sent with a normal network request to derive a site-specific daily identifier using a rotating salt. It does not store the raw IP address or full user-agent in its analytics records. It uses this information for coarse location and device statistics and filters known bots. The identifier resets daily; counts estimate visitors, not verified people. Repeated visits on different days contribute again to longer-period totals. This measurement is not joined to your Kickjolly account or PostHog profile. See Plausible’s data policy.

You can stop basic measurement through “Analytics preferences” → “Basic audience measurement” → “Turn off basic measurement”. We also respect an existing analytics decline, Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. Only your preference is saved locally. Optional product analytics requires a separate affirmative choice. Browser blockers can prevent measurement.

Fan profiles and social sign-in

Display names, short bios and profile photos are public in fan conversations. You can edit your bio and remove your photo from your fan profile. Uploaded photos are resized and reencoded without their original metadata. Social sign-in stores the provider account identifier and basic identity information needed to create or connect your account. Provider access tokens are used for sign-in and are not retained. Linking a provider to an existing account requires you to sign in first.

Automated discussion hosts

Kickjolly operates clearly labelled automated hosts with illustrated avatars to open football discussions. These are not human fans and do not submit predictions, vote or contribute to fan rankings or registered-user totals.

Optional product analytics

Product analytics runs only after you select “Allow analytics”. It measures page visits, visible story reading, club follows, feed browsing, saves, watches, searches being used and completed signup/login actions. Search text, passwords, comment text, email addresses and form entries are not sent to analytics. We store only page paths, without query strings or fragments, and the referring site hostname.

An anonymous random browser identifier is stored in local storage for up to 90 days. A tab session identifier rotates after 30 minutes without an event. The server stores hashed identifiers and derives a coarse mobile/desktop category from the browser header; it does not store raw IP addresses or full browser headers in the analytics database. Event records are retained for 90 days and removed during subsequent collection. Analytics is hosted on Kickjolly’s DigitalOcean infrastructure and is visible only to the authorized, verified owner account.

Use “Analytics preferences” at the bottom of a page to decline or withdraw consent. Withdrawing stops future analytics and removes the browser’s analytics identifiers; previously recorded anonymous events expire under the retention period. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control disable analytics. No session recording or keystroke recording is enabled. With renewed consent, selected events are also processed by PostHog Cloud in the US. Signed-in activity uses an internal account identifier, never your email or name. PostHog data is subject to its free-plan retention of up to one year. Raw visitor IP addresses are not forwarded; location enrichment is disabled.

Feed preferences and recommendations

Followed clubs, saved stories and catch-up preferences are kept in your browser. Reading personalization is controlled separately by the home page’s “Reading personalization” setting. Its first-party records expire after 30 days; aggregate reader-interest signals expire after seven days. See our editorial standards for details. Disabling analytics does not change essential account functions or local club preferences.

External content and advertising

Photos, video and original-report links can connect your browser to the original providers, who receive normal network request information. AdSense ownership verification is installed, but Google ad delivery is not enabled yet. Advertising consent controls and the associated disclosures must be published before ad delivery begins.

Operational information

We count aggregate page requests served by our origin for site operations, regardless of optional analytics consent. Only daily totals and a known-bot subtotal are saved for up to 400 days; no IP, account ID, cookie, individual browsing history or page path is attached. Counts include repeat requests and omit pages served entirely by caches. These counters are not sent to PostHog.

Our hosting services process network requests and operational logs to deliver the site and investigate faults or abuse. These are separate from the optional analytics reports. Account and comment records are not automatically deleted by disabling analytics. For a privacy or account request, use the site’s comment form and mark it “Privacy request”; do not include passwords, payment details or identity documents.