Legal

Privacy Policy

What we keep, why, who can see it, for how long, and how to see, export or delete it.

Version 2026-10-14. Last updated October 14, 2026.

What changed in this version

Ticket alerts from Check my numbers: if you are signed in when you ask for one, or later tap "Add to my account" on that ticket's own page, the alert is linked to your account, listed under My tickets, and its messages appear under Notifications. We never link an alert to an account because the email address matches. You get one email per drawing for all your tickets in it, still at the address you gave. Deleting your account deletes the alerts linked to it.
A new browser storage key, stw-chk-draft: the lines you type on Check my numbers, one draft per game, so switching the game keeps them. It stays in your browser (session storage), is never sent to us, and is gone when you close the tab.
The Terms of Service now define four record labels instead of one "Verified": Recorded, Member-confirmed, Result verified and Payment confirmed.
Messages you send from the contact page go to the platform owner, the one site administrator chosen to receive messages to ShareTheWinning: by email, and in that administrator's message list on the site for up to 180 days.

1. Who we are

The operator of ShareTheWinning runs ShareTheWinning: sharethewinning.com and its installable app (the "service"). This policy explains what personal information we keep, why, who can see it, how long we keep it and your choices. It applies to everyone who uses the service, signed in or not.

2. What we keep, why, who sees it and for how long

Your account

What: Your name, email address and login name; your password, stored only as a one-way hash; the versions of these Terms and this policy you accepted and when; the page that sent you to sign up and any messages you asked for while signing up; until you confirm your email, a one-time confirmation link; your light or dark choice. If you use "Continue with Google", Google gives us your name, email address and an account id, never your Google password, and Google knows you signed in here; we keep that account id, that email address, when you connected it and whether you have chosen a password of your own yet. Disconnecting Google on your account page removes them.
Why: To run your account, sign you in, and show that you agreed to the terms.
Who can see it: You. Members of your pools see your name. We see it when we help you.
How long: Until you delete your account. Your name is then replaced in pool records (see "Your rights and choices").

Profile and payment handles

What: A public handle and short bio if you make a profile, whether it is public, and the payment handles you add (for example a Venmo or Cash App username) so members know how to pay you.
Why: So members can find and pay each other directly. We never see or process a payment.
Who can see it: Payment handles: members of your pools. Profile: anyone, only if you switch it to public.
How long: Until you remove them or delete your account.

The pool record

What: Each pool you create or join: members, shares, what each member marked as paid and who confirmed it, payment notes you type, the pool agreement version each member accepted with the server time and IP address, the tickets and every play, matched prizes, the split, payments between members, disputes and high-value claim records.
Why: This record is the product: it lets every member check who was in, what was bought and who is owed what.
Who can see it: The members of that pool. We look at it only to run the service, to help with a dispute both sides raised, or when the law requires it.
How long: While any member of that pool keeps an account, and at least as long as the pool's state lottery allows prizes to be claimed. A locked round is never edited; corrections are new entries.

Invitations

What: A pool is joined with its invite link, its six-character code or the QR code on its printed kit, which the Pool Admin shares however they like. We send no invitation emails. The pool keeps its code and the record of who joined.
Why: So the people the Pool Admin chose can find the pool and join it.
Who can see it: Anyone who has the link or the code can open the invite page: the pool's name, the admin's name, the game, the state, the drawing, the share price and how many members and shares it has so far. Member names stay inside the pool.
How long: As long as the pool record. Once a round locks, the link still shows the pool but takes no new members until the next round opens.

Ticket photos

What: The original photo file the Pool Admin uploads, byte for byte, with its SHA-256 fingerprint and the time we received it, plus a line in the audit trail the first time each day a member opens it (the member's account number, the photo and the day). The original keeps what your camera stored in it, such as the time and, if your phone adds it, the location; members are shown a copy with those hidden details removed.
Why: The photo is the pool's evidence of the official ticket; the fingerprint shows it was never changed.
Who can see it: Signed-in members of that pool only. Photos are kept in a private folder that is never public.
How long: As long as the pool record. Turn off location tagging in your camera if you would rather not store it.

Share cards

What: Images you choose to make and share. A Pool Admin's pool card shows the pool name, the game and the admin's badge; it never shows a ticket unless the admin picks a numbers-only crop. A "Share my result" card from Check my numbers or a watch page keeps the game, the drawing date and how many numbers each line matched, and your numbers or prize amounts only if you tick them. It keeps no name, email, account or IP address.
Why: To show the card at its link and give the link a picture when it is shared.
Who can see it: Whoever has the card's link. A pool card stays up until the admin turns it off.
How long: A "Share my result" card and its picture are deleted automatically 90 days after they are made. A pool card is kept with the pool record.

Reading a ticket on your device

What: Nothing new. After you agree on the photo sheet, you take the photo with the camera in the page (on a phone, if you allow the camera) or choose one. Your device checks that it looks like a ticket and is sharp, bright and free of glare, then a reader is downloaded from our own server and runs in your browser. On Check my numbers the camera's frames and your photo never leave your device. In a pool, the photo is uploaded only because the admin records it as the pool's evidence.
Why: To save typing. The reader can be wrong, so you always check the numbers against the paper ticket.
Who can see it: No one: the camera, the checks and the reading all run on your device.
How long: The camera turns off as soon as you take the photo or close it; its frames are not kept. Your browser keeps the reader files like any web file, so the next read is faster.

Pool chat and community

What: Messages and reactions you post in pool chat, reports you make, which chats you muted and how far you have read. If public stories, comments or follows open later, what you post there.
Why: To run the chat beside the record, and to review flagged or reported posts.
Who can see it: Members of that pool. Our moderators, when a message is flagged or reported. Public posts, if they open, are public.
How long: As long as the pool record. A message you remove is hidden from the chat; when you delete your account its text is blanked.

Emails, push notifications and devices

What: Your notification choices, the messages we queued for you and whether each was delivered, push subscriptions (the address your browser gives us for notifications and its keys), and for the installed app a device description and a sign-in token stored only as a hash.
Why: To tell you about your pools: lock, tickets, results, payments and disputes.
Who can see it: You. Our email and push delivery providers see the message and where it goes, nothing else.
How long: While your account is open. A push subscription ends when you turn notifications off on that device. All of it is removed when you delete your account.

Check my numbers

What: Checking lines against a drawing that has happened stores nothing: the lines are read, checked and forgotten in the same request. Only if you tap "Share my result" is a card kept (see Share cards). If you ask us to tell you the result of a coming drawing, or of every drawing on a multi-draw ticket, we keep your lines, the drawings you chose and one way to reach you: an email address (we send a confirmation link first and nothing else until you open it) or, in the installed app, an anonymous notification subscription on that phone. If you are signed in when you ask, or later tap "Add to my account" on that ticket's own page, the request is also linked to your account: it is listed under My tickets and its messages under Notifications. We never link a request to an account because the email address matches. Your messages still go to the address you gave.
Why: To send you one message after each of those drawings (one message per drawing for all your tickets in it) and nothing else, never marketing; and, when linked, to show them in your account.
Who can see it: No one else. Signed out, no account is created; nothing is shared with anyone.
How long: Every message has a one-click stop link that deletes everything at once. Otherwise we delete the lines and your contact automatically 30 days after the last drawing, and a request nobody confirmed after 48 hours. Deleting your account deletes the requests linked to it.

Email me when pool creation opens

What: If you ask us to email you when pool creation opens in your state, we keep your request (the state and when you asked).
Why: To send that one email.
Who can see it: No one else.
How long: Until we send that one email, you remove it, or 30 days pass without you confirming it.

Planning tools

What: Coverage sets you save while signed in, and your place in the planning guide (in your account when signed in, otherwise only in your browser).
Why: So you can come back to them.
Who can see it: You.
How long: Until you delete your account (or clear your browser).

The audit trail and review queue

What: A line for every change to a pool record: who (as an account number), what changed and the server's UTC time, chained by hashes so a missing or altered line shows. Items waiting for a person to review, such as a result that needs confirming or a flagged message.
Why: So nobody, including us, can change the record quietly.
Who can see it: Members see their pool's trail. Our reviewers see the queue.
How long: Never deleted and never edited: the trail is insert-only. Entries hold account numbers rather than names, but a few hold details as they were typed then (for example the name on a contact message), and those are not rewritten later.

Messages you send us

What: Your name, email address and message from the contact form.
Why: To answer you.
Who can see it: The platform owner (the one site administrator chosen to receive messages to ShareTheWinning), and our email provider in transit.
How long: In our mailbox for as long as needed to help you, and in the platform owner's message list on the site for up to 180 days. The audit trail keeps your name, a one-way fingerprint of your email and the message length, not the text.

Page counts

What: How many times each page was viewed per day. To count unique visitors we keep a one-way fingerprint (SHA-256) made from a random value that changes every day, your IP address and the full identification string your browser sends with every request (its user agent, which names the browser, its version and your operating system). The IP address and that string are not stored themselves. No cookie, no cross-site tracking, no third-party analytics.
Why: To know which pages help people.
Who can see it: The people who run ShareTheWinning, as totals.
How long: Fingerprints are deleted after two days; the daily totals are kept.

Security and spam protection

What: For public forms: a hidden field, a time check, and a one-way fingerprint of your IP address to limit how often a form is sent. Request keys that stop a double tap from saving something twice. Our host's server logs (IP address, page, browser, time). When spam protection from Google reCAPTCHA or Cloudflare Turnstile is switched on, that provider checks the form you send. The last 100 emails the site sent (recipient, subject and a short preview), for fixing delivery problems.
Why: To keep accounts, pools and forms safe from abuse.
Who can see it: The people who run ShareTheWinning; our host; the spam-protection provider when it is on.
How long: Form fingerprints: one hour. Request keys: 24 hours. Email log: the last 100 sends. Server logs: as long as our host keeps them.

Lottery data and system records

What: Games, rules, drawings, official results, jackpot estimates, state facts, background job locks and the made-up people of the example pool. None of it is about you.
Why: To check tickets and run the service.
Who can see it: Results and state facts are public.
How long: Results are kept permanently and never overwritten.

3. Cookies and browser storage

We set only the cookies and browser storage below. All are our own and all are needed for the feature they serve; we use no third-party analytics. When ads or spam protection are on, Google (or Cloudflare, for Turnstile) may set its own cookies on the pages that carry them; see "Advertising and your choices".

wordpress_logged_in_* (Cookie): Keeps you signed in. Until you sign out, or 2 days (14 with "Remember me").
wordpress_sec_* (Cookie): Secures the signed-in session. Same as the sign-in cookie.
wordpress_test_cookie (Cookie): Checks that your browser accepts cookies before sign-in. Until you close the browser.
stw_google (Cookie): Ties a "Continue with Google" sign-in to this browser while you are at Google, so no one else can finish it. 15 minutes, or until the sign-in finishes.
stw_returning (Cookie): Remembers that someone has signed in on this browser, so the sign-in form shows first. One year.
stw_theme (Cookie): Your light or dark choice, so the page draws in it at once. One year, or until you pick "System".
stw_journey (Local storage): Your place in the planning guide when you are not signed in. Until you clear it.
stw_coverage_handoff (Local storage): Carries the plays you made in the coverage tool to your pool once. Removed when it is read.
stw_pwa_* (Local and session storage): When to offer "Add to Home Screen", and that you said no or installed it. Until you clear it.
stw-photo-ok (Session storage (local storage if you tick "Don't ask again on this device")): That you agreed to read a ticket from a photo (the photo sheet: the reader runs on your device), so the sheet does not ask again. Until you close the tab; with "Don't ask again", until you clear it.
stw_task_done (Session storage): That you just finished a task, so the install offer may follow it. Until you close the tab.
stw_create_draft (Session storage): A draft of the pool you are creating, offered back if the page reloads. Until you close the tab or finish.
stw-chk-draft:* (Session storage): The lines you typed on Check my numbers, one draft per game, so switching the game keeps them. Never sent to us. Until you close the tab or clear the lines.
stw-ticket-draft-* (Session storage): A draft of the ticket you are recording (photo ids, never the files). Until you close the tab or save.
stw_rf:* (Session storage): Reloads a page once after you sign in, so it shows your view. Until you close the tab.
stw-static-* (Cache storage): Copies of our style, script and image files (never pages with your data) so the app opens fast. Until the next app update.

4. How we use information

To run the service and keep each pool's record.
To send the messages you asked for or need: lock, tickets, results, payments and disputes. Marketing email, if we ever send it, needs your separate consent and has one-click unsubscribe.
To keep the service secure and stop spam and abuse.
To help when you ask, including with a dispute both sides raised.
To meet legal duties and answer valid legal requests.
To improve pages, using counts that do not identify you.

We never use your pool record, tickets or chat for advertising, and we do not build a profile of you for advertisers.

The members of your pool: its record, chat and ticket photos.
Companies that work for us under contract and only for that work: our host (SiteGround, servers in the United States), our email delivery provider, the push service built into your browser or phone (run by Google, Apple, Mozilla or Microsoft) which carries a notification, spam protection when switched on (Google reCAPTCHA or Cloudflare Turnstile), and the sign-in service you choose, when we offer one.
Google AdSense on public pages, as described below.
Anyone you choose to share with: a share card you make, or the claim bundle you give a lottery or a lawyer.
When the law requires it (a valid subpoena or court order), or to protect someone's safety or rights. We will tell you first when the law allows.
If the service passes to a new operator, it must keep this policy's promises for the data collected under it.

Spam protection: Google reCAPTCHA is covered by Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service; Cloudflare Turnstile by Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.

We never sell your personal information, and we never give pool, ticket or chat data to advertisers.

6. Advertising and your choices

Public pages such as results, guides and tools may show ads from Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other sites; Google explains how at policies.google.com/technologies/ads. Ads never appear on pool, account, ticket or payment pages, on any page with a form, on Check my numbers, on Responsible play or on these legal pages. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland see Google's own consent message before any personalised ad.

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information: we do not sell personal information for money. Some state laws, including California's, treat personalised advertising cookies as "sharing" or "targeted advertising". You can opt out of that in any of these ways:

Turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser. When your browser sends it, our pages ask Google for non-personalised ads only.
Turn off personalised ads in Google's My Ad Center.
Block third-party cookies in your browser.
Write to us (below) and we will help.

7. Children

The service is for adults: 18 and over, or older where state lottery law requires it. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and never from children under 13 (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). If you think a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete the account and remove the child from every pool.

8. Security

Every page uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Passwords and the app's sign-in tokens are stored as one-way hashes, and an email confirmation link works once and expires. Ticket photos sit in a private folder and are shown only to signed-in members of the pool. The audit trail cannot be edited, even by us. No system is perfect: if a breach affects your information, we will tell you as the law requires. Please use a strong password that you use nowhere else.

9. Your rights and choices

See and export: any member can export the pool's ledger as a spreadsheet file (CSV) from the pool, and a big win's claim bundle holds the full record. You can ask us for a copy of everything we hold about you.
Correct: change your name, sign-in email (we send a link to the new address first), password, profile, payment handles, appearance and notification choices yourself in your account. A locked pool record is corrected with a new entry, not an edit, so its history stays.
Delete: on your account page, under "Delete your account", with your password and the word DELETE. If you run a pool, you hand it to another member first. We then take you out of every pool, remove your sign-in, notification and device data, pending requests and watches, blank your chat messages, and show "Former member" where your name was in the pool records. Your shares, payments and the tickets you recorded stay, because the other members rely on them, and audit entries are never rewritten.
Messages: switch off any message that is not about your money or your pool's record in your account settings.
Ads: see "Advertising and your choices".

We answer within 45 days. If we need longer we will tell you why, and take at most 45 more. We will never treat you differently for using these rights.

10. State privacy rights

Several states give their residents privacy rights, including California (the CCPA, as amended by the CPRA), Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas and Oregon, and more states are adding them. Some of these laws apply only to larger businesses, but we offer these rights to everyone in the United States:

to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose, and to get a copy in a portable format;
to correct it, and to delete it (within the pool-record limits above);
to opt out of the sale of personal information (we do not sell it), of "sharing" for targeted advertising (see "Advertising and your choices") and of profiling with legal effects (we do none);
to limit the use of sensitive information: we do not use any to infer things about you, and the only sensitive detail we might hold is a location your camera writes into a ticket photo, which we never read;
to act through an authorized agent (we may ask for proof of the agent's authority and confirm your identity);
to appeal: if we decline a request, reply to our answer to appeal it; if we still decline, you may contact your state attorney general.

California: in the last 12 months we collected identifiers (name, email address, IP address), the records you enter (pool, ticket and payment notes), internet activity (page counts and security logs), the state you choose, and the photos you upload, for the purposes in this policy. We disclosed them only to the companies listed under "Who we share with", for those purposes. We have not sold personal information. Nevada: we do not sell covered information.

11. Where your data is

We store and process data in the United States. The service is meant for people in the United States.

12. Changes to this policy

We will post any update here with a new version and date. For a material change we will tell you by email or on the service before it applies, and ask you to accept it the next time you sign in.

13. Contact

ShareTheWinning is run from the United States. To reach us, write to info@sharethewinning.com or use the contact page.

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