Privacy policy

The LTA processes a range of information about you. This includes, for virtually all individuals, your name and contact information (such as your home and/or business address (as applicable), email address and telephone number, and may include a parent's or guardian's contact details), records of communications and interactions we have had with you by various means, basic biographical information including your date of birth and gender (where relevant) and financial information including bank account details (used for accepting payments from you or making them to you, as applicable).

Personal data processed by the LTA also includes: information about any Wimbledon ballot entry you have made or tickets you may have purchased for the LTA’s events; information relating to matters arising under or in connection with the LTA Disciplinary Code (including safeguarding, anti-doping and disciplinary issues) including about investigations and their outcome; proof of identity where required; information collected by the LTA’s surveys; and marketing preferences, including as expressed by you (or as indicated by information we obtain from others); and medical information in the event of a public health emergency in accordance with government guidance (as was the case for Covid-19).

In addition, personal data we collect may include the following categories, depending on how you interact with us:

For LTA members:

• Membership details (including LTA member number, start date / expiry date and venues currently or previously linked to);
• Rankings and ratings;
• Competitions and prize draws entered;
• Any membership benefit redemption details and/or
• National Union of Students ("NUS") number / student details (if applicable).

For customers, for example including ticket buyers, LTA members, and those paying competition entry fees:

• Delivery address for products or services, including purchased tickets;
• Payment information and details of returns or refunds, where relevant; and/or
• Dietary requirements, access requirements and proof of ID, where relevant for attending LTA events.

For players:

• Performance, match-play (including details relating to competitions/tournaments entered, and results) and training-related data;
• Participation including court and course bookings;
• Availability, selection and travel information;
• Rankings and ratings;
• Dietary requirements and other information relevant for training or competition arrangements; and/or
• Medical records, physical test results, injury information and other health related data.

For coaches and officials:

• Accreditations, qualifications and training;
• Availability, selection and travel information;
• Evaluations and assessments of coaches, officials, players and/or matches; and/or
• Disclosure and Barring Service ("DBS") information (criminal records checks), where applicable.

For volunteers:

• Records of activity such as volunteer role(s), length of service, awards and number of hours;
• Application or registration details for the purposes of volunteering;
• Reference checks;
• DBS information, where relevant; and/or
• Availability information.

For the directors of each LTA entity and members of LTA bodies, committees (including independent committees) and panels, including the LTA Council, Tennis Development Committee, Safeguarding and Protection Committee (or any successor), Licensing and Registration Committee (or any successor), Disciplinary Panel (or any successor) and Judicial Panel (such directors and members being referred to collectively as “Designated Role Holders”):

• Contact details;
• Details of your role or involvement in meetings, hearings, investigations, etc; and
• Declarations of interest.

For website users:

• Login ID information, including usernames;
• Information provided through our website, including in messages and forms, for example forms for updating communication and marketing preferences; and/or
• Personal data collected by 'cookies' and similar technologies (please see the 'Cookies' section below and our cookies policy for further information).

Our administration of British tennis may also require us to process special category data (including data relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health, sex life and sexual orientation) and/or data relating to alleged or actual criminal convictions and offences (together "sensitive personal data").

We may collect your personal information in a number of ways, principally:

Directly from you, for example when you:

• apply to become a member of an LTA membership scheme (such as Advantage);
• open an LTA account;
• sign up for or book an LTA programme, training course, tennis court or event;
• purchase our products or services including tickets;
• attend LTA events or courses;
• use the National Tennis Centre facilities including the courts or accommodation;
• enter and/or participate in a competition, tournament or other event;
• join a performance programme as a player;
• provide coaching or officiating services;
• make enquiries on our website;
• act as a Designated Role Holder;
• register your school for LTA programmes in order to access LTA course material; and
• when you interact with us either online, for example using our platforms, apps, or online resources, or during your participation in British tennis in various other ways (including as a volunteer).

From someone else acting on your behalf, for example:

• when a parent or guardian has purchased LTA membership for you as their child
• when a ticket buyer names you as their guest at an LTA event;
• when a coach or official provides information to the LTA on behalf of a player, such as performance or results data;
• when a member of a player’s support team (such as your agent) arranges your entry to and/or participation in a tournament and/or event organised by the LTA; or
• when LTA staff or LTA affiliated persons who are working with you (whether in your capacity as a player, coach, parent, official or volunteer) record or share information about you, for example when coordinating competitions, or pursuant to any LTA policy which applies to you (for example coach licensing, disciplinary or safeguarding).

