SMS / text message alerts (mobile terms)
Sideline Safe offers an SMS text-message program (“Sideline Safe Emergency Text Alerts”) that sends emergency and safety alerts to adults who have opted in — coaches, athletic staff, administrators, and designated emergency contacts. Account holders opt in by entering their own mobile number in the Sideline Safe app, at sign-up or on their profile, and checking the consent box. Designated emergency contacts who don't have an account are added by a coach or administrator by name and email address only; Sideline Safe emails them a private link, where they enter their own mobile number and check the same consent box. A coach or administrator can list someone as an emergency contact, but that person is never texted until they opt in themselves. When a medical or safety emergency is declared for an athlete, opted-in recipients receive a text saying an emergency is active and what they're being asked to do. Texts never include an athlete's medical information, and we do not send marketing or promotional texts.
Information we collect for the SMS program: your mobile phone number, the email address used to send an emergency contact their private opt-in link, the date and time you opted in or out, the consent wording you agreed to, and records of the messages we send you. We use this information only to send the emergency and safety alerts described here, to honor opt-out requests, and to keep records of your consent.
We do not sell or share your SMS opt-in data or personal information with third parties for marketing purposes. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Information sharing with subcontractors in support services, such as the SMS provider that delivers our messages and the hosting provider that stores our data, is permitted solely to provide the text-alert service, under contracts that require them to protect the information. All other sharing categories described in this Policy exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
Message frequency varies and depends on emergency activity; you may receive no texts for long periods and several during an active emergency. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to any message to opt out of further texts, and reply HELP for assistance or email info@sidelinesafe.com. Opting out of texts does not remove you from the app or affect email notifications. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. More information: www.sidelinesafe.com/sms.
1. The most important thing: who uses Sideline Safe
Sideline Safe stores personal and health information about youth athletes, some of whom are under 13. That information is entered and provided only by adults — a parent or guardian, a coach, or a school or organization administrator. Athletes themselves do not create accounts, do not log in, and do not enter their own information. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children.
How an athlete's information reaches us depends on how you use the Services: when a school or organization is the customer, the school or organization provides and controls the athlete data as part of its educational program; when a private club or team is the customer, the athlete's parent or guardian provides the information and authorizes its collection.
2. Information we collect
Adult account information — name, email, phone, role (parent/guardian, coach, administrator), and login credentials.
SMS program information — mobile number, opt-in and opt-out records (including the consent wording agreed to), and message delivery records, as described in the SMS section above.
Athlete information provided by adults — name, date of birth, grade, gender, team or organization, address, and emergency-contact details.
Athlete health and safety information — medical history, allergies, medications, conditions, physical-exam forms, injury reports, treatment notes, and any documents, forms, or photos uploaded about the athlete. Uploaded documents receive the same protection as typed information.
Information collected automatically — IP address, device and browser type, and how adult users interact with the Services, collected through cookies and similar technologies (see Section 11).
Before you provide an athlete's health information, we ask you to consent to how it will be used for emergency response. You can withdraw consent at any time, and we record when it was given.
3. How we use information
We use the information to operate and provide the Services; make an athlete's safety information available to the authorized adults responsible for that athlete; send emergency and safety text alerts to adults who have opted in; communicate with account holders; provide support; maintain security; and improve the Services. We use athlete health information only to deliver the safety and roster functions the Services exist to provide.
4. What we never do
We do not sell personal information.
We do not use personal information, and never student data, for targeted advertising.
We do not build commercial profiles of athletes or use student data for any non-educational commercial purpose.
We do not share mobile phone numbers, SMS opt-in data, or messaging consent with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.
We do not send marketing or promotional text messages.
5. How and when we share information
The sharing described in this section does not apply to mobile phone numbers, SMS opt-in data, or messaging consent, which are handled only as described in the “SMS / text message alerts” section above.
