Privacy Policy · Event Calendar Countdown

The short version

The app has no account, no analytics, no tracking, no ads and no purchases. I do not run a server for it.

Your events, favorites and Setup choices stay on your device. Events, favorites and the Schedule Sites you set up also sync through your own private iCloud storage if you use iCloud. I cannot read them.

The app does connect to schedule websites. Like any website, those sites can see your device's IP address and the page it asked for.

I receive information about you only if you choose to email me. Apple also gives me summary reports about the app, which are explained below.

What I collect

Nothing you do in the app is sent to me. The app never asks for your name, email address or age, and it gives you no identifier.

The app does not ask for your location, contacts, photos, camera, microphone or calendar. The only permission it asks for is to send pings, which are its notifications. iOS may also ask once whether to allow the countdown on your Lock Screen.

The only third-party code in the app is an open-source library that reads web pages. It runs on your device and sends nothing anywhere.

What the app keeps on your device

Events you add: the title, venue, state, date, time zone, the schedule (team names, cities, divisions and times), the link it came from, and any corrections or running-late changes you make.
Favorites: the name, city and state of each school you star, and when you starred it.
Setup choices: your theme, your ping choices, Keep Screen On and Live Favorite Countdown.
A few working notes, such as which event you last picked on Countdown and what a background refresh found.

Schedules come from published pages. Your favorites are more personal, because they show which schools you care about. They are kept the same way as your events.

Nothing from a page is saved until you choose to add it.

The app sees a page open in Safari only if you share it with the app. It then reads that page on your device and keeps only the schedule, or only the link if you choose to save the link. What you share waits in the app's private storage until you open the app, and it is removed once it has been handled.

The app reads your clipboard only when you tap Paste.

If you back up your device, this information may be part of that backup.

iCloud sync

If you are signed in to iCloud, your events, favorites and Schedule Sites sync between devices on the same Apple Account. Other Setup choices do not sync.

Events and favorites are kept in the private database of your own iCloud account, through Apple's CloudKit service, and they count toward your iCloud storage. Schedule Sites are kept in the app's own iCloud key-value storage, also in your account. I cannot read it.

Apple runs iCloud. Apple encrypts this data in transit and on its servers, and Apple's own terms and privacy policy apply to it. Apple's push service tells the app when iCloud has a change for it, so the app can stay up to date. That is the only use the app makes of push.

If you are not signed in to iCloud, the app works on that device alone. Setup shows the iCloud Sync status.

Apple TV

On Apple TV the app shows the events and favorites that your iCloud account already holds, so it shows only what you added on your iPhone or iPad. It reads no web pages, sends no notifications and has no Lock Screen countdown. It collects nothing, and sends nothing to me.

Each Apple TV user sees their own events and favorites, from their own iCloud account. Setup choices made on Apple TV stay on it.

The Top Shelf, the row above the app when you focus it on the Home Screen, can list your favorite teams that perform in the next day. That list is made on the Apple TV and stays on it.

To remove the app's data from an Apple TV, delete the app. Your copy in iCloud stays, as on iPhone and iPad.

Share Schedule Sites, in Setup, makes a file that holds only the name and link of each Schedule Site you set up. Nothing else is in it: no events, favorites or other Setup choices. The file goes only where you send it, through the iOS Share Sheet, and never through me.

When you open a Schedule Sites file someone sent you, the app shows the sites in it, and adds them only if you tap Add. The file is read on your device and then removed from the app's storage.

Schedule websites

The app gets schedules straight from the websites that publish them. Requests go from your device to the site and never pass through me, so I do not see which sites or pages you open.

Your device contacts a schedule website when:

You paste a link into Add Event, or share a link with the app.
You open a site in Browse Events. The app reads that site's list of events and the pages of events in the next 14 days. It reads only the sites you set up and a few others they link to for schedules.
You open an event in Browse Events. The app reads that event's page, which may be on another site. If that page links to its schedule with a Schedule button, the app also reads that schedule, which may be on another site too.
An event refreshes. You can pull to refresh. The app also refreshes on its own: when you open it, for an event today or tomorrow that was last read more than 30 minutes ago, and in the background on the day of an event when iOS allows it.

Each site can see what any website sees when someone visits: your IP address, which can show your general area and network, along with the time and the page requested. When the app reads a page directly, the request also names the app.

Some pages show a schedule only after their own scripts run. For those pages, the app loads the whole page as a browser does. This happens out of sight when you add a link, when you use Browse Events, or when an event refreshes while the app is open.

A page loaded this way can run its own scripts and pull in content from other companies, such as analytics or advertising services. Those companies can see the same kind of information.

