Youth data & safety
How we handle young players' data.
Coach Sidekick is built for academies serving players ages 7 to 18, so we may handle information about children under 13. We take that seriously. This page describes what is true today and what we are still building, in plain language.
We would rather tell you exactly where we are than imply we are further along than we are. Some of the safeguards a youth platform needs are live today. Others are in active development with legal counsel who specialize in children's data. We label which is which below.
What is true right now.
You decide what gets recorded
Coach Sidekick only captures audio from sessions a coach explicitly records. There is no always-on listening and no retroactive capture. If a coach did not record it, it does not exist in the system.
Encrypted in transit and at rest
Audio and transcripts are encrypted in transit, and our infrastructure providers encrypt stored data at rest.
Stored in the United States
Audio is stored on Cloudflare R2, and transcripts, feedback, and metadata sit in a PostgreSQL database on Neon. Both are US-based.
A coach approves everything first
Nothing reaches a player until a coach reviews and approves it. The coach can edit, reassign, or remove any piece of feedback before it is released. There is no automatic delivery.
No processing of a child's data without consent
When a player's date of birth shows they are under 13, our system blocks their audio from being transcribed, analyzed, or shared with our service providers, and blocks them from being invited to the player portal, until a verifiable parental consent is recorded.
Private by design
A player's development summary stays within their academy circle: the player, their coaches, and the academy staff who need it. It is never shared with other families, there is no leaderboard, and there is no ranking of one player against another.
No cookies, no ad tech on this site
Browsing our public pages sets no cookies and loads no advertising or cross-site trackers. The only measurement is cookieless, aggregate page analytics. A short-lived security cookie appears only when you start signing in; inside the app, cookies exist solely to keep you signed in, with no analytics at all.
What we are building, with counsel.
These are not live yet. We will publish our formal privacy policy before they are generally available.
A parent-facing way to provide that consent
The enforcement gate above is live. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we are now finalizing the parent-facing flow that collects and verifies that consent (the verification method and the direct notice to parents) with counsel and a verification provider.
Defined data-retention limits
Today we retain finalized audio and transcripts. We are defining and implementing explicit retention limits so a child's data does not live longer than it needs to.
Parental review and deletion
We are building the ability for a parent or guardian to review the information we hold about their child and request that it be deleted.
A published privacy policy
Our formal privacy policy and terms of service are being finalized with legal counsel who specialize in children's-data compliance. They will be published before the capabilities above are generally available.
Evaluating Coach Sidekick for your academy?
We are happy to walk through our data flows and share current policy drafts for procurement review. Reach out and we will get you what you need. You can also read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, the privacy and data questions in our FAQ, or the parents and families page.
Questions about your child's data?
Ask your academy director how Coach Sidekick is deployed at your club, or reach us directly. We would rather give you a straight answer than leave you guessing.