Privacy policy
FUTLINE is a table football game in your browser that is free to play, with optional cosmetic purchases. We only process the data the game really needs. Here we explain which data that is, what we use it for and what rights you have.
1.Controller
The controller for data processing on futline.app within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
Philipp ReimannIn der Stöck 2271566 AlthütteGermanyE-mail: futline@reico-it.de
2.The short version
- No tracking, no third-party analytics tools, no cookies for statistics. We only count visits anonymously as daily totals on our own server, without any identifier (see “Anonymous visitor statistics”).
- In club matches there is advertising by real companies on the boards. It is always labelled “AD” (advertisement), is not personalised and does not track you.
- No scripts, fonts or social media plugins from third parties. Everything comes from our own server. The only exception is Stripe’s payment field on our payment page for the Season Ticket (see “Payments (Stripe)”).
- You can play without an account. An account is optional.
- Your data is stored on our server in Germany. It only goes to others in a few cases: to Stripe when you pay, to your browser’s push service when you turn on notifications, to our e-mail provider when we send you a confirmation or a notification you turned on, and encrypted to GitHub for our backups. Some of these providers are in the USA.
- You can delete your account yourself at any time.
3.Hosting, backups and name resolution
FUTLINE runs on our own server, which a hosting provider based in Germany operates for us. The server is located in a data centre in Germany, i.e. within the European Union.
We have a data processing agreement with the provider under Art. 28 GDPR. It may only process the data on our instructions and only to run the server.
Backups: so that nothing is lost in the event of a failure, we back up the database and the uploaded images every day. The backups are kept on our server and, encrypted with AES-256, in private storage at GitHub (GitHub, Inc., USA, a Microsoft company). Only the operator has the key; GitHub cannot read the contents. After a server move, a backup may also remain on our former server for a short time, likewise with a hosting provider in Germany. We keep backups for no more than 30 days. During that time they may still contain data that we have already deleted in normal operation.
The legal basis for the backups is our legitimate interest in avoiding data loss (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) and our duty to ensure the availability of the data (Art. 32 GDPR).
Name resolution: the address futline.app is resolved through the DNS service of Cloudflare, Inc. (USA). Cloudflare only answers the question of which server address futline.app can be reached at. The pages themselves do not run through Cloudflare. As a rule, Cloudflare only sees the address of your internet provider’s DNS server, not your own. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
There are no other recipients apart from the cases listed under “Recipients and third countries”.
There is no tracking and there are no third-party analytics tools on FUTLINE. We embed no third-party scripts, no external fonts and no social media plugins. The only exception is Stripe’s payment field on our payment page for the Season Ticket (futline.app/dauerkarte/bezahlen, see “Payments (Stripe)”). All other content is delivered by our own server, including the advertising on the boards. How we count visits anonymously is explained under “Anonymous visitor statistics”.
4.Recipients and third countries
Your data stays on our server in Germany. There are only these exceptions:
- Payments: if you buy in the premium shop or take out a Season Ticket, Stripe receives the data needed for the payment. On our payment page for the Season Ticket your browser loads Stripe.js directly from Stripe for this (see “Payments (Stripe)”).
- Push notifications: if you turn them on, every message goes through your browser’s push service, for example from Google, Apple or Mozilla (see “Push notifications”).
- E-mails: when we send you a confirmation, for example after a purchase, a cancellation, a withdrawal or a report, or an e-mail notification, it goes through the operator’s e-mail provider (see “Contact and e-mails”).
- Backups: encrypted at GitHub (see “Hosting, backups and name resolution”).
- Name resolution: Cloudflare answers DNS queries for futline.app (see “Hosting, backups and name resolution”).
Stripe, GitHub, Cloudflare and the push services may also process data in the USA. The transfer is based on the European Commission’s adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Art. 45 GDPR), where the provider is certified under it. Otherwise it is based on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR).
If you click on an advertisement and confirm the prompt, your browser opens the advertiser’s page. The advertiser’s privacy policy applies there (see “Advertising on the boards”).
5.Connection data and web server logs
When you open futline.app, our server processes your IP address. Without it, it cannot deliver the page to you or set up a real-time connection for online games (WebSocket).
Our web server writes one line per request to an access log: time, requested address, status code, amount of data, the page visited before (referrer) and your browser’s identifier (user agent). The IP address is only stored shortened: for IPv4 without the last number, for IPv6 only the first 48 bits. The web server’s error log may contain the full IP address in case of technical errors. We delete both logs after 14 days.
