FIRST takes your privacy seriously. As a nonprofit and a mission-driven youth-serving organization, we are compelled to understand who we are serving, how our programs are performing, and make improvements so that we can achieve our goals of making FIRST accessible to any youth who wants to be part of the fun, exciting and life-changing experience. Thus, we need to collect certain pieces of data from you to ensure we are meeting our goals and responsibilities as a youth-serving nonprofit organization.

This FIRST FTC Scoring System Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how FIRST ("FIRST," "our," "we," "us,") collects and processes personal data that users (“user,” “your,” or “you”) provide to us -FIRST FTC Scoring System (the “Site”), where this Policy is posted.

Treatment of Data For Persons Under The Age of 18,

FIRST is registered in the United States as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization and is exempt from compliance with the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).  Nevertheless, FIRST protects the privacy of all children under the age of 18 that participate in our programs in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws.

Youth under the age of 18 are not permitted to create accounts or provide personal data on our Site.

If we learn that we have collected or processed personal data obtained either directly from a person under 18, data provided by a registered user for which appropriate legal consent has not be given, or data for which consent has been removed, we will delete that data as soon as possible.

1.  Agreement to the Policy

By accessing or using the Site, you agree to be bound by all of the Site’s Terms of Use including this Policy. If you do not agree to any of the Site’s Terms of Use or this Policy, please do not access or use this Site in order to avoid inadvertent data collection.  In the event you believe data was collected without your consent please contact us.

2. What personal data does FIRST Collect:

In the instances and for the reasons outlined in section 4, FIRST collects the following personal data categories:

Name, mailing address, email address, phone number, date of birth, FIRST program history, country, and your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address.

3. How does FIRST collect the data:

We collect data when you provide it to us directly or indirectly through a third party and by “cookies” (as described in section 8, below). You may provide certain data to us when you: (a) register for an account; (b) apply for, or are nominated for, awards; (c) subscribe to our newsletter; (d) send e-mail messages; (e) submit forms; (f) transmit information by telephone or letter; (g) complete a FIRST Consent and Release form.

When you engage in certain activities at our Site, we may ask you to provide data by filling out and submitting an online form. Depending upon the activity, some of the data may be mandatory and some may be voluntary.  If you do not provide the mandatory data with respect to a particular activity, you may not be able to engage in that activity.

4. How does FIRST use the data:

By entering personal data into the Site or providing it to FIRST (directly or indirectly through third parties), you agree to allow FIRST to collect and use the data for the following purposes:

1. To register you as a user of the Site.
2. To manage events: We and local FIRST Program Delivery Partners use personal data to identify your region for program participation, event registration, badging, volunteer management and general event management. FIRST Volunteer Coordinators and Event Managers may use personal data to assign roles, communicate with volunteers, and manage events.
3. To process and administer Program awards: FIRST may use your personal data to process and manage awards associated with the programs and events.  Award applications may require personal information such as name and contact information and may be submitted by an individual or on behalf of an individual in the case of nominated awards (e.g., Woodie Flowers Award, Dean’s List Award).
4. To comply with the FIRST Youth Protection Policy: FIRST contracts with certified background screening agencies to conduct background screening on volunteers and staff. To conduct background screening, these agencies use your personal data and secure all data collected according to the process outlined on their privacy policy.  FIRST may receive the last 4 digits of your social security number (if provided), name, and screening status and uses this data only to determine eligibility to volunteer in any role at FIRST and may keep this data in a secured file.
5. To communicate with you as a participant in FIRST programs: FIRST uses personal data to communicate with you about FIRST program information and related opportunities.
6. To process transactions:  FIRST uses personal data to engage in interactions with you including to communicate with you about your registration status, payment of team registration, processing of sponsorship information, newsletter subscriptions, event information and to process orders, registration fees or donations.
7. To provide support or other services: FIRST uses personal data to provide you with support or other services that you have requested.  We may use your data to respond directly to your requests for information including registering for newsletters, registering a FIRST team, registering for trainings or webinars and other specific requests.  We may pass your data along to the appropriate local Program Delivery Partner to respond to your request.
8. To improve our programs, products and services: FIRST uses data to evaluate and improve our programs, understand who we are serving, assess program impact, report aggregate/de-identified data, monitor growth, improve the delivery of FIRST programs, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, improve our product and service-offerings, customize and improve our Sites’ content, layout, and services, diagnose problems with our servers, software, and administer our Sites, often with the assistance of our vendors. FIRST sometimes uses third parties to help implement, manage and evaluate programs and efforts, and may share personal data with those third parties only for the purposes outlined in this Policy.
9. To improve quality and facilitate use of our Site. FIRST may use your personal data, including the information gathered as a result of site navigation and electronic protocols and cookies, to help create and personalize website content, improve website quality, track marketing campaign responsiveness, evaluate page response rates, conduct usability testing, and facilitate your use of our Sites (for example, to facilitate navigation and the login process, enhance security, and preserve order information between sessions).
10. For contractually required insurance purposes: FIRST is required to collect and share information including name, address, phone number, guardian/parent name, date of birth, and details about the nature of the injurious event and care provided with our insurance company if you are injured while participating in one of our Programs. 

