Privacy
The short version: brackets should be fun, not a data grab.
BracketTap is operated by Oso Innovative, LLC, which is responsible for the data described here.
Private by default
Every bracket you make is private unless BracketTap curates it as a public bracket. Nobody can find your bracket unless you share it.
No account needed
You don't need to sign up or log in to create a bracket or to join one. BracketTap does not require accounts and does not intentionally collect personal information to participate in private tournaments.
Private brackets are never published automatically
We never turn a private bracket into a public one. What you make stays yours.
Public brackets are curated separately
The brackets in Discover are created and reviewed by the BracketTap team. They're a completely separate collection from the brackets people play privately.
Group brackets expire
When you play with friends, the room and its votes are stored only as long as needed. They're deleted about 72 hours after the last activity, and the host can delete a room sooner.
How group voting stays anonymous
When you join a room, your browser makes a random code that belongs to that one room only. We store a scrambled (hashed) version of it so you can't vote twice. We don't ask for your name, and rooms themselves don't use cookies, device fingerprints or your location (our host's site analytics, described below, covers room pages like any other page). Vote counts stay hidden until each matchup is revealed.
Public bracket results are anonymous totals
When you finish one of our public brackets on your own, your picks are added to running totals (like "Pepperoni was crowned in 37% of brackets"). We keep only the counts per choice, never a record of your individual bracket or anything that identifies you. Private group rooms are never counted.
Solo brackets stay in your browser
When you play on your own, your bracket is saved only on your device so you can pick up where you left off. The only thing that ever leaves it is the anonymous finished result of a public bracket, described above.
Sponsors
Some pages show a clearly labelled sponsor message, never on host screens or stream views, and you can close it. Clicking one passes through brackettap.com so we can count clicks in total (not who clicked), then takes you to the sponsor. Sponsor images load without telling the sponsor which page you were on. Sponsor messages use no cookies.
Ads from Google
Some pages may show ads from Google AdSense: the home page, public bracket pages, and voting screens (never host screens or stream views). Only those pages load Google's ad code. Google and its partners may use cookies or similar technology to show ads and measure them, including ads based on your visits to this and other websites. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services. You can turn off personalized ads in Google's My Ad Center, and learn about other ad companies' choices at aboutads.info.
Your consent and choices
In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent message asks before any ad cookies are used. If you decline, Google shows only non-personalized or limited ads. You can change your mind at any time with Privacy choices at the bottom of the page. In US states with privacy laws (such as California), Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information at the bottom of the page opts you out of personalized ads. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as that opt-out automatically. These links appear once a page with a Google ad has loaded for you, because that's when choices apply.
What's stored on your device
BracketTap's own storage exists only to make features you use work, and never leaves your device unless described above: your brackets and games in progress, your list of My brackets, the code for rooms you joined, replies to brackets you shared, your sound setting, which sponsor messages you closed, and which privacy links apply to you. Admins also get a sign-in cookie. Our host's analytics adds one more cookie, session-id, described below. Clear your browser's site data to remove all of it. Google's ad cookies are separate and covered by your consent choices above.
Site analytics from our host
BracketTap is hosted by Lovable, which adds its own analytics to every page. When a page loads, it records the page address (for a room, that includes the room code), the site that sent you here and any campaign tags in the link (such as utm_source), your browser type and language, a rough country worked out from your time zone, how long the page took to load and how long it stayed open, and technical errors. To group page views into one visit it sets a session-id cookie that expires after 30 minutes. It doesn't record your screen, what you click or type, or your votes: Lovable's session recording and click tracking are switched off for BracketTap. This data is sent to Lovable; see Lovable's privacy policy.
Live streams in rooms
A host who streams on YouTube can add their stream to a room, and players then see a bar to watch it above the vote. Nothing is loaded from YouTube unless you open it. When you do, the player comes from YouTube's reduced-cookie domain (youtube-nocookie.com), and YouTube may still store information on your device and collect data about the video you watch; see Google's privacy policy. Closing the stream removes the player.
Playing in Discord
BracketTap can run as a Discord Activity in a voice channel. We never ask you to sign in with Discord and never receive your Discord username, ID, avatar or server details. Discord gives each Activity session a random session number so everyone in the channel lands in the same room; we keep only a scrambled (hashed) form of it, and it's deleted with the room. Inside Discord there are no ads and no YouTube player. Discord itself knows you opened the Activity, and its servers relay the connection; see Discord's privacy policy.
No other trackers
Apart from our host's analytics above, Google's ads, and a YouTube stream you choose to open, we don't use analytics, session recording, social media pixels or device fingerprinting. Our fonts are served by us, not by an outside service.
Children
BracketTap is made to be family friendly, but it isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them.
Your rights
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or US state privacy laws), you can ask what personal data we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it, or to stop using it. We don't hold accounts or names, so in practice there's usually nothing that identifies you. For ad data, use the choices above or Google's own tools.
Contact
Privacy questions or requests to Oso Innovative, LLC: support@brackettap.com
Last updated October 9, 2026.