Privacy Policy — Golf is Life

Welcome to Golf is Life ("we," "our," or "us"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a positive experience when using our mobile application and web services (collectively, the "Service").

1. Information We Collect

We collect information you provide or generate when using the Service, including profiles, scores, photos and recorded locations, for the purposes described in this policy. Depending on the features you use, this includes:

Account & Profile Information: Username, email address, password, profile display name, profile photo if provided, and handicap index.
Golf Performance & Round Data: Scores, hole-by-hole Stableford points, handicap history, course selections, and game format preferences.
Scorecard Uploads: Photographs you submit and information extracted from them, including player names or initials, handicaps, date played, course and tee details, hole-by-hole scores and other recorded round statistics. Images may include information about other players or additional visible details.
Location Data (GPS): Approximate or precise GPS location when you use the GPS Map Scoring feature to calculate distances to the green and fairway targets, and shot locations recorded for your round records and the analytics described in section 2a. Location data is accessed only while using the active round feature.
Device & Diagnostic Data: Device model, operating system version, app version, and error log data to maintain app performance.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to provide and improve the Service for the purposes described in this policy and to meet applicable legal obligations. Service purposes include:

Creating and managing your user account and handicap index.
Calculating and displaying real-time round scoring, Stableford points, and league leaderboards.
Providing accurate GPS distances on satellite course maps.
Displaying personal round summaries, scoring shape breakdown, and performance analytics.
Reading uploaded scorecards with AI to extract course details and completed-round records for review and import.
Providing personal AI caddie advice, target and club recommendations, and safer-miss guidance as described in section 2d.

2a. Personal Analytics and Aggregated Comparisons

Personal analytics uses your recorded scores, round statistics, course and tee details, recorded handicap context, and recorded shot locations to describe your progress. These personal analytics results are available to your authenticated account. This is separate from the visibility settings for individual rounds and scorecards.

Cross-player analytics is off by default. When enabled, aggregated comparisons are restricted to authorized Golf is Life administrators to understand course and tee scoring patterns and data quality; they are not provided through the player-facing peer comparison feature. Contributions require recorded score-analytics consent, adult confirmation, and eligible publicly visible rounds, games and courses. Separate recorded permissions govern use of shot locations and historical rounds. Optional broad age bands and handicap context recorded at the start of a round may be used for fixed comparison groups; missing historical information is not inferred from your current profile.

Aggregated comparisons use a fixed monthly window, minimum group sizes, limits on each player's contributions, rounded counts and statistics, and coarse location zones. Small scoring categories and location groups are suppressed, including related results that could reveal a hidden group. These safeguards reduce disclosure risk but do not guarantee anonymity or prevent all inferences, particularly when results are compared over time or combined with other information. Recorded shot locations may be imprecise and are not verified ball positions.

Withdrawing recorded analytics consent excludes the affected contributions from subsequent live aggregate queries without stopping ordinary round tracking or your personal insights. Corrections and deletion of underlying round or shot records are reflected in subsequent live queries. Changing analytics consent does not itself delete those underlying records or remove results someone has already viewed. For help with consent or a data-deletion request, use the contact details below; the account and data-deletion information in section 4 also applies.

2b. Submitted Content and Your Rights

Golf is Life uses submitted information to operate the Service: we store, process and display it to provide the features you request, including scorecard imports, round records, maps and analytics as described above. Our use is subject to applicable law and the relevant visibility and consent settings. You retain your rights in submitted content under our Terms of Use, and your personal-information rights remain protected. This policy does not transfer ownership of your content or personal information to us, and using the Service or reading this notice does not by itself provide consent where specific consent is required.

2c. AI-Assisted Scorecard and Course Processing

When you use AI scorecard extraction, uploaded scorecard images are sent to an AI service provider to read course and tee information and, for completed scorecards, player details and round statistics. The image itself is sent, not just the scores selected for import, so other players' names, initials, handicaps and any other visible information may also be processed. Upload only material you are entitled to share, and remove unnecessary personal details before uploading.

