Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Forza Karate Club ("we", "us", "our") operates from Rayleigh, Essex and Upminster, East London. We are responsible for your personal data as a data controller under UK GDPR.

2. Data we collect

We may collect the following personal data:

• Name and contact information (email address, phone number)
• Children's names and ages when registering for junior classes
• Payment information (processed securely via GoCardless or Stripe — we do not store card details)
• Training records including belt grades and grading results
• Health or medical information where relevant to safe participation
• Photographs taken at club events (with explicit consent)

3. How we use your data

We use your data to:

• Manage your membership and class bookings
• Process membership payments via Direct Debit
• Communicate about classes, gradings, and club events
• Maintain safety records (DBS, first aid, safeguarding)
• Comply with legal obligations

4. Legal basis

We process your data on the basis of contract (to deliver your membership), legitimate interests (club administration and safety), and where required, consent (photography, marketing).

5. Data sharing

We may share your data with:

• FKA (Frontier Karate Association) for affiliation and competition purposes
• Payment processors (GoCardless, Stripe) for billing
• Service providers who help us operate the club (e.g., database hosting)

We do not sell your data to third parties.

6. Data retention

We retain membership data for as long as your membership is active and for a reasonable period thereafter to comply with legal obligations. Payment records are kept for 7 years for tax purposes.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access your personal data
• Correct inaccurate data
• Request deletion ("right to be forgotten")
• Object to processing
• Data portability
• Withdraw consent at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us via the contact page.

8. Cookies

Our website may use essential cookies to function correctly. We do not use tracking or advertising cookies without your consent.

9. Dojo Dash game leaderboard

Dojo Dash is our free karate game. When you finish a run, your score can go on a shared leaderboard so you can see how you compare with other players. Here is exactly what that involves.

What we store

• The nickname you choose (up to 12 characters)
• Your score, your time, the belt you reached and the game mode (for example the daily challenge)
• The date the score was saved
• A scrambled code that lets the device that saved the score remove it again (see "Removing a score" below)

That is all. We do not ask for or store your real name, email address, age, school, location, photo, device or browser details. We do not use the leaderboard for advertising or to build a profile of you.

Please don't use your real name

The leaderboard is public, so anyone playing the game can see the nicknames on it. Please pick a made-up nickname, not your real name. Children should never use their real name. Nicknames are checked automatically, and ones that contain rude words, website addresses or long numbers are not accepted.

Why we store it

Only to show the shared leaderboard in the game. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: running a fun, safe game for our club and visitors. We keep what we collect to the minimum needed for that, and we have considered the ICO's Children's Code (Age Appropriate Design Code) in how it works.

Where it is stored

Leaderboard entries are stored by our service provider Upstash (through our website host, Vercel) on servers in London, UK. To stop people flooding the leaderboard, we limit how often scores can be saved. To do this we briefly keep a scrambled, one-way code made from your internet connection. It is deleted after 60 seconds, and we never store or log your actual internet address.

How long we keep it

Daily challenge scores are deleted after 14 days. Other scores are deleted after 12 months, and we may reset the leaderboards sooner, for example at the start of a new season. Each leaderboard only keeps its top 50 scores, so lower scores drop off sooner.

Saving on your own device

The game also saves your scores, badges and progress in your browser on your own device, together with a private removal code for each score you put on the shared leaderboard. This stays on your device, we cannot see it, and you can remove it by clearing your browser's site data.

Removing a score

You can have a leaderboard score removed in two ways:

• Straight away, in the game: on the device that saved the score, tap 🗑 My scores and then Remove my score. It is deleted at once. This works because the game keeps a private removal code on that device. We only keep a scrambled version of the code, so nobody else can use it.
• Using our form: if you saved the score on another device or have cleared your browser, use the request removal form. It only asks for the nickname, the game mode and roughly when the score was saved, plus an optional tick if you are a parent or carer asking for a child. It does not ask for your name or contact details.

We process form requests within 2 working days, and always within one month. We remove every matching score and keep a short record of what we removed and when (the nickname, game mode, score and date), which is deleted after 12 months.

You can still email sensei.everitt@forzakarate.co.uk if you prefer, or if the form is not working. A parent or carer can ask on a child's behalf.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available on this page.