Gaffa is an automated WhatsApp assistant that keeps track of who is playing for a football team each week. This page says what it keeps, who can see it, and what it does with a calendar you connect.

Who we are

Gaffa is run by Gaffa Labs Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company no. 17505480), registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. Gaffa Labs Ltd decides how your information is used - in data protection terms, it is the controller - and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office.

What Gaffa keeps

• Who you are: your WhatsApp number, your name, and the teams whose lists you are on.
• What you say about games: whether you can make each one, and any short note that goes with your answer.
• Your messages with Gaffa: kept so it can follow the conversation and answer you.
• The team's games: dates, times, venues, results and who was picked.
• If you asked to start Gaffa with your own team: your answers to its three waitlist questions - roughly how many are in your squad, where you play and how often - so we can let teams in. Say "take me off the waitlist" and they are deleted.
• Match fees, if your team collects them through Gaffa: the amount you were asked for each game, whether and when it was paid and how (by card through Gaffa, or as your manager recorded it), and any refund. Payments are taken by Stripe, into your manager's own Stripe account: Gaffa never sees or keeps your card details, and Stripe keeps the record of the payment itself under its own privacy policy.

Gaffa uses this to organise your team's games and to keep itself working well - nothing else. UK data protection law calls that a legitimate interest.

Who can see what

• Your team. The team's page shows each player's name, whether they are in, out or a maybe for each game, who is picked, and the names of any guests. Beside an answer it may show a short note on how you can play - "might be late", "first half only" - never the reason. Anyone with the page's link can open it, and Gaffa gives that link to the team's players and managers.
• Your manager. Sees the same, your phone number, and what you say for them: anything you ask Gaffa to pass on, your answer to a question they asked through Gaffa, or something they need to know to pick a team, such as an injury you mention. Your manager cannot read your chat with Gaffa.
• Gaffa Labs. The people who run Gaffa can read messages and records, to fix problems and make Gaffa work better.
• Third-party processors. Gaffa runs on services from other companies: for WhatsApp messaging, for hosting, for the AI that reads and writes its messages, and - where a team collects match fees - Stripe for payments. They handle your information only to provide those services, and some do so outside the UK.
• Match fees. Your manager sees who has paid for each game and who still owes, and the amount; other players never see your payments. A manager who collects sees the payments in their own Stripe account, as any seller does.

Nothing is sold, and nothing is used for advertising.

Stopping

• Say "stop messaging me" and Gaffa stops asking you about games until you tell it otherwise. It still answers if you message it, and your manager is told.
• Say "take me off the list" and you come off that team's list. Your manager is told.
• Gaffa only starts a conversation with people a manager has added or who have asked to join a team.

A connected calendar

If you choose to connect your Google Calendar, Gaffa asks Google for two things: the email address of the account, so it can show you which one is connected, and permission to make a calendar of its own in your account and manage the events on it. It creates a calendar called "Gaffa" and puts the games you're down for in it, moving or removing them as things change.

• It cannot see, read or change your own calendars or events - only the Gaffa calendar it made.
• It does not read your availability from your calendar. Everything it knows about you comes from what you tell it.
• The access token is stored encrypted and used only to update that calendar.
• Say "disconnect my calendar" to Gaffa at any time. Gaffa removes its calendar from your account, gives up its access and deletes the token. You can also remove the access from your Google account's security settings.

Cookies

Gaffa's pages use a cookie only to keep your own page open on your phone and to finish connecting a calendar. There is no tracking.

How long

Gaffa keeps your information while your team uses it, and the record of who played stays after you leave. If you want yours deleted, ask - see below.

Your choices

You can ask for a copy of what Gaffa holds about you, for a mistake to be put right, or for your information to be deleted: email Gaffa. If you are not happy with the answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Questions

About your team: ask your manager, or ask Gaffa on WhatsApp and it will pass it on. About your information: email Gaffa.

Last updated 8 October 2026 · Terms of use

Gaffa Labs Ltd · Registered in England and Wales, company no. 17505480 · Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