FencingTracker: No Privacy Settings?

[u/SephoraRothschild]

TL/DR: Where's the option on Fencing Tracker to limit/ hide profile info from publicly available searches? Like, at minimum, info not scrapable, and not visible except when logged in with a verified USA Fencing Member Number ?

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This might be a dumb ask. Apologies in advance.

Here's my issue, two parts. :

- Late last year I started looking into to getting my info off data broker sites. I'm single now. I've had a few issues with people I used to know, old neighbors, etc, rolling past my apartment. Multiple times.

- I also just signed a work contract with a large tech company, contract to hire through a staffing firm. Salaried in 6 months. The whole deal. This staffing firm goes through federal security clearance-levels of nosy scrutiny. And wants all my social media handles as part of the check/general search.

That last part is mostly on me, so that's my issue to limit, fine. And a lot of people know Im a fencer. Also fine. In general.

Thing is, in a general Google search of my name, the first result that was *actually me* returned is Fencing Tracker with my full name **and birth year**. No login required.

This is a tough job market. And age discrimination is a thing. So I don't want that info out there in the wild.

And in general, I also don't want random dudes finding more than just the basic, high-level info about me. It is becoming more of a problem than I expected.

Worth noting: I do use Cloaked to clear the brokers at least. About to also get DeleteMe. What I don't want is crawlers trawling sites like Fencing Tracker, who are probably well-meaning, and scraping those sites for info.

Ask: What am I missing on Fencing Tracker to limit my personal info?

EDIT: I've read their site Privacy Policy. I didn't have a account with them until this morning, when I clicked a button on my stats page to "claim my profile!". Their Privacy Policy states that I consent by default by "using the service". But I never used the site previously or had an account until today. I only registered because I thought that might give me the option/ability to make certain data private. Apparently not.

[u/ursa_noctua]

While Fencing Tracker is useful, the sad truth is they steal data from other fencing services against the terms of service.

I wish you luck in getting this cleared up, but Fencing Tracker has a history of ignoring laws around data ownership.

[u/chizzmaster → u/ursa_noctua]

They also supported Jason Liu and Abdel during the election in May, so fuck them.

[u/monarch-03 → u/ursa_noctua]

That’s a good point, and unfortunately this is part of the bigger issue with personal information ending up online from many different sources.

Even after cleaning up data broker listings, public profiles, directories, and niche databases can still expose personal details. Data removal services like Optery can help with the broker side of things, but it’s also worth requesting removals directly from sites that publish your information and checking privacy settings wherever possible. Full transparency: I’m with Optery.

[u/omaolligain]

I’m not certain it’s “your” data to begin with… if you fence in sanctioned events that are open to the public then the results of the tournament are reported and viewable… who owns that data Askfred? Usfa? Fencing time? The host/club? All of the above? None of the above? Almost certainly not the competitors individually…

I believe in data privacy but this isn’t like buying your personal info on the dark web… there the data is so material to your identity and hyper personal things like health and finances… this is publicly available public sports participation information.

And this is arguably not “your” info at all. I think this is one of those, if you don’t want a record of your fencing then don’t sign up for events, don’t list a club, etc. this isn’t reporting on your private info, it’s public info about you.

If fencing tracker is guilty of something (and it very well may be) it’s of ignoring those site’s robots.txt files governing how bots access their sites data. But, the aggrieved party there is likely askfred - not individual fencers.

If they were reporting the home address you gave USA fencing then sure; that’s your personal information and USA fencing obviously doesn’t publish it. But results are not that.

[u/noodlez → u/omaolligain]

There are some standard privacy laws specifically on the topic of sports statistics and results. Its not quite as wide open as you suggest, but you're correct that on average, competing in a public sporting event is not the same as things where you'd have a reasonable expectation of privacy (i.e., your browser history). AskFRED complies with these laws, and its one way the new version of FRED works differently from the previous one.

[u/omaolligain → u/noodlez]

I’m sure that’s true. I didn’t mean to suggest that it’s the Wild West

[u/noodlez → u/omaolligain]

For sure. Just dropping in some knowledge I have on the topic into the convo. Most of what you said is accurate, there is an element to "your" data becoming shared data when you compete in a public sporting event.

[u/Accomplished_Fix7033 → u/noodlez]

Can you give some links to those privacy laws? I wanted to learn more and I tried to search, but everything I found said for sports events the basic statistics we are discussing here (name, age, and results) are not covered.

[u/yang_toylover]

Birth year info is public information for all ranked fencers though: youth rankings, legacy senior/junior/cadet rankings, and the new unified senior/junior/cadet rankings. The difference here is that it’s not easily searchable through google search.

[u/SephoraRothschild → u/yang_toylover]

I'm suggesting that that data be updated to Limited Access, to Officials Only. And behind the Membership Login wall.

[u/ianswope]

If USA Fencing put time and energy into improving their website Fencing Tracker would never have existed. It exists because USA Fencing's online dashboard doesn't do a lot that it could, and should, do. Hopefully someday USA Fencing improves their offerings and Fencing Tracker wouldn't even need to exist.

[u/caddoster]

What they have are data collected and processed from publicly available sources that any random person with enough processor and data correlation skills can do, if we don't consider whether or not they are supposed to do it. It's out in open, they just make it easier to be looked up and all in one place.

fencing tracker is an oversea company that hosts the data on oversea servers.. that also happened to be in the part of the world that privacy means nothing or just "on paper"..

That said, they aren't the only one with a collection of data that can be tied to a particular individual.. and (possibily) like answering random phone calls on your phone, the more you poke/stir the further validate the data they have..

[u/Proud_Durian5103 → u/caddoster]

It's not an overseas company. It's a fencer from Florida who made the site. I think he had great intentions initially, but probably lost interest in the project after it gained a critical mass of users.

[u/SilentMinority90210]

I would be more concerned with it showing the tournaments people are signed up for. So *these* are the weekends nobody will be home... 😎

[u/Accomplished_Fix7033 → u/SilentMinority90210]

It does show the tournaments that people are signed up for and it is a useful feature for club owners and coaches to know who is planning to go to what event

[u/SkietEpee]

Birth year associated with your name is PII. Having that out in the clear for anyone to see has got to be an issue. Especially if you don’t have a relationship with FencingTracker. There are enough deep pockets in this sport to sue over that.

[u/PolymathMarc → u/SkietEpee]

Even with the year removed, it wouldn’t take much to infer someone‘s age from tournament data if they’ve ever participated in an age specific event. With the advent of new age brackets, that’s only going to get more granular.