Footy Addis Privacy Policy

Footy Addis helps players find football games and pitch owners manage available pitch slots in Addis Ababa. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and what you can do about it. It is written to align with Ethiopia's Personal Data Protection Proclamation No. 1321/2024.

1. Information We Collect

• Account details — name, email, phone number, password (stored only as a salted one-way hash), role, username, profile photo, bio, position, preferred language, and your area of Addis Ababa.
• Booking and activity — games joined or organised, pitch slot requests, RSVP and attendance status, waitlist position, reliability and Player of the Match records, ratings and reviews you write, and comments or messages you send.
• Venue information — for pitch owners: venue name, address, area, facilities, prices, cancellation policy, photos and videos, map coordinates, and a social media link if you add one.
• Verification documents — if you apply to become a host or a verified owner, a photo of your ID. See section 5 for how briefly we keep it.
• Approximate location — only if you tap "near me", and only for that moment, to sort venues by distance. It is used in your browser and is not stored on our servers or shared.
• Technical information — basic diagnostic and error information needed to keep the service reliable.

2. Why We Collect It

• To create and run your account and let you use the app — finding games, joining them, listing and booking pitches.
• To connect the player, host, and pitch owner involved in a booking.
• To send account email you ask for or need: email verification and password resets.
• To keep the platform trustworthy — reliability records, host and owner verification, and preventing abuse.
• To fix bugs and understand which features are actually used.

Where we rely on your consent — for example, sharing your location for "near me" — you can withdraw it at any time by not using that feature, or by contacting us.

3. Payments

Footy Addis does not currently process card, wallet, or bank payments. Bookings are paid in cash at the venue, and payment labels in the app are operational notes only. We hold no payment credentials of any kind. If online payments are added later, they will be handled by a licensed payment provider and this policy will be updated before that goes live.

4. Who We Share Data With

• Other users, narrowly. Your name, username, photo, area, role, and reliability record appear on player profiles, game rosters, and team sheets visible to signed-in members. Your email address is never shown publicly. A contact phone number you add to a pitch booking is shared only with that venue's owner.
• Service providers that operate the platform for us, described in section 6.
• Authorities, only where required by Ethiopian law or a valid legal request.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.

5. Storage, Retention and Security

• Data is held in a managed PostgreSQL database. Passwords are never stored in plain text — only salted, one-way hashes. Sign-in sessions, password-reset tokens, and verification codes are stored hashed and expire automatically.
• ID photos are verify-then-delete. A photo submitted with a host or owner verification application exists only while that application is pending, and is erased the moment an operator approves or rejects it. We do not keep an archive of ID documents.
• You can delete your account yourself in the app, which removes your profile. To request deletion of related records, or a copy of your data, contact us using section 9.
• If a data breach affects your personal data, we will notify affected users and the relevant authority as required under Proclamation No. 1321/2024.

6. Where Your Data Is Processed

Footy Addis is operated using service providers outside Ethiopia, so some personal data is processed abroad:

• Hosting and database — Render, in the United States. This is where your account and booking data lives.
• Email delivery — Brevo, in the European Union. Used to send verification and password-reset email; it receives your email address and the message.
• Maps — Google Maps is embedded on venue pages to show a pitch's location.

Weather and football-score information shown in the app is fetched by our server, not your device, and no personal data is sent to those providers. We take steps to ensure data processed abroad receives a comparable level of protection, consistent with Ethiopian data transfer requirements.

7. Your Rights

Under Proclamation No. 1321/2024 you have the right to be informed about how your data is processed; to access the data we hold about you; to have inaccurate data corrected; to request deletion, subject to any legal retention duty; to object to certain processing; and to withdraw consent where processing relies on it. To exercise any of these, contact us using section 9.

8. Children

Footy Addis is intended for adult players, hosts, and venue owners, and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under that age without appropriate parental involvement.

9. Contact

For privacy questions, data requests, or deletion requests, contact support@footyaddis.com. As the platform grows we will appoint a named Data Protection Officer and publish their details here.

10. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be communicated in the app before they take effect, and the date at the top of this page will change.