Privacy policy

Who we are

Elite Soccer League (“ESL”, “the league”, “we”) is a nonprofit soccer league. We make ESL Staff for our own employees, to record their hours, their flyer walks, their field flyer routes and the signs and banners they put up. It is not offered to the public.

Questions about this policy or your information go to support@elitesoccerleague.com.

What the app collects

Your account

Your name, your work email address, your password (stored only in a scrambled form that nobody can read back) and which kinds of shifts you work: office, flyer (which includes field flyers), or signs and banners.

Your profile photo and how you’re paid

If you choose to, you can add a profile photo on the app’s Your profile page, on the Info tab. You take it with the camera, or choose one photo with your phone’s own photo picker. The picker hands the app only the photo you pick; the app never gets access to the rest of your photo library. The app crops the photo square, makes it smaller and sends it without the hidden details a photo file can carry, such as where it was taken.

You can also say how you’d like to be paid: a Venmo, Zelle, PayPal or Cash App handle or email (or a phone number, for Zelle), or check or cash, with an optional note.

Your time records

Each time you clock in, start or end a meal break, or clock out; any meal break waivers you sign; correction requests you send and the reason you give; the time you tap Take break or Skip on a rest break; and, on older versions of the app, the time you tap “Taking my rest break” and your answer to the end-of-shift question about meal and rest breaks, with any note you add.

The app records when it offers you a rest or meal break, whether notifications were on, and whether you took or skipped it.

Precise location, during shifts only

• At each punch. When you tap clock in, start meal break, end meal break or clock out (on flyer, signs and field flyer shifts, Pause and Resume take the place of the meal break), the app takes one location reading and attaches it to that punch, so the league can see whether it was made at work. Location never stops you from punching.
• Office shifts. While you are clocked in, the app notices when you leave the office area and when you come back, even if your phone is locked, and records the time of each. It does not record where you go in between. If you are already outside the office area when this starts (at clock-in, or at the end of a meal break), it records that you are away from that moment, with where you were.
• Flyer shifts. While you are clocked in, the app records the route you walk: a location reading each time you move about 5 metres, and about every 30 seconds while you’re still, plus a short “still running” signal about every 10 minutes.
• Signs and banners shifts. While you are clocked in, the app records your route the same way as on a flyer shift, and the location of each sign or banner you put up (see “Signs and banners photos” below).
• Field flyer shifts. While you are clocked in, the app records your route the same way as on a flyer shift, while you drive between the fields on your route and while you walk each parking lot (see “Field flyer routes” below).

Live position, miles and working from home

While you are on the clock, administrators can see a live map of your latest position on flyer, signs and field flyer shifts. On office shifts they see the office or where you left it. This uses the same points the app already records. Nothing new is collected.

Miles you drive on the clock are worked out from those points to pay you back for gas.

When you work from home, the app records no location at all.

Activity labels on flyer, signs and field flyer shifts

On flyer shifts the app uses your iPhone’s Motion & Fitness data to tell walking from driving, so that only streets you walked count as covered. That happens on your phone. The motion data itself stays on your phone: the app sends only one label with each route point — walking, driving, stationary or unclassified. Signs and banners shifts and field flyer shifts use the same labels, in the same way.

On Android the app uses Android’s Physical activity permission instead. Only while your flyer, signs or field route is recording, Google Play services on your phone reports what you seem to be doing (walking, in a vehicle, still and so on), and the app keeps those reports on your phone. They stay there too: the app sends the same one label with each route point.

Signs and banners photos

On a signs and banners shift, you tap Place a sign or banner and take a photo, in the app, of each sign or banner where you put it up. It records the photo, whether it is a sign or a banner, its location and time, how accurate that location is, and any note you add. If you mark one taken down, it records when, and that you marked it. Apart from a profile photo you choose to take, the app uses the camera only for these photos. It never records sound.

