Privacy Policy

Who we are

First Down Scotland is an independent learning and community project about American football, built in Scotland for fans in the UK. It is Greg’s site. We are not the NFL, and we do not publish a company number.

The public site is www.firstdownscotland.com. For privacy questions, use the contact page or email info@g4-marketing.net. That address is already on the pub-listing page. We do not publish a personal inbox on the site.

What this policy covers

It covers the website: lessons, guides, fixtures, scores, news headlines, team pages, the feedback form, the NFL UK Fan Map, and the links out to Discord, YouTube and other sites. It does not cover Discord itself, YouTube, ESPN, publishers we link to, geocoder providers we query only to standardise a town you picked, or any pub you visit from the listings.

What we collect

The site does not ask you to create an account. The NFL UK Fan Map uses a signed browser cookie, a stricter IP rate limit on a first pin than on an update, a honeypot, a minimum form-fill time, and (when configured) a Cloudflare Turnstile captcha so one person cannot stuff the map. We do not collect an email for that.

• Usage analytics. The layout includes Vercel Web Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights. They measure page views and performance. Vercel’s analytics are designed not to use advertising cookies; they identify a visit with a short-lived hash from the request rather than a lasting user id. We may still see aggregated location, browser and referrer data.
• Hosting logs. Vercel, who host the site, process technical data such as IP address, user agent, and the pages requested, so the site can run, stay secure and be debugged.
• Feedback form. If you send a note we store what you typed: how you found us, favourite bit, confusing or broken bits, whether £2 a month would feel fair, suggested features, optional name, optional team, and whether you would recommend the site. There is no email field on the form. A hidden “website” field is only there to catch bots and is discarded. We also record when you opened the form, so a too-quick send can be rejected.
• Rate limiting. The feedback API briefly remembers a hash of IP address and browser in server memory (about ten minutes) so the inbox cannot be flooded. That is not written to a database.
• Browser storage you choose. On your device only, we keep a favourite team (fds-team: club, how you picked it, and when), a spoiler-free preference (fds-spoiler-free), and lesson progress plus quiz score (fds-learn). None of that is sent to us unless you later include a team on the feedback form.
• Fan map pin. If you put a team on the map we store the NFL club you picked, a standardised UK town (country, nation, council or region, town name, and that town’s centre coordinates from a geocoder), plus optional years following the NFL and watch-party interest. We do not store your name, email, postcode, street, phone GPS or a free-text address. One pin per browser cookie; you can update it. The public map never shows individual pins, only town-level totals. A town needs at least three registrations (unless we raise that threshold) before we show which teams those fans support.
• What we do not collect as a product. No payment details (the £2 question is research, not a checkout). No location from your phone. No advertising profile of our own.

How we use it

• Run the site and keep it secure.
• See which pages help, and which are slow or unused.
• Read tester notes and decide what to build next.
• Remember your team, spoiler-free setting and lesson progress on this browser.
• Run the fan map: one pin per signed browser cookie, public town aggregates, Scheme Battles ownership, and a private admin view of those same aggregates.
• When ads are switched on, show advertising and (if you agree) personalised ads. See Advertising below.

Legal bases

For UK GDPR we rely on:

• Legitimate interests: to operate an independent fan site, keep the feedback inbox usable, and understand aggregated use through Vercel’s privacy-minded analytics. We do not think those interests override your rights: there is no account, and analytics are not used to advertise to you ourselves.
• Consent: for non-essential cookies and similar tech used for advertising, including Google AdSense and any Google consent / CMP tools, when those are enabled. You can withdraw that consent through the consent tool once it is live.
• Optional name and free-text on feedback are given because you chose to send them. We treat that as a request to read the note.
• Putting a pin on the fan map is a request to count that town and team. You can ask us to delete it.

Cookies and similar technology

A cookie is a small file a site can store on your device. Similar tools include localStorage and pixels.

