Privacy Policy

Effective date: 7 September 2026

School Sports is designed and managed by Element Labs. This policy explains how the School Sports Android app and its companion web platform collect, use, store, disclose, and delete information.

School-controlled privacy. The app is designed for authorised adult school staff and sports coordinators. School profiles and match records are private by default. A coordinator must deliberately enable or initiate sharing.

Information we process

Account information: name, email address, Firebase user identifier, authentication tokens and, for Google sign-in, the Google account identifier. Email-and-password sign-in is also supported. Firebase Authentication processes the sign-in credentials; School Sports does not store plaintext passwords in its school-record database.
Registration information: mobile number, school or organisation, province, town or city, role, school-authority confirmation, and privacy acknowledgement.
School-sport information: teams, optional player names and roles, fixtures, venues, scores, ball-by-ball or event records, results, awards, messages, and school logos selected by a user.
Device and service information: push-notification token, platform and app version, service logs, timestamps, generated record identifiers, and information needed to diagnose sync or security failures.

The app does not request precise location, contacts, microphone, or camera access. A user may choose an existing image for a school logo through the device's image picker.

Why we use information

authenticate users and verify authorised school coordinators;
provide teams, fixtures, tournaments, scoring, results, communication, notifications, exports, and live-score features;
keep records associated with the correct school and prevent unauthorised changes;
operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the service; and
meet legal, safety, and platform obligations.

Sharing and public links

We do not sell personal information. Information is processed by service providers that support School Sports, including Google Sign-In, Firebase authentication and messaging, and cloud hosting. These providers process information under their own contractual and privacy safeguards.

Coordinators can deliberately share fixture invitations, result documents, certificates, or match-specific live-score links through apps available on their device. A public live-score page may show school, team, player, and match information only when the authorised coordinator has enabled the applicable sharing setting. Anyone who receives a public link may be able to view that published information until the link expires.

Children and player information

School Sports is intended for authorised adult users, not for direct use by children. Schools are responsible for having a lawful basis and any necessary parent or guardian permission before entering or publishing a learner's name or other personal information. The app does not require dates of birth, health information, or learner contact details for scoring.

Advertising

Builds with advertising enabled use Google AdMob to display banner ads. When the advertising SDK operates, Google collects and shares technical information including IP address (which may indicate approximate location), app and ad interactions, diagnostic and performance information, and device identifiers such as the advertising ID and app set ID. Google uses this information for advertising, analytics, and fraud prevention. Transfers use encrypted connections. Advertising may be disabled in some builds; test ads do not generate revenue.

School Sports does not send school records, learner names, messages, or match results to AdMob as advertising-targeting information. The app does not request precise GPS location for advertising. You can reset or delete the Android advertising ID through your device settings. See Google's Privacy Policy for Google's handling of information.

Storage, security, and retention

Some match and settings data is stored locally on the device. Information required for account approval, school communication, notifications, or live sharing is transmitted to the School Sports service over encrypted connections and protected by authentication and access controls.

We retain account and school records while the account is active or as needed to provide the service. Public live-score records are time-limited. We remove or anonymise information when it is no longer required, when an authorised deletion request is completed, or when required by law. Limited security, audit, or legal records may be retained where necessary.

Account and data deletion

You may request deletion of your School Sports account and associated server data at any time. Email admin@schoolsportsapp.co.za from the email address used to sign in, identify the associated school, and state whether you want the account deleted or only specified personal information removed. You can request deletion of particular data without deleting your account. We may verify your identity and school authority before deletion to protect school records from unauthorised removal.

Verified account-deletion requests remove the login account, school membership and associated personal account information. Requests concerning shared school fixtures, messages or learner records are assessed with the responsible school so that another authorised user's records are not removed without authority. Limited security, audit or legally required records may be retained for as long as necessary for those purposes; there is no automatic 90-day deletion policy. We will explain any applicable retention when responding to the request.

Request account deletion

Deleting the School Sports account does not delete the user's independent Google account. Local app data can also be removed through the device's Android app-storage settings.

Your privacy rights

Subject to applicable law, including South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), you may ask to access, correct, object to processing of, or delete personal information held by School Sports. A school may need to handle requests involving learner or team records for which it is the responsible party.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the app, service providers, or legal requirements change. The effective date at the top will be updated when material changes are published.

Contact

Privacy questions and requests: admin@schoolsportsapp.co.za
Website: schoolsportsapp.co.za