We also protect sign-in, registration, account recovery, our forms, the retrieval of invitations, clicks on advertising, the visitor statistics and similar functions against mass requests (rate limiting).
For this we briefly count how many requests come from an IP address. For IPv6 we only use the network range (/64), not the full address. These counters are kept in memory only and are not written to log files. We delete them once their time window has passed, usually after about an hour at the latest.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is providing the game securely and reliably and fending off attacks.
6.Anonymous visitor statistics
To understand how FUTLINE is used, we count visits and some events in the game on our own server. We only store counts per day, for example “120 views of the home page today”. There is no entry per person or per visit. We use no analytics tools or third-party services for this.
When you load a page of FUTLINE, your browser requests it from our server. From this request our server counts:
- the kind of page, for example “home page” or “club page”, without club names, codes or other parts of the address
- the language of the delivered page (from the address, for example /en/, otherwise from the language setting your browser sends along)
- the domain of the page you came from, for example “google.com”, taken from the “Referer” your browser sends along, never the full address, the path or search terms
- the campaign details utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, if the link contains them
If you come from another page of FUTLINE or return from the payment page, we only count the page view, not a new visit.
The game in your browser reads nothing for the statistics, neither the page you visited before nor the language or other settings of your device. It only tells our server what happens in the game afterwards: when you switch pages within the game (only the kind of page), when you start your first and your second match after loading (with the kind of match, for example against the computer, or how many people are in the room), and when you copy or share an invite link. These messages reach our server without cookies and without the address of the page you are on.
On the server we count how often accounts are created, clubs are founded, league matches are played live, Season Tickets are taken out or cancelled, cosmetic items are bought, goals are shared and shared links (/r/ and /i/) are opened. Here too we only count the number per day, without any link to your account.
For the statistics we set no cookies, store nothing in your browser and assign no identifier. We do not store your IP address, your browser’s identifier (user agent) or the full address you came from (Referer) for this. We only use the IP address and the browser identifier briefly in memory: the browser identifier to leave out search engines and other programs, and the IP address (for IPv6 only the network range /64) to fend off mass requests (see “Connection data and web server logs”). That is also why we cannot tell whether someone comes back.
For the counting we only use what your browser transmits to our server anyway when it requests a page, and the messages about events in the game named above. We read nothing from your device for the statistics and store nothing on it.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to improve the game, for example to see whether new players find their way into the first match, and to understand how people hear about FUTLINE.
You can object at any time (Art. 21 GDPR). The easiest way is to switch on “Global Privacy Control” or “Do Not Track” in your browser. Your browser sends this setting with every request, and our server then counts no page loads, no messages from the game and no opened shared links. The counters for accounts, clubs, league matches, Season Tickets, purchases and shared goals keep running, because they have no link to your device or your visit.
We delete the daily counts after 24 months. They cannot be linked to any person.
7.Playing without an account
You can play FUTLINE without an account. Your settings, the chosen language, your tutorial progress and your display name are then only stored in your browser’s storage. Exactly which entries these are is listed under “Browser storage”.
For online matches we also store a seat key in your browser’s session storage (sessionStorage). With it you can get back to your seat in a running match if your connection drops.
None of this is sent to us. The only exception is your display name when you join an online match. Your opponent should see who they are playing against. If you share a goal, your display name is also in the clip (see “Online matches, replays and clips”).
If you only play as a guest, we create no device ID and compute no device fingerprint (see “Protection against abuse and cheating”). If you have signed in on this browser before, the cookie fl_did remains after you sign out. We then only use it to detect a suspension.
You can delete this data at any time in your browser settings.
The legal basis for storing data in the browser is § 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG, because this data is strictly necessary for the game you asked for. Further processing is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
8.Browser storage
FUTLINE only stores entries in your browser that the game needs. None of them is used for tracking or advertising.
In local storage (localStorage):
- futline.settings.v1: your settings, for example controls, volume, tutorial progress and display name
- futline.lang: the chosen language
- futline.matchdayHours: how long a matchday currently lasts, so that times are shown correctly
- futline.cpuName: the name of your last computer opponent
- futline.watch.sound: whether sound is on while watching
- futline.device: the random device ID, only from your first sign-in (see “Protection against abuse and cheating”)
- futline.ref: the invite code if you come via an invite link. It is valid for 30 days.