From third parties you are connected to, for example:

• If you have expressed an interest in receiving information from the LTA or joining an LTA membership scheme through certain third parties (for example the All England Lawn Tennis Club or your LTA registered venue);
• As a result of a share or asset purchase by the LTA, for example the acquisition of British Padel (now LTA Padel) and Local Tennis Leagues, and through your interactions with any such organisations acquired by the LTA;
• If you have bought tickets to an LTA event through an external ticketing provider;
• If you are nominated for an LTA award or for other recognition;
• From entities such as SERVES where you have given your details to tennis “activators” as part of tennis programmes or community groups;
• If you are named as a contact on an invoice or as part of a payment process;
• If you have booked a court through, or otherwise interacted with, the ClubSpark platform;
• From your interaction with LTA accounts on third party platforms, including, for example, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube (for example when you express an interest in the LTA by clicking ‘Like’ on the LTA’s Facebook page or one of our posts);
• From national academies, regional and local development centres and other entities working with the LTA’s Performance team;
• From others who are not acting on your behalf (for example, where someone makes a complaint or raises a concern about you which we then investigate);
• When your details are provided to us through the LTA venue registration process
• By creating it ourselves or where third parties create it for the LTA, for example:
• when we, or selected scouts acting on our behalf, produce match reports from watching players compete at events;
• when we access player data from public sources (including, for example, published match reports, ratings and rankings data) and analyse it using the LTA’s online platforms;
• where still or moving images are collected at the National Tennis Centre or LTA competitions or events, for example to enable video review, replays and analysis; or
• where individuals working for or on behalf of the LTA create records and reports in relation to officials and umpires.

Other

By automated means, including about visitors to the National Tennis Centre and other LTA premises using CCTV monitoring, or when you are captured by cameras which are filming at LTA competitions, tournaments and other events.

Performance of contracts. The LTA will process your personal data where this is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract. For example, we need to process personal data in order to comply with any terms and conditions (including of any membership scheme; for the purchase of products or services, including tickets; and those applicable to the use of our website), and with funding and player support agreements.

Compliance with our legal obligations. In some cases, the LTA needs to process your personal data in order to comply with its legal obligations. For example, we need to process personal data in order to comply with health and safety legislation, carry out DBS (criminal records) checks on coaches, officials and volunteer roles (where relevant) for safeguarding purposes, report certain tax information about our financial arrangements with third parties to HM Revenue & Customs and assist with investigations by police and/or other competent authorities.

Legitimate interests. In other cases, the LTA has 'legitimate interests' in processing personal information about individuals we interact with. We have many such interests, including commercial interests and those with a wider public benefit. In essence, our principal legitimate interests are in pursuing our mission of opening tennis up to a wider range of participants and administering British tennis in a way that promotes and safeguards the integrity of the sport. For example, we need to process personal data in pursuit of our legitimate interests such as:

• Sports governance and administration. In particular to:
  • organise competitions, tournaments and major events;
  • process and publish results, ratings and rankings data from competitions, including disciplinary data, records of code violations and immediate defaults, match results including disqualifications and suspensions, and other personal data which is necessary for the LTA to be a central repository of match results across British tennis;
  • assess attendance at LTA sessions and courses (via ClubSpark) as part of a recognition scheme to reward attendance;
  • communicate with coaches in relation to training courses they have booked, including any changes to course dates or times;
  • process queries, complaints or other information received by the LTA;
  • keep appropriate records of individuals associated with the LTA, including LTA account holders (including members), players, coaches, officials, volunteers and Designated Role Holders;
  • administer and undertake disciplinary, safeguarding, licensing, accreditation, anti-corruption, anti-doping and other regulatory and governance functions (including exercising any right, power or authority in terms of the LTA Competition Regulations or the LTA Disciplinary Code), including any review, process and/ or other involvement by the Designated Role Holders, and keep records in relation to or connection with the same, including of any decisions made in respect of these functions; 
  • administer our performance programme (for example, monitor player progress or make player selection decisions);
  • oversee the operation of miscellaneous LTA initiatives such as prize draw competitions, awards and recognition of service/contribution (for example the colour holders scheme and the LTA Tennis Awards); and
  • structure the LTA with a 'head office' at the National Tennis Centre and some regional offices and/or centres throughout Great Britain, storing most personal data centrally and making use of certain software and/or cloud storage providers for the purposes of efficient, fast and secure access to personal data.
• Marketing. To market the LTA's products and services (including tickets, performance and participation programmes, coaching courses and events), and promote tennis and Padel across Britain more generally;
• To ensure the security of LTA events and premises, including by recording individuals' photographs and processing personal details as part of event accreditation processes and capturing individuals' images using CCTV monitoring;
• Use of images. To support and promote the LTA’s products, services and events by capturing your image (still or moving) onsite at the National Tennis Centre and/or at LTA competitions or events, for example if you are a player who takes part in a personal appearance at an LTA tournament or other event or if you appear in a crowd at an LTA tournament or other event. If you object to your/ your child’s image being captured, the LTA will, to the extent possible, and provided there is no compelling legitimate ground for obtaining or retaining it: (i) attempt to avoid photographing/ videoing you/ your child; and (ii) on request delete images which have not already been disseminated;
• LTA account management. To create profiles by analysing personal LTA account holders’ data as captured at account creation and/or membership sign-up (which may include, for example, questions about how frequently you play or engage in tennis), and by analysing the data of LTA account holders via interactions with the LTA (including on our website), brand communications and from third party data enrichment and social media providers by building segments (i.e. groups that have certain common characteristics) and by placing you in one or more segments. These segments will be used by the LTA to tailor, as relevant, your LTA account dashboard and the communications we send, and to provide you with information about products and services which you may be most interested in;
• Social media outreach. (i) To tailor the advertisements you see on your Facebook and other social media platforms so that they are relevant to what the LTA knows about your tennis related interests, and (ii) identifying individuals (known as ‘lookalikes’) via social media who share similar characteristics and interests to the LTA’s own members but who are not currently members of the LTA, in order to encourage them to become LTA members;
• Research and analysis. To undertake analysis and research to gain insight into the backgrounds and motivations of people interested in tennis, and to improve the LTA’s products and services; and further to conduct research and statistical analysis for those already involved in tennis (for example into volunteering practices and patterns, coach engagement, and personalised membership communications);

