Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Kick Off App Ltd ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses and protects your personal data when you use the KickOff app. We are committed to protecting your data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

Kick Off App Ltd (Company Number 17291462) is the data controller responsible for your personal data. Our registered office is Unit 18, Park Royal Business Centre, 9-17 Park Royal Road, London, NW10 7LQ.

For any privacy question, or to exercise your rights, contact us at hello@kickoffsocialapp.co.uk.

2. Age of Users

You must be 16 or over to create a KickOff account. We ask for your date of birth at sign-up and it cannot be changed afterwards.

Some parts of the App are restricted further:

• Games published publicly on Discover are 18+. Players aged 16 and 17 can organise and join games within groups they have been invited to, but are not shown games open to the general public, and the Discover map is not available to them.
• Organisers who collect payment through the App must be 18 or over, because our payment provider requires account holders to be adults.

We recognise that users aged 16 and 17 are children under UK data protection law, and that the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code applies to them. Section 9 sets out what that means in practice.

3. Data We Collect

• Account information: your name, username, email address, profile photo if you add one, date of birth, and gender (male, female, or prefer not to say). Date of birth and gender determine which games you are shown and cannot be changed once saved.
• Skills questionnaire responses: your answers, used to calculate your starting player rating.
• Player and match data: your rating (OVR) and its history, match history, teams, scores, positions, statistics, and ratings given to and by other players.
• Location data: your device's location, used to show you nearby games and to place games you create on the map. See section 5.
• Messages: the content of messages you send in group and game chats is stored so conversations persist between sessions.
• Payment data: processed by Stripe. We receive confirmation of payment status, the amount, and which game it relates to. We never receive or store your full card details.
• Health and fitness data (optional): distance, heart rate, calories and route data from Apple HealthKit or Android Health Connect, only with your explicit consent, and used to build your match heatmap and fitness statistics. Your average distance can also be shared with your group if you choose to turn that on — see section 7. You can decline this and use the App normally.
• Push notification tokens: a device identifier used to send you notifications about your games. You can turn notifications off at any time.
• Usage and device data: basic technical information needed to operate, secure and debug the App.

4. How We Use Your Data

To create and manage your account; to calculate ratings and generate balanced teams; to show you games you are eligible for; to process payments; to enable messaging; to send you notifications about games you are in; to provide support and resolve disputes; to prevent fraud, abuse and harm; and to comply with our legal obligations.

Automated decisions. Your rating is calculated automatically from your questionnaire answers and match results, and is used to balance teams and to decide which games you are shown. This is not a decision producing legal or similarly significant effects, but you can contact us if you believe your rating is wrong.

5. Location Data

Location is used in two ways:

• Finding games near you. Your location is read when you open Discover and is not stored. We use it to search for games within your chosen radius.
• Recording your movement during a match (optional). If you enable it, the App records your route while a match is in progress in order to build your heatmap and distance statistics. There are two ways this happens. If you have connected a smartwatch or fitness tracker, the route is read from Apple Health or Health Connect after the match has finished, and your phone plays no part in recording it. If you have not, the App records your location itself, and only while the App is open on screen — we do not collect your location in the background on either platform. This is off unless you turn it on, and you can stop it at any time.

Location is off by default for users under 18, and Discover is not available to them. See section 9.

6. Legal Bases for Processing

• Performance of a contract — to provide the App's core services.
• Consent — for optional health and fitness data, route recording, and push notifications. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests — to keep the App and its users safe, prevent fraud and abuse, and improve the service. Where users are children we have considered their interests and rights first.
• Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose data by law, including transaction records.

7. Who We Share Data With

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with providers who help us run the App:

• Stripe — payment processing (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.).
• Supabase — authentication and account management.
• MongoDB Atlas — database storage.
• Railway — application hosting.
• Brevo — sending authentication and service emails.
• Expo — push notification delivery.
• Google Maps — mapping and venue search.
• Apple HealthKit / Android Health Connect — the source of the optional health data you allow us to read.

Some profile information — your name, username, profile photo and player rating — is visible to other Users, because organising and balancing games requires it. Your email address, date of birth, payment details and private messages are never shown to other Users. Your health data is private too, with one exception you control: if you turn on “Show my distance in the league table” in the App’s Privacy settings, your average kilometres per match are added to the league table the rest of your group can see. That setting is off unless you turn it on, and you can turn it off again at any time. Other players see whether a game is age-restricted, not your age.

Health and fitness data. Data read from Apple HealthKit or Android Health Connect is used to show you your own heatmap and fitness statistics, and is stored on our servers so that it is there when you sign in on another device. Your heart rate and calorie figures are never shown to any other User. Your average distance per match is shown to your group only if you have turned that setting on. We do not use health or fitness data for advertising or marketing, we do not use it for profiling of any kind, we do not sell it, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks or any other third party. It is not used to train any model. You can withdraw access at any time in your device settings, which stops any further collection.

8. International Transfers

Some of our providers store or process data outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States. Where data leaves the UK we rely on UK adequacy regulations, or on the International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for details of the safeguards that apply.

9. Users Aged 16 and 17

Users aged 16 and 17 are children under UK data protection law. For them:

• Location is off by default and must be actively turned on.
• The Discover map is not available, and they are not shown games published to the public. They play only in groups they have been invited to.
• Their profile is not discoverable by strangers through the public map.
• We do not profile them for marketing and we do not use their data to build advertising profiles. We do not show advertising in the App.
• Settings default to the most protective option, and we explain in plain language what any setting does before it is changed.

If you are a parent or carer and have a question about your child's account, contact hello@kickoffsocialapp.co.uk and we will respond promptly.

We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If we learn that someone under 16 has created an account, we will delete it and the data associated with it.

10. Reporting Harm

If someone behaves inappropriately towards you or another player, report it through the App or email report@kickoffsocialapp.co.uk. Reports involving a child are treated as a priority. We may suspend or remove accounts, and we will contact the police or other authorities where we believe someone is at risk.

11. How Long We Keep Data

• Account data — while your account is active, and deleted or anonymised when you delete your account. See Deleting Your Account for exactly what happens to what.
• Transaction records — six years, as required by UK tax law.
• Match and rating history — anonymised rather than deleted when you close your account, so other players' records stay accurate.
• Messages — retained while the group or game exists; your name is removed from your messages when you delete your account.
• Reports of harm — up to three years, so patterns of behaviour can be recognised.

12. Security

Data is stored using industry-standard encryption and access controls. Payment data is handled entirely by Stripe and never reaches our servers. Access to production data is limited to those who need it. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we will tell you and the ICO without undue delay if a breach is likely to put you at risk.

13. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to access your data; to have inaccurate data corrected; to have your data erased; to restrict or object to processing; to data portability; and to withdraw consent at any time.

Date of birth is an exception to correction in one respect: because it is used for age eligibility, it is locked once saved to stop it being changed to reach games you are not eligible for. If you entered it incorrectly, contact us and we will correct it after verifying your identity.

To exercise any right, contact hello@kickoffsocialapp.co.uk. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy. If we make material changes we will tell you in the App before they take effect.

15. Contact

For any question about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, contact hello@kickoffsocialapp.co.uk.