- futline.newsAs: whether you last wrote in the news as yourself or for your club
- futline.kassensturz.… and futline.review.…: which matchday report and which match review of your club you have already seen
- futline.launchSeen.…: which Founders’ Weeks stages you have already seen, with the internal ID of your account
- futline.titlesCelebrated: which titles the game has already celebrated with you
- futline.maint: that maintenance is running. The entry disappears when maintenance ends.
In session storage (sessionStorage), which is deleted when you close the tab:
- futline.androidApp: that this tab runs in the Android app (see “Android app and Google Play”)
- futline.seat…: the seat key for a running online match
- futline.banner.closed: that you closed an operator notice for this visit
- futline.update and futline.maint.reload: when the tab last reloaded after an update or after maintenance, so that it does not reload again and again
In addition there is the cache of our service worker (futline-shell-v2). It contains the game’s program files, icons and images and the most recently loaded home page, so that FUTLINE loads faster and also starts without an internet connection.
We only set cookies when you register or sign in. Which ones is listed under “Cookies”.
You can delete all entries at any time in your browser settings.
The legal basis is § 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG, because these entries are strictly necessary for the game you asked for. We do not need consent for this, which is why FUTLINE has no cookie banner.
9.Online matches, replays and clips
Online matches run on our server. It receives your inputs, calculates the match state from them and sends it to both sides. That way nobody can tamper with the result on their own device.
Replays and clips are created in your browser.
When you share a goal or post it in the news, we store the clip on our server so the link stays short (futline.app/r/…). The clip contains the match data of the seconds around the goal, the names of both sides and the score. If you are signed in, we link it to your account. We do not store your IP address for this. We only use it briefly in memory to limit too many clips at once and to count views.
We delete shared clips after 180 days. A clip in a news post stays as long as the post. If you delete your account, the clip remains until then, without any link to your account.
If our server cannot be reached, the match data is contained in the link itself, in the part after the # sign. Browsers do not send this part to our server.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
10.Account
An account is optional. You need it for clubs, leagues, friends and posts in the news.
For your account we store:
- your username
- your password, but only as a salted hash (scrypt) from which the password cannot be recovered
- your recovery key, also only as a hash. It lets you get back into your account if you forget your password.
- your language and your settings
- your rating
- a profile picture, if you choose to add one
- when you created the account and when you were last online
We do not ask for an e-mail address for your account. We only store an e-mail address if you turn on e-mail notifications (see “E-mail notifications”) or take out a Season Ticket and give it there (see “Payments (Stripe)”).
Other players see your username and profile picture on your profile, on club pages and in the player search. They also see whether you are online right now and how long you have been a member.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. We keep this data until you delete your account.
We need a username and a password to create an account. All other information is optional.
12.Protection against abuse and cheating
So that rankings, leagues and suspensions stay fair, we protect FUTLINE against cheating, multiple accounts and the evasion of suspensions.
For this we process:
- a random device ID. The game creates it in your browser’s local storage (futline.device) as soon as you register or sign in for the first time. We also set a copy as the cookie fl_did (one year, readable only by our server).
- a device fingerprint from technical features of your browser and device: how a test image is drawn (canvas), manufacturer and name of the graphics chip (WebGL), screen size, colour depth and pixel density, time zone, platform, number of processor cores, memory and number of possible touch points. Your browser turns these features into a checksum. Only this checksum is sent to us.
- your IP address
- the timing and pattern of your inputs during online games (for example reaction times), to detect scripts and manipulated programs
The game only sends the device ID and fingerprint to our server when you register or sign in, and afterwards with the requests you make while signed in. After you sign out it no longer sends them. However, your browser keeps sending the cookie fl_did if you have signed in on this browser before.
For guests too, when an online connection is set up and for some requests, we use the IP address and, if present, the cookie fl_did to check whether the operator has suspended this device or this network. We do not store anything in doing so.
What we compare: we match the hashes of the device ID, fingerprint and IP address against those of other accounts and against existing suspensions. We also analyse the timing of your inputs in online games. Signs are, for example, several accounts using the same device, an account using the device or network of a suspended account, someone reacting faster than a human can, or a program sending far more inputs than a human manages.
We only store the device ID, fingerprint and IP address as a hash with a secret key (HMAC). Neither your IP address nor your device can be worked out from the database.
We store these hashes with your account and delete them twelve months after the device was last used. We check suspicious cases by hand and delete them with your account.
Our system never suspends anyone automatically. It only reports signs to the operator. Whether an account is suspended is always decided by a person, after checking the signs and with a reason that you see when you sign in. A shared device, the same fingerprint or the same network only counts as a sign, never as proof, because families, schools, mobile networks and identical phone models share such features.
