Effective date: October 9, 2026
RefWatch is a soccer referee app for Wear OS watches with a companion phone app. It is developed by Alex Leykin (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what data RefWatch collects, why, where it is stored, who it is shared with, and the choices and rights you have.
Contact: alexleykin+refwatch@gmail.com
To use RefWatch you create an account with an email address and password. The account is managed by Google Firebase Authentication. We never see your password.
For each game you create or import: game and field number, team names and colours, age group, competition, venue, your referee assignment, date and time, and your notes. During a game the watch records the score, cards, goals, phase changes and their times. Cards record the player’s shirt number, and goals record it when “Log goal scorer” is on. We do not record player names.
While a game is running, the watch records:
Heart rate is health data. It is collected only after you grant the watch’s Body sensors permission, and only while a game is in progress.
If you turn on “Collect position info” in the phone app’s Settings, the watch records your precise GPS position during games, so the app can show where on the field you moved. It is off by default, and is never collected when you are the assistant referee. Location is never recorded outside a running game.
The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase, which automatically collects data such as app opens, screens viewed, session length, device model, operating-system version, approximate location derived from IP address, and an app-instance identifier. It does not receive your game, health or location data.
When you import a calendar file (.ics) of your assignments, the event titles, descriptions, times and locations in it are processed to create games (see “AI processing” below).
If you link a Garmin watch, we store a record of it under your account: the watch’s model or part number, when it was linked and when it last contacted us, and a hashed form of the access key we gave it. While you are linking, the 6-digit code is stored with your account and is valid for 10 minutes; it is deleted when it is used or replaced, and otherwise automatically within about a day after it expires. To stop code guessing, we also store a hashed form of the IP address that tries a code, with a count of failed tries; it is not linked to your account and is deleted automatically within about a day after the hour it covers. Your games travel between our servers and the watch through Garmin’s Connect app, which Garmin operates under its own privacy policy. You can unlink a watch at any time in the phone app’s Settings, which deletes its record and stops its access.
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis (EU / UK GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Run the app: time and record games, sync them between phone and watch | Account, game data | Performance of a contract (providing the service you signed up for) |
| Show your heart-rate, distance and movement statistics | Heart rate, steps, distance, location | Your explicit consent, given by granting the permission or turning on the setting. You can withdraw it at any time. |
| Read team, age-group and venue details from imported schedules | Imported calendar events | Performance of a contract |
| Link a Garmin watch and send your games to it | Garmin watch record, pairing code | Performance of a contract |
| Stop pairing codes being guessed | Hashed IP address and a count of failed tries | Legitimate interests (keeping your account secure) |
| Understand how the app is used and fix problems | Usage and device data | Legitimate interests (improving the app) |
We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or build advertising profiles.
When you import a schedule, the imported calendar events are sent to Google’s Gemini models through Firebase AI Logic (Vertex AI) to extract team names, age group and other details. Only the calendar events are sent, never your health or location data. Under Google Cloud’s terms, this data is not used to train Google’s models.
Your account and games are stored in Google Cloud Firestore, run by Google LLC on our behalf, in the United States. Google acts as our data processor for:
Data sent between your phone and watch travels over the Wear OS connection. Data is also cached on the devices themselves.
If you link a Garmin watch, Garmin Ltd. carries data between our servers and the watch through its Garmin Connect app and service, under Garmin’s own privacy policy.
International transfers: if you are in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland, your data is transferred to the United States. Google LLC is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, and Google’s data processing terms include the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
We share data with no one else, except Garmin as described above when you link a Garmin watch, and where required by law, for example to comply with a court order.
If you are in the EU, EEA or UK, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing of your data, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before you withdrew it. Email us to exercise any of these rights; we will respond within one month. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office).
If you are in Canada, you have the right to access and correct your personal information and to withdraw consent, and you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
If you are in California, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to delete it, and to correct it. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
RefWatch is meant for referees and is not directed at children under 13, or under 16 in the EU. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us data, email us and we will delete it.
Game records can contain youth players’ shirt numbers, but never their names or any other information that identifies them.
Data is encrypted in transit (TLS). Google encrypts data at rest. Firestore security rules let only your signed-in account read or write your games.
If we change this policy we will update the effective date above. If we make a significant change, such as collecting a new kind of data, we will also tell you in the app.
alexleykin+refwatch@gmail.com