Privacy Policy
Gaffer helps small-sided football teams plan line-ups, run sub rotations, record scores and stats, and make highlight reels. This page explains what information the app keeps, why, and what you can do about it. The rules for using Gaffer are in the Terms of use.
Who is responsible
The app is run by Ethan Davison-Pearce. For anything about your data, email ethan@reth.com.
What we keep
| Information | Whose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address and password | Anyone who creates an account | To sign in, link you to your player, and let gaffers manage their teams. Passwords are stored only in hashed form by our database provider. We also keep that you agreed to the Terms of use. |
| Your answers to game polls (in, in goal or out) and your playing position | Players | So the team can see who's playing the next game and where. |
| Last name, if you add one, and which player on a team is you | Players with an account | To show you your own stats. Your last name is shown only to you and your team's gaffers. |
| Team details: name, colours, crest, settings, follow and gaffer codes | Teams | To run the team in the app and let followers find it by code. |
| Players' names or nicknames, as typed in by a gaffer | Players | To plan line-ups and show stats. |
| Match records: opponents, scores, minutes played, goals, assists, saves and the times they happened | Teams and players | To show live games, stats and season totals, and to build highlight reels. |
| Guests' names (a first name is enough), as typed in by a gaffer for a game among the squad, with the side they played on and any goals or assists | Guests | To show that game, its stats and its highlights to the team, and to the guests themselves through the link the gaffer sends them. A guest can ask the team's gaffer to change or remove their name, or email us. |
| Who played in a friendly game (a game outside any team): the names, or usernames, of the people added to it, the side they played on and their goals and assists. Someone on Gaffer who is added to a friendly has the game counted in their own stats; a guest who opens their personal link and makes an account gets the game linked to that account. Opening a personal link in Gaffer's App Clip shows that player's own games and clips from their friendlies, with no account; the App Clip keeps the link on the phone only so the full app can open it | Whoever set up the friendly | To keep score, show the game and its highlights to the people who played in it, and count it in each player's own stats. It never counts for a team. Ask whoever set it up to take you out, or email us. |
| Your profile: your username, the name you show on it, whether it's public or private, the clips you pick for it (up to three), who you follow and who follows you, any follow requests, people you block and any reports you make about a profile | Anyone with an account | So people can find and follow each other. When you join a team, you and everyone else on it follow each other automatically (you can unfollow anyone). A public profile shows your teams, results, stats and chosen clips to anyone signed in; a private one shows only your name and username until you accept someone. Your upcoming games are never shown. Blocking hides you from each other; reports are looked at by us. |
| Your posts: the highlight clips and reels you share on Home, with any caption, the people you tag in them and when you posted them; the likes you give; the comments you write on posts; and any reports you make about a post or a comment | Anyone with an account | So the people who follow you see your moments on their Home. A post is seen by the same people who can see your profile. You can delete your own posts and comments at any time (and any comment on your own post), and take yourself off any post you're tagged in; a post you're tagged in shows on your profile. Reports are looked at by us. |
| AI commentary: the lines Gaffer writes for a commentator's voice over highlights (players' first names or nicknames, the team names, the score and the minute), only when a gaffer or player chooses to add commentary and has allowed it | Teams and players | Sent through our server to Google (its Gemini and Cloud Text-to-Speech AI), which turns them into speech and sends the sound back. Google doesn't use them to train its AI. Nothing else is sent: no video, emails or accounts. The app asks before anything is sent, and you can stop it at any time in Settings → AI commentary. The voice is kept in the highlight clips; each team's monthly use is counted. |
| Shop orders: what you ordered (for a kit: its colours, badge picture, and the names, numbers and sizes on the shirts), the price, and once you've paid, your email, phone number and delivery address | Anyone who orders from the shop | To make and post the order. Payment is taken by Stripe (Apple Pay or card); we never see or keep card details. The order's printer and the post get only what they need to make and deliver it. Orders are kept for our accounts; if you delete your account the order stays without your account on it. |
| Ads you choose to watch (the free plan, iPhone app only): a 30-second ad plays only when you tap to watch one to see your own highlight reel. While it plays, Google's AdMob gets what it needs to show the ad: your phone's advertising identifier only if you allow tracking when Apple asks, roughly where you are from your internet address, and that the ad was shown, tapped and watched; and a random ticket number and your account's ID, so Google can tell our server the ad was watched to the end | Players on the free plan | To unlock your reel. Google acts under its own privacy policy. In the UK and EU you're asked first whether ads can be personalised, and can change that in Settings → Ads → Ad choices; if you don't allow tracking, ads aren't personalised and still unlock it. No ads are shown during a game or to teams on a paid plan, and no names, teams, chat or videos are sent to Google for ads. We keep which reels you've unlocked, and when. |
| Reports you make about a live stream | Anyone with an account | So we can deal with anything that breaks the Terms of use. Every report (about a post, a comment, a profile, a chat message or a stream) sends us a notification, and we look at it within 24 hours. |
| Team pot payments: when someone chips into their team's pot or pays the whole month, which team, how much went in, when, and Apple's reference for the purchase | Anyone who pays | So the whole team gets what was paid for, each purchase counts once, and the team can see how full the pot is and who chipped in (by their name in the squad or their username). Payment is taken by Apple: we never see card details or your Apple ID, and the team is never shown what each person paid. We check each purchase with Apple before it counts. If you delete your account, the team keeps the time that was paid for but not who paid. |
| Commentary voices you buy: which voice, when, and Apple's reference for the purchase | Anyone who buys one | So the voice works on any phone you sign in to, and each purchase counts once. Payment is taken by Apple: we never see card details. Deleted with your account. |
| Goals logged by followers, when a team allows it | Teams | Passed to the gaffer's app and then deleted. |
| Highlight clips: short videos cut from a match recording on a gaffer's phone, with their captions; each game's whole reel; and a player's own reel, if they or a gaffer make one | Teams and players | So the team can watch highlights by game and by player. The full recording stays on the gaffer's phone and is not uploaded. |
| Your team's home ground, if a gaffer sets one: its name and its position to about 100 metres; challenges sent to and from other teams with their terms and reported scores; and the team's Elo rating | Teams | So nearby teams can find each other and arrange games. Other signed-in teams see your team's name, colour, home ground name, rough distance and rating. A gaffer can take the team off the map at any time. |
| Goal of the Week: the goal a team's gaffer puts up each week (its highlight clip with its caption, the team's name and colour, and who and when it was against), the vote each person gives, the winner and its reel, and any reports you make about a goal that's up | Anyone with an account | So everyone on Gaffer can watch the week's goals and vote for one. A goal is only shown outside its team if the team's gaffer chooses to put it up, and the caption can name the scorer and whoever set it up (first names, as the gaffer typed them). Who voted for what is never shown to anyone; only the winner's total is, once the week is over. The gaffer can take their team's goal down while the week is on. Reports are looked at by us. |
| Linked games: when a gaffer links a game with another team on Gaffer, which two teams it is between, and, once that team's gaffer accepts, the goals each team logs (with the scorer's and assist's first names), the names of the squad playing and the highlight clips either team cuts from that game | Teams | So both teams see one score and the same highlights. Nothing is shared until the other team's gaffer accepts, and only that game is shared, with both teams' gaffers, players and followers. Either gaffer can unlink it at any time, which stops the sharing. |
| Live streams: when a gaffer streams a game live, the video their camera sends while the stream is on, and a recording of it | Teams and anyone in shot | So people following the team can watch the game as it happens. The stream goes through Cloudflare, our video provider. Each recording is deleted automatically after 30 days. Streaming is started and stopped by a gaffer, and stops when the game is finished. |
| Squad chat messages and plays you send from the tactics board, with your player name and the time; and any reports you make about a message | Signed-in players and gaffers | So your team can talk and share plays. Messages are seen only by your team's signed-in players and gaffers. You can delete your own, a gaffer can delete any, and reports are looked at by us. |
| Your iPhone's notification address (a code Apple issues to the app), if you allow notifications | Signed-in players and gaffers | To tell you when your team's game kicks off or a goal goes in, a new game poll opens, a game is being streamed live, highlights are ready, your gaffer asks you to answer a poll, or someone posts in the squad chat. It is sent to Apple to deliver the notification, and removed when you delete your account. |
Following a team needs no account, and the app keeps nothing about followers who don't sign up.
What we don't do
- No banner ads, analytics or selling of data, and nothing is shared for marketing. The only ads are the ones you choose to watch on the free plan (see the table above).
- No contacts access. The camera and microphone are used only when a gaffer chooses to film a game with their iPhone in Gaffer: the picture and sound go to the live stream (see the table above), and the full recording is saved to that iPhone's own Photos, nowhere else. Location is used only if a gaffer taps “Use where I am now” to set the team's home ground; nobody's own whereabouts are stored or tracked.
- Full match recordings never leave your devices. Only the short highlight clips a gaffer chooses to cut are uploaded. (A game a gaffer chooses to stream live is the exception: see the table above.)
Where it's stored
Team and account data is stored with Supabase, our database provider, in its EU (Ireland) region. Highlight clips, and live streams and their recordings, are stored by Cloudflare. AI commentary lines go to Google Cloud to be turned into speech (see the table above). Each of these providers handles the data only to run Gaffer and protects it at least as well as this policy says. Each phone also keeps a copy of the teams it has opened so the app works without signal; that copy stays on the phone. The iOS app's change alerts are scheduled on the phone itself and are not sent through any server.
Who can see team data
Anyone with a team's 6-character code can see that team's name, crest, players' names, live games, stats and highlight clips, and watch a game the gaffer is streaming live. Clip files are stored at web addresses that are not listed anywhere but can be opened by anyone who has the link. The squad chat is different: it can be read only by the team's signed-in players and gaffers. Only the team's gaffers can change anything. Gaffers decide which names to enter, so a nickname works just as well as a real name.
Anyone signed in can also find a team by name and look at its squad's names, results, players' totals and highlight clips, unless the team's gaffer switches off "Let people find this team" in Options. This never shows the team's code, upcoming games, the squad chat or guests' names; to follow or join a team you still need its code from the gaffer.
A goal a team's gaffer puts up for Goal of the Week is seen by anyone signed in, with the team's name, until it's taken down; the winning goal and its reel stay up. Nothing else about the team is shown with it.
Profiles are separate from teams: your username and profile name are seen by anyone signed in who searches for you. Your teams, results, stats and chosen clips are seen by anyone signed in if your profile is public, or only by followers you've accepted if it's private. You can change this at any time in Profile → Edit profile, and remove any follower.
How long we keep it
Data is kept until a gaffer removes it or deletes their account.
Your choices
- Delete your account in the app: Profile → the gear (Settings) → Your account → Delete my account (or, with no team open, Account → Delete my account). This removes your email and sign-in straight away, with your username, profile, posts, comments, likes, follows and tags. Teams you run on your own are deleted with their games and stats; teams with other gaffers carry on without you, and your player becomes unclaimed.
- Players can ask their team's gaffer to rename or remove them, or email us.
- You can ask for a copy of your data, or for it to be corrected or deleted, by emailing ethan@reth.com. If you're in the UK or EU you also have the right to complain to your data protection authority, which in the UK is the ICO.
Children
Accounts are for adults. Teams with younger players should be run by an adult gaffer, who decides which names are entered.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top will change with it.