Privacy Policy

Pitchside Digital Ltd, trading as penalty.app (“we”, “us”, “our”), is the controller of your personal data and operates the penalty.app web application, Chrome extension, and mobile applications, and the connection that lets AI assistants you choose to use work with your account (collectively, the “Service”). This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and your rights under UK GDPR.

1. Data we collect

Account & authentication

• Email address — used to identify your account and send sign-in links.
• Google account name and profile picture — only if you choose to sign in with Google.

Match & referee data

• Match details: date, competition, league, home and away teams, your role, match fee, payment status, and payment method.
• Venue address — used to calculate round-trip mileage from your home.
• Mileage and travel expense records.
• Cancellation records and lost earnings.
• Tournament entries.

Personal preferences

• Home address or postcode — stored to enable automatic mileage calculation. Never shared or used for any other purpose.
• FA referee level and season configuration.
• Promotion targets and progress data.
• Module preferences (which features you have enabled).

Financial & expense data

• Expense records: category, supplier, amount, and date.
• Travel expense method preference (mileage rate or actual cost).

Payments & subscriptions (Pro plan)

• If you subscribe to Pro, payment is taken by Stripe on Stripe’s own pages. We never see or store your full card number.
• We keep your Stripe customer ID, your subscription status and the date your current period ends, so that we can give you Pro access and show your plan in the app.
• Stripe collects the details needed to take payment and prevent fraud — for example your name, email address, card details and billing address — and uses them as described in Stripe’s privacy policy.

AI assistant connections (optional, Pro)

• If you connect an AI assistant, such as Claude or Codex in the ChatGPT app, we record the connection: the name the app gave itself, when you connected and when it was last used, and the security tokens that let it act for you. The tokens are stored only as one-way hashes, so we cannot read them.
• While an assistant is connected, it can ask us for your match, payment, earnings and expense data, and can ask us to log matches, record payments and chase notes, and add expenses. It cannot delete anything or change your settings, plan or account. Every request is made as you and only reaches your own data.
• What the assistant asks for is sent to the AI provider you chose, as part of your conversation with it. We do not send your data to that provider in any other way. The provider handles it under its own terms and privacy policy (see section 3).
• You approve each connection on a penalty.app screen and can disconnect it at any time in Settings under AI apps. A disconnected app loses access within about a minute.

Misconduct reports

• Report details you enter: player name, team, minute, offence type, and your description. This data is stored solely to allow you to retrieve and re-use your own reports.

Laws of the Game (LOTG) quiz

• Quiz results, scores, badges earned, and question history — used to personalise future quiz sessions and track your progress.
• The free quiz on our website needs no account. When you finish one we keep the level you chose, the questions shown and which answers you picked — with no name or email, and linked to your account only if you happen to be signed in — so we can see which questions need improving.

Technical data

• A signed, HttpOnly session cookie to keep you logged in.
• Only if you accept analytics: how you found us. Your browser remembers where you came from (for example a search engine or a link, including any campaign tags on it) and which page you landed on. If you then create an account, we save that with your account so we can see which channels bring people to the Service. If you reject analytics, none of this is stored.
• Only if you accept analytics: usage data collected by Google Analytics, such as the pages you view, your device and browser, your approximate location, and actions in the app like signing up or completing a quiz. See section 6.
• Error and crash reports collected by Sentry — these may include browser type, OS version, and a stack trace. No personally identifiable match or financial data is included in error reports.

2. Why we collect it

We collect this data solely to provide and improve the Service. Specifically:

• To authenticate you and keep your account secure.
• To store and display your match records, earnings, and expenses.
• To calculate mileage automatically using Google Maps.
• To generate payment chase messages, misconduct report text, and season summaries.
• To track your promotion progress and LOTG quiz history.
• To take payment for, and manage, Pro subscriptions (through Stripe).
• To let you use penalty.app from the AI assistants you choose to connect, when you ask us to.
• To understand how people find and use the Service (only if you accept analytics).
• To diagnose application errors and improve reliability.

We do not use your data for advertising and we do not sell it. Analytics, where you have allowed it, is used only to understand how the Service is found and used so that we can improve it.

3. Third-party services

We use the following third-party providers. Each processes data only as necessary to deliver their service:

AI assistants you connect are different from the providers above. They are not our processors: you choose them, and they receive data because you asked them to look at your account. They use it under their own terms and privacy policy, so check their settings, for example whether conversations may be used to improve their models. We do not control that.

We do not sell your data to any third party.

4. Data retention

Your data is retained for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, all associated data is permanently deleted from our systems within 30 days. Sentry error logs are retained for 90 days.

AI assistant connections: access codes and tokens expire on their own (codes after 10 minutes, access tokens after 1 hour, refresh tokens after 60 days). When you disconnect an app, its tokens are deleted straight away; we keep a short record that the connection existed (the app’s name and the dates) until you delete your account, when it is deleted too.

The exception is payment records. If you have paid for Pro, we and Stripe keep invoices and transaction records for as long as tax, accounting and financial-services law require, even after you delete your account.

5. Your rights (UK GDPR)

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of all personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification — correct inaccurate data (most data can be edited directly in the app).
• Erasure — request deletion of your account and all associated data.
• Portability — export your match history as a CSV file (free on every plan) or request a full data export.
• Restriction — ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
• Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@penalty.app. We will respond within 30 days.

6. Cookies and similar technologies

We use two kinds. Essential ones are always on. Analytics ones are off unless you accept them.

Essential (always on)

• A signed, HttpOnly session cookie that keeps you signed in. It contains no personal data, only a signed session identifier.
• Small items in your browser’s storage that make the site work: the email you used to request a sign-in link, whether you are signed in (so the right buttons show), banners you have dismissed, your Laws of the Game quiz progress, and your cookie choice.

Analytics (only if you accept)

When you choose Accept analytics in the banner, we load Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics (including through Firebase). They set cookies — typically _ga and _ga_ followed by an ID, which last up to two years, and _gid, which lasts 24 hours — and record the pages you view, your device and browser, your approximate location, where you came from and actions in the app such as signing up or completing a quiz. We also keep a note in your browser of how you first found us (see section 1).

If you choose Reject, none of this is loaded or stored. We do not use advertising or social-media tracking cookies.

Changing your mind

Use the Cookie settings link at the bottom of any page to change your choice at any time. If you reject after having accepted, the analytics cookies are removed and analytics stops straight away.

7. Children

The Service is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by posting a notice in the app or sending an email. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page always reflects the most recent version.

9. Contact

For any privacy questions or requests, contact us at: hello@penalty.app.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.