Privacy
Last updated 2 November 2026
Project Board (symmetryboard.co.uk) is a free app for the symmetry board at The Hangout, Portland. You can browse problems, light them up on the wall and tick the ones you’ve climbed. We keep as little about you as we can. We never ask for your email, your real name, a photo or a phone number. There are no adverts and no tracking cookies, and your data is never sold.
Who’s in charge
The Hangout Climbing is in charge of the information in this app. If you have a question, want a copy of your data, or want something changed or deleted, email thehangoutclimbing@outlook.com, or ask a member of staff.
Use a nickname, not your real name
When you make an account, you pick a nickname. Use a nickname, not your real name, and don’t use your email, phone number or social media name. The app won’t accept names that look like an email, a web address or a phone number. By creating an account you agree to this.
Without an account
You can browse problems and light them up on the board without an account. Nothing about you is stored, apart from the short-lived technical logs (such as IP addresses) that the companies who host the app keep to run it and keep it safe.
What we keep if you make an account
- Your nickname, and the date you joined.
- Your PIN (or your passphrase, if you made your account before November 2026), but only in a scrambled form, never as the numbers or words themselves. Staff can’t look it up: if you forget it, they give you a new one.
- Your ticks (which problems you’ve climbed, which way round, and when) and your favourites.
- Problems and circuits you set.
- Your challenge attempts, such as the Pat Burner: how many seconds you held on for in each rep, your total, and when you did it.
- Whether you’re on Ranks. This is off unless you turn it on.
- What you light up on the wall while signed in: which problem or circuit, when, and from where (your phone or the wall screen). For a circuit, the app also saves the run to your log: how many moves you made, how fast, and whether it looped.
Behind the scenes, the sign-in system needs an email-shaped address. The app makes up a random one that can’t receive email. It isn’t yours and it’s never used to contact you.
Who can see what
- Everyone can see the problems and circuits you set, with your nickname on them.
- Ranks shows your nickname, points and number of sends, but only if you turn on “Show me on Ranks” in your Profile. It’s off to start with.
- Challenge leaderboards (on Ranks) follow the same switch. If it’s on, they show your nickname, your best score and the date you got it, and other climbers can compare the seconds you held on each rep of that best attempt with their own. If it’s off, nobody else sees any of it.
- Only gym staff, on the board's admin computer, can see what members light up on the wall and with which nickname. They use it to see how the board is used and to look after it. It isn't shown in the app, and it isn't sent out when you light something up: the wall only hears whether someone was signed in.
- Only you can see your ticks and favourites, all your challenge attempts, and your points and scores when you’re not on Ranks.
- The Popular sort uses only a total for each problem: how many climbers have ticked it, never who.
- Admins (gym staff who look after the app) can see your nickname, when you joined, how many problems you’ve set and climbed, your last 10 ticks, and whether you’re on Ranks. They use this to help you, for example to check it’s really you before giving you a new PIN. They can change your nickname if it breaks the rules, and delete a challenge attempt that looks wrong. Everything an admin does to an account is recorded.
There’s no way to send messages to other people in the app.
If you forget your PIN
Ask a member of staff. An admin can give you a new PIN (or a new passphrase, for an older account), and you’ll be signed out everywhere until you use it. If you forget it and no admin can reset it, your account is gone.
The robot check
When you sign in or make an account, a check from Cloudflare Turnstile makes sure you’re a person and not a computer program. To do that, Cloudflare looks at information about your browser and device. The app doesn’t keep any of it.
Your location
When you cast a problem, or set one with the board lighting up as you tap, the app asks your phone for its approximate location and checks, on the phone itself, that you’re at the gym. Your location is never stored or sent to us or anyone else, and the app forgets it within a minute. If you don’t allow location access, casting still works.
On your device
Your browser keeps your sign-in, two small settings (whether you’ve closed the install banner and the welcome screen), an offline copy of the app, and a copy of the problem, circuit and challenge lists (with setters’ nicknames) so they still open without a connection. During a challenge it also keeps the attempt you’re doing, and keeps a finished attempt until it has been saved (for example if you had no signal), then deletes it. None of this is used to track you.
Who helps run the app
- Supabase runs the database and the sign-in. The data is stored in London, UK.
- Cloudflare hosts the site, counts visits without cookies, and runs the robot check.
We don’t share your data with anyone else.
Deleting your account
Go to Profile → Delete my account and all my data, or ask a member of staff. Your account, nickname, PIN or passphrase, ticks, favourites, challenge attempts, circuit runs, the record of what you lit up, and points are deleted straight away. Problems and circuits you set stay on the board with your nickname, so other climbers can keep climbing them. You’re told this before you confirm. Otherwise, we keep your data for as long as you have an account.
Questions or complaints
Email thehangoutclimbing@outlook.com. If you’re unhappy with how your data has been handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Credits
Passphrases (for accounts made before November 2026, and their resets) are made from the EFF large wordlist by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, used under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.