If a program sends far more inputs or messages during an online game than a human can, we close that connection so that the running game stays fair. The account is not suspended because of this.
If the operator suspends an account, they can also block its devices and network. Guests then cannot play online from that device or network, and no new accounts can be created there. Other existing accounts on that device or in that network are not suspended by this. If you think a suspension is wrong, please object via “Report content” or write to us. We will then look into it.
We store suspensions for as long as they apply. We delete expired suspensions and the related hashes 30 days after they end. If the operator lifts a suspension early, it stops applying at once and is deleted 30 days after the originally planned end.
The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a fair and secure game (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object to this processing (Art. 21 GDPR).
For storing the device ID in the browser and reading the device features for the fingerprint we rely on § 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG. Both only happen when you sign in or play signed in, and only to protect your account, the leagues and the rankings against cheating and the evasion of suspensions. We consider this protection strictly necessary for the secure operation of the account you use. We never use this data for advertising, profiles or tracking.
13.Friends, online status and invitations
With an account you can add friends. For this we store your friend list and pending friend requests.
While you have FUTLINE open, your friends can see that you are online.
You can invite friends to a match, and they can invite you.
With your invite link or QR code you can invite others to FUTLINE. The link only shows your username and your profile picture. If someone signs up through it, we store who invited whom. This makes you friends and lets us spot abuse, such as accounts from the same device. Your club only gets the reward in Taler, the virtual play money, once the new account is a few days old and has played some matches. For this we check the age of the account and the number of its matches. This record is deleted when either of the two accounts is deleted.
Founders’ Weeks: for every founder place and every start bonus we store your account, your club and the hash of your device ID. This way every person and every device gets only one place and one bonus. For the founder bonus we check whether an invited account is used on the same device or the same internet connection (the same IP address) as yours, when it was created and how many live league matches it has finished. These records are deleted with your account.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Whoever invited you sees in their overview whether your account is used on the same network as theirs. They do not see the IP addresses themselves.
14.Push notifications
Notifications are optional. You switch them on with the bell.
If you switch them on, we store the address your browser gives us for them, your language and your time zone, so nothing arrives at night.
Every message travels encrypted through your browser’s push service, for example from Google, Apple or Mozilla. The service cannot read the content. It may, however, also process data in the USA (see “Recipients and third countries”).
The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, for the setup in your browser together with § 25(1) TDDDG.
You can withdraw your consent at any time with the bell or in your browser settings. The withdrawal takes effect for the future.
When you sign out, we stop the notifications in this browser.
15.E-mail notifications
E-mail notifications are optional. You turn them on in your profile and choose what we tell you about: “League match open”, “Important club news”, for example sponsor offers, promotion and relegation or the club’s money worries, and “Duels” (see “Duels in the league”).
We send at most six e-mails per duel. If you are using FUTLINE right now or have already read the note in the app, we send no e-mail about it.
For this we store your e-mail address, your choice, your browser’s language and time zone and the times of sign-up, confirmation and the confirmation e-mails. For every notification sent we store which one it was and when it went out, so that none comes twice. We only use the address for these e-mails.
First we send you a confirmation link that is valid for 48 hours. Only after you open it and confirm do you get notifications (double opt-in). We only store a hash of the link.
We send no notifications at night between 10 pm and 8 am in your time zone. The only exception is the reminder of a kick-off you agreed to.
The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future: with the unsubscribe link in every e-mail, also without signing in, or in your profile. There you can also change or delete the address.
We delete the address when you unsubscribe from everything, delete it or delete your account. We delete an unconfirmed address at the latest 9 days after the last confirmation link. We delete the records of which notification we sent and when after 60 days.
The e-mails are sent through the operator’s e-mail provider, with whom a data processing agreement is in place (see “Contact and e-mails”).
16.Duels in the league
When two clubs run by people meet in the league, they can agree on a kick-off time. For this we store with that match: the suggested kick-off times, the accepted times (the earliest is the kick-off, the others are backups), whether someone cancelled, whether a side was there at a kick-off, when a side was ready (suggested a time, agreed or waited in the waiting room) and how often it challenged the opponent.
This decides who may play against the stand-in. The stand-in is a computer with the strength and line-up of the absent club. Its result counts and is marked “Stand-in” in the results, in the news and in the match.
The stand-in does not start while someone from the other club is there. For this the game tells our server about once a minute whether your FUTLINE window is visible and you used it in the last ten minutes. We keep this only in the server’s memory and do not store it. This also applies when you do not show your online status; then nobody sees it.
