Privacy policy

The short version

• We collect what it takes to sign you in and run your leagues, and nothing more.
• There is no advertising: no ad networks, no advertising identifiers, nothing that follows you to other apps or sites. Google Analytics counts which screens are opened, with no account, email or handle attached, and only once you accept, in the web app and the iPhone app alike; you can turn it off at any time. We do not sell or share your data.
• Ching takes no payments. Ching, the points a Bets league plays for, is never money: it cannot be bought, cashed out or exchanged for anything.
• You can delete your account yourself, in Settings, at any time.

What we collect

• Your sign-in. Your email address, the account identifier Apple, Google or the email sign-in gives us, and which of the three you used. If you hide your email with Sign in with Apple, we get Apple’s relay address instead. Firebase Authentication holds these; if you sign in with email, your password goes to Firebase and never to our own servers. If you continue with Google, Firebase also keeps the name and profile photo link your Google account shares; Ching never reads or shows them.
• Your handle. The name you choose once, shown to other members. We never ask for your real name, photo, phone number, birthday, location or contacts.
• What you do in your leagues. The leagues you create or join, league names, your stack name (in a Bets league, your name in the league), your draft picks, the teams you own, releases and claims, trades, your weekly stack (a Stack league’s slots or a Laid-back bench), and in a Bets league your bets, with the points and standings worked out from them.
• Notifications. Your notification switches, and the list of notifications Ching shows you in the app.
• Device tokens. If you turn notifications on, the push token Firebase Cloud Messaging gives your device or browser; on an iPhone, the tokens for the game-day Live Activity too. Each is tied to your account so we can send to it, and nothing else. When a device or browser registers for notifications, Firebase Cloud Messaging also receives its user agent, the line that names the browser or app and its version.
• Service logs. Our servers, on Google Cloud Run, log each request’s method, route, result and timing, with your account’s identifier once you are signed in; never what you sent, your tokens or an invite code. Google’s infrastructure also records standard request details, such as the IP address and the browser.
• Screens visited. Through Google Analytics, which screens of the web app and the iPhone app are opened, named by the kind of screen (a league’s Stack tab, say) and never by which league, member, team or invite code, with the device and app details Google Analytics collects on its own: the kind of device, its operating system, the browser or app version, the screen size and language, and an approximate location (country and city) Google works out from the IP address. To tell a returning visit from a new one, the web app sets Google Analytics’ own cookies and keeps a random identifier for this browser (the one Firebase already uses for notifications), and the iPhone app keeps a random identifier for this install of the app. None of it carries your account, email or handle, and Google’s advertising features, Google signals and ad personalization are off. Neither app does any of this until you accept (below).
• Security reports. When your browser blocks something under the web app’s security policy, it reports it to us. We keep only the page’s path with any ids removed, where the blocked item came from and the rule it broke.
• On your device. The web app keeps your sign-in, your theme, your answer about Google Analytics and a note of the trade reminders you sent in the browser’s storage, and a copy of the app and the last league screens you loaded, for use offline. The iPhone app keeps your sign-in, your theme, your answer about Google Analytics, your last league and what its widgets show on the phone. Ching sets no advertising cookies; the only cookies are Google Analytics’, above, and only once you accept.

Google Analytics, your choice

Neither the web app nor the iPhone app counts anything with Google Analytics until you say so. When you first open either, a line asks: Accept turns counting on, and No thanks keeps it off. Until you answer it stays off and Google Analytics is sent nothing.

In the web app, Google Analytics does not load and sets no cookies until you accept. Your answer is kept in this browser only, so another browser or device asks again. You can change it here at any time; turning counting off also clears Google Analytics’ cookies from this browser.

In the iPhone app, your answer is kept on the phone. You can change it at any time in the app’s Settings, under Privacy; turning counting off there also clears what Google Analytics kept on the phone.

How we use it

To sign you in, run your leagues, score them from real results, send the notifications you allow, keep the service secure, fix what breaks, see which screens are used so we can improve them, and answer you when you write to us. Nothing else: no profiling, no advertising, no selling.

To answer a support request or fix a problem, we can look at Ching as a particular member sees it: read-only, or for 30 minutes at a time acting as them. Each look is limited in time and recorded in an audit log that cannot be changed.

Who handles it for us

• Google Firebase: Authentication (your sign-in and email), Hosting (serves the web app and this page) and Cloud Messaging (delivers notifications).
• Google Analytics: counts the screens visited, as above. It is linked to no advertising product.
• Google Cloud: Cloud Run in the us-west1 region (Oregon) runs our API and the worker that scores leagues; Cloud Logging keeps the service logs.
• Aiven: hosts the PostgreSQL database that holds your handle, your leagues and everything you do in them.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, and the Apple Push Notification service, which delivers notifications and Live Activities to an iPhone.
• Google Sign-In, when you continue with Google, and your browser’s own push service, which delivers web notifications.

The sign-in screen loads Apple’s and Google’s sign-in buttons from them, so they see that visit under their own privacy policies. Scores, schedules and Bets lines come from ESPN and The Odds API; our servers fetch from them and send them nothing about you. Your data is processed in the United States.

What other members see

Leagues are private to their members, and members see each other by handle only.

• In a league: your handle, your stack name (in a Bets league, your name in the league), the teams you own, your draft picks, claims and trades, your points and your place in the standings.
• Your stack, a Stacked league’s slots or a Laid-back bench, stays hidden from other members until that week locks; then every member sees every member’s.
• In a Bets league: your Ching on the leaderboard, and each of your bets once its game kicks off (a parlay, all of it, once its first game kicks off).
• Anyone signed in who holds a league’s invite code sees its name and its members’ handles and names in the league before they join.

No member ever sees your email address or how you sign in.

Keeping and deleting your data

We keep your data while your account exists. To delete it, open Settings in the web app or the iPhone app and choose Delete account. If you run a league that still has other members, you hand it over first; a league that has not reached its draft time has to reach it. You then confirm it’s you, and the deletion is immediate.

• Erased: your sign-in and email address, your devices’ tokens, your notification switches and your notifications. Your handle leaves every screen; other members see “former member” instead.
• Kept: the record of your leagues (picks, teams owned, stacks, trades and results), so the other members’ standings still add up, shown as “former member”. Your handle stays in the database only so that it is never given to anyone else; no screen shows it.

If removing your sign-in fails at that moment, an hourly job finishes it. Service logs age out under Google Cloud Logging’s retention, 30 days by default. Google Analytics’ counts carry no account, so deleting yours cannot reach them; they age out under Google Analytics’ data retention. If you cannot sign in, email [email protected] or [email protected] from the address you sign in with and we will delete the account within 30 days.

Security

Everything travels encrypted. The database takes only encrypted, verified connections, and its own rules decide which rows each account may read, so no one can read a league they are not in, or another member’s stack before it locks.

Children

Ching is for adults and is not directed at children. Its App Store rating is 18+, because Bets leagues simulate betting. If you believe a child has made an account, email us and we will delete it.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to delete it, by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]. Your handle is permanent by design; write to us if that is a problem.

In the EU and the UK, we handle your data to provide the service you signed up for, for our legitimate interest in keeping it secure and working, and with your consent for notifications, which you can withdraw in Settings, and for Google Analytics, which you can withdraw on this page or in the iPhone app’s Settings. You may also object to or restrict our use of it, and complain to your data protection authority.

In California, you have the right to know, to delete and to correct, and not to be treated differently for using them. We do not sell or share personal information, and do not use sensitive personal information to infer anything about you.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we update it here with a new effective date. If a change affects how your data is used, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Email questions to [email protected] or [email protected], or write to us. For help with the app, see Support.