When the app reads a page directly, it sends and keeps no cookies. When it loads a whole page, cookies last only while that page is being read, and they are discarded afterward.

The app looks for a schedule on your device. It does not send pages to me or to anyone else.

I do not control these websites, and their own privacy policies apply.

A few schedule pages use http rather than https. Requests for those pages are not encrypted, so others on the same network could see them.

Pings and the Lock Screen

Pings are optional. The app asks for permission the first time you star a school, tap the bell or turn on Notify Me, not when it opens.

Pings are scheduled on your device and do not come through a server. Live Favorite Countdown, the countdown on your Lock Screen, also runs on your device, with no server behind it.

Pings show team names and times. Live Favorite Countdown shows a team, its division, the event and the time. Anyone who can see your device can read them. You can turn either one off in Setup or in iOS Settings.

If you email me

Report This Page can appear when the app cannot read a page. It opens an email to me with the link filled in, and you decide whether to send it. Nothing is sent automatically. The app adds no device details, schedule data or logs.

If you send that email, or write to me any other way, I receive your email address, your name if your email shows it, the link, and anything else you write.

I use your message only to reply and to fix the problem. I keep it only as long as I need it for that, and I will delete it if you ask. Your message is also held by your email provider and by Google, which runs the Gmail account I use for this app.

Reports from Apple

Apple runs the App Store and gives developers reports about their apps. These reach me from Apple, not from the app. They include download counts and overall figures for how iCloud is performing and being used. They do not show the contents of your events or favorites.

If you have turned on Share With App Developers, Apple may also give me crash reports and statistics about how the app is used. Apple says this information is aggregated or in a form that does not personally identify you. To turn it off, open iOS Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements, and turn off Share With App Developers.

I use these reports only to see how the app is doing and to fix problems.

This website

This policy, the app's help and its support page are hosted on GitHub Pages. The app opens them only if you tap a link to them.

When anyone visits these pages, GitHub logs the visitor's IP address and stores it for security purposes, whether or not the visitor is signed in to GitHub. I do not receive those logs, and GitHub's own privacy statement applies to them: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-general-privacy-statement.

These pages have no scripts, cookies, analytics or ads of their own.

I do not sell, rent or share your information. No advertiser, analytics company or data broker receives anything from me.

Apart from the email providers mentioned above and GitHub, which hosts this website, nobody handles your information for me. I would give out an email you sent me only if the law required it.

Children and students

Students use this app. It is made for anyone following a competition, and it works the same way at every age. It does not ask for anyone's age, and it has no account, ads, analytics, tracking, or way to post or chat. There is no web browser inside the app, because students use it.

I do not knowingly collect personal information from children. The only way a child's information could reach me is by email. If you are a parent or guardian and think your child has emailed me, contact me and I will delete the message.

What schedule websites can see, as described above, does not depend on age. Those sites have their own policies.

Your choices and deleting your data

I have no account for you and cannot read your data, so I cannot find or delete it for you. These steps put you in control of it.

Favorites: open Setup, then Favorite Schools, and swipe to remove one. You can also tap its star in a schedule.
Events: open Setup, then Events, and swipe to delete one. This removes the event and its running-late changes from all your devices.
Pings and the Lock Screen: turn off Notify Me or Live Favorite Countdown in Setup, or change the app's permissions in iOS Settings.
iCloud sync: the app has no sync switch. To stop sync, turn off iCloud for the app in iOS Settings, or sign out of iCloud. iOS may then remove synced events from that device. Anything already in iCloud stays there until it is deleted.
Everything on one device: delete the app. This removes its data from that device, but not your copy in iCloud.
Your copy in iCloud: delete your events, favorites and Schedule Sites in the app while sync is on, before you delete the app. You can also open iOS Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, open your storage list, and delete the app's data if it appears there.
Emails you sent me: ask me to delete them.

Events, favorites and Setup choices stay until you delete them. The app does not remove them on its own, except to merge duplicate copies that iCloud sync brings in.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to see, correct or delete the personal information a developer holds about you, and to complain to your local data protection authority. The only personal information I can hold about you is an email you sent me. Write to me and I will act on your request.

Changes to this policy

If what the app does with information changes, I will update this page and its effective date. If the change is significant, such as the app starting to collect anything, I will also say so in the App Store release notes for that version.

You can find this policy from Setup in the app, under Support.

Contact

Email mgapps7@gmail.com with any question about this policy or to ask me to delete a message. More help is at https://mgapps7.github.io/event-calendar-countdown/support/.

Event Calendar Countdown Privacy Policy