The short version: this is a private, members-only community app. Your information is visible to verified members of the Brotherhood — never to the public. We don't run ads, we don't use analytics or tracking, and we never sell member information to anyone.
Navy Football Brotherhood, Inc. (“the Brotherhood,” “we,” “us”) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving alumni of the United States Naval Academy football program. This policy explains what information our mobile app and member systems handle, who can see it, and the choices you have.
Who this covers
This policy covers the Navy Football Brotherhood mobile app (“NFB Brotherhood”) and the membership records that power it. The app is invite-only: accounts are created by the Brotherhood for verified members of the Navy football family. There is no public sign-up.
Information we hold
Your membership record. The Brotherhood maintains a roster of its members that predates the app. When your account is created, your app profile starts from that roster and may include: name, email address, phone number, class year, city and state, employer, job title, industry, position played, jersey number, service branch, community, and service status. When you first sign in, the app asks you to review and correct your profile — name, city, state, employer, job title, industry, service details, position and jersey, LinkedIn link, and your private mailing address are all self-editable in the app; an administrator can correct anything else on request.
Information you add in the app. Your profile edits, your RSVPs to games and events (including guest count), the groups you join, whether you opt in to the Brothers Helping Brothers directory, and an optional LinkedIn link you choose to add.
Sign-in and device information. Your email address and a password you choose, used to sign you in. If you allow notifications, a push-notification token that identifies your device (not your location). The app has no analytics, advertising, crash-reporting, or tracking software of any kind, and it does not collect your device's location.
Administration and safety records. Timestamps of things you confirm or accept in the app (such as reviewing your info or accepting community guidelines), your notification mute preferences, any steward or administrator role you hold, and your account status. If a moderation matter ever involves you, the related records (reports, actions taken, and reasons) are kept. The Brotherhood also maintains historical team roster records (such as position played, hometown, high school, and years played) as part of its archives; within the app's database those records are accessible to administrators only.
If you apply for access. If you submit a membership application, we hold the application details — name, email, class year, affiliation with the program, and any note you include — for review by administrators.
How we use it
- To run the app: sign you in, show the schedule, events, groups, and directory
- To let you RSVP and see who else is going
- To send announcements from the Brotherhood (push notifications you can mute by group or turn off entirely in your device settings)
- To administer membership, keep the community safe, and comply with law
We do not sell member information. We do not share it with advertisers. We do not use it for marketing beyond the Brotherhood's own communications.
Who can see your information
Other verified members. This is a members-only community: your member record is available within the members-only database that verified, active members' apps read. Specific points worth knowing:
- The Brothers Helping Brothers directory is opt-in and off by default. Until you turn it on, you do not appear in the directory. When you do, it shows your name, class year, city and state, position played and jersey number, company and job title, industry, service branch, community, service status, and any LinkedIn link you added — the same list the opt-in switch itself names in the app.
- RSVPs are visible to members: when you RSVP to an event, other members can see your name, class year, and party size on the attendee list.
- Some RSVPs run through Google Forms. For most games and events, the RSVP button opens a Google Form run by the Brotherhood. What you enter there is stored by Google in the Brotherhood's private Google Forms and Sheets (under Google's own terms), where the event committee works from it, and the parts members see — your name, class year, party size, and anything you offered to bring — are copied back into the app's attendee list. Answers meant for the committee alone (such as payment status) are never copied into the app. The attendee list stays in the app as the event's historical record after the committee closes or deletes the Google Form; the Form and its response Sheet are kept by the event committee. To correct or remove a form response, contact the Brotherhood and we will fix it in both places.
- Group membership (class year, state, and any custom groups you join) is visible to members.
- Email and phone are not visible to other members. Your contact details are stored separately from the rest of your member record, readable only by you and Brotherhood administrators. Other members cannot see them anywhere in the app or in the underlying database — the only way another member receives your email or phone is if you accept a connection request and choose to share it.
Nothing is public. No member information is visible to anyone outside the verified membership and the approved staff accounts described below. Suspended and former accounts lose all access. (The one exception is a profile photo's web address, if photos are enabled — see the photo note below.)
Brotherhood administrators. A small number of board-designated administrators can manage membership records, review abuse reports, and administer the community. Administrators can also see every event attendee list — including the Google-Form attendee lists of events they are not part of — and keep that record after the committee closes a form.
Approved Navy Football staff. The board may approve individual Navy Football staff members for read-only accounts. A staff account sees what an active member sees — including the Brothers Helping Brothers directory and event attendee lists — and cannot post, RSVP, connect, or edit anything. Staff accounts are named individually, can be removed at any time, and are held to the same members-only expectation as everyone else.