Where the LTA relies on legitimate interests as the legal basis for processing personal data, it has considered whether or not those interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights or freedoms of the individuals whose data are being processed and concluded that the processing is, on balance, fair.

Consent. The LTA may also process your personal data on the basis of consent you give, for example to send you certain direct marketing communications, or to place certain ‘cookies’ on your computer or other device when you use our website (please see our cookies policy for more information about this). We will also sometimes seek or require your explicit consent where processing special categories of data: see below.

Processing special categories of data

Where we process sensitive personal data (namely personal data which is either defined as special category or criminal records data within the meaning of UK GDPR), other legal bases for processing may apply, including:

• where our processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims (for example, to protect and/or defend our property or rights, or those of other British tennis stakeholders);
• for reasons of substantial public interest, for example:
  • to conduct safeguarding investigations and hearings, and other hearings (such as coach licensing and disciplinary hearings) designed to protect the public;
  • to share information that may be relevant to safeguarding, whether with relevant authorities or to individuals or establishments within tennis or more widely as deemed appropriate for the overriding objective of creating safe environments (see further below);
  • to publish information in respect of LTA accredited coaches on the “Find a Coach” tool on the LTA website as to whether they are accredited to work with children and/ or adults, for the purposes of safeguarding children and adults at risk);
  • for protecting the integrity of sport and sporting events, including anti-doping measures and all related information sharing and recording.

• for the provision of medical care and treatment under the supervision of qualified professionals, and (where applicable) for maintaining insurance policies in respect of the same for LTA-supported players;
• for the purposes of protecting public and individual health in accordance with Government guidance relevant at the time; or
  • where you have otherwise given us your explicit consent; for example, to:
  • allow the use of performance players’ medical records for performance monitoring purposes, as well as for the administration and delivery of funding or other support from the LTA; or
  • to share those records with another tennis organisation; or
  • where coaches or officials provide us with data relating to criminal convictions and offences as part of the DBS disclosure process.

Retention of sensitive data. The LTA will only retain this personal data for as long as it remains necessary for the lawful purpose for which it was recorded (which may be for long periods in the case of safeguarding or legal claims data), but it may continue to use data collected for these purposes (pseudonymised or aggregated where appropriate) to conduct research and statistical analysis, for example about player performance. Equality of opportunity or treatment. In particular, we may process data revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, data concerning health, gender identity information, and/or sexual orientation information (“diversity data”) for the purposes of assessing, monitoring and taking steps to improve and promote diversity and inclusion in tennis, as well as for responding to and monitoring any allegations of discrimination. Where we collect diversity data from you, we will endeavour to explain why we are doing so, and will make sure that this sensitive personal data is never used to make decisions about you in particular, or in any other way that could cause you serious distress. You are encouraged to contact us to update your diversity data to ensure it is accurate, and you can always ask us to stop processing your diversity data and we will do so within a reasonable time. All diversity data is held securely on the LTA’s systems and will typically only be used in an aggregated form which makes it impossible to identify any particular individual. Diversity data when suitably aggregated / anonymised will be retained for so long as it is necessary to inform the LTA’s diversity and inclusion strategies. Any diversity data that identifies you specifically may be retained for so long as you are involved with British tennis, and for a reasonable time afterwards.

