Acceptable Use Policy

Cluboom exists to support the safe, respectful and effective management of grassroots sports clubs. Squads, fixtures, availability, attendance and player development all depend on people trusting the platform and each other.

This policy protects that trust. It explains the behaviour expected of every user, so that clubs can run their teams confidently and families can be certain that Cluboom is used only for legitimate club activity.

This policy applies to everyone who accesses Cluboom, including:

• club administrators;
• team administrators;
• coaches;
• parents and guardians;
• players, including children and young people;
• volunteers and committee members;
• welfare and safeguarding officers;
• visitors to the Cluboom website.

It applies on every device and in every context in which Cluboom is used, including shared club tablets and personal phones.

Users of Cluboom are expected to:

• use the platform lawfully and in line with their club’s rules;
• keep account details secure, including passwords and player PINs, and sign out of shared devices;
• treat other users with respect in every message, comment and note recorded in the platform;
• maintain accurate information, correcting contact, medical and availability details when they change;
• use Cluboom only for legitimate club activities such as organising training, fixtures, squads and player development;
• follow the safeguarding requirements of their club and its governing body at all times.

Users must not:

• share accounts, or allow another person to use their credentials;
• attempt to access accounts, teams, clubs or records they are not entitled to see;
• circumvent, disable or test security controls without written permission;
• upload or transmit malicious software, scripts or harmful files;
• harass, bully, intimidate or threaten any other user;
• upload or share offensive, discriminatory, defamatory or otherwise unlawful content;
• misuse messaging or notifications, including sending unsolicited marketing or repeated unwanted contact;
• collect, copy or export personal information for any purpose not authorised by the club;
• impersonate another person, role or club;
• take any action intended to disrupt the availability or performance of the platform;
• reverse engineer, scrape, resell or otherwise abuse the platform or its interfaces.

Many Cluboom users are children and young people. Every adult using the platform must behave appropriately when interacting with them, keep communication transparent and club-related, and follow their club’s safeguarding policies without exception.

Cluboom must never be used to facilitate inappropriate communication with a child. Attempts to use the platform to make private, unsupervised or inappropriate contact with a young person are treated with the utmost seriousness and will be escalated to the club and, where appropriate, to the relevant authorities.

How children’s information is handled is set out in the Children’s Data & Parental Consent Policy and the Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy.

Clubs are responsible for how their people use Cluboom, including:

• managing access permissions and assigning roles appropriately;
• removing former coaches, volunteers, parents and players promptly when they leave;
• monitoring that the platform is being used appropriately;
• investigating reported misuse within the club;
• maintaining safeguarding procedures alongside platform use.

Cluboom does not read club content routinely. We do, however, monitor limited operational signals where it is necessary to keep the platform secure and available, including:

• security events;
• audit logs of sensitive administrative actions;
• authentication activity, including failed sign-in attempts;
• indicators of platform misuse or abuse.

This monitoring is carried out only for security, operational and legal purposes, is limited to what is necessary and proportionate, and is described further in the Privacy Policy and Security Policy.

Where this policy is breached, Cluboom will act proportionately and, wherever possible, in cooperation with the club concerned. Depending on the seriousness of the matter, we may:

• suspend an account while a concern is investigated;
• restrict access to particular features or records;
• remove content that breaches this policy;
• notify the club so that it can take its own action as controller;
• report unlawful activity to the police or another appropriate authority where we are required or reasonably consider it necessary to do so.

Except where a safeguarding, security or legal risk requires immediate action, we will normally contact the club before restricting access, and will explain the reason for any measure taken.

Suspected misuse of Cluboom should be reported to support@cluboom.co.uk. It helps to include the club and team involved, what was observed, and when.

If a child is at immediate risk, contact the emergency services on 999 first. Safeguarding concerns should also be raised with your club’s welfare or safeguarding officer, who retains responsibility for handling them.

This policy sits alongside:

• Privacy Policy — what information is held and why;
• Security Policy — how the platform is protected;
• Children’s Data & Parental Consent Policy — how children’s information is handled;
• Data Subject Rights Policy — how individuals exercise their UK GDPR rights;
• Terms & Conditions — the contractual terms governing use of Cluboom.

This policy is reviewed at least annually, and sooner where legislation, safeguarding guidance or Cluboom platform functionality changes. The document version, effective date and review date shown above always reflect the current published position.

Questions regarding this policy can be sent to support@cluboom.co.uk.

Cluboom welcomes responsible feedback that helps improve our governance, security and compliance documentation.