5. How long does FIRST retain data:

FIRST will retain your data for as long as needed or permitted to fulfill the purposes and uses described in this Policy. When we no longer need your data, and there is no need to keep it to comply with our legal obligations or protect our legal rights, we will either delete it from our systems or depersonalize it so we can’t identify you.

6. How does FIRST share data:

We share personal data with local FIRST Program Delivery Partners, vendors, services providers, and other third parties (collectively, “Service Providers”) who are acting on our behalf to help operate our Site, handle communications, implement, manage or evaluate FIRST programs and events, or complete transactions you request.  

Except as otherwise provided in this Policy, FIRST will keep your personal data private and will not share it with third parties, unless such disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with the law or legal process served on us; (b) provide you the products, services and/or information that you may have requested; (c) protect our rights or property; (d) enforce our rights; (e) protect the interests of users of the Site or any other person; (f) operate or conduct maintenance and repair of our equipment; (g) detect, prevent and/or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, as authorized by law; and/or (h) otherwise comply with applicable laws.

7. How does FIRST protect information:

FIRST uses technical and organizational measures to protect data including, but not limited to: conducting third-party security audits, firewalls, maintaining security patches on external systems, a log auditing system to identify breaches, and ensuring that all web connections are over HTTPS.  Access to personal data is available through your user identification and password selected by you. This password is encrypted. We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. No one at FIRST or who represents FIRST will ever ask for your password. In addition, your personal data resides on a secure server to which only select FIRST personnel and Service Providers have secure access.

8. Cookies:

When you use any of our Sites, we may store cookies on your computer in order to facilitate and customize the experience. A cookie is a small data text file, which a website stores on your computer's hard drive (if your Web browser permits) that can later be retrieved to identify you to us.

Our cookies store randomly assigned user identification numbers, the country where you are located, and your log-in name to welcome you back to a Site. Our cookies: (a) make your use of our Site easier; (b) make our Site run more smoothly; (c) track authenticated users visiting our Site; and (d) help us to maintain a secure Site.

You may decline our cookies, but some parts of our Site may not work properly as a result. You can at any time use your browser setting to delete our cookies from your system. We may use a third party to display information on our Sites. As part of the third-party service, they may place a separate cookie on your computer.

9. Privacy Policies of Third-Party Sites:

We may maintain links to other websites on the Site. Links to alliances and sponsoring organizations are examples of these links. This Policy only applies to the FIRST FTC Scoring System.  Other sites accessible through our Site have their own privacy policies and data collection use and disclosure practices.  Please consult each site’s privacy policy.

10. Transfer of data to other countries:

Because the FIRST FTC Scoring System is a global site, FIRST may share your personal data with FIRST Program Delivery Partners in other countries in order to carry out the activities specified in this Policy. By submitting your personal data to FIRST, you consent to such transfers and to the storage, and processing of the information provided by you in any country where FIRST operates.

11. Changes to this Privacy Policy:

We reserve the right to change this Policy at any time.  Such changes, modifications, additions, or deletions shall be effective immediately upon notice thereof, which may be given by means including, but not limited to, posting the revised Policy on the Site. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review the Site you are using and this Policy periodically, and to be aware of any modifications.  Your continued use of a Site after any such modifications will constitute your; (a) acknowledgment of any modified Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by any modified Policy. To the extent that any modifications to this Policy materially alters how FIRST will use information collected under prior version of the Policy, FIRST will provide you notice, and where required by law, will obtain your affirmative consent.

12. How to contact us for privacy related concerns:

FIRST has a Data Privacy Officer and a Data Governance Team who represents FIRST and will lead investigative action, complaint handling and data breach notification. If you have any questions about this Policy, wish to exercise data privacy rights applicable to your country, including but not limited to erasure, correction, to receive a copy of your data, or to inquire about the practices of this Site, contact us via email privacy@firstinspires.org, by sending a letter to:

Or you may call us at (800) 871-8326 or (603) 666-3906.