The club you play next sees on its duel card whether one of you is online right now. We never show when you were last online. With “Show my online status to league opponents” in your profile you turn this off. This switch does not affect friends, your profile, the player search or club pages.
About suggestions, the agreed kick-off and the stand-in the other club gets notes in the app and, if it turned them on, push notifications and e-mails.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. We delete the duel records 30 days after the match.
17.Manager mode: clubs and leagues
In manager mode you found a club or join one. For this we process:
- the club’s name, tag, colours and crest
- your club membership
- virtual contracts and pending offers
- Taler (your club’s virtual play money)
- league results and tables
- news feed entries about clubs, for example results, promotions, relegations or new clubs
- the clubs you follow
Club pages, tables and news are public. Anyone can view them without signing in.
Anyone can watch league and club matches live, even without an account. Only the names and crests of the two clubs and the score are shown, no usernames. Private matches through an invite link are not public.
Watching needs no account. We store nothing about spectators; we only count how many are watching right now.
The club page also shows the members’ usernames, roles and ratings and whether they are currently online.
Taler are virtual play money with no monetary value. They can neither be bought nor paid out.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
18.Posts, comments and reports
With an account you can write posts in the news, comment, like entries and share them (repost). You can do this as yourself or in the name of your club.
Posts, comments, likes and reposts are public. They show your username or the name of your club.
Before a post or comment appears, our server checks the text automatically. We keep the checked text, the result and your user ID in the check log for 90 days (see “Automatic check of names, images and texts”).
We delete news entries after 12 months.
With an account you can report posts and comments directly in the game. We then store who reported what and why. The report is stored until we have decided on it, and after that for at most 12 months.
If three different players report the same content, we hide it. It stays hidden until the operator has decided whether it stays or is deleted.
Anyone can report any content, including names, crests, profile pictures and clips, under “Report content” (futline.app/melden), also without an account. There you can also object to a decision. For this we store where the content is, your explanation and the kind of problem, your name and e-mail address if you give them, and for a report your confirmation that your information is correct. We do not store your IP address in doing so. We delete this information after 12 months.
We tell you about decisions on your content in the game, with the reasons (Art. 17 DSA). Anyone who reported a post or comment learns there how we decided.
If you delete your account, we also delete the posts you wrote as yourself and your comments, likes and reports. Posts you wrote in the name of your club are part of the club’s history. They stay with the club, with your username as the author.
The legal basis for publishing your content is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Checks, reports and moderation are based on our duties under the Digital Services Act and on our legitimate interest in protecting other players, especially minors (Art. 6(1)(c) and (f) GDPR).
That club posts stay with your username after you delete your account is based on our legitimate interest in a complete club history (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
19.Notifications in the game
When others react to you, we show it under your profile picture: for example likes, comments and reposts of your posts, friend requests, contract offers and invites. For this we store what happened, who did it, a short excerpt of the post or comment and whether you have seen the notification.
Only you can see your notifications. We delete them after 60 days, and at once when the post or comment is deleted. If you delete your account, we delete your notifications too.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR: notifications are part of the features of your account.
20.Automatic check of names, images and texts
Before a chosen name, an uploaded crest, a profile picture, a post or a comment becomes visible in the game, we check whether it contains anything inappropriate. This happens automatically on our own server, with word lists and check models that run only there. No data leaves our server in the process.
This protects other players, especially minors, and prevents infringements of rights. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
Uploaded images are re-encoded. This removes embedded metadata such as EXIF data, which could reveal where a photo was taken, for example.
A profile picture is optional. It is visible wherever your username appears, for example in the news, in comments and in friends lists. You can remove it at any time. It is deleted together with your account. Please do not upload a photo that shows other people without their consent.
A club crest stays on our server until it is replaced or the club is dissolved.
We keep the check decisions for 90 days to improve our filters. They consist of the checked text, such as the name, the post or the comment, the result and your user ID. After that they are deleted automatically.
21.Advertising on the boards
In club matches we show ads of real companies on the boards. They are always labelled “AD” (advertisement). If an ad is too small to carry this label, we do not show it.
The sponsors that clubs sign contracts with in the game, on the other hand, are fictional companies.
Which ad runs depends only on the country of the home club. We do not personalise the advertising, build no profiles and do not track you. The ads come from our own server. The advertiser does not learn who saw their ad.