Field flyer routes

On a field flyer shift, the app records the route you pick at clock-in: one of the league’s lists of youth sports fields. From your route points, the league’s server works out, for each field on the route, when you arrived, when you left, how many minutes you walked there and how far. A second visit to the same field counts as a visit of its own. If you tap Skip this field, the app records which field, the time and any reason you type. A skip carries no location.

Directions hands the field’s location to your maps app (Apple Maps or Google Maps). What that app does is covered by its maker’s own privacy policy.

Your phone’s settings for the app

Whether Location, Precise Location, Motion & Fitness, Background App Refresh and Notifications are turned on for ESL Staff; the version of the app; and the time on your phone’s clock when it sends its records, so we can spot a clock that is set wrong.

On an Android phone the same report covers Location (including whether it is set to Allow all the time), Precise location, Physical activity and Notifications, and, in place of Background App Refresh, whether battery optimisation is off for ESL Staff. Each report also says whether the phone is an iPhone or an Android phone.

Push notifications

On an iPhone, if you allow notifications, the app sends the league’s server your phone’s push token (the address Apple gives your phone for the app’s notifications) and the language the app is set to. We use them only to tell you when your route is ready or changes. Apple delivers the notifications. The token is deleted when you sign out, or replaced when someone else signs in on the phone.

The older web timecard. Until the app replaces it, some staff use the league’s web timecard in a browser. While that page is open on screen and you are clocked in or on a meal break, it takes a location reading about once a minute, and one with each punch, and those readings are stored, including any taken during a meal break. It stops when you close the page, lock your phone or clock out.

When collection stops

• Meal breaks and pauses. On an office shift, when you tap Start meal break, the app turns off location tracking. It turns back on when you tap End meal break. On flyer, signs and field flyer shifts, Pause and Resume do the same: tracking stops when you tap Pause and starts again when you tap Resume. The only readings are the two taken at those punches. On a signs shift, placing a sign or banner waits until the pause or meal break ends. On a field flyer shift, your list of fields stops updating and Directions is hidden until the pause or meal break ends; you can still skip a field.
• Working from home. On a shift you start with Working from home, the app records no location at all: not at any punch, not for a route, and not for the office area. The server keeps none either.
• Off the clock. When you clock out, the app turns off location tracking until your next clock-in. If a shift is still open 12 hours after clock-in, the league’s system closes it and tracking stops then.
• A second check on our server. If a location reading from the app ever reaches us with a time inside a meal break or pause, or outside a shift, the server throws it away instead of storing it. (This check does not apply to the older web timecard described above.) A sign or banner is kept whatever its time, because it records where the sign was put up; one whose time falls outside a signs shift is marked in the staff console for review. A skipped field is kept only when its time falls inside your field flyer shift.

On flyer, signs and field flyer shifts your iPhone shows the location icon the whole time your route is being recorded. On Android, a notification saying “ESL Staff is recording your flyer route” (on signs shifts, “ESL Staff is recording your signs and banners route”; on field flyer shifts, “ESL Staff is recording your field route”) shows the whole time your route is being recorded. You can change the app’s permissions in the iPhone Settings app (on Android, the phone’s Settings app) at any time. The app needs some of them to clock in: office shifts need Location set to Always (Allow all the time on Android) with Precise Location on, and flyer, signs and field flyer shifts need Location set to Always, Precise Location and Motion & Fitness (Physical activity on Android). Notifications are never needed to clock in. To place a sign or banner, signs shifts also need the Camera. Without it you can still clock in, and your route is still recorded. If a permission is turned off during a shift, the league sees a note that tracking was not working for that time.

What the app never collects

• Your location when you are off the clock, paused, on a meal break or working from home.
• Which other apps you use, your screen time or your browsing.
• Your contacts, your microphone or your messages.
• Your photo library. To choose a profile photo, your phone’s own photo picker hands the app only the one photo you pick. The camera is used only for the signs and banners photos and the profile photo described above.
• Your raw motion data, including Android’s physical activity reports. Only the labels described above leave your phone.

