Effective date: October 21, 2026

Privacy notice

Who to contact

BenFencing LLC operates this website. For privacy questions or requests, contact contact@benfencing.com.

Children and parental consent

Public information can be read without an account. Performance requests may be submitted directly by athletes aged 13 or older in the United States and 16 or older elsewhere. A parent or guardian submits for younger athletes. Community posting is for adult parents and guardians. Performance requests collect the athlete’s name, age, weapon, dominant hand, club, experience and goals so we can understand the request.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. If such information is submitted, contact us so we can restrict access and delete it. COPPA can require verifiable parental consent for covered collection from children under 13. Where consent is the legal basis for an online service offered directly to a child in the EU, the GDPR parental-consent threshold varies by country between 13 and 16. An ordinary form checkbox is not a substitute for verifiable parental consent. Any future service for children will require a separate, appropriate process before launch.

Email updates

We store the email address, selected weapons and topics, consent, request time and source page. We use them to provide requested updates and manage preferences. We do not sell the subscription list. Newsletter consent is optional and separate from service requests. No verification email is sent automatically at this stage.

Contact and interest forms

The contact form stores your name, email address, topic, message, language, source article and consent so the owner can review and respond. Saving the form does not send an email from your mailbox or trigger an email notification.

We store the submitter’s contact details, age band, athlete or group profile, goals, selected service, preferences, language, source page and consent. Athlete profiles include name, age, weapon, dominant hand, club and experience. Group requests include the group name, age range and size. Country and time zone support coordination. Access is restricted to the authorized owner for coordination. Do not submit medical records or detailed psychological history. Information is not automatically sent to a specialist. Email notifications must not contain sensitive request details.

Community posts and moderation

Posting is for adult parents and guardians. We store your chosen public name, messages, followed discussions and in-site notifications. Every contribution is private until approved by a moderator; approved names and posts are public. Do not identify children. No email or ChatGPT account is required for visitors. The owner’s administrative sign-in does not give visitors access to moderation tools. Reply notifications are in-site only.

Analytics and cookies

BenFencing uses its own first-party analytics, stored in the site database. It counts page views, sessions, referring website domains, campaign labels, device categories, organizer-link clicks (listing identifier and destination domain only), source article paths and confirmed form saves. It does not receive names, email addresses, messages, assessments, IP addresses, full referring URLs or URL query strings. A random identifier in browser session storage helps count sessions. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals are respected.

An essential signed cookie remembers community visits for up to 30 days. Language preferences may be stored in the browser. These are not advertising cookies. Clearing browser storage resets these preferences and discussion follows. External websites have their own cookie and privacy policies.

We also use Google Analytics 4 to measure public page visits, organizer-link clicks and confirmed requests and subscriptions. For visitors identified by our hosting provider as being in the United States, this non-advertising analytics may run without a consent popup, unless you have opted out or sent a privacy signal. You can disable it through Analytics choices in the footer. For other countries, or when the country cannot be determined, Google Analytics remains blocked until you choose Allow analytics. A regional allowance is not stored as your consent; your explicit choices are respected across regions. Country detection uses only hosting metadata, without requesting precise device location or an external geolocation service. We do not send form values, athlete profiles, names, emails, messages, private account pages or URL query strings to Google Analytics. Page paths and referring website origins may be sent. Advertising personalization and Google signals are disabled. Analytics cookies may persist for up to one year; clearing cookies resets their identifiers. Google may process data outside your country. How Google uses information from sites that use its services. Change or withdraw consent using Analytics choices in the footer. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control override consent.

Retention

Subscription details are kept while needed to provide updates; an unsubscribe record prevents further sending. Contact and interest records are kept while needed to handle the request and related service obligations. Public posts remain until removed; rejected posts remain private pending administrative cleanup. Analytics records older than 90 days are eligible for deletion by the collection service’s cleanup process. Essential discussion cookies expire after 30 days. You can request deletion of personal information; records may be retained where required for legal obligations or handling a dispute.

Your rights and choices

Use the unsubscribe link on the confirmation screen or in an update to stop email updates. Contact us to request access, correction, deletion, restriction or portability, or to object to processing where applicable. You may withdraw optional consent without affecting earlier lawful processing. We may need to verify a request without collecting unnecessary information. Depending on your location, you can complain to the relevant data-protection authority.

Hosting and security

The website and database use ChatGPT Sites and Cloudflare infrastructure. Service providers may process network information to deliver and protect the website. Short-lived hashed counters limit form abuse. Access controls restrict operational records and moderation. No internet service can promise absolute security. Information may be processed outside your country through these providers.

Official references

FTC: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule · European Commission: safeguards for children’s data