Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 16, 2025 Last Updated: May 10, 2026 Applies to: https://pickleball-wiki.com

Pickleball Wiki (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit https://pickleball-wiki.com, subscribe to our newsletter, or otherwise interact with our content.

By using our website, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. If you disagree with any part, please discontinue use of our website.

Pickleball Wiki (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you visit our website: https://pickleball-wiki.com.

1. Who We Are

Website: https://pickleball-wiki.com Site Name: Pickleball Wiki Author / Publisher: Christoph Friedrich Contact: https://pickleball-wiki.com/contact/

Pickleball Wiki is an independent media website providing pickleball gear reviews, player guides, technique tips, pro tour coverage, and community resources. We are not affiliated with USA Pickleball, any professional tour organization, or any equipment manufacturer unless explicitly stated.

2. Information We Collect

Information You Provide Directly

Donations: If you donate via PayPal, your transaction is handled directly by PayPal. We do not store your payment details.

Comments: When you leave a comment, we collect your name, email address, optional website URL, and comment content. Your IP address and browser user-agent string are also recorded to assist with spam detection.

Newsletter: When you subscribe to Court Confessions (our email newsletter), we collect your email address.

Contact Form: If you reach out via our contact page, we collect your name, email address, and message.

Information Collected Automatically

• Log Data: Our server may log your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring page, pages visited, and timestamps.
• Cookies and Tracking: We and our third-party partners (including Google) use cookies and similar technologies. See Section 4 for details.
• Usage Data: Via Google Analytics, we collect anonymized data about how visitors interact with our site — pages viewed, session duration, traffic sources, device type, and general location.

Information from Third Parties

We may receive information about you from third-party services such as Google (analytics and advertising), social media platforms when you interact with our content, and affiliate networks.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Operate, maintain, and improve Pickleball Wiki
• Publish and moderate comments
• Send our newsletter to subscribers who have opted in
• Respond to contact form submissions
• Detect and prevent spam, fraud, and abuse
• Analyze traffic and improve content and user experience
• Serve relevant advertisements through Google AdSense
• Track affiliate link clicks and commissions
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not use your information for automated decision-making that produces legal effects, nor do we engage in profiling beyond ad personalization through Google’s platform.

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

A cookie is a small text file placed on your device by a website. We use both first-party cookies (set by Pickleball Wiki) and third-party cookies (set by services like Google).

First-Party Cookies

• Comment cookies: If you opt in after leaving a comment, your name, email, and website are stored in cookies for one year.
• Login cookies: If you have a registered account, login cookies persist for two days, or two weeks if you select “Remember Me.”
• Session cookies: Temporary cookies used to verify browser capability — discarded when you close your browser and contain no personal data.
• WP Rocket: Performance-related cookies set by our caching plugin. They contain no personal data.

Third-Party Cookies

• Google Analytics: Sets _ga, _gid, and related cookies to track aggregated visitor statistics.
• Google AdSense: Sets cookies to serve and measure personalized advertisements. See Section 5 for full details.
• Social Media: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter/X, Pinterest, TikTok, and LinkedIn may set cookies through share or embed features on our pages.

Managing Cookies

You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may affect website functionality. You can also opt out of personalized Google advertising at https://adssettings.google.com or via the NAI opt-out tool at https://optout.networkadvertising.org/.

5. Google AdSense and Advertising

Pickleball Wiki participates in Google AdSense, a third-party advertising program operated by Google LLC. Advertisements appear on this website, and Google may use cookies and device identifiers to serve ads based on your previous visits to this site and other websites across the internet.

How Google AdSense Works

• Google uses cookies (such as the DART cookie) to display ads based on your interests and browsing history.
• Ads are selected by Google’s automated systems, not by Pickleball Wiki.
• Google may share data collected through AdSense with its advertising partners.
• We do not have direct access to your personal data collected by Google for advertising purposes.

Your Advertising Choices

• Opt out of personalized ads: https://www.google.com/settings/ads
• General opt-out (US): https://optout.aboutads.info/
• General opt-out (EU): https://youronlinechoices.eu/
• Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Non-personalized ads may still appear based on page content, your general location, or other non-personal factors.

6. Analytics and Third-Party Services

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics (provided by Google LLC) to understand how visitors interact with our website. It collects information such as pages visited, session duration, and traffic sources. IP addresses are anonymized. You can opt out by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Social Media Pixels

We may use social media pixels (Pinterest, Facebook, etc.) for analytics and to understand traffic from those platforms.

WP Rocket

We use WP Rocket for page caching and performance optimization. It sets non-personal cookies to deliver cached pages efficiently.

