Privacy Policy

Dugout Lore · operated by Chin Music LLC

Effective: October 1, 2026 · Last updated: October 1, 2026

1. Scope

This policy explains what Chin Music LLC ("we," "us") collects when you use Dugout Lore at dugoutlore.com and any related application, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what you can ask us to do about it. Dugout Lore is intended for users in the United States. This policy does not cover other companies' websites or services, even if we link to them.

2. What we collect

You give us:

Email address — Required. Account identity, sign-in, and account and game emails.
Manager handle — Required. How other managers in your league see you.
Time zone — Required (defaults if unset). Your home games are scheduled in your local time.
Sign-in information — Required. Your password, which our sign-in provider stores only in scrambled (hashed) form.
Payment details — Required to buy. Handled entirely by our payment processor, Stripe. Card numbers never reach our servers. We store only the amount charged and Stripe's reference.
Messages to us — Optional. If you email support, send beta feedback or send a copyright notice, we keep what you send so we can respond. If a copyright notice concerns another user's content, we may forward it to that user.

You create by playing: your lineups, pitching staffs, bench and defensive settings, the leagues and clubs you manage, game and series results, season standings and archives, and your league history and championships.

We collect automatically:

Server and request logs: IP address, browser and device type, pages requested, timestamps and error information.
Sign-in records: when you signed in and from what IP address and browser, kept by our sign-in provider for security.
Website activity: the pages you visit and certain actions you take on our site, with your browser and device type and IP address, collected by our analytics provider (Section 6).
Cookies that keep you signed in and that support our analytics (Section 6).
Email engagement: whether you opened an email or clicked a link in it (Section 6).

We do not ask for your date of birth, home address, phone number or any government identifier.

3. Why we use it

To run your account and authenticate you; to operate leagues and simulate games; to schedule games in your time zone; to send you sign-in, account and game emails, such as when a game is ready or a decision is due; to send you news about Dugout Lore if you choose to receive it; to take payment and process refunds; to generate written coverage of your games; to detect collusion or abuse; to understand how people use the site so we can improve it; to keep the service working and to fix it when it breaks; and to comply with law.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising. We do not use your personal information to train AI models.

4. What other managers see

League pages are visible only to managers in that league. Managers in your league can see your manager handle, the club you manage, your lineups and game results, your standings, and your league history and championships. Past league archives stay visible to the managers who played in those leagues (Section 7).

If a league has a commissioner, we may tell the commissioner privately that your club is not being actively managed. If we find that a manager manipulated a league, we will tell the affected managers what happened, as described in our Terms of Use.

We use service providers who process data on our behalf:

Supabase — Sign-in and our application database.
Railway — Our application servers.
Vercel — Website hosting and delivery.
Stripe — Payments. Stripe receives your payment details directly; we do not. Stripe also uses payment information for its own purposes, such as fraud prevention and legal compliance, under its own privacy policy.
Customer.io — Sends all our emails, including sign-in and password-reset emails and account and game emails, and measures how our website is used (Section 6). It receives your email address, manager handle, time zone, an account identifier, the content of the emails we send you, the game events that tell it when to email you (for example, that a game is ready), and your website activity.
DeepSeek — Helps write game coverage. It receives no personal information (see below).

Written game coverage. Game summaries, series wraps and scouting reports are drafted with help from DeepSeek, an AI service run by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., which processes and stores data in the People's Republic of China and may use what it receives to improve its models. We send DeepSeek baseball content only: historical club-season and player names, game data such as scores, plays and statistics, and writing-style instructions. We do not send your email address, manager handle, account identifiers, IP address or any name you create. Coverage is labeled as AI-generated.

We may also disclose information where required by law; to protect the service, our users or others, including to investigate fraud or abuse; or in connection with a sale or reorganization of the business. Any buyer will be bound by this policy for information collected under it.

6. Cookies, analytics and browser signals

Cookies. We use cookies needed to keep you signed in. Our analytics provider, Customer.io, also sets cookies, as described below.

