In 1974, Congress passed a landmark piece of legislation that would transform education forever: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). At a time when student records were still kept in manila folders and filing cabinets, educators and lawmakers had the foresight to recognize something crucial: a young person's educational journey — their successes, struggles, and growth — needed protection. They understood that a student's early academic records shouldn't follow them forever or be shared without careful consideration.
Today, as GameChanger serves nearly a million youth sports teams, we find ourselves at a similar pivotal moment. Like those early FERPA pioneers, we're looking ahead and asking: “How do we protect young athletes in an age where every game, every play, and every practice can be captured, analyzed, and shared through AI technology?” The stakes are even higher now — we're not just handling paper records, but creating rich digital footprints of young athletes’ developmental journeys.
This commitment to foresight shapes our entire approach to technology. While the sports world races to embrace AI and advanced analytics, we’re asking the essential questions: “How do we harness these powerful tools while protecting our young athletes’ privacy? How do we balance performance insights with personal security?” As a trusted leader in youth sports technology, these aren't just technical challenges — they're fundamental to our mission to responsibly support the growth of young athletes.
We’re fortunate to have transformed how many communities capture and share game moments, becoming a trusted leader in youth sports with nearly 1 million teams on the app. Even so, the question of data privacy looms larger than ever, especially with all the young people we support and their families.
At a time in which youth privacy concerns are increasingly making headlines, GameChanger is staying ahead of the curve.
Clearly, in today's increasingly digital landscape, protecting the privacy and security of young athletes’ data isn't just a feature — it's a fundamental responsibility, one requiring careful consideration and robust safeguards.
Such unprecedented challenges require thoughtful organizational responses. This is why GameChanger has implemented a comprehensive privacy framework. It prioritizes the protection of young athletes through multiple security layers and strict access controls.
At the infrastructure level, as Leonard Grazian, Computer Vision Engineering Manager, explains, “All our data lives in secure cloud storage.” More safeguards include carefully gated permissions that can be revoked at any time. GameChanger’s commitment to privacy goes even further with technical choices. For instance, our company made the deliberate decision to use jersey numbers rather than facial recognition technology for all player identification.
“There is no utilization of facial recognition technology,” Grazian emphasizes, highlighting our proactive approach to protecting player privacy, especially concerning Film Room, GameChanger’s AI-powered video analysis tool. These protections extend to all consumer-facing aspects of our platform where access to game footage is tightly controlled.
As McMillan also notes, “Team ‘staff’ members are the only ones who have permission to cut up game footage and have access to that stream.” This careful orchestration of technical safeguards, access controls, and data management policies is intended to create the most secure environment where parents and coaches can confidently share and manage youth sports content.
Looking ahead, GameChanger remains committed to evolving its privacy protections through both technological innovation and policy refinement as needed. “Safeguarding players isn't just a priority — it’s fundamental to our mission,” explains Josh Mauney, Sr. Engineering Manager, InfoSec and IT Ops. “As part of our ongoing commitment, we are continuously enhancing our security measures to protect data and ensure compliance with privacy standards. We’re continuing to strengthen data governance practices and advanced monitoring tools to detect and mitigate risks proactively.”
This forward-thinking approach is shaped significantly by ongoing feedback from coaches and parents, ensuring privacy measures align with real-world needs and concerns. The development team is particularly focused on exploring ways to further anonymize player data, with McMillan noting a practical insight from his work with users: “Coaches needn’t see a player’s face to understand their performance or track if they made or missed a shot.”
This philosophy of minimizing unnecessary personal data collection while maximizing protective measures is all part of GameChanger’s dedication to exceeding, rather than merely meeting, youth privacy standards. Through continuous improvement and proactive security enhancements, we wish to create an even more robust framework for protecting our young athletes.
As youth sports continue their digital transformation, we hope GameChanger’s approach to privacy protection serves as a model for our entire industry. Our commitment runs deeper than mere compliance, however. It’s personal, as Grazian reflects: “A lot of us here played youth sports, and still play recreationally as adults. We know the value sports have on a child’s development, and we feel a true responsibility to avoid dangers inherent to this emerging technology.”
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US Patent Nos. 8,731,458 and 9,393,485.
