Privacy notice

Last updated 17 October 2026

This notice explains what personal information Awayline collects, why, who can see it, how long we keep it and what your rights are. We've tried to keep it plain and exact.

The short version

• You can plan a trip without telling us anything about yourself.
• If you make an account, we hold your email address and the things you choose to save or post.
• We use one cookie, only to keep you signed in. There are no analytics or advertising trackers.
• Our pages load fonts from Google, so Google sees your IP address.
• We don't sell your information or use it for marketing.
• Account data is stored in the EU, in Frankfurt, Germany.
• You can download your data and delete your account in the app.

Who we are

Awayline is run by the Awayline team in the UK. We're the controller of your personal information. That means we decide how it's used, and we're responsible for it under UK data protection law.

To contact us about your data, use our contact form and pick "My account or my data".

What we collect and why

Using Awayline without an account

You can plan trips, check trains and read the guides without signing in. We don't store anything about you in our database when you do.

• Your browser saves the trains for trips you look at on your phone (see "Cookies and storage on your device").
• Our host and Google Fonts see your IP address (see "Companies that help us run Awayline").
• "Share my journey home" creates a link showing your trains. It isn't linked to an account. Anyone with the link can see the live journey. The link stops working after 6 hours. We keep it only in our server's memory, never in our database, and it's cleared when the server restarts.
• When you fetch actual arrival times for a Delay Repay receipt, we send the date and train details to Realtime Trains. Nothing about you is sent.

Signing in

You need to give your email address, and your month and year of birth, to have an account. If you don't, you can still plan trips without one. Your full date of birth is only needed to use lifts, chat and pubs.

We use your email address to:

• send your sign-in codes and links
• find your account
• send the code that confirms deleting your account
• know whether you're an organiser or moderator
• send match alert emails and phone notifications, only if you turn them on

We don't show your email address to other fans. We don't send marketing or newsletters.

Match alert emails are off unless you turn them on in My trips or on your Account page. Then we email you once when a game moves or is postponed: any away game of the club you follow, and any game you've tapped "I'm going" on. Every email has a link that turns them off. So we never email you twice about the same change, we keep a note of which change we emailed you about and when, for 30 days.

Phone notifications are off unless you turn them on in My trips. Then your phone gives us an address at its own push service (Google for Android and Chrome, Apple for iPhone and Safari, Mozilla for Firefox), and we keep it with your account so we can tell you when a game moves or is postponed and, on match days, the team news and score for your club and any game you're going to (you can switch those two off on their own in My trips). Match details come from ESPN; we never tell ESPN who you are. Each message is encrypted so only your phone can read it; the push service only passes it on. Turning notifications off, signing out on that phone, or deleting your account removes the address. We keep a note of which change we notified you about, for 30 days, and of which match-day updates we sent, for 7 days, so you never get the same one twice.

When you ask for a code, we save your email address with a scrambled copy of the code and link, and when they were sent. We do this before we know whether you already have an account. Codes and links last 15 minutes.

When you sign in, your browser gets a cookie holding a random session key. We store a scrambled copy of it, with when the session started, when it was last used and when it ends. We don't store your IP address or details of your device. We also record when you created your account and when you last signed in.

Lawful basis: contract, to give you the account you asked for.

Your age

When you first sign in, you give your month and year of birth. We don't store them as you typed them. Instead:

• If you're 18 or over, we keep only that you're in the 18 and over group.
• If you're 13 to 17, we keep that you're in the 13 to 17 group, plus the month and year you'll turn 18, so we can move your account across then. Your birth month and year can be worked out from this. We remove it when your account moves to 18 and over. That happens the first time you use Awayline on or after the 1st of the month you turn 18. If you don't come back, it stays until you do, or until your account is deleted.
• If you're under 13, we don't create an account, and we delete the sign-in codes for your email address. By then, the sign-in email has already been sent.

Before you use lifts, chat, pub check-ins or ratings, you give your full date of birth once.

