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Privacy

Privacy Policy

Last updated 10 September 2026.

This page explains what First Down Scotland does with information when you use the site. It is written for people in the United Kingdom, in UK English. It is not legal advice.

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 We are not the NFL, and we do not publish a company number.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 feedback form 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 We do not publish a personal inbox on the site.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, fixtures, scores, news headlines, team pages, the feedback form, and the links out to Discord, YouTube and other sites. It does not cover Discord itself, YouTube, ESPN, publishers we link to, or any pub you visit from the listings.

What we collect

We do not ask you to create an account. There is no login.

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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.
  • 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 is on the site so Google can verify the property. 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. They see the form contents, not a login.
  • 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.
  • We do not run a user database of fans or email lists from this site.

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 Feedback 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.

More about the project is on About.