For each ad we count how many matches it ran in and how often it was clicked. These numbers are not linked to any person.
To stop anyone from inflating the click counts, we briefly keep your IP address in memory when you click (see “Connection data and web server logs”). It is not stored.
If you click an ad, we ask first. Only when you confirm does the advertiser’s website open in a new tab. We do not send any information about where you came from (referrer). The advertiser’s privacy policy applies on their website.
The legal basis for counting and for protection against click fraud is our legitimate interest in also financing FUTLINE through advertising and in giving our advertisers honest numbers (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
22.Inactive clubs
If a club does not play for a long time, it is relegated and eventually dissolved. This is a game rule.
The details are in the terms of use.
23.Feedback and bug reports
If you write to us through the feedback form, we store your message, the kind of report, the page you came from and, if you are signed in, your account. As a guest you can give a name if you like. Our server checks message and name automatically for inappropriate content before storing them.
If you leave the technical details box ticked, we also send: browser and operating system (user agent), platform, screen and window size, pixel density, whether you play with touch, whether FUTLINE is installed as an app, whether you are online and which connection type your device reports, memory, language, time zone and local time, game version and the game’s latest error messages in your browser. Before sending you can see exactly what will be sent.
Protection against automated reports: the form gets a short-lived, signed key from the server that is valid for at most 6 hours. For guests it contains a short form of the IP address made with a secret key (hash), from which the address cannot be worked out. This short form is not stored. Guests also solve a small computing task that the browser carries out in the background. We use no cookies and no device ID for guests in doing so.
We do not store your IP address. Counters per network stay in memory for at most one hour, counters per account for at most 24 hours, also in memory only (see “Connection data and web server logs”).
The operator decides on every report. We store his decision, when he decided, a reply to you if he writes one, and a reward in Taler. Talers are only given for reports from an account. They are credited to your club funds and shown there as an entry. If you have no club yet, the reward waits until you found or join one. We tell you about the decision with a notification in the game (see “Notifications in the game”). The decision is also recorded in the log of operator actions.
The legal basis for the report and the reward is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR; for the technical details and the protection against abuse it is our legitimate interest in fixing bugs, improving FUTLINE and protecting the form against spam (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Only the operator sees the reports.
We delete them after 12 months at the latest. Until then the message and any name you gave remain stored, even if you delete your account before then. The entry for a reward remains in the club funds for as long as the club exists.
24.Contact and e-mails
If you e-mail or call us, we process your message and your contact details to deal with your request. We delete them once it is settled, unless the law requires us to keep them longer. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where a contract is concerned, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
In some cases we send you an e-mail automatically:
- after a purchase or after taking out a Season Ticket, the contract confirmation, to the e-mail address you gave when doing so
- after a cancellation through “Cancel contracts here”, the confirmation of receipt
- after a withdrawal through “Withdraw from contract”, the confirmation of receipt
- after a report or an objection through “Report content”, the confirmation of receipt, if you give an e-mail address
- if you turn on e-mail notifications, the confirmation link and then the notifications you chose (see “E-mail notifications”)
These e-mails only contain what belongs to the matter. We send no advertising or newsletters. They are sent through the operator’s e-mail provider, with whom a data processing agreement is in place.
The legal basis is our legal duty to confirm contracts, cancellations, withdrawals and reports (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR with §§ 312f, 312k and 356a BGB and Art. 16 DSA), and the performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
The operator gets a daily report by e-mail to his own address. It mainly contains numbers, plus up to three excerpts from new bug reports and the user and club names of up to five new accounts and clubs. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping an eye on operations and handling reports promptly (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
25.Payments (Stripe)
When you buy in the premium shop or take out a Season Ticket, you pay through our payment provider Stripe. The provider is Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., 1 Grand Canal Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland. Stripe processes your payment details and your e-mail address for the invoice and the receipt. Stripe’s privacy notice: https://stripe.com/privacy
Premium shop: you enter your payment details directly on Stripe’s payment page (Stripe Checkout), not with us.
So that we can match the payment to your purchase, we send Stripe your user ID and the ID of the club you are buying for.
We only receive from Stripe what we need for the purchase: amount, item, payment status and an identifier of the transaction. We never see card details.
Stripe may also process data in the USA. The transfer is based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses (see “Recipients and third countries”).
We keep the purchase records for up to 10 years for tax reasons, even if you delete your account. In that case we remove the link to your account.
The legal basis is the performance of the purchase contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and our legal duty to keep records (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR, usually 10 years under § 147 AO).