Personal information collected and processed by the LTA may be shared with the following recipients, or categories of recipients, where necessary:

• Someone acting on your behalf, for example a parent or guardian who has purchased LTA membership for you as their child;
• Our employees and volunteers (as applicable), for the purposes of providing particular products or services to you;
• Competition organisers and officials involved in competitions you are taking part in;
• (Where you are a volunteer) with our employees and other volunteers, for the purposes of volunteer management and administration and any volunteering application or project; and to arrange your accreditation for an event;
• Tennis venues and clubs, in order to carry out necessary administration and management functions;
• The LTA’s county, island or national associations, where relevant, in order to provide those associations with contact details and other information about, for example, venue welfare officers and other key venue contacts, coaches, volunteers, officials, LTA members, players who take part in LTA competitions, and individuals who attend LTA events, as well as information relating to participation on courses and at venues, playing statistics, the delivery of performance programmes, records of player rankings and ratings, details about customers including ticket buyers, and disciplinary and safeguarding related information for the overriding objective of creating safer environments;
• Third party training course providers whose services you book via the LTA (and, where relevant and appropriate, we may share individuals’ contact details with coach development centres or other training course providers);
• The All England Lawn Tennis Club or any of its related entities, which owns and hosts The Championships, Wimbledon (for which the LTA receives an annual allocation of tickets), in connection with facilitating the provision of any Wimbledon tickets secured in an LTA Ballot, the provision of ticket-holder benefits and the seeking of ticket-holder feedback, and for the purpose of The All England Lawn Tennis Club contacting you with tickets you have purchased (and, where you have consented to this, with information about the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s activities);
• Venues hosting LTA events and third parties involved with the organisation of such events (for example, so that they can cater for your dietary or access requirements and for the purposes of administering accreditation);
• Our contractors and suppliers, including where they process personal data on our behalf, and subject always to suitable legally binding terms of confidentiality and data security (for example, IT consultants and hosted software providers, insurers and other product or service providers) including:
  • Sportlabs Technology Limited, the provider of 'ClubSpark', which the LTA uses for administration in relation to, for example, certain coaching courses and other tennis programmes, court bookings, and events, etc.;
  • Visual Reality, the LTA’s competition management system;
  • third parties we use to help us provide LTA participation programmes and learning management systems;
  • the LTA’s media and strategy partners;
  • membership benefits providers; and
  • companies assisting the LTA with research and analysis of its products and services;
• For players, with:
  • members of your support team;
  • other tennis/sports organisations such as the WTA, ATP, ITF, ITIA, UK Sport and UKAD;
  • competition organisers including the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association and related international bodies (for the purposes of player selection and event administration);
  • ratings and rankings organisations such as the ITF and UTR (including, in relation to the ITF, player name, date of birth, match results, ratings and rankings for the purpose of the world tennis number project);
  • individuals involved on LTA selection panels, third party survey companies (for the purpose of surveying players on their tournament experiences);
  • Support organisations such as Tennis First;
  • entities such as national academies, regional and local player development centres and universities; and
  • with public health authorities in the event of a public health emergency, as required by legislation.
• For officials, with the Association of British Tennis Officials (ABTO) for the selection and grading of officials;
• For coaches:
  • certain information is shared with the public via the LTA “Find a Coach” tool, including whether or not they are accredited to work with children and adults;
  • with the LTA’s coach development centres to facilitate workforce development plans (sharing your name, contact details, coaching qualifications, and pre-requisites for coaching, for example confirmation that you completed first aid training); and
  • with tutors where necessary for the tutors to provide LTA courses;
• DBS and safeguarding committees and 'umbrella bodies' (for the purpose of carrying out criminal records checks on coaches and officials and others where relevant), HM Revenue & Customs (for tax reporting purposes), the police, local authorities (including any local authority designated officer (“LADO”)) and/or other competent authorities, as applicable;
• Designated Role Holders, professional advisors, investigators and experts with suitable experience as required to carry out disciplinary, safeguarding, licensing, accreditation, anti-corruption, anti-doping and other regulatory and governance functions (and other professional advisors who provide the LTA with legal, accounting, tax and other advice which is informed by individuals’ personal data);
• Social media platforms, including Facebook, so that we can engage with you via your Facebook or other social media accounts, including by tailoring the advertisements you see on social media based on what we know about you and your particular tennis related interests, and to help us find other social media users similar to you who may be interested in what the LTA has to offer;
• Former employers and other providers of necessary background checks; and
• Disciplinary and Safeguarding: To the extent not set out above,
  • Any individuals necessary for the performance of the LTA’s Disciplinary or Safeguarding functions, including witnesses and others who are connected with any investigation;
  • Professional advisors
  • To the relevant division of the LTA judicial panel;
  • Sports Resolutions
  • With individuals and establishments within the tennis community or wider which the LTA may (at its discretion) consider it necessary and appropriate to disclose to for the overriding objective of creating a safe environment.