Within the athlete's own organization — an athlete's information is visible only to the authorized adults for that athlete's team or organization (their parent or guardian, their coaches, and administrators), based on role-based permissions. A coach can open an athlete's detailed medical record only after declaring an active emergency for that athlete; outside of a declared emergency, coaches cannot access it. Every time anyone opens a medical record, we log who accessed it and when, and the athlete's parent or guardian can see that history.
Service providers — we share information with vendors who help us run the Services (such as hosting, storage, email, and messaging providers) under contracts that require them to protect the information and use it only to provide services to us.
Legal and safety — we may disclose information where required by law, to respond to legal process, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of athletes, users, or the public.
De-identified data — we may create and share de-identified information (with all direct and indirect identifiers removed) for legitimate business, research, or service-improvement purposes. We will not attempt to re-identify it. Mobile phone numbers and SMS opt-in data are never included.
Business transfers — if Sideline Safe is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may be transferred, subject to this Policy. SMS opt-in data and consent will not be transferred for use in any marketing or promotional messaging.
6. Student records and FERPA (school customers)
When athlete information is provided through a school or school district, that information may constitute an “education record” under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g). In that case, the school controls the records, and Sideline Safe acts as a “school official” with a legitimate educational interest, using the data only to perform the services the school has authorized and only as directed by the school. We do not use school-provided student data for any other purpose. Parents and eligible students exercise their FERPA rights through the school, and we support the school in responding to those requests. We also comply with the Georgia Student Data Privacy, Accessibility, and Transparency Act (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-660 et seq.) for K-12 student data.
7. Children's privacy (COPPA)
The Services are directed to and used by adults — parents or guardians, coaches, and administrators — not by children. Because athletes do not use the Services and information about them is supplied by adults, we do not knowingly collect personal information online directly from a child under 13. Text alerts are sent only to adults. If you are a parent or guardian and believe a child has provided information to us directly, please contact us and we will delete it.
Parents and guardians have the right to review the personal information we hold about their child, to request that we correct or delete it, and to withdraw consent to our further collection or use of it. To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@sidelinesafe.com. We will verify that you are the child's parent or guardian before acting on the request, and we will not release a child's information to anyone we cannot verify.
8. How we protect information
We maintain administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including encryption of data in transit and at rest, role-based access controls that limit access to the authorized adults who need it, an emergency gate that restricts a coach's access to an athlete's medical record to declared, active emergencies, audit logging of every medical-record access (visible to the athlete's parent or guardian), activity logging within the Services, and secure hosting with a reputable cloud provider. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information you entrust to us.
9. Data retention and deletion
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Services and for the purposes described in this Policy, and then delete or de-identify it. We honor deletion requests from parents and guardians and, for school customers, delete or return student data after a school agreement ends within the period stated in that agreement. Deletion extends to backups and to our service providers. We keep records of SMS opt-ins and opt-outs for as long as needed to document consent and honor opt-out requests.
10. Your rights and choices
You may ask us to review, correct, or delete information, or to withdraw consent, by contacting privacy@sidelinesafe.com. For information provided through a school, please direct requests to the school, which controls those records. You can stop text alerts at any time by replying STOP to any message or by turning alerts off in the app. We will verify identity before fulfilling requests.
11. Cookies and tracking
Our websites use cookies to keep you logged in, remember preferences, and understand usage so we can improve the Services. You can refuse or delete cookies through your browser settings, though some features may not work without them. We honor “Do Not Track” signals and do not track users across third-party websites for advertising.
12. Data breach notification
If we learn of a security breach affecting personal information, we will notify affected users and, where required, schools, regulators, or others, in accordance with the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule, Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 10-1-912), any applicable school agreement, and other applicable law.
13. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy to reflect changes in our practices. If we make material changes, we will post notice on our website and may notify account holders by email before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Services after changes take effect means you accept the updated Policy.
14. Contact us
Questions, requests, or complaints about privacy can be directed to our Privacy Officer, Drew Dixon, at privacy@sidelinesafe.com, or by mail at 6645 Westfall Parkway, Cumming, GA 30040.