• If it shows you're 18 or over, we keep only that you passed, how (a date of birth you declared) and when. We don't keep the date.
• If it shows you're under 18, we move your account to 13 to 17 and keep the exact date you'll turn 18. Your full date of birth can be worked out from this. We remove it when your account moves back to 18 and over, the first time you use Awayline on or after that date.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests in keeping under-13s out and keeping lifts, chat and pubs for adults. Also our duties to protect children under online safety law.

Your profile

All of these are optional, except that your club and home station start as the ones you picked on your phone (Plymouth Argyle from Plymouth if you didn't pick), until you change them.

• Display name. Shown to other fans in chat, lifts, lift requests, group trips, moderators' reports and, if you join it, the leaderboard. Please don't use your real name. Chat messages keep the name you had when you posted them.
• Club. Which club's away games the app shows you. Only shown back to you.
• Home station. Used to plan your trains and work out your miles in My season. It's never shown to others, but your miles are if you join the leaderboard.
• Railcard. Only shown back to you. We don't offer the Disabled Persons Railcard, so we don't hold health information this way.
• Supporters' club branch. Only shown back to you.
• Leaderboard. Whether you've chosen to be listed.

Lawful basis: contract, to provide the features you use.

Saved trips, alerts, My season and the leaderboard

When you tap "I'm going", we save the game (opponent, competition, date, kick-off and ground) and, later, whether you went. Over time this builds a history of the away games you've been to. Only you see it.

We use it for your alerts, My season and badges, to let you rate pubs at grounds you've been to, and for your leaderboard figures if you join. Alerts and badges are worked out when you look at them, from your saved trips, the club you follow and, for two badges, whether you've booked a coach or shared a lift. If a game you saved moves, we change its date and kick-off in your saved trips to match.

The leaderboard is for adults who choose to join. It shows your display name, away days, miles and grounds to anyone signed in to Awayline, including fans aged 13 to 17. Only fans with at least one away day are listed.

Lawful basis: contract.

Lifts

When you post a lift, we save whether you're offering or asking, where you're leaving from, seats, time, your "coming back" note, the contact details you choose to give (for example a mobile number) and the game.

When you ask for a seat, or offer to drive someone, we save your request, its status and your contact details.

Adult fans who've done the date of birth check can see your display name and lift details, apart from fans you've blocked or who've blocked you. The fan who posted the lift sees the display names of fans who reply to it. Contact details are only shown to the other side once the fan who posted the lift accepts. Moderators never see them. We don't save the driver's checklist tick.

Lawful basis: contract, so fans can arrange lifts.

Trip chat

We save each message you post, the game, your display name at the time and when you posted. Adult fans who've done the date of birth check can read the latest 100 messages for that game, apart from fans you've blocked or who've blocked you.

Lawful basis: contract.

Reports and blocks

When you report a chat message or a lift, we save that you made the report (linked to your account), what you reported, the reason you picked and when. Moderators see the reason and the reported message or lift, but not who reported it.

When you block someone, we save who you blocked and when.

If another fan reports your chat message or lift, we keep the report and its reason with it, and moderators see your display name and the reported content. If someone blocks you, we save that. You can ask us for this information through our contact form.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests in keeping Awayline safe.

Matchday board, food tips, pub votes and ground check-ins

Live alerts and lost and found show your display name and what you wrote to anyone who opens that game. Live alerts drop off the board after 4 hours and are deleted 7 days after the game; lost and found posts are deleted 30 days after the game. A reply to a lost and found post, and any contact details you add to it, are shown only to the fan who posted it.

Food tips show your display name until you remove them. Pub votes are counted without names and deleted after 60 days.

Ground check-ins use your phone's location to check you're near the ground. That check happens on your phone: your location is never sent to us. We only keep that you checked in at that ground, for your badges and the 92 Club. Grounds you tick by hand are kept the same way, until you untick them or delete your account.

The cost calculator is kept on your phone only.

