PlayClock privacy policy

Last updated 30 October 2026

PlayClock is an American football scores, stats and news app. We've built it to need as little information about you as possible: there are no accounts, and we don't track you across other apps. It's free and shows ads, as described below.

What stays on your phone

The teams you follow, your alert choices, the games you follow with the bell, articles you save and your other settings are stored on your phone only. They aren't sent to us. Uninstalling the app deletes them.

Push notifications

If you allow notifications, PlayClock uses Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver them. Firebase gives your phone an identifier for this, and the app subscribes it to "topics" matching your choices, for example "Chiefs scoring plays" or "breaking news". Our server sends each alert to a topic; it doesn't receive or keep your identifier or a list of users. Google processes this under the Firebase privacy and security terms. You can turn notifications off at any time in the app's Settings or your phone's settings.

So that timed alerts (the morning briefing, fantasy picks, the waiver wire) arrive at the right local time, the app also subscribes to a topic for your time zone's offset from UTC, for example "UTC+1". That says nothing more about you than your time zone.

Live scores on an iPhone lock screen

On an iPhone, a followed game can show as a Live Activity on your lock screen. To keep it up to date while the app is closed, the app sends our server the Live Activity's push token from Apple, the game it's for and the language the app is in, and our server sends the updates through Apple's push service. The token identifies that one Live Activity, not you; we delete it when the game ends (or within eight hours). If you choose to have games start on your lock screen at kick-off, the app also sends a token Apple provides for that and the teams you follow, which we delete if you turn the feature off or it isn't renewed within 30 days.

Crash reports

If the app crashes, it sends a crash report to Google's Firebase Crashlytics so we can fix the problem: what went wrong in the app's code, the app version, your phone model and Android version, and the time. It doesn't include your name, contacts or anything you've typed. Google processes it under the Firebase privacy and security terms and keeps it for 90 days.

Usage stats (only if you say yes)

PlayClock asks whether you'll share anonymous usage stats. Only if you say yes, the app uses Google Analytics for Firebase to record how it's used: which screens you open, actions such as sharing a score or adding games to your calendar, plus your app version, phone model, Android version and rough location (country or region, from your IP address). Google identifies your copy of the app with a random ID; it doesn't receive your name, email or contacts, and usage stats don't use your advertising ID. We use it to see which features people use and what to fix. Google processes it under the Firebase privacy and security terms and keeps it for 14 months. You can turn it off at any time in the app's Settings (Share usage stats); saying no changes nothing else in the app.

Ads

PlayClock is free and shows ads from Google AdMob: one among the games on the Scores screen and banners on some pages. To show and measure ads, Google receives your phone's advertising ID, IP address, a rough location and basic device details, and may use cookies or similar technology.

In the UK and EU, Google's own consent form asks the first time ads load whether ads can be personalised to you. If you say no, you still see ads, just less tailored ones. You can change your choice at any time in the app (Settings, Ad privacy choices), and reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings (Google, Ads). Google processes this data as described in how Google uses information from apps that use its services. We don't receive your advertising ID ourselves.

Calendar

If you add a team's games to your calendar, on Android the app asks for calendar access and adds those games to your phone's main calendar (usually your Google account's, so they also sync to your other devices through Google), updating them as kick-off times change. It doesn't read your other events, and you can take the games out again from the team's page. On an iPhone, your Calendar app subscribes to a list of the team's games from our server. Nothing about your calendar is sent to us.

Our server

To show scores and news, the app requests them from our server, run on Google Cloud in London. Like any web service it keeps standard request logs (your IP address, the time and what was requested), which Google Cloud holds for up to 30 days so we can keep the service running and secure. We don't use them to identify or profile you.

Stories from other sites

Some headlines link to other news outlets. Tapping one opens their site (on a large screen, inside the app beside the list), and their privacy policy applies there.

If you contact us

If you email us (Contact us or Report an issue in the app), we receive what you send, including the app version and type of phone that the "Report an issue" email fills in. We use it only to reply and to fix problems, and delete it when it's no longer needed.

What we don't do

• No accounts or sign-in.
• No usage stats unless you say yes.
• We don't sell your information. The only sharing is what Google's ad and analytics services receive, as described above.

Children

PlayClock isn't aimed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Your rights

Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask what information we hold about you and ask us to delete it. Because almost everything stays on your phone, there's usually nothing on our side, but you can contact us using Contact us in the app's Settings, or by emailing support@playclock.app.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update it here and change the date at the top.