Privacy
Privacy policy
Effective October 6, 2026
Who we are
CloseCall (closecallelections.com) is an independent, personal project, run by one person in the United States. “We” and “us” in this policy mean CloseCall. This policy says what we collect, why, who can see it, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it.
Reading CloseCall
You need no account to read the forecast, the polls or the guides. We set no cookie for readers and keep nothing about you. There is no advertising and no third-party tracker, and we do not sell or share personal information.
We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookie, does not follow you across sites and keeps no personal information: it records the page viewed, the site you came from, and your broad browser, device type and country. We see those only as totals.
A few choices, such as views you save, are kept in your own browser and never reach us. Clearing your browser’s site data removes them.
Our host
Cloudflare hosts the site. Like any web host it processes the network information every visit carries, such as your IP address, to deliver pages and protect the site, under its own privacy policy. Its request logs are kept for up to 7 days to keep the site working; we do not use them to identify visitors.
If you sign in to Brackets
Building a bracket without signing in
A bracket you build without signing in travels only in the page address and in your own browser, and we do not store it. Like any page address, it passes through our host when the page loads, whose request logs are kept for up to 7 days.
What we collect when you sign in
Your email address, which signs you in with a one-time code and lets us reach you about your account. It is never shown to anyone else.
A display name you choose and can change at any time. Groups and the leaderboard show it.
When you signed in, and how.
To stop abuse of the sign-in codes we keep, for each code, the email it went to, the code in a form that cannot be read back, and a one-way scrambled form of the network address that asked for it. Codes are deleted within a day.
What you make
Your brackets and each pick in them, with a history of changes (used to settle disputes and to show progress), your tiebreakers, the groups you start or join, and which brackets count on the leaderboard.
Cookies and your browser
Signing in sets one cookie that keeps you signed in for 45 days after your last visit. If you choose the light theme on your account page, a second cookie carries that choice for the same time. Signing in with Google sets a third for the ten minutes it takes, to check the sign-in is yours. None is used for anything else, and we set no advertising or tracking cookies.
Choosing “Continue with Google” loads Google’s own sign-in, which works under Google’s privacy policy and its own cookies. We receive your name, email address and a Google account number, and nothing else.
Unsaved picks, an invite you opened before signing in, and views you save are kept in your own browser; we store none of them until you save.
Who sees what
Members of a group see its members’ display names and the brackets entered in it. Before picks lock they see only each entry’s totals and progress, never a pick in any race; from the lock they see every pick.
The site-wide leaderboard is public. Before picks lock it shows only totals, never a name, and a race’s numbers only once at least 10 players have picked it. From the lock it shows, for each bracket that counts, your display name, a short tag that tells two players of the same name apart, the bracket’s name when you count more than one, and the scores. You can leave the leaderboard at any time from your account page, and we may hide a name.
Your email address is never shown to anyone.
How we use it
To run the game: sign you in, save your picks, run groups and the leaderboard, and score them as results come in. To prevent abuse. And to count a few actions in our own database (a bracket saved, a group started, an invite opened) so we know whether the game works.
We do not sell or share your personal information, show advertising, use third-party trackers, or send marketing email. The only analytics are the cookie-free visit counts above. The emails we send are about signing in and your account.
Who helps us run it
Cloudflare hosts the site, stores the database and delivers our email, as our service provider. Its request logs are kept for up to 7 days. Data may be processed in the countries where Cloudflare operates.
How long we keep it
Your account and what you make: until you delete your account. Sign-in codes: up to a day. Request logs: up to 7 days. Counts of actions: kept, but no longer linked to you once you delete your account.
Your choices
From your account page you can see and download everything we keep about you (as a file), change your display name, leave the leaderboard, choose your theme, and delete your account.
Deleting your account takes effect at once: your brackets, group memberships, sessions and ways to sign in are removed, your name and email are erased, and you leave your groups and their standings. A group you run passes to the member who joined it earliest after you.
We do not track you across other sites, so a browser’s Do Not Track signal changes nothing here.
Children
You must be at least 13 to create an account. If we learn an account belongs to someone younger, we delete it.
Security
The site is served only over encrypted connections, sign-in codes and network addresses are stored in forms that cannot be read back, and only the person who runs CloseCall can reach the database. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep yours safe and will tell you if something goes wrong that affects you.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, we will say so on the site before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows when it last changed.