Pub check-ins and ratings

When you check in, we save the pub, the ground, the game, the day and the time you checked in. This records where you were that day. Other people only see a count of fans at each pub that day, and anyone can see the count without signing in. If you're the only one checked in, someone who knows you're there could guess it's you.

When you rate a pub, we save your stars and any note. Anyone can see each pub's average rating and number of ratings. Your note isn't shown to anyone else.

Lawful basis: contract.

Supporters' coach bookings

When you reserve a seat, we save the full name you give for the passenger list, seats, pick-up, whether you've paid and when you booked. Fans aged 13 and over can book.

You can add access needs. These can include information about your health, which the law treats as extra sensitive. We only save them if you tick the box to share them with organisers, and we delete them 30 days after the trip. Until the day of the trip, you can remove them by changing your booking without them, or by cancelling it. After that, or if the organiser has cancelled the coach, ask us through our contact form and we'll delete them.

Organisers can see each passenger's name, seats, pick-up, paid status and access needs, and can download a passenger list. At the moment, every organiser can see the passengers for every coach, not only the coaches their own branch runs. Organisers also act as moderators.

Once an organiser downloads a passenger list, the supporters' club branch is responsible for that copy under data protection law, so our 30-day deletion doesn't reach it. Our terms require organisers to delete downloaded lists within 30 days after the trip. To ask about a list a branch holds, contact the branch, or ask us to pass your request on.

If you're an organiser, we record which coaches you set up, with the details you enter (game, seats, price, pick-ups and the note about coming back), linked to your account.

Lawful basis: contract, to reserve your seat. For access needs, your explicit consent, which you can withdraw (see "Your rights").

Group trips

When you start or join a group, we save the group's name and game, who started it, a random join code, the trains and note added by the fan who started it, who's in it and when they joined.

Members see each other's display names (or "Fan with no name yet"), who started the group, the trains and the note. Groups can include both adults and fans aged 13 to 17.

Lawful basis: contract.

The contact form

When you use our contact form, we collect the topic, your email address and your message. If you're signed in, we also see your display name and account number, so we can find your account. Your message is emailed to us through our email provider. It isn't saved in Awayline's database. We use your email address only to reply.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests in answering you. For requests about your data rights, our legal obligation to respond.

Keeping accounts secure

• When someone enters a wrong sign-in code, we save the time and a coded version of the email address, made with a secret key only we hold. This helps us stop people guessing codes.
• We use your IP address in our server's memory to limit how many sign-in emails, code checks and contact messages can be sent. It's never saved to our database or written to our app's logs, and it's forgotten when the server restarts.

Lawful basis: legitimate interests in keeping accounts secure and Awayline working.

Our lawful bases in one place

• Contract: running your account and the features you choose to use.
• Legitimate interests: security, age checks, moderation, reports and blocks, answering messages, loading fonts, passing reports of crimes or credible threats to the police, protecting someone from serious harm, and keeping some records after you delete your account (see "When you delete your account"). We've weighed these against your rights, and you can object.
• Legal obligation: answering data rights requests, meeting our duties under online safety law, and responding to lawful requests from the police or courts.
• Explicit consent: access needs on coach bookings.

Who can see your information

• Only you (and us): your email address, age group, home station, railcard, branch, saved trips, check-ins, rating notes and the fans you've blocked.
• Adult fans using lifts and chat: your display name, lift posts and chat messages.
• Fans you've agreed a lift with: the contact details you gave.
• Members of your groups: your display name.
• Anyone signed in: your display name, away days, miles and grounds, but only if you join the leaderboard.
• Anyone at all: how many fans are checked in at each pub that day, and pub average ratings. Nothing that names you.
• Organisers: coach booking details, as described above. Organisers also act as moderators.
• Moderators: reported and hidden chat messages, and reported lifts, with display names. Not your email address, your contact details or who made a report.
• Us: we can see the data in our database. We only look at it when we need to, for example to answer you, fix a problem or deal with a report.