Service providers. Like nearly every modern app, we rely on established infrastructure providers to operate:
- Google Firebase hosts our member database, sign-in, and push notifications. Member data is stored on Google's cloud infrastructure under our control.
- Google Forms and Google Sheets, run by Google, hold the RSVP answers you type into the event committee's form (see the RSVP note above).
- Apple delivers push notifications to iOS devices.
- GitHub runs our scheduled background jobs — syncing the football schedule, delivering push notifications, and moderation processing.
- Team logos on the schedule screen load from ESPN's public image server; this sends standard image requests (your IP address, no member data).
These providers process data on our behalf; they don't get to use member information for their own purposes.
Features that may be enabled later
Some features are built into the app but switched off until the Brotherhood's board enables them. They are invisible in the app until then. If and when they turn on:
- Group chat and game-week discussion — messages you post are visible to members of the relevant group (or, for game threads, RSVP'd attendees) and carry your real name. Removed messages — whether removed by you or by a moderator — are hidden from members but retained in the Brotherhood's records.
- Directory connections — a member listed in the directory can receive connection requests. If you accept one, the email and/or phone number you choose to share (from your member record) is released to that requester only. Declining shares nothing, and the requester cannot ask again.
- Profile photos — a photo you add appears next to your name for other members. It is stored in the Brotherhood's own Firebase project and is never used for advertising or tracking, and never sold or shared with other organizations. One thing to know before you add one: the app serves your photo from a long, unguessable web address. We do not publish that address anywhere, but anyone who obtains it — for example a member who copies it — can open your photo without signing in. Treat a profile photo as something you are comfortable being seen, not as a private file. You can replace or remove it at any time, which permanently deletes the image and invalidates that address. If you ever need someone else's photo taken down — for example a photo of a Brother who has passed, or one that includes you — contact the Brotherhood and an administrator will remove it.
- Job board — posts you create are visible to members and include the application contact you provide.
- Mentoring — a mentor profile you publish is visible to members; the contact details you provide are hidden from members and shared only with a mentee whose request you accept (administrators can access them for moderation).
- Member map — strictly opt-in; shows only your name, class year, and the city and state already published on your profile, drawn at the center of your town (never your address or precise location — the app stores no coordinates for any member). Members who opted in before city-level dots existed stay at state level until they re-save their profile. The map's base tiles load from a mapping provider (currently OpenStreetMap), which receives standard tile requests — your IP address, never member data.
- Fallen Brothers memorial — a board-curated tribute listing name, class year, and position only.
- Mailing address — optional profile fields (street, city, state, ZIP), stored privately: never shown to other members, never on the map, never released by a connection. Authorized Brotherhood administrators can access it, and use it only for official Brotherhood mailings.
- Officer use of contact information — Brotherhood officers maintain the organization's distribution list (including in their own contact-management tools) using member name, email, phone, class year, and mailing address, for official communications only. This is separate from member-to-member sharing, which always requires your consent through a connection or mentoring request. Released connection details are visible to the member you shared them with; administrators can also access them for moderation.
Most of these features are moderated: members can report member-posted content (chat messages, job posts and mentor profiles), moderators can remove it, and the Brotherhood keeps moderation records. Profile photos are the exception — there is no in-app reporting for them; contact the Brotherhood and an administrator will act.
Your choices
- Review and edit your profile in the app at any time (Profile tab): your name, city and state, professional details, and links. Other roster fields — class year, email, phone, position played, jersey number, service branch — can only be corrected by an administrator: contact us and we'll fix them.
- Directory listing is opt-in and can be turned off at any time.
- Notifications can be muted per group in the app or disabled entirely in your device settings.
- Leaving the Brotherhood app: there is no self-service delete button. Contact us and we will deactivate your account, and on request delete your member record. Some records may be retained where needed for the Brotherhood's legitimate records (for example, moderation and safety records) or as required by law.
Retention
We keep membership records for as long as you are part of the Brotherhood community. Content you post in member features remains until it is removed; in chat features, removed messages are hidden from view but retained in the Brotherhood's records to support moderation. Moderation and safety records are retained. If you ask us to remove your account, we will honor it as described above.
Security
Member data is protected by authenticated, members-only access controls enforced at the database level, encrypted in transit (HTTPS), and stored on Google Firebase infrastructure. Administrative access is limited to board-designated individuals.
Children
The app is for adult alumni and members of the Navy football family. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If we change this policy — including when board-gated features are enabled — we will update this page and note the date above.
Contact
Navy Football Brotherhood, Inc.
appdevios@navyfootballbrotherhood.org
www.navyfootballbrotherhood.org