Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Diehard Sports Network ("Diehard," "we," "us") is a hyperlocal college sports media company based in Birmingham, Alabama. This policy explains how we handle your personal data when you use our website at diehardsportsnetwork.com.

2. Information We Collect

Account information

When you create an account, we collect your full name, display name, email address, password and optional school affiliation. Your password is hashed using bcrypt before storage — we never store or have access to your plain-text password. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email and profile photo from Google. We do not receive or store your Google password.

User-generated content

Comments and forum posts you create are stored with your user ID, the content identifier and a timestamp.

Usage data

We log behavioral events such as article reads, comment posts and poll votes to improve our product and personalize your experience. Each event records your user ID (if logged in), a session identifier, the action type, the target content and a timestamp. Session identifiers are generated per browser session and stored in your browser's session storage — they are not persistent across sessions.

Payment information

Membership payments are processed by Stripe. We do not store your credit card number, expiration date or CVV. Stripe provides us with a customer ID, subscription status and transaction history. See Stripe's privacy policy for details on how Stripe handles your payment data.

3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies on our site. When you first visit, a consent banner lets you accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can change your preference at any time by clearing your browser's local storage and revisiting the site.

Essential cookies

These are required for the site to function and cannot be disabled.

• Session cookie— An encrypted JSON Web Token (JWT) containing your user ID and role. Set by NextAuth. Expires when you close your browser or after the session timeout.
• CSRF token— Prevents cross-site request forgery. Set automatically during authentication.

Analytics cookies

These help us understand how visitors use the site. They are only set if you accept analytics cookies in the consent banner.

• Google Analytics 4— Sets cookies including _ga and _ga_[ID]to distinguish users and sessions. Data is sent to Google. We use GA4 for aggregate traffic analysis — page views, referral sources, device types. We do not enable Google advertising features. See Google's privacy policy.
• Vercel Analytics— Collects anonymized performance data (page load times, Web Vitals) to help us monitor site speed. See Vercel's analytics privacy policy.

Advertising cookies

We do not currently use advertising cookies or retargeting pixels. If we add advertising partners in the future, this policy will be updated and your consent will be requested before any advertising cookies are set.

Local storage

We use your browser's local storage for functional purposes such as remembering whether you dismissed a banner or voted in a poll. This data stays in your browser and is not sent to our servers.

4. Third-Party Services

We share data with the following service providers to operate the site. We do not sell, rent or share your personal data with third parties for their marketing purposes.

• Vercel— Website hosting and deployment
• Neon— PostgreSQL database hosting (US East region)
• Sanity— Content management system
• Google— OAuth authentication and analytics (with consent)
• Stripe— Payment processing for memberships
• Beehiiv— Newsletter delivery. If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email and name are shared with Beehiiv for delivery. Beehiiv may set its own cookies through embedded signup forms. See Beehiiv's privacy policy.
• Resend— Transactional email delivery (welcome emails, password resets)

5. How We Use Your Information

• Authenticate your account and maintain your session
• Display your name and role badge on comments and forum posts
• Personalize content based on your school affiliation and reading history
• Send you service-related communications (password resets, account notices)
• Deliver newsletters you subscribe to through Beehiiv
• Monitor and improve site performance and features (with your analytics consent)
• Process membership payments through Stripe

6. How We Store Your Data

Your data is stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted by Neon in the US East region, accessed through Vercel's infrastructure. All connections use TLS encryption. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt at a cost factor of 12.

7. Your Rights

You may:

• Access and update your account information at any time
• Request deletion of your account and associated data by contacting us
• Delete your own comments and forum posts
• Accept or reject non-essential cookies through the consent banner
• Opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

California residents (CCPA)

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, request its deletion and opt out of its sale. We do not sell personal information.

European residents (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation including access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and the right to object. Our legal basis for processing is your consent (for analytics) and legitimate interest (for essential site operations).

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@diehardsportsnetwork.com.

8. Data Retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you request deletion, we will remove your personal data within 30 days. Anonymized usage data may be retained for aggregate analytics. Google Analytics data is retained according to Google's default retention settings.

9. Children's Privacy

Diehard is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we will delete it promptly.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy? Email privacy@diehardsportsnetwork.com.