We choose who is an organiser or moderator.

Companies that help us run Awayline

• Render hosts Awayline. Our database, with all account data, is on Render's servers in Frankfurt, Germany. Render may keep its own logs of requests to the site. These can include your IP address and the web address you visited, such as a group join link.
• Brevo, an email company based in the EU, sends our sign-in emails and match alert emails, and passes contact form messages to us. It handles your email address and the content of those emails. Our emails are plain text, with no tracking images.
• Push services (Google, Apple or Mozilla, depending on your phone and browser) deliver phone notifications if you turn them on. They see when a message goes to your phone, but not what it says, because it's encrypted.
• Google Fonts supplies the fonts on our pages. When most pages open, your browser fetches the fonts from Google, which sends Google your IP address and browser details. Google handles this under its own privacy policy. We don't send Google anything about your account. The sign-in confirmation page, shared journey pages and trip previews don't load Google Fonts.
• Cloudflare manages the awayline.co.uk web address, so browsers can find our site. Your visits to Awayline don't pass through Cloudflare.

We also get fixtures from ESPN and TheSportsDB, train times from Realtime Trains and weather from Open-Meteo. We send them station codes, dates, train details and ground locations, never anything about you.

We don't sell your information, and we don't share it for advertising or marketing. We may share it if the law requires us to, for example with the police, or to protect someone from serious harm. If someone else takes over running Awayline, your information would pass to them, and we'd tell you first.

Where your information is

Account data is stored in the EU, in Frankfurt, Germany, and our email provider is in the EU. UK law recognises the EU as protecting personal data properly.

Render and Google are US companies, so your information may be reached from the US. Where that happens, we rely on the UK's approved safeguards for transfers to the US: the UK-US data bridge where the company is certified under it, or otherwise the UK addendum to the standard contractual clauses in their data processing terms. You can ask us for a copy of these safeguards through our contact form.

How long we keep it

• Your account (email address, age group and profile): until you delete it. We don't currently delete inactive accounts automatically.
• Sign-in codes and links: they stop working after 15 minutes, and we delete the record about a day later.
• Sessions: until you sign out, or until they end. Without "Keep me signed in", that's 12 hours. With it, 180 days after you last used Awayline, and never more than 400 days after you signed in.
• Wrong-code records: 90 days.
• Saved trips: until you remove them or delete your account.
• Notes of match alert emails and phone notifications sent: 30 days (match-day score and team news updates: 7 days).
• Phone notification addresses: until you turn notifications off, sign out on that phone, or delete your account.
• Lift contact details: deleted 7 days after the game.
• Lifts and lift requests: deleted 183 days (about 6 months) after the game, or sooner if you delete them.
• Chat messages: deleted 30 days after the game. You can delete your own sooner.
• Pub check-ins: deleted 365 days after the day.
• Pub ratings and notes: no set time. We keep the stars so pub averages stay meaningful.
• Coach access needs: deleted 30 days after the trip.
• Coach bookings (name, seats, pick-up and paid status): no set time yet. A booking for a game still to come is deleted if you cancel it or delete your account.
• Group trips: until the fan who started the group leaves it or deletes their account. You can leave a group at any time.
• Reports: no set time yet.
• Blocks: until either account is deleted.
• Contact form messages: these stay in our email inbox. We don't delete them automatically, so ask us if you'd like yours deleted. Our email provider keeps its own records of emails it has sent.
• Hosting logs: kept by Render under its own settings.

Where we say "no set time", we keep the information while Awayline needs it for the reason given above. We'll update this notice when we set limits.

When information is deleted, it disappears from Awayline straight away, but it can stay in our database file until it's overwritten.

When you delete your account

You can delete your account in the app. We email you a code first, to make sure it's you. Then, straight away:

• We delete your account, sessions, saved trips, lifts (and requests on them), your lift requests, your blocks, group trips you started (for everyone in them), your group memberships, and your coach bookings for games still to come.
• Your chat messages show as "Deleted fan". The text stays until 30 days after the game, then it's deleted as normal.