Gravatar

Commenter profile pictures may be served via Gravatar (Automattic, Inc.). An anonymized hash of your email address is sent to Gravatar to retrieve your avatar. Gravatar’s privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/.

7. Affiliate Links

Pickleball Wiki participates in affiliate advertising programs, including the Amazon Associates Program. When you click a product link on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Affiliate links appear throughout our gear reviews, best-of lists, and buying guides. Our editorial opinions are our own and are not influenced by affiliate relationships. See our full Affiliate Disclosure at https://pickleball-wiki.com/affiliate-disclosure/.

When you click an affiliate link, the retailer may use cookies to track your purchase for commission attribution. These retailers have their own privacy policies governing data collected on their platforms.

8. Newsletter and Email Communications

We offer a free newsletter called Court Confessions covering weekly gear reviews, pro insights, new gear alerts, and skill tips. By subscribing, you provide your email address and consent to receive our emails.

Email delivery may be handled by a third-party email service provider who processes your email address per their own privacy policy.

We only send emails you have explicitly opted in to receive.

Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link. You may opt out at any time.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your email address with third parties for marketing purposes.

9. Embedded Content from Other Websites

Articles on Pickleball Wiki may include embedded content from third-party websites such as YouTube videos, social media posts, or product widgets. Embedded content behaves exactly as if you visited those websites directly. These sites may collect data about you, use cookies, and monitor your interactions — especially if you are logged in to their services.

Common third-party embeds on our site include:

Instagram / Facebook (Meta): https://www.facebook.com/policy.php

YouTube (Google LLC): https://policies.google.com/privacy

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/en/privacy

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/en/privacy

10. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

Business Transfer: In the event of a merger or acquisition, your data may be transferred. You will be notified before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Service Providers: Trusted third-party providers (hosting, email delivery, analytics) who assist in operating our website. They are contractually required to keep your data confidential.

Google: Data is shared with Google LLC for advertising and analytics purposes as described in Sections 5 and 6.

Affiliate Networks: When you click affiliate links, click-tracking data is shared with retailers for commission attribution.

Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or to protect the safety of our users or the public.

11. Data Retention

Server Logs: Retained for up to 90 days for security purposes.

Comments: Retained indefinitely to support ongoing discussions and moderation.

User Accounts: Stored until you request deletion.

Contact Form Submissions: Retained for up to 12 months, then deleted.

Newsletter: Email addresses are retained while you are subscribed. Upon unsubscribing, your data is deleted or anonymized within 30 days.

Google Analytics Data: Retained per Google’s default settings (26 months).

12. Data Security

We take reasonable technical and administrative measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, loss, or disclosure. Our website uses HTTPS (SSL/TLS encryption) for all data in transit. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

13. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request that inaccurate data be corrected.
• Deletion: Request that we delete your personal data.
• Portability: Request a machine-readable export of your data.
• Opt-Out: Unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time using the link in any email.
• Restrict Processing: Request that we limit how we process your data.
• Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at https://pickleball-wiki.com/contact/. We will respond within 30 days.

14. California Residents — CCPA

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

• Right to Know: Request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
• Right to Delete: Request deletion of personal information we have collected, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: We do not sell your personal information.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights.
• Right to Correct: Request correction of inaccurate personal information.

To submit a request, contact us at https://pickleball-wiki.com/contact/.

Note on Google AdSense: Google’s use of cookies for personalized ads may be considered “sharing” under California law. You can opt out at https://adssettings.google.com.

15. EEA and UK Residents — GDPR

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, the GDPR and UK GDPR give you specific rights regarding your personal data.

Legal Bases for Processing

Legal compliance: Legal Obligation

Comments and contact forms: Consent / Legitimate Interest

Newsletter subscription: Consent (opt-in)

Google Analytics: Legitimate Interest (anonymized data)

Google AdSense personalized ads: Consent

Security and spam detection: Legitimate Interest

Your GDPR Rights

• Right of access (Article 15)
• Right to rectification (Article 16)
• Right to erasure / right to be forgotten (Article 17)
• Right to restrict processing (Article 18)
• Right to data portability (Article 20)
• Right to object (Article 21)
• Right to withdraw consent at any time without affecting prior processing
• Right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority

To exercise your rights, contact us at https://pickleball-wiki.com/contact/.

Data Transfers: Your data may be processed in the United States or other countries outside the EEA. Where applicable, we rely on standard contractual clauses or Google’s adequacy agreements.

16. Children’s Privacy

Pickleball Wiki is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at https://pickleball-wiki.com/contact/ and we will promptly delete that information.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the Last Updated date at the top of this page. Continued use of the website after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

18. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us:

https://pickleball-wiki.com/contact/