Effective date: July 20, 2026
Sidelines is a social competition app for watching sports with friends. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who it's shared with, and the choices you have. The short version: we collect what the app needs to work, we don't run ads, we don't sell your data, and you can delete your account (and everything with it) from inside the app at any time.
What we collect
Account information
When you create an account we collect your email address, a display name, and a password (stored hashed — we can never read it). If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive your name and email from that provider instead. You can optionally add a phone number and a profile photo.
Content you create
Sidelines is built around things you make with friends: group messages, direct messages, challenges and their stakes, picks, taunts, reactions, GIFs, and photos (avatars and proof photos). We store this content to run the app and show it to the people you shared it with.
Activity and records
The app keeps score — that's the point. We store your challenge results, pick records, streaks, and group standings so leaderboards, recaps, and rivalry stats work. This activity is visible to your friends and group members as described below.
Contacts (optional)
If you choose to find friends from your contacts, the app sends the phone numbers from your address book to our server, matches them against registered users, and returns the matches. We do not store your contact list or the numbers we checked — they are used for the lookup and discarded. This feature only runs if you grant contacts permission, and the app works fully without it.
Notifications
If you allow push notifications, we store a device token so we can deliver them. In Settings you can turn individual categories on or off — challenges, direct messages, group invites, friend activity, open stakes, and recaps & streaks — or disable notifications entirely in your device settings. Deleting your account (or logging out) removes your device tokens from our servers.
Technical information
Like most online services, our servers keep standard technical logs (such as IP addresses and request timestamps) for security and abuse prevention, including rate limiting. We do not use these logs to profile you.
What we do with it
- Run the app: groups, challenges, picks, leaderboards, messaging, and friend features.
- Show your activity to the right people: group members see what happens in the group; friends see your pick record and open stakes.
- Send the notifications you've enabled (new challenges, results, messages, invites, recaps).
- Keep the service safe: rate limiting, abuse prevention, handling reports and blocks, and enforcing our Community Guidelines.
- Respond when you contact us for support.
For users in regions that require a legal basis (like the EEA and UK): we process your data to perform our contract with you (running the app), for our legitimate interests (keeping the service safe), and with your consent where we ask for it (contacts matching, push notifications) — which you can withdraw at any time.
What we don't do
- No advertising — there are no ads and no ad networks in the app.
- No selling or renting your personal information to anyone, and no "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising.
- No third-party analytics or tracking SDKs.
- No real money — Sidelines has no wallets, deposits, payments, or payouts of any kind.
Who your information is shared with
Other users
Your display name, avatar, and competitive record are visible to your friends and group members. Content you post in a group is visible to that group's members; direct messages are visible to their recipients. Share cards (like "Share This W") create an image only when you tap share, and you choose where it goes. There are no public profiles — people outside your friends and groups don't see your activity.
Service providers
We use a small number of providers to run the app. They process data on our behalf and aren't allowed to use it for their own purposes:
- Google Firebase — realtime messaging and push notification delivery.
- Apple and Google — sign-in, if you use those options.
- GIPHY — when you search for GIFs, your search term is sent to GIPHY to return results.
- Sports data providers — live scores and schedules are fetched by our servers; none of your personal information is shared with them.
Legal and business
We may disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of our users, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets — in which case this policy will continue to apply to your data and we'll notify you of any change in ownership.
Data retention and deletion
We keep your information while your account is active. You can permanently delete your account from Profile → Settings → Delete Account — no email required, no waiting period. Deletion removes your account, profile, tokens, and the content associated with it from our systems. Some minimal records (such as security logs and backups) may persist briefly before being purged on a normal cycle. If you only delete the app without deleting your account, your data remains until you delete the account.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, and to object to or restrict certain processing. Most of these you can exercise directly in the app: edit your profile in Settings, and delete everything via Delete Account. For anything else — including access or portability requests — email us and we'll respond within the time required by law. We don't discriminate against you for exercising your rights. If you're in the EEA or UK, you can also lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.
Security
All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted with HTTPS. Passwords are stored hashed. Password reset codes and tokens are short-lived, rate-limited, and single-use, and resetting your password signs out all of your sessions. No system is perfectly secure, but we design for the failure modes that matter.
International users
Our servers are located in the United States. If you use Sidelines from elsewhere, your information is transferred to and processed in the U.S., which may have different data-protection laws than your country. We protect it as described in this policy wherever it's processed.
Children
Sidelines is not directed to children under 13, and you must be at least 13 to create an account. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; if we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we will delete it. If you believe a child under 13 is using Sidelines, please contact us.
Changes to this policy
If we make material changes, we'll update the effective date above and let you know in the app before the changes take effect.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email us at [email protected].