Season Ticket: you order it on our own payment page (futline.app/dauerkarte/bezahlen). There you enter your card or other payment details in a payment field from Stripe that is embedded in our page (Stripe Payment Element). These details go directly to Stripe, we never see them. For the payment field your browser loads the program Stripe.js from js.stripe.com, only on this payment page. We do not load it on any other page of FUTLINE.
On the payment page Stripe.js collects device and usage data, for example about your browser, your device, your IP address and how you use the page. Stripe uses it to detect and prevent fraud. Stripe is itself responsible for this. Stripe.js is technically necessary for the payment you ask for (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG).
We pass the e-mail address you give when taking out the Season Ticket to Stripe as the customer e-mail, so that Stripe can send you invoices and receipts. For the recurring charges we also use Stripe Billing. So that we can match the payments to your Season Ticket, we link them at Stripe to your user ID.
For the Season Ticket we store:
- your user ID
- your Stripe customer ID and subscription ID
- the identifiers of invoices and payments, and the amounts
- the status, for example active, cancelled as of a date, or payment failed
- the start and end of the paid periods and the number of your supporter months
- for the yearly plan, the monthly price fixed at purchase for the time after the first 12 months and the ID of the schedule at Stripe that then switches to this price
- that you confirmed at the order that you are of full age and accept the terms of use (as a note on your subscription at Stripe)
- the e-mail address you gave when taking it out. Stripe stores it for the payment and the receipts. We store it with your subscription so that we can send you confirmations and recognise you if you cancel without signing in.
If you cancel via “Cancel contracts here”, we keep as proof the e-mail address you entered or your account, the date and time, and the result. The result says, for example, whether we found a contract and cancelled it.
After a valid withdrawal we instruct Stripe to refund the amount to your means of payment. We store the refunded amount with your subscription.
For the Season Ticket we do not pass any data to anyone other than Stripe.
The legal basis is the performance of the Season Ticket contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). We keep invoices and accounting records for up to 10 years because the law requires it (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR together with § 147 AO and § 257 HGB). We keep the proof of cancellations because we must confirm and be able to prove that a cancellation was received (Art. 6(1)(c) and (f) GDPR together with § 312k BGB).
Stripe processes the data partly as our processor, namely when it handles the payments on our behalf. In part Stripe is itself the controller, namely for fraud prevention (including the data Stripe.js collects on our payment page) and for its own legal duties, for example anti-money-laundering checks. Stripe sends you invoices and receipts by e-mail.
If you withdraw through “Withdraw from contract”, we store your name, the details of the contract, the e-mail address for the confirmation and the date and time.
We keep proof of cancellations and withdrawals until the end of the third year after receipt (limitation period, §§ 195, 199 BGB). We delete the e-mail address given when taking out the Season Ticket from our database at the end of the third year after the subscription ended.
26.Android app and Google Play
The FUTLINE Android app (package name app.futline) shows the same website futline.app in a Chrome view (Trusted Web Activity). This privacy policy applies to it just as to the website. The app itself stores no data about you. Account, cookies and settings are kept in Chrome on your device and on our server, as in the browser.
So that the website knows it runs in the app, the app’s start address carries ?src=twa. The website remembers this for the tab in session storage (futline.androidApp) and tells our server with its requests that they come from the app. This note is the same for everyone using the app and identifies nobody. We only use it to sell through Google Play instead of Stripe in the app and to count browser and app separately in the anonymous visitor statistics.
If you turn on notifications in the app, Android shows them as notifications of the app. Android asks for your permission first. Otherwise the same applies as under “Push notifications”.
Purchases in the app (Season Ticket and shop) go through Google Play. Google Play is provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. You enter your payment details with Google, we never see them. Google processes them under its own responsibility. Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
For each purchase Google gives us: a purchase token, the order number, the product, the status (for example paid, pending, cancelled or refunded), for the Season Ticket the end of the paid time and whether it renews, whether it was a test purchase, and the amount paid with tax and the share Google pays out to us. Google does not tell us your name or your e-mail address. The app reports the purchase token together with your signed-in account so that we can assign the purchase to your account and your club.
Our server asks Google through Google Play’s interface (Google Play Developer API) and is told about changes by Google (through Google Cloud Pub/Sub). Through this interface we acknowledge purchases and, when you ask for it, stop the renewal of a Season Ticket, for example through “Cancel contracts here” or when you delete your account.