Typically, the LTA will not transfer your personal data to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK. On the limited occasions when this does occur (for example, because your personal data is stored on an IT system hosted outside of the EEA or the UK), we ensure that any such transfer meets the requirements of the (UK) GDPR, or the transfer is otherwise subject to prescribed safeguards such as the 'Standard Contractual Clauses' approved by the European Commission or equivalent contractual safeguards approved by the UK Secretary of State. Where we make more regular and/or larger scale transfers of personal data outside the EEA or the UK, we will assess the adequacy of the protections in place for that data to ensure the transfers are lawful. You can obtain more details of the protection given to your personal data when it is transferred outside the EEA or the UK by contacting us using the details below.

We may retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes set out in this privacy policy and/or the LTA's reasonable requirements. On expiry of the relevant retention period, your personal data will be deleted, suppressed or anonymised, as applicable, save that we will retain comprehensive details of player rankings, ratings and results for archiving purposes in the public interest, or historical or statistical purposes, bearing in mind our role as the national governing body for British tennis.

We may retain recordings or transcripts of disciplinary, safeguarding and other hearings. We may also retain a safeguarding related ‘flag’ on our internal records (which is only visible to certain members of staff on a ‘need-to-know’ basis) which indicates when an individual has been involved in a safeguarding incident, regardless of the outcome. The content of your DBS results will not be stored (absent an overriding legal reason to retain), but we will record the fact of a DBS check being carried out at the correct level and the action taken (including any restrictions placed on your playing, coaching or officiating).

Under the UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• obtain access to, and copies of, the personal data that we hold about you;
• require us to correct the personal data we hold about you if it is incorrect;
• require us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances;
• require us to restrict our data processing activities in certain circumstances;
• receive from us the personal data we hold about you which you have provided to us, in a reasonable format specified by you, including for the purpose of your transmitting that personal data to another data controller;
• object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to any of our particular processing activities where you feel this has a disproportionate impact on you (including the use of your data for direct marketing); and
• where our processing is based on your consent, withdraw that consent, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us in writing using the contact details below. Please note that these rights are not absolute and we may be entitled (or required) to refuse requests where exceptions apply.

If you are not satisfied with how we are processing your personal data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can also find out more about your rights under the UK GDPR (and other data protection legislation) from the Information Commissioner's Office website available at: www.ico.org.uk.

Marketing: You can at any time withdraw any email marketing consent you have previously provided by: (i) selecting the unsubscribe link in any of the marketing emails we have sent you; (ii) contacting us via our 'Contact us' page. Please note that you will still receive service or transactional (non-marketing) messages from the LTA, for example in relation to your LTA account, your role as a coach, official or volunteer, or as part of any correspondence you have with the LTA.

Edit your details: If you wish to edit your details, please (i) refer to the relevant section of the LTA website; or (ii) contact us via our 'Contact us' page.

In some cases described above, the provision of personal data is a contractual requirement, and/or a statutory requirement if you wish to engage with the LTA in a certain way (for example, where you wish to work as an LTA coach or official, and there is a statutory requirement for us to carry out a criminal records check on you, for safeguarding purposes; or if you are supported by the LTA as a player, we may need certain performance, illness and injury information from you).  In those and other cases, if you do not provide us with certain personal data, by consent or otherwise, we may not be able to work with you or provide our products or services to you (as applicable), or it may adversely affect the provision of our services to you.

For information about how the LTA uses ‘cookies’ on our website(s), please see our cookies policy below:

See cookies policy

If you have any queries about this privacy policy or how we process your personal data, you may contact us below:

Contact us

You can also reach us by post at: Data Protection, LTA, The National Tennis Centre, 100 Priory Lane, Roehampton, London SW15 5JQ

Last updated: November 2022