Privacy Policy
Last updated 22 October 2026
This policy explains what DB Golf Technologies LLC (“we”, “us”), the maker of Spread Golf, collects when you use the Spread Golf app and this website, why, who can see it, and how to delete it. If you have a question, write to support@spreadgolf.app.
- We collect what the app needs to measure and share your golf, and nothing for advertising.
- We don't sell your data, show ads, or use third-party analytics or tracking.
- You choose who sees your rounds. Club members see your name and handicap, not your rounds unless you share them.
- Delete your account in the app at any time. It is erased at once, and from backups within 30 days.
1. What we collect
Your account
- Sign in with Apple: an identifier from Apple and, if you share it, your email address (which may be an Apple private relay address). We never receive your Apple password.
- Email sign-in: your email address and a one-way hash of your password. We never store the password itself.
Your profile
- Your display name, an optional nickname, your handicap index and the benchmark you choose.
- An optional profile photo. We re-encode it and remove its embedded metadata, such as where it was taken, before storing it.
- An optional GHIN number, if you add one (see section 4).
- Settings such as your default round visibility.
Your golf
- Rounds and scorecards: the course, tees, date, partners you name, and each hole's score and stats.
- Plotted shots: where each shot started and finished on the course map, and its lie.
- Notes, lessons, and the photos and YouTube links you add to a lesson.
- Course requests, including the place details you choose from Apple Maps, and corrections you send.
Clubs, coaching and bets
- The clubs you create or join, your role in them, leaderboard posts and the attestations you give.
- Coaching links with your coaches or players, and the notes you exchange.
- Bets and payments you record with other golfers: the terms, results and amounts, and any note you add. Spread Golf never holds, sends or checks money. A payment is only your record of money paid some other way.
- Reports you make about content or golfers, and golfers you block.
Location
With your permission, the app uses your iPhone's location while you're using it, to show nearby courses and how far away they are. Your location is sent with those course searches and is not saved to your account. Shot positions are the points you place on the map, not a location history.
If you turn on Track shots automatically when you start a round, the app also uses your location in the background during that round, which needs iOS's Always permission, and your phone's motion activity, to save battery. It records where you walk so it can find your shots. That track stays on your phone: only the shots it finds for each hole are saved to your account, as plotted shots are. The track leaves your phone only if you export it, and it is deleted with the round or your account. Rounds you don't start this way record nothing in the background.
Your device and purchases
- A device identifier and, if you allow notifications, a push token, so we can notify you of activity.
- If you subscribe to Premium, the transaction details Apple provides so we can confirm your subscription. Apple handles payment, and we never see your card details.
Service logs
Our servers keep operational logs to run and secure the service. Account identifiers in them are replaced with one-way hashes, and the logs never contain your bets, payments or notes.
2. How we use it
- To run the app: sync your rounds across devices, compute your strokes gained and stats, and show your history.
- To share what you choose to share: with your clubs, coaches, playing partners and the golfers in your bets.
- To keep the service safe: preventing abuse, acting on reports and securing accounts.
- To improve the course catalog: a course you request or correct, and aggregate, non-identifying patterns of play, help us map courses better.
- To answer you when you write to us.
We don't use your data for advertising, sell it, or share it with data brokers.
3. Who can see your information
- Your rounds are visible according to the visibility you choose, with a default you set in Profile.
- Members of your clubs see your display name and handicap, and the rounds you post to a club's leaderboard. Your nickname is visible only to you.
- Your coaches see the rounds and stats the coaching link covers, your benchmark, and the notes and lessons you share. Their access ends when the link ends.
- Bets and payments are visible only to you and the golfers in them, not to club admins, coaches or other members.
- Your GHIN number is never shown to other golfers, clubs or coaches.
4. Service providers and other parties
We use a small number of providers to run Spread Golf. They process data only on our instructions or under their own terms, as noted.
| Provider | What for | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Hosting, database and storage, in the United States (Ohio) | All data you store with us, encrypted at rest |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, maps and place search, push notifications, App Store subscriptions | What each Apple service needs, under Apple's privacy policy |
| YouTube (Google) | Playing the lesson videos you add | When you play a video, YouTube receives the request from your device. Videos play in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. |
| Anthropic | Written round reports, only if you turn them on (where available) | Your round statistics and, for a coach's digest, the coach's notes, never your name or email. Anthropic states that it keeps API requests for up to 30 days, and batch results for up to 29 days. |
| USGA GHIN | Posting a round to your handicap record, only when you consent for that round (where available) | Your GHIN number and that round's date, course, tees and hole-by-hole scores. GHIN's own terms govern what it keeps. We cannot remove a posted score, and a later edit in the app doesn't change it. |
Course maps come from OpenStreetMap and scorecards from course data providers. We send them no personal information.
We may disclose information if the law requires it, to protect the safety of any person, or as part of a sale or reorganisation of the service, in which case this policy continues to apply to it.
5. How long we keep it
- Your account and everything in it are kept until you delete them.
- Activity notifications are deleted after 7 days.
- An ended coaching link, with its lesson log, is deleted 30 days after it ends.
- Backups age out within 30 days.
6. Deleting your account
In the app, go to Profile → Delete account. Deletion happens at once and cannot be undone. It erases your profile, photo, rounds, shots, stats, notes, devices and sessions, and revokes Spread Golf's access to your Apple ID. Copies in backups are gone within 30 days.
- Course requests you made stay in our backlog with nothing that identifies you.
- For bets, your side is removed, open bets are cancelled and your name is no longer shown. The other golfer keeps the amounts and dates of what was settled between you.
- Scores already posted to GHIN stay in GHIN.
If you can't sign in, write to us from the email on your account and we'll help.
7. Your choices and rights
- Edit your profile, round visibility and benchmark in the app at any time.
- Turn off location or notifications in iOS Settings. Course search still works by name, and rounds can still be plotted by hand.
- Remove a coach, leave a club or block a golfer from within the app.
- Ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, by writing to support@spreadgolf.app. Depending on where you live, including California and the EEA and UK, you may have further rights. We honour them, and we will not treat you differently for using them.
8. Security
