Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 2026 · McLaughlin Sportek Ltd trading as The Scout Hub

1. Who we are

McLaughlin Sportek Ltd (Company No. 17347865, trading as The Scout Hub) is the data controller for personal information collected through thescouthub.co.uk. We are registered in England and Wales. Contact us at hello@thescouthub.co.uk.

2. What information we collect

We collect information you provide directly to us when you create an account or use the platform:

• Account information: name, email address, password
• Profile information: location, playing position, age, nationality, career history, qualifications, availability
• Payment information: processed securely by Stripe — we do not store card details on our servers
• Communications: messages sent through the platform (monitored for compliance with platform rules)
• Uploaded content: profile photos, highlight videos, identity verification documents
• Usage data: pages visited, features used, device type, IP address, browser type
• Verification documents: photo ID submitted for profile verification (deleted after review)

3. How we use your information

We use your information to:

• Provide and operate the platform
• Process trial bookings and payments
• Send booking confirmations, venue details and platform notifications
• Send transactional emails (booking confirmed, application updates, reminders)
• Connect players and staff with clubs
• Monitor messages for compliance with platform rules
• Enforce our Terms of Service and platform rules
• Verify user identity when requested
• Improve the platform and develop new features
• Report seller transaction data to HMRC where required by law
• Comply with legal obligations

4. Legal basis for processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases under UK GDPR:

• Contract performance: to provide our service to you, process bookings, send venue details and manage subscriptions
• Legitimate interests: to improve our platform, prevent fraud, monitor compliance and protect other users — we have assessed that these interests are not overridden by your rights
• Legal obligation: to comply with applicable law including tax reporting obligations
• Consent: for optional marketing communications — you can withdraw consent at any time by emailing us

Under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, certain processing activities based on legitimate interests no longer require a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA) where they fall within recognised categories. Our use of analytics data to improve the service falls within this category.

5. Who we share your information with

• Clubs: your profile information is visible to clubs when you apply to their trials or appear in search
• Players and staff: club profiles and trial listings are visible to all users
• Stripe: payment processing — subject to Stripe's privacy policy at stripe.com/gb/privacy
• Supabase: database and authentication infrastructure — servers located in the EU
• SendGrid: email delivery service
• Plausible Analytics: privacy-friendly analytics — no cookies, no personal data collected
• HMRC: we may be required to report seller transaction data under the UK's digital platform reporting rules
• Law enforcement: where required by law, court order or to protect the rights and safety of users

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your data for advertising purposes.

6. Discover map visibility (opt-in)

Players, staff and clubs can optionally choose to appear on our Discover map, which shows approximate locations of other users to help clubs, players and staff find each other nearby. This feature is off by default and only activates if you explicitly turn it on in your profile settings and confirm a consent prompt.

• Precision: Only your approximate town or city location is shown — never your exact address or precise coordinates.
• Consent: We record the date and time you opted in. Our legal basis for this processing is your explicit consent.
• Withdrawal: You can turn this off at any time in your profile settings. Doing so removes you from the map immediately and deletes the approximate coordinates we had derived for this purpose.
• Visibility: If you have not opted in, you never appear on the Discover map and your location is never shown to other users through it.
• Youth accounts: A player aged 13-17 cannot opt into the Discover map at all, and never appears on it — see section 13.

7. Message monitoring

Messages sent through The Scout Hub platform are automatically scanned for contact details, payment references and other content that would violate our platform rules before a booking is confirmed. This is done by automated systems, not human review, and is necessary to protect both players and clubs from off-platform fraud. Our legal basis for this processing is legitimate interests and contract performance.

8. Data retention

We retain your account information for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or financial compliance purposes (payment records are retained for 7 years as required by HMRC). Identity verification documents are deleted within 30 days of the verification decision being made.

9. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you (Subject Access Request)
• Correct inaccurate personal data
• Request deletion of your personal data (right to erasure)
• Object to or restrict processing of your data
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent
• Not be subject to automated decision-making that significantly affects you

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@thescouthub.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days. There is no charge for reasonable requests.

10. Cookies and analytics

We use only strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and maintain your session. These do not require your consent under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 and the updated Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

We use Plausible Analytics to understand how people use our platform. Plausible does not use cookies, does not collect personal data, and does not track you across websites. It is fully compliant with UK GDPR, PECR and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 without requiring cookie consent. You can read Plausible's data policy at plausible.io/data-policy.

11. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures including encrypted data transmission (HTTPS/TLS), secure password hashing, row-level database security, restricted access controls, and regular security reviews. Payment data is handled entirely by Stripe and never stored on our servers. In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and affected users without undue delay.

12. International transfers

Your data is primarily stored on Supabase infrastructure located in the United Kingdom (London). Some data may be processed by our service providers in the United States (Stripe, SendGrid) under a UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or another transfer mechanism approved by the ICO.

13. Children and under-18 users

The Scout Hub is open to players aged 13 and over. Thirteen is the age at which, under UK GDPR (Article 8, given effect by the Data Protection Act 2018), a young person can consent to their own personal data being processed for an online service like ours, without a parent or guardian needing to consent on their behalf. Every other account type — staff, club, scout and agent — remains for adults only (18+).

Because players aged 13-17 (“youth accounts”) can use the platform, it works differently for them in several ways:

• No direct messaging, for anyone: There is no 1:1 messaging with a youth account, for any other user, under any circumstances — not even a verified club or scout. Contact only happens through the application process: a youth player applies to a trial or vacancy, the club reviews the application and profile, and responds with a status update (for example, invited or not proceeding), which we send to the player and copy to their parent/guardian. There is no reply option beyond the original application. Any further contact — confirming trial details, arranging a time or exact location, discussing anything else — happens off-platform, directly between the club and the parent/guardian, using contact details the club provides once a player is invited.
• Guardian consent required before the account goes live: We require the name and email address of a parent or guardian and their explicit consent, and we require the player to acknowledge a one-time safeguarding notice, before a youth account can be activated. That notice covers the essentials: never attend a trial alone, always bring a parent or guardian, confirm the club's safeguarding credentials before attending, and meet only in public or supervised settings.
• Location and current club hidden from everyone except a club they've applied to: A youth player's town/area and current club are hidden from other users, from general search results, and from our Discover map — a youth account never appears as a map pin, whatever their settings, and cannot opt in to the map at all. That information only becomes visible to a specific club once the player has directly applied to one of that club's trials or vacancies, and remains visible to the player's own account at all times. Everything else on their profile — name, age, position, stats, highlight videos, playing history — stays visible as normal, since that's what makes genuine scouting possible.
• A dedicated way to report a concern: A "Report a concern" button is available on every club profile and on any application involving a youth account. Reports are reviewed by our safeguarding team, with anything involving a youth account prioritised.
• Message monitoring: Every conversation between users who can message each other is automatically scanned for shared contact details and other content that would breach our platform rules — see section 7. This doesn't apply to youth accounts, since they can't message or be messaged at all.

A parent or guardian can contact us at hello@thescouthub.co.uk at any time to find out what data we hold about their child, to ask a question, or to request deletion of their child's account. If you believe someone has misrepresented their age, or that a youth account is being contacted inappropriately, please report it to us immediately at the same address, or via the “Report a concern” button on the platform.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. We will notify you of significant changes by email. The date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last updated.

15. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we handle your data, please contact us first at hello@thescouthub.co.uk. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.