The short version. We keep the least we need to run your club's ladder. Your name and place are on the ladder. Your mobile number is only ever shown to someone you have a match with. We never sell or share your details, and we never use your number to send you marketing. You can take yourself off at any time from your own page.
Running a club? GDPR for clubs and the club data agreement.
Who we are, and who is responsible
ISTA Ladder is run by Ian Samuels, a tennis coach in Hertfordshire, England, trading as ISTA Ladder. Contact: admin@nationaltennis.co.uk or 07443 764460.
On a club's ladder, the club (or whoever organises the ladder) decides who is on it and is responsible for its players' details. In data protection terms the club is the "controller" and we are its "processor": we hold the details for the club, only to run the ladder, and do nothing else with them. The terms we agree with clubs are on GDPR for clubs.
On a ladder Ian runs himself, for his own players, we are responsible for the details.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, registration number ZC281270.
What we hold
- Your name as your club knows you, your place on the ladder, your challenges and results.
- Your mobile number, if you or your organiser added it.
- Your settings: whether opponents may see your number, and, if you switched them on, the details your phone gives us to send you notifications.
- When your link was opened, so the organiser can see who has joined.
- For whoever sets a ladder up: their name and mobile, and a scrambled (one-way) version of their internet address, used only to stop the setup page being abused.
- Americano and Mexicano nights: the name (and, if given, Playtomic level) of each player who joins, the draws and the scores - shown to anyone with that night's link. No numbers are asked for. The organiser's name and mobile are held the same way as for a ladder and never shown on the page.
We don't ask for dates of birth, addresses, health details or anything like that.
Where it comes from. Your organiser adds your name, and sometimes your mobile, when they set up the ladder. Everything else comes from you and your opponents using it. You don't have to give a mobile number: the ladder still works without one, and opponents contact you another way.
Why, and the legal basis
- Running the ladder - showing the table, letting players challenge each other, putting scores in and telling the organiser what has happened. The legal basis is legitimate interests: the club's, and ours, in running a ladder you have agreed to be on.
- Showing your number to an opponent - only if you allow it. That is your consent, and you can switch it off on your own page at any time. You'll be contacted another way instead.
- Notifications on your phone - only if you switch them on. That is your consent too, and you can switch them off at any time.
Who can see what
- Anyone with the ladder link (usually your club's WhatsApp group): names, places and results. No numbers.
- Your opponent, only while you have a match on, and only if you allow it: your mobile number.
- Your doubles partner: your name and your pair's matches.
- Your club's organiser: the players on their ladder and their numbers, so they can run it.
- Ian, to keep the app working and help when something goes wrong. Nobody else works on it.
The app runs on Render (servers in Frankfurt, Germany) and the details are stored with Supabase (servers in London). The daily backups are kept in Ian's Microsoft OneDrive. Each of them holds the details only for us, under its own data protection terms. Nobody else gets them.
If you switch notifications on, each one reaches you through your phone's own notification service (Apple's, Google's or your browser maker's). It carries a short message about your ladder, such as a new challenge, and never your number.
If your organiser sends you your link on WhatsApp, that message goes from their own phone, through WhatsApp.
Frankfurt is in the EU, and the UK recognises the EU as giving the same protection as the UK (an "adequacy" decision). Microsoft, Apple and Google may hold some of this in the US. Where they do, it is covered by the UK's data bridge with the US and those companies' own safeguards.
How we keep it safe
- Everything goes over an encrypted connection (https).
- Each player gets their own private link with a long random code in it, so nobody can guess it. There are no passwords to leak. If a link gets passed round, the organiser can switch it off and send a new one.
- The database is locked down so only the app itself can read it. It can't be reached directly from the internet.
- Only Ian can get into the running of the app, behind his own login.
- The ladder pages are kept out of search engines.
Cookies
Players and visitors get no cookies at all: no tracking and no analytics. The app only sets one cookie, and that is Ian's own login. On your phone, the ladder page remembers which player's page is yours, so the club's group link opens your page next time. That stays on your phone. Clearing your browser's data removes it.
Backups
A copy of the database is taken every day so nothing is lost if something breaks. Copies are kept for 30 days in Ian's Microsoft OneDrive and then deleted. Backups are only used to put things back after a problem.
Juniors
Under-18s should be added by a parent or by the club, using a parent's or guardian's mobile number rather than the child's own. We only hold a junior's name, place and results, the same as anyone else.
Coming off, and your rights
To come off: open your own ladder page, go to Rules, and tap Remove me from the ladder. You come off straight away and your mobile number is deleted. Past results keep your name so the results list still adds up. If you want your name taken out of those too, or you don't have your link, message your organiser or us and we will do it.
Your rights. You can ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to limit how it's used, or to stop using it. You can also ask for a copy in a form you can take elsewhere. Where you gave consent (showing your number, notifications), you can take it back at any time on your own page. We will answer within a month. If you're on a club's ladder you can ask the club or us, and we will help the club answer. If you are unhappy with how we handle your details, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Automatic decisions
Your place on the ladder moves automatically under the ladder's rules, which you can read on your own page. For example, it moves after a result or a walkover. These are the rules of the game, not decisions with a legal or similarly serious effect on you. If a move looks wrong, your organiser or Ian can put it right.
How long we keep it
For as long as you are on the ladder. When you remove yourself, your number is deleted at once. If an organiser takes you off, your link stops working and your number is no longer used; ask and we will delete it. When a ladder set up by a club is taken down, every player's number on it is deleted. We check every month for ladders that have stopped being used. Backups age out after 30 days.
If something goes wrong
If we ever found that someone had got at players' details who shouldn't have, we would tell the club organisers affected straight away, tell the players affected where it could harm them, and report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours where the law requires it.
Terms for clubs and organisers
When you set up a ladder - for a club or for your own group - you confirm that you organise it, that the players are happy to be on it, and that you have their permission to add their names (and any numbers you add). You agree to:
- only add people who are happy to be on the ladder, and take anyone off who asks;
- keep your organiser link to yourself, because anyone holding it can run the ladder;
- use players' numbers only to run the ladder.
We look after the players' details for you on the terms in our club data agreement.
The ladder is free for your club, all of the ladders, all of the time. We do our best to keep it running smoothly, but it comes as it is, without any guarantee. We may take down a ladder that is being misused, and we will tell the organiser if we do. Questions: admin@nationaltennis.co.uk.
Last updated 21 October 2026.