The app contains no advertising and no analytics tools of our own. Apart from the Google services on Android described under “Who can see it”, it contains no tracking tools from other companies.

Why we collect it

• Timekeeping and pay. To record the hours you work and pay you correctly.
• California meal and rest breaks. Meal break punches show that breaks were provided and how long they lasted. The app offers you a rest or meal break when one is due, and the record of each offer and of your Take break or Skip tap shows that breaks were offered.
• Gas reimbursement. Miles you drive on the clock are worked out from your route points to pay you back for gas.
• Paying the right person. How you’d like to be paid lets the league pay you, and not someone else, the way you choose. Your profile photo helps the office know who’s who.
• Working where the shift is. Punch locations and away-from-office times show whether office shifts were worked at the office.
• Flyer coverage. Routes and walking labels show which streets got flyers, so walks are not repeated or missed.
• Signs and banners. Placement photos, locations and times show where each sign and banner went up, so crews can see what is already up, or was taken down, before placing another.
• Field flyers. Route points, field visits and skips show which fields on a route were reached and how long each parking lot was walked, so fields are not missed and routes can be planned.
• Keeping the app working. Permission status, app version and your phone’s clock tell us when something on a phone needs fixing.

The league’s staff console points out things a person should look at: being away from the office for 5 minutes or more, standing still or driving during a flyer shift for longer than the league’s limit (15 minutes unless the league changes it), standing still during a signs or field flyer shift for longer than the signs limit (10 minutes unless the league changes it), tracking being off for more than 30 minutes on a flyer, signs or field flyer shift, a permission the app needs being turned off, a meal break longer than the league’s maximum, a rest break not taken, or (in older versions of the app) a “No” to the break question. It also marks a sign or banner whose time falls outside a signs shift, and, on a field flyer shift, a field on the route that was never reached and not skipped by the end of the shift. On a field flyer shift, time at a field never counts as standing still. Tapping Take break on a rest break excuses the next 10 minutes, putting up a sign or banner excuses the 5 minutes before it, and the first drive out to your flyer area is counted as travel. These notes are for a person to review. Nothing is decided or deducted automatically, and reviewing a note changes no hours.

Who can see it

• League administrators. The league staff who run payroll, flyer campaigns and signs crews see your time records, the locations and routes described above, the notes for review and your phone’s permission status, in the league’s staff console. While you are on the clock they can also see a live map of your latest position on flyer, signs and field flyer shifts; on office shifts they see the office or where you left it. This uses the same points the app already records. Nothing new is collected. They also see when the app offered you each rest or meal break, whether notifications were on, and whether you took or skipped it. They also see your profile photo and how you’d like to be paid, and can change or remove them. For each sign or banner they also see its photo and who put it up. For each field flyer shift they also see the route you picked, your walking and driving and your time at each field on the day’s timeline, each visit to each field with when you arrived and left, the minutes walked and the metres walked, the fields you skipped with your reason, and averages across runs for each route, each employee and each field. Route history from the league’s old flyer tracker, from before the app, is imported into that console too, linked to the walker’s name.
• Other field staff. During a campaign, flyer and signs staff see a map of the streets walked on flyer shifts so far, yours included if you walk flyers. Their phones receive only the street lines, without names or any ID that says who walked them. The same map shows the campaign’s signs and banners: whether each is a sign or a banner, when it was put up, any note, whether its location is approximate and when it was taken down. Flyer and signs staff can also see the photos of signs and banners. None of this says who put a sign or banner up or took it down. Field flyer routes are not on that map. No coworker’s phone receives your field visits or skips; the app shows each person only their own run. No coworker sees your profile photo or how you’re paid.
• Companies that run our systems. Fly.io hosts our server and database. Backblaze stores our backup copies. Google sends password-reset emails from the league’s email account. Apple delivers the app, and Apple’s push notification service delivers the app’s notifications. They handle your information only to provide those services to us.
• Address search. When a league administrator searches for a field’s address in the staff console, the league’s server sends the search to OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service. It receives only the administrator’s search text. Nothing about you or any other employee is sent.
• Google, on Android. Google delivers the app on Android, through Google Play. On Android phones, Google Play services works out location, office-area crossings and physical activity for the app, and the app’s maps are Google Maps, which downloads map data from Google for the area on screen. To run and improve its maps, Google’s map software in the app also sends Google your phone’s model and operating system version, your IP address, crash reports from the map software, how you pan and zoom the map, and an identifier for the map software that Google uses to count how many phones use its maps each day. The league does not receive any of this. Google’s own privacy policy covers what those Google services receive.
• When the law requires it. For example, in a wage claim, or when a government agency or a court asks for records.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.

How long we keep it

• Time records — punches, meal breaks, waivers, corrections and edits, break offers, Take break and Skip taps, break answers, away-from-office times, permission reports, review notes and the older web timecard’s location readings: at least four years, the period California payroll record rules call for.
• Flyer route points — kept with their campaign until an administrator deletes them, which they can do once the campaign has been archived for 14 days. After that, a simplified line of each shift’s walk is kept with the campaign to show its coverage. Each line still records who walked it and on which shift, and these lines have no set deletion date.
• Signs and banners — each sign or banner you put up, with its photo, location, time and note, and the routes of signs shifts, are kept with the shift records, like the time records above. Marking one taken down records when; it deletes nothing. The photos are stored in our database with the other records, so they are backed up the same way.
• Field flyer routes — the routes of field flyer shifts, the route you picked and the fields you skipped, with any reason, are kept with the shift records, like the time records above. Field visits are worked out from the route each time they are shown, so they are kept as long as the route is.
• Profile photo and how you’re paid — kept until you change them. A new photo replaces the old one, which is not kept. To have your photo or payment details removed, ask the league (see “How to ask” below); an administrator can remove them. The photo is not kept on your phone once it is sent.
• Backups — backup copies are kept for 30 days, so anything deleted is gone from the backups 30 days later.
• On your phone — the app keeps records until they reach our server, and up to a day of your own route to draw your map and, on a field flyer shift, to show which fields you have reached. The route you picked and the fields you skipped stay on your phone until your next field flyer shift replaces them. Each sign or banner photo stays on your phone only until it reaches our server, and a small copy for your list of today’s signs and banners is deleted when the app next starts after two days. On Android it also keeps the physical activity reports from your flyer, signs and field flyer shifts, deleting any older than 7 days each time it records a new one. Deleting the app removes them.

Your rights as a California employee

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives you these rights over your personal information:

• Right to know. Ask what we have collected about you, where it came from, why we use it and who we have disclosed it to, and ask for a copy.
• Right to delete. Ask us to delete information about you. We will delete what we can. Some records, such as time and payroll records, the law requires us to keep, and we will tell you which.
• Right to correct. Ask us to fix information that is wrong. For a wrong or missed punch, the quickest way is Request a correction on the app’s History tab. An administrator reviews it, and every change is recorded with its reason.
• Right to limit. Precise location is “sensitive personal information” under the CCPA. We use it only for the purposes on this page, and you can ask us to limit its use to what those purposes need.

We will not retaliate against you, or treat you differently, for using any of these rights.

How to ask

Email us with “Privacy request” in the subject and say which right you want to use. You can also ask someone to make the request for you, with your signed permission.

1. We confirm we received it within 10 business days.
2. We check it is really you, usually by writing back to the work email address we have for you.
3. We answer within 45 days. If we need longer, we will tell you why, and take no more than another 45 days.

You can also send a request by post:

If this policy changes, we will update the date at the top of this page and tell staff about any change to what the app collects.