Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

MatchCountdown (matchcountdown.com) is a sports event countdown service. We show you when your next match starts in your local timezone.

The site is operated by Recete Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17082027, whose registered office is at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom. Recete Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

If you have any questions about this policy, contact us at recete@recete.co.uk.

2. Data we collect

We collect minimal data needed to operate the service:

• Usage analytics — pages visited, search queries, and general interaction patterns. Collected via PostHog with IP anonymisation enabled. No personal profiles are created for anonymous visitors.
• Visit counts — our own server also records each page view: the page, how long it stayed visible, how far it was scrolled and whether it was clicked, tapped or typed in. Nothing is stored on your device for this (no cookie, no local storage). A visitor is recognised only for the day, by a keyed one-way hash of the IP address and browser identifier; the IP address itself is not kept. We use it to count real readers and tell them apart from automated traffic.
• Browser preferences — whether analytics may use cookies (taken from your answer to Google's consent message) and any reminders you set are stored locally in your browser (localStorage) and never sent to our servers. The choice itself is stored by Google and sent with ad requests, so the ads respect it.
• Advertising data — when an ad is shown, Google AdSense receives your IP address, browser and device information, the page you are viewing, and cookie or similar identifiers. This data goes to Google (see section 4), not to us; we see only aggregated reports.
• Advertising data in the mobile apps — the MatchCountdown iOS and Android apps show ads through Appodeal (see section 4). When an ad is requested, Appodeal and the ad networks it works with receive your IP address, device and app information (such as device model, operating system, language and an app-scoped identifier) and which ads were shown or tapped. The apps do not read your device's advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS, advertising ID on Android) and ask for ads that are not personalised. Readers with MatchCountdown Pro see no ads, and no ad request is made for them.
• Push notifications in the mobile apps — if you allow notifications, the app sends our server its push token, your language setting and the teams, athletes and competitions you follow. We use them only to notify you about those: kick-off, goals and final scores for the teams and athletes you follow, and the result of your predictions. The token and follow list are deleted when Apple or Google report the token as no longer valid (for example after you uninstall the app), or on request through the contact address in section 8. Turning notifications off in your phone's settings stops them from being shown.
• Log data — our hosting provider (DigitalOcean) records standard server access logs (IP address, request path, timestamp). These are retained for up to 30 days for security and debugging.

We do not collect names, email addresses, or payment information from visitors.

3. Cookies

We use cookies and similar local storage technologies for the following purposes:

Analytics: PostHog runs without cookies unless you consent. There is one consent message on this site, Google's: in the EEA, UK and Switzerland your answer to its storage purpose also decides whether PostHog may use cookies. Elsewhere no message is shown and analytics stays cookieless. To change your answer, use the "Privacy choices" link in the footer, which reopens Google's message.

Advertising in the EEA, UK and Switzerland: ads are not loaded until you have answered Google's consent message, a Google-certified consent platform that follows the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. If you decline, Google may show limited ads that are not personalised, or none. Where the message is shown, a "Privacy and cookie settings" link at the bottom of the page reopens it so you can change or withdraw your choice.

Advertising elsewhere: ads may be personalised. You can opt out at any time, as described under Google AdSense in section 4.

4. Third-party services

• PostHog — product analytics. Data is processed on EU servers. See posthog.com/privacy.
• Google AdSense — advertising. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet. Through AdSense, other certified ad networks may also serve ads here; where Google's consent message applies, its "Manage options" screen lists them. Google processes this data under its own privacy policy; see also how Google uses information from sites that use its services and business.safety.google/privacy. You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google's Ads Settings, and out of many third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info/choices or, in Europe, youronlinechoices.eu.
• Appodeal — advertising in the iOS and Android apps. Appodeal runs an auction among ad networks (among them Google AdMob, AppLovin, Meta Audience Network, Unity Ads and ironSource) for each ad shown in the app. In the EEA, UK and Switzerland the app asks for your consent first, through a consent message that follows the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. Appodeal processes this data under its own privacy policy.
• Cloudflare — CDN and DDoS protection. Processes request traffic; see cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.

5. Your rights (GDPR)

If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) or UK, you have the following rights:

• Access — request a copy of data we hold about you
• Rectification — correct inaccurate data
• Erasure — request deletion of your data
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Withdraw consent — at any time, for analytics and advertising alike, through the "Privacy choices" link in the footer (see section 3)

To exercise these rights, contact recete@recete.co.uk. We respond within 30 days.

6. Data retention

Analytics data is retained for 12 months. Server access logs are deleted after 30 days. Browser-stored preferences persist until you clear your browser data or change them via the cookie banner.

7. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top will always reflect the most recent version. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

8. Contact

Questions about this privacy policy? Contact us or email recete@recete.co.uk.