Extracted information is used to prepare course data or historical round records for review and import. AI results can contain mistakes; review and correct them before saving. We store uploaded images and AI-generated results as part of this process. For questions about retention or deletion of these records, use the contact details below.

We also use AI tools to analyse satellite imagery, course details and map annotations to prepare course maps. These AI workflows are distinct from personal and aggregated analytics in section 2a; they do not expand those analytics permissions.

2d. Personal AI Caddie and Target Recommendations

When personal AI caddie features are enabled for your account, we use relevant golf context to provide personalised advice, including target and club selection and a suggested safer place to miss if a shot is imperfect. Advice may be requested when you open a playing hole, ask for AI advice or move to the next shot. Saved advice may be reused when the relevant context has not changed.

We send a limited selection of relevant context to Google's Gemini AI service for these recommendations. This includes current shot and hole context; handicap; bag distance estimates and aggregated club performance statistics; lie and shot intent; and relative course, green and hazard information. We do not send recent shot records, current-round scores, previous-round summaries or matching-hole performance for these recommendations. Conditions such as wind or elevation are used only where genuinely available; missing information is identified rather than assumed. We keep the context bounded instead of sending your full account record.

Course geometry and the current shot position are processed within our app and backend to calculate relative distances and bearings. Gemini selects a target from those relative scene facts and eligible clubs; the backend converts and validates its relative target after generation. It excludes names, contact details, account, player, round and course identifiers, and raw GPS coordinates. This minimisation applies to personal caddie recommendation requests; the separate scorecard and course-processing workflows in section 2c use the information described there.

Recommendations and their supporting context are stored with your private caddie records. AI advice can be incorrect, and estimated carry, incomplete maps and suggested safer misses do not guarantee hazard clearance or a safe outcome. Check the actual lie, hazards and conditions before acting. These features do not change the separate contribution permissions for aggregated analytics in section 2a. The rights, retention and international-processing provisions below also apply.

3. Data Sharing & Third-Party Services

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties. We use service providers for hosting, storage, mapping and the AI features described above, including:

Cloud and infrastructure providers: Hosting, data storage and account services.
AI service providers: Processing scorecard images and course mapping information for the purposes described in section 2c, and Google Gemini processing the limited golf context for personal caddie recommendations described in section 2d.
Mapping providers: Satellite imagery and course GPS maps.

3a. International Processing and Storage

Providing the Service may involve processing or storing information outside South Africa or your country of residence, including through cloud storage and AI providers. Locations may vary with the providers used to deliver these features.

Any international transfer must have a lawful basis under applicable law, including section 72 of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act where it applies. This may require an adequate level of protection under applicable law or a binding agreement, valid consent, or another permitted basis. This notice does not itself provide consent to a transfer or authorize unrestricted processing in any country. Applicable privacy rights continue to apply. Contact us for information about the destinations and transfer basis relevant to your data.

4. Data Retention & Account Deletion

We retain your information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy or to meet applicable legal obligations. You may request deletion of your account and associated information, including round records and uploads, at any time. We handle requests within applicable legal requirements and communicate the timing and any lawful limits on deletion, including where information must be retained to meet a legal obligation.

To request account or data deletion, please contact us at app.golfislife@gmail.com or use the account settings menu inside the mobile application.

4a. Access, Correction and Other Privacy Rights

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to or correction or deletion of your personal information, object to processing, and withdraw consent where processing relies on it. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal and may make the relevant optional features unavailable. Where applicable law permits, other lawful grounds may support processing needed to provide the Service or meet legal obligations; this does not override the specific consent requirements in section 2a. Use the contact details below to make a request; the specific analytics controls and effects described in section 2a continue to apply. You may also raise a complaint with the relevant data-protection authority, including South Africa's Information Regulator where applicable.

5. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

6. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact our support team:

Email: app.golfislife@gmail.com
Website: https://golf-is-life.web.app