Analytics. We use Customer.io to understand how our site is used. A Customer.io script on our website records the pages you visit and certain actions you take (for example, creating a league or submitting a lineup), along with your browser and device type and IP address. It sets a cookie containing a random identifier so it can recognize your browser on return visits. When you are signed in, we link this activity to your account. We do not record what you type into forms, and we do not record your screen or sessions. Customer.io processes this information on our behalf, and we do not use it for advertising. We keep website activity while your account is open; for visitors who never sign in, we keep it for 24 months. You can block the script with your browser's tracker or cookie settings, and the game will still work.

Emails. Our account and game emails may contain a small image and tracked links that tell us whether an email was opened or a link was clicked. We use this to check that our emails are getting through. Links in sign-in and password-reset emails are never tracked.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we do not load the Customer.io analytics script for that browser. We do not otherwise respond to "Do Not Track" signals, because there is no common standard for what they mean. Other than Customer.io as described here and Stripe on our payment pages, for fraud prevention, we do not allow third parties to collect information about your online activities on our site.

7. How long we keep it, and deletion

Your account data is kept while your account is open. You can ask us to close your account and delete your personal information at privacy@dugoutlore.com or via the privacy request page, and we will do so within 30 days. For general product support, write to support@dugoutlore.com.

League history is different, and we want to be straight with you about it. The seasons you play are shared history. Other managers paid to compete in those leagues, and their standings, statistics, championships and archives only make sense if the record stays intact. So when you ask us to delete your data, we remove your personal information — your email address, your sign-in information, your account — and we replace your manager handle in league records with an anonymous label. We do not erase the seasons themselves.

We also remove your handle from any written coverage that displays it. We disconnect league records from your account so they cannot be traced back to you, and we will not try to re-identify them. We delete your profile from Customer.io, which removes your email address and website activity there; Customer.io may keep your former account identifier on a do-not-message list so that it is never used again. Other managers in your past leagues may still remember which club you managed.

Retention:

Account data — While your account is open; deleted within 30 days of a deletion request.
Server and request logs — 365 days.
Sign-in records — 365 days.
Website activity — While your account is open; 24 months for visitors who never sign in.
Messages to us — 365 days after our last exchange.
Backups — Overwritten within 365 days.
Conduct investigation records — Up to 12 months where needed to protect the league or ourselves from claims.
Payment records — As long as required for tax and accounting purposes, typically seven years.

8. Your choices

See your data. Ask at privacy@dugoutlore.com and we will tell you what we hold and give you a copy.
Correct it. Your handle and time zone are editable in Settings. Ask us to correct anything else.
Delete it. See Section 7 · privacy request.
Emails. Some emails are operational — a game is ready, a decision is due, a payment failed, a sign-in link or password reset — and are part of the service. Any news or promotional email we send will include an unsubscribe link.
Analytics. You can block our analytics script with your browser settings (Section 6).

We honor these requests from every user, wherever you live in the United States. We verify a request by confirming it from the email address on your account, and we will not treat you differently for making one. If we cannot fulfill a request, we will tell you why.

9. Children

The service is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has created an account, tell us at privacy@dugoutlore.com and we will delete it.

10. Security

Payment card data never touches our servers. Access to our production database is restricted, credentials are held outside our source code, and payment confirmations are accepted only from cryptographically verified messages from our processor — never from a claim made by a browser. No service is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and authorities as required by law, and we may also tell you about other incidents where notice would help you protect yourself.

11. Where your data is processed

Dugout Lore is offered in the United States, and our service providers store and process personal information in the United States. DeepSeek processes data in China, but we send it no personal information (Section 5).

12. Changes

We will update this policy as the product changes and will post the new effective date at the top. If a change is material, we will tell account holders by email or in the service before it takes effect. We will not use personal information we have already collected in a materially different way without your consent.

13. Contact

privacy@dugoutlore.com · support@dugoutlore.com · Chin Music LLC, 611 South Dupont Highway Suite 102, Dover, DE 19901