Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 16, 2026

Baby Brackets ("we", "us", or "our") operates the website babybrackets.com (the "Service"). This page explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using the Service, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

Information We Collect

Baby Brackets is designed to be simple and privacy-friendly. We do not require you to create an account, and we do not ask for your name, email address, or other personal contact details to use the core features.

Names you enter. The baby names you add to a tournament or a collaborative session are stored so the game can function. In a shared session, these names are stored in our database (Google Firebase) so other participants you invite can see and vote on them. Please only enter information you are comfortable sharing with the people you invite.
Usage and analytics data. We collect information about how the Service is used — such as which features are opened and general device and browser information — to help us improve the product. We see this in aggregate, but collecting it involves identifiers our analytics and advertising providers receive, including your IP address and cookie IDs. Data protection law treats those as personal information even though we never learn your name.
Cookies and similar technologies. We and our partners use cookies and local storage to operate the Service, remember your session, measure traffic, and serve advertising.
Results you publish. If you choose to share a finished game, we store that result — the winning name, the other names that were in the game, and the date — so that the link you share can display it. See Publicly Shared Results below.
Information kept on your device. Your name list, your progress in an unfinished game, and the sessions you have opened recently are saved in your browser's local storage so you can pick up where you left off. This stays on your device, we do not receive it, and clearing your browser data removes it.

Publicly Shared Results

When you share a finished game, we publish it at a link of the form babybrackets.com/r/ followed by a short id. Anyone who has that link can open it. There is no password on it. We ask search engines not to index these pages and we do not list them anywhere on the site, but anyone you send the link to can pass it on, so please do not put anything in a shared result that you would mind being seen.

A shared result is stored until it is deleted. You can delete one you published from the browser you published it from — we keep a token on your device that shows the result was yours, so no account is needed. If you have since cleared your browser data or moved to a different device, email us the link and we will delete it for you.

How We Use Information

To provide and operate the bracket, rank match, and collaborative session features.
To save and display results you choose to save within a session.
To understand how the Service is used so we can improve it.
To display advertising that helps keep Baby Brackets free.

Legal Basis for Processing

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the GDPR requires us to have a legal basis for handling your information. We rely on two:

Legitimate interests. Storing the names and results you enter so the game works, keeping a shared session available to the people you invited, and keeping the Service secure and running. We think this is what you expect when you use the Service, and it involves no more information than the features need.
Consent. Cookies and similar technologies used for advertising and analytics. We ask before setting them, and you can withdraw your consent at any time with the Privacy & cookie choices link in the footer. Withdrawing consent does not undo processing that already happened.

Advertising and Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on the Service. Google is a third-party vendor that uses cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.

Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
Third-party vendors and ad networks may also use cookies to serve ads based on your browsing activity.
You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info.
For more information about how Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps, see Google's Privacy & Terms.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics and Firebase Analytics to collect statistics about how visitors use the Service. What reaches us is aggregated and never identifies you by name, though the collection itself uses identifiers such as cookie IDs and your IP address. This data helps us understand which features are useful and where we can improve. You can learn more in Google's Privacy Policy.

Third-Party Services

We rely on the following third-party services to operate the Service. Each has its own privacy policy governing how it handles data:

Google Firebase (database and hosting)
Google AdSense (advertising)
Google Analytics (usage statistics)

International Data Transfers

Our database and servers are in the United States, and the providers listed above are US companies. If you use the Service from anywhere else — including the EEA, the UK or Switzerland — the information described in this policy is transferred to and stored in the United States, which has not been found by the European Commission to offer an equivalent level of data protection.

For those transfers we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and, where it applies, our providers' certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Google describes how it handles these transfers on its GDPR resource page.

Your Choices

You can browse and use most of the Service without providing any personal information.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we ask for your consent before using cookies for advertising or analytics, and you can change that choice at any time using the Privacy & cookie choices link in the footer of this site. Until you consent, advertising and analytics run in a non-personalized mode.
If you are in California or another US state with a privacy law, the same notice offers a Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information option that turns off personalized advertising. You can reopen it at any time with the Privacy & cookie choices link in the footer.
You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect some features.
You can opt out of personalized ads using the links in the Advertising section above.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live — in particular under the GDPR in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and under the CCPA and similar US state laws — you have some or all of these rights:

To know what personal information we hold about you and to get a copy of it.
To have information that is wrong corrected.
To have information about you deleted.
To object to how we use your information, or ask us to restrict it.
To withdraw your consent to advertising and analytics cookies at any time.
To opt out of personalized advertising, which some US state laws treat as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information.
To be treated no differently for exercising any of these rights.

How to exercise them. Baby Brackets has no accounts and no logins, so there is no profile for us to look up — a link is the only handle we have on anything we store. To make a request about a session or a shared result, email us at contact@babybrackets.com with the link and tell us what you would like done. We will respond within the time your law allows: one month under the GDPR, forty-five days under California law.

Because a link is the only credential in the system, anyone holding it can make a request about the data behind it. That is a consequence of building the Service without accounts, and it is a good reason to share session and result links only with people you trust.

If you are in California. We do not sell personal information for money. We do let advertising partners use cookies to personalize the ads you see, and California law counts that as "sharing" — and on a broad reading as a "sale". The Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information option described above turns it off, and nothing about the Service changes if you use it.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority if you think we have handled your information improperly. We would rather you told us first so we can put it right.

Children's Privacy

The Service is intended for adults (such as expecting parents and their families) choosing baby names. It is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can remove it.

Data Retention

Names and results stored in collaborative sessions are retained so participants can return to them. You can delete a session yourself at any time: open it and choose Delete session from the settings menu beside its title. That permanently removes the session, its names and every saved result, for everyone holding the link. Because sessions have no accounts, anyone with the link can delete one. If you would prefer we remove a session for you, contact us with the session link. We do not delete data on a schedule. Everything we store stays until it is removed, either by you or at your request:

Sessions. The names in a collaborative session are kept indefinitely, so that the people you invited can come back to the link later. Email us the session link and we will delete it.
Saved games. Results you save inside a session are kept alongside that session and go when it goes.
Shared results. Kept until deleted, as described under Publicly Shared Results above.
Anything on your device. Your name list and your game progress live in your browser and disappear when you clear your browser data. They never reach us, so there is nothing for us to delete.

Advertising and analytics data held by Google is retained under Google's own policies, not ours.

If we adopt a fixed retention period later, we will set it out here.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at contact@babybrackets.com.

← Back to Baby Brackets