We keep the purchase data for up to 10 years for tax reasons, after an account deletion without a link to your account. The legal basis is the performance of the contract (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) and our legal obligation to keep records (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR with § 147 AO).
Google may also process data in the USA. The transfer is based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Art. 45 GDPR). Google’s library for purchases in the app may also send technical diagnostic data to Google. Google is responsible for this.
27.Season Ticket: badge and Hall of Legends
While your Season Ticket is active, others see a supporter badge on your profile, on the club page, in league tables, in the game room and on share cards. If you own a club, its crest gets a ticket frame. When your Season Ticket ends, the badge stays visible in grey, with the number of your supporter months.
We never show amounts or payment details.
You can hide your badge from others at any time on the Season Ticket page. By default it is visible. The legal basis for showing it is our legitimate interest in making visible the support you bought (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
The Hall of Legends (futline.app/legenden) is a public page. Anyone can view it without signing in. You only appear there if you switch this on yourself on the Season Ticket page. By default it is switched off.
If you switch it on, we show your club there with its name, crest and country. If you are not in a club, we show your username and your profile picture. In addition we show the number of your supporter months, since when you have had the Season Ticket and whether it is currently active.
The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time on the Season Ticket page by switching the display off. Your entry then disappears from the Hall of Legends. The withdrawal takes effect for the future.
The operator can hide individual entries in the Hall of Legends.
28.Server logs
Our game server writes technical event logs, for example “match started” or “club founded”. They contain internal IDs of accounts, clubs and matches, but no IP addresses. Only failed sign-in attempts to the admin area are logged with an encrypted short form of the IP address (HMAC), to detect attacks.
We need the logs to find errors and to secure operation. They are kept for at most 30 days.
The web server’s access logs are described under “Connection data and web server logs”.
What the operator does in the admin area, for example suspensions or decisions on reports, is logged separately. We keep these entries for 24 months so that decisions remain traceable.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
29.Deleting your account
You can delete your account yourself at any time on the “Account” page.
We then delete your account, all sessions, friendships, club memberships and open offers, your profile picture, your push subscriptions, your e-mail notifications with the address, the hashes of your devices and your own posts, comments, likes and reports.
If you have a Season Ticket, it ends at once when you delete your account, and nothing more is charged. We do not refund the current paid period, except after a valid withdrawal. We also accept a withdrawal within the withdrawal period that you declare after deleting your account (futline.app/widerrufen).
If you own a club, it passes to another member if there is one. If you are the only member, the club is dissolved. Its place in the league then goes to a computer club.
League results already played remain as pseudonymous club history. They are then no longer linked to you as a person.
Some data is kept longer for the reasons given above:
- posts you wrote in the name of your club, with your username
- purchase receipts and the invoices and accounting records of the Season Ticket, without a link to your account, for up to 10 years
- proof of cancellations and withdrawals, until the end of the third year after receipt
- shared clips, without a link to your account, for up to 180 days (in a news post as long as the post)
- feedback messages, reports and objections through “Report content” and any name given there, for up to 12 months after sending
- entries in the automatic check log, for up to 90 days
- suspensions and their hashes, until 30 days after the suspension ends
- logs of operator actions, 24 months
- backups, for up to 30 days
30.Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the following rights:
- access to your stored data (Art. 15)
- rectification of incorrect data (Art. 16)
- erasure (Art. 17)
- restriction of processing (Art. 18)
- data portability (Art. 20)
- objection to processing based on our legitimate interest (Art. 21)
- withdrawal of consent with effect for the future (Art. 7(3))
To exercise them, just write to us at futline@reico-it.de. On request you get your data in a common, machine-readable format (JSON).
Right to object: where we process data on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR). We will then no longer process the data, unless we can show compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the authority where you live.
31.Automated decisions
We do not make automated decisions that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you (Art. 22 GDPR).
The automatic check only decides whether a name, an image, a post or a comment can appear in the game.
In protecting against cheating, too, our system does not decide on suspensions itself. It only reports signs such as very fast reaction times, a flood of inputs or a shared device to the operator, and a person decides (see “Protection against abuse and cheating”).
If you think a decision is wrong, write to us. You can state your point of view, and we will review the decision again.
32.Minimum age
You must be at least 16 years old to create an account.
If you are younger, you need the consent of a parent or other legal guardian (Art. 8 GDPR). You confirm this when you sign up.
Minors may play, but not buy. Only people of full age, that is at least 18 years old, may buy items in the premium shop or the Season Ticket. You confirm this with a checkbox before every purchase.
Last updated: 16 October 2026