These stay, no longer linked to your account:

• past coach bookings, which still show the name you gave, seats, pick-up and paid status, plus access needs until 30 days after the trip. We keep these so the branch has a record of who travelled and paid
• pub ratings and notes, so pub averages stay accurate
• pub check-ins, until 365 days after the day, so daily counts stay accurate
• reports you made, so moderators can deal with repeat abuse
• coaches you set up as an organiser, so the branch keeps its trip records

Wrong-code records stay for up to 90 days. Trains saved on your phone stay there until you clear them.

If you'd like any of the kept information deleted, ask us through our contact form.

Cookies and storage on your device

• One cookie, called __Host-lth, keeps you signed in. It holds a random key and nothing else. It's strictly necessary, so we don't ask for consent. Without "Keep me signed in", it goes when you close your browser. If you choose "Keep me signed in", it lasts up to 180 days.
• Saved trains. When you look at a trip with trains, your browser saves those trains on your phone so you have them with no signal. This happens whether or not you're signed in. They stay until you clear your browser's data for awayline.co.uk, even after you sign out or delete your account. We only see them if you tap "Get times from Realtime Trains".
• My tickets. Tickets, train tickets, hotel bookings, references, links and photos or PDFs you add to My tickets stay on your phone. We never receive them. They're deleted from your phone a week after the match, and clearing your browser's data for awayline.co.uk or removing the app deletes them sooner. They aren't backed up.
• Your email address while signing in. The sign-in form keeps it in your browser tab until you finish signing in or close the tab.

We don't use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.

Children and teenagers

Accounts are for people aged 13 and over. Anyone can plan a trip without an account.

Fans aged 13 to 17 can save trips, see alerts, use My season, view the leaderboard, book supporters' coaches and start or join group trips. They can't use lifts, chat, pub check-ins or ratings, or be listed on the leaderboard.

Our age checks rely on what people tell us. We don't check ages against documents.

If you're 13 to 17, you have the same rights over your data as anyone else, and you can contact us yourself.

If you're a parent or carer and you think a child under 13 has an account, or you're worried about how a teenager's information is used, contact us through our contact form.

Your rights

• See your data. Use "Download my data" in your account at any time. It includes your profile, sessions, trips, lifts and lift requests, messages, reports you made, how many fans you've blocked, check-ins, ratings, coach bookings and groups. For anything not in the download, such as security records, reports about you or who you've blocked, ask us.
• Correct it. Change your club with "Change club or station", and your display name, home station, railcard and branch in your account, your leaderboard choice in My season, and your booking in Supporters' coach. To change your email address, your age group or anything else, ask us.
• Delete it. Delete your account in the app, or delete single trips, lifts, messages and bookings. Ask us about anything else.
• Object. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object. We'll stop unless we have a strong reason to carry on, such as keeping other fans safe.
• Restrict. You can ask us to pause using your data while we look into a concern.
• Take it with you. The download is a standard data file that other apps can read, so you can keep it or use it elsewhere.
• Withdraw consent. Remove your access needs from a coach booking in Supporters' coach until the day of the trip, or ask us through our contact form at any time. Withdrawing doesn't affect what happened before. It can't remove access needs from a passenger list an organiser has already downloaded, so ask the branch to delete it too.

Some things happen automatically. Your age decides which features you can use, and a chat message reported by 3 fans is hidden until a moderator looks at it. If you think one of these is wrong for you, ask us and a person will look at it.

How to use your rights

Use our contact form and pick "My account or my data". It's free. We'll reply within one month, or tell you within that month if we need longer because your request is complex. To protect your account, we'll only discuss it with the email address on that account, and we may ask you to confirm it's you.

Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've used your information, please tell us first through our contact form. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

We'll update this notice when Awayline or the law changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change makes a real difference to how we use your information, we'll try to tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.