• Strictly necessary (this site). Favourite team, spoiler-free and lesson progress live in localStorage so the page you asked for can remember a choice. They stay until you clear site data or change the setting. If you put a pin on the fan map we set an httpOnly cookie so this browser can update that one pin. The admin map uses a separate cookie after the admin password is entered. Cloudflare Turnstile, when enabled, is a captcha on the add form.
• Analytics (this site). Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights do not use advertising cookies. They still process a little technical data so we can see traffic and performance.
• YouTube. Live and finished game cards may embed an official clip via youtube-nocookie.com, or link out to YouTube. Playing a video, or following a YouTube link, is Google’s service: they may set cookies. Club YouTube on team pages is a link-out only.
• Advertising (when enabled). Google AdSense may set cookies to show ads, measure them, and (if you consent) personalise them. A Google consent / CMP banner will be the place to manage that once ads are live. The AdSense publisher script loads only when advertising is switched on. It is off by default. Auto ads and a consent banner are not on yet.

Fonts are bundled with the site at build time. We do not load Google Fonts from Google in your browser.

Advertising

We may use Google AdSense to fund the project. AdSense can use cookies and similar tech. Personalised ads need your consent in the UK. Non-personalised ads may still use some technical data to serve and measure a slot. When a consent tool is on the site, use it to allow or refuse personalised ads. You can also use your browser controls, and Google’s own ad settings, to limit ads that use your activity.

We do not sell your contact details. We do not run a betting or odds product, and the site is not aimed at children.

Third parties

These organisations may process information because the site uses their services, or because you leave our pages:

• Vercel: hosting, Web Analytics and Speed Insights.
• Formspree and/or Resend: deliver the feedback form to Greg. Which one runs depends on server settings.
• Neon / Vercel Postgres: stores anonymous fan-map pins and town-ownership flips when the map is wired up.
• Town search: Geoapify, Photon (Komoot) or Nominatim, depending on settings. They see the town name you typed so we can offer UK autocomplete. We do not send them your email.
• Cloudflare Turnstile: captcha on the fan-map add form when those keys are set. Cloudflare sees the captcha token, not your town choice.
• Google: YouTube embeds and search links today; AdSense and a consent / CMP when enabled.
• Discord: the community chat is off-site. Joining uses Discord’s own terms and privacy notice. We do not run in-app chat.
• ESPN, Sleeper, RSS publishers, nflverse: public scores, standings, rookies, news headlines and historical finals. Those calls are made by our servers for the page you asked for. They are not a way we send them your name.

News cards show a headline and a short snippet from a public RSS feed, then link to the publisher. Full articles stay on their site.

How long we keep it

• Browser preferences stay on your device until you clear them.
• Feedback notes are kept long enough to read and act on them, then deleted or kept only in a short internal record if we still need the point (for example a bug).
• Feedback rate-limit keys drop after about ten minutes.
• Analytics and hosting logs follow Vercel’s retention for those products.
• Fan map town pins stay until you ask us to delete them, or we close the map. The pin cookie lasts about 30 days.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us to: access the personal data we hold about you; correct it; erase it; restrict how we use it; object to processing based on legitimate interests; and receive a copy in a portable form where that right applies. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. That does not undo processing already done.

Write via the contact page or info@g4-marketing.net. Say you are making a privacy request. We may need to check it is you before we change or delete a feedback note.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Children

The site is a general learning hub for the NFL. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13. If you are under 16 in the UK, please only use the site with a parent or guardian. Do not send a feedback note with a child’s name or contact details. If you think a child has sent us personal data, tell us and we will delete it.

International transfers

Vercel, Formspree, Resend and Google are organisations that may process data in the United States and other countries. Where that happens, those providers typically rely on the UK-US data bridge, Standard Contractual Clauses, or another lawful transfer tool. We do not run our own servers outside the host’s platform.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we collect or use information, including turning on AdSense or a consent banner, we will update this page and the date at the top. Material changes will be described here in plain English.

How to contact us

First Down Scotland, Scotland / United Kingdom.

• Contact page
• info@g4-marketing.net

More about the project is on About.