After the Whistle privacy policy
Who we are
After the Whistle is a spoiler-free football highlights app made by Labwhistle (Finlay Cassell), in the UK. Questions: support@labwhistle.com.
The short version
- No account. No sign-up. No login.
- The app shows banner ads from Google AdMob, which keep it free. You’re asked for consent first where the law requires it (UK/EU), and on iPhone Apple asks whether ads may track you. You can say no and still use everything. Buying the season pass removes the ads.
- No analytics of our own.
- Everything you do in the app (favourites, bookmarks, what you’ve watched, scores you’ve revealed, where you left off in a clip) is stored only on your device. The one exception is if you turn on notifications, described below.
- The app fetches a fixtures feed and plays highlight videos from YouTube. Those requests are described below.
Data stored on your device
The following is saved in the app’s storage on your phone and never leaves it (apart from what’s listed under Notifications, only if you turn them on). It isn’t backed up to us, synced between devices, or seen by anyone but you. Deleting the app deletes it all.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Favourite teams and leagues | To show them on your home screen |
| Bookmarked fixtures | Your saved list |
| Which highlights you’ve watched | To mark them and clear the “new” indicator |
| Which fixture scores you’ve revealed | So a score you chose to see stays visible |
| Playback position in a clip | To resume where you left off |
| A cached copy of the latest fixtures | So the app works briefly offline |
| Your settings (country, theme, autoplay, sound, haptics) | So the app stays how you set it |
Network requests the app makes
1. Fixtures feed
The app requests upcoming and recent fixtures and highlight links from our own service, which runs on Cloudflare. These requests contain only a date range and the country you picked in the app (UK or Australia, to choose the right broadcaster). No personal information, no device identifiers, no location. Cloudflare processes the request to deliver the response and may keep short-lived technical logs, such as IP address, as part of providing that service; see the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
That service gets fixture data from API-Football. Your phone never contacts API-Football directly, and no information about you is shared with them. Club crests and competition badges are images served from API-Football’s media servers.
2. Highlight videos (YouTube)
When you play a highlight, the app loads an embedded YouTube player from Google’s servers. Google then receives standard technical information (such as your IP address, device and player type, and which video was requested) and processes it under the Google Privacy Policy and the YouTube Terms of Service. The app uses the privacy-enhanced (youtube-nocookie.com) player and doesn’t ask for personalised content. The app itself doesn’t receive or store any of this information.
3. Notifications (optional, off by default)
If you turn on highlight alerts in Settings, the app sends our service a push token issued for this app install, the country you picked, the names of your favourite teams and leagues, and the IDs of your bookmarked fixtures. That’s used only to tell you when a highlight for one of those games is available, and a notification never contains a score. It’s stored with our service on Cloudflare, updated when your favourites change, deleted when you turn notifications off, and expires automatically after 120 days if the app stops syncing it. Notifications are delivered through Expo’s push service (see the Expo Privacy Policy) and then Apple or Google. The push token identifies the app install, not you: it isn’t linked to a name, email address or account.
4. Advertising (Google AdMob)
Unless you have a season pass, the app shows a banner ad served by Google AdMob. To choose, show and measure ads, Google may collect your IP address, device and app information, approximate location (from IP), ad interactions and, only if you allow tracking when iOS asks, your device’s advertising identifier, and may combine it with other data to personalise ads. In the UK and EU you’re asked for consent through Google’s consent form before personalised ads are shown, and you can change your choice any time under Settings › ad privacy choices. Ads are processed under Google’s Privacy & Terms for partner sites. We only see totals, such as how many ads were shown, never anything about you.
5. Season pass purchases (Apple and RevenueCat)
The season pass is bought through Apple; we never see your payment details or Apple ID. Purchases are checked through RevenueCat, which receives an anonymous ID created for this app install plus the purchase receipt, so the pass can be confirmed and restored on another phone. See the RevenueCat Privacy Policy.
Credits
National League badge: “Enterprise National League” by The National League, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized).
Children
The app isn’t aimed at children under 13 and doesn’t knowingly collect information from anyone.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask to see, correct or delete your data, or object to how it’s used. Email support@labwhistle.com. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.