Privacy Policy

02What we collect

2.1 Account information

Your username is turned into an internal address of the form yourname@offtheball.app so it can be used with Firebase Authentication. This is not a real mailbox, and we do not collect an email address from you.

2.2 Profile information

Your playing position, kit number, current and target level, your fitness self-rating, your age band, and whether you use the app as a player or a coach. Your profile picture stays on your device. If you share a session with friends, a small compressed copy of it is attached to that post so they can see who it's from; the full-quality picture is never uploaded. Remove your picture and the copy goes with it.

2.3 Location data

When you start a session — a match, an interval run, a fitness test or a live “train together” session — the app records your precise GPS position for as long as that session is running, and uses it to calculate distance, speed, sprint count and your route.

• Recording starts only when you start a session, and stops when you end it.
• It continues while your screen is locked and the phone is in your pocket — that is the point of the feature. iOS shows a blue indicator in the status bar whenever this is happening.
• The app asks only for “While Using the App” location permission. It never asks for “Always”, and it never records your location outside a session.
• The route is saved with the session and synced to your private cloud storage so it survives a new phone. Only you can read it.
• You can refuse or revoke location access in your device settings. The app still works — you just enter session data manually.

2.4 Training and performance data

Distance, duration, sprint counts, top and average speed, heart-rate zones you enter yourself, XP, match-fitness percentage, level, streaks, your training plan and your saved sessions.

2.5 Social and team data

Your friend code, friends list, friend requests, which teams or groups you belong to, and the name and photo of any team or group you create.

When you are in a team, the app publishes a limited set of your stats to that team's leaderboard: display name, distance, top speed, XP, match-fitness percentage and level. Everyone in that team can see them. Your individual sessions are not published to a team, and your routes never are. A team or group name and photo chosen by a member is visible to everyone in that team.

2.6 Sessions you choose to share

When you save a session you can choose Just me or Friends. Just me is the default, every time — nothing is shared unless you pick Friends for that session.

Choosing Friends posts that one session to the people on your friends list, and to nobody else. The post contains your display name, a small copy of your profile picture, your level, your match-fitness percentage, and the session's distance, duration, sprint count and top speed. A match also includes its heat map.

The heat map does not show where you were. It is drawn from positions normalised onto a generic pitch outline, so it shows how you moved around a pitch and nothing about the real place. Your actual GPS coordinates are never included in a post, and interval runs carry no map at all.

You can delete a post at any time from the feed; the session stays in your own Saved Activity. Blocking someone removes their posts from your feed and yours from theirs.

2.7 Usage analytics

If you leave analytics on, we collect anonymous product analytics through PostHog: which screens you open and for how long, which buttons you tap, session counts, and coarse device information (model, OS version, app version). It is tagged with your role, age band and playing level so we can see which parts of the app are useful to whom. It is not linked to your name, username or any account identifier, and is never used for advertising.

You can turn it off: Profile → Share anonymous usage → Turn off. Nothing is sent after that.

2.8 Safety data

If you report someone we store the report: who filed it, what was reported, the reason and any detail you wrote. If you block someone we store that block on your account. See section 7.

03Why we may process it

Under the UK and EU GDPR, our lawful bases are:

04Who we share it with

We do not sell your data and we do not share it with advertisers. We use these processors:

Maps are rendered using the provider built into your device — Apple Maps on iOS, Google Maps on Android. We may also disclose data where legally required, or where it is necessary to investigate a safety report or protect someone from harm.

05How long we keep it

• Account, profile, sessions, routes, team memberships — until you delete your account. Deletion is immediate and permanent.
• Shared session posts — until you delete the post or your account.
• Analytics — retained by PostHog for up to 12 months, in anonymous form.
• Safety reports and blocks — up to 24 months after a report is resolved, so we can act on repeat offenders. A report may be retained even if the account that filed it is deleted, stripped of identifying detail about the reporter where possible.

06Your rights

If you are in the UK or EEA you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to and receive a portable copy of your personal data, and to withdraw consent at any time. Most of these you can exercise directly in the app:

• Access and correct — Profile → Edit
• Delete everything — Profile → Delete account. This erases your account, profile, sessions, routes and team memberships from your device and from our servers.
• Withdraw analytics consent — Profile → Share anonymous usage → Turn off
• Stop location collection — revoke the permission in your device settings

For anything else, email fraser.g@offtheballfitness.com. We respond within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113) or your local supervisory authority in the EEA.

07Safety and moderation

Off The Ball lets you publish a display name, a username, and a team or group name and photo that other people can see. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive behaviour.

• Names are automatically screened when you set them, and offensive ones are refused.
• You can report any user, team or group from inside the app — tap a player on your friends list, long-press them on a leaderboard, or tap the flag icon on a team.
• Every report is reviewed within 24 hours. Content that breaks the rules is removed and accounts that repeat it are terminated.
• You can block any user. A blocked account disappears from your friends list and from every leaderboard you see, and can no longer contact you. Manage blocks at Profile → Safety & privacy → Blocked accounts.

Full rules are in the Terms of Use.

08Security

Data in transit is encrypted with TLS, and data at rest is encrypted by Google Cloud. Your saved login credentials are held in the iOS Keychain or Android Keystore, and Face ID and Touch ID are handled entirely by your device — we never receive your biometrics. Access to production data is limited to those who need it to run the service.

09Children

Off The Ball is not intended for children under 13, and you must be 13 or older to create an account. If you are between 13 and 18, please make sure a parent or guardian is happy for you to use it — particularly the location and team features. If we learn that we hold data from a child under 13 we will delete it. Contact fraser.g@offtheballfitness.com if you believe this has happened.

10International transfers

Our analytics stay in the EU. Firebase may process data in the United States; where it does, the transfer relies on the UK and EU Standard Contractual Clauses and, for Google, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

11Changes

If we change this policy materially we will update the date at the top and notify you in the app before the change takes effect. Continuing to use Off The Ball after that means you accept the new version.

12Contact

fraser.g@offtheballfitness.com — for data-protection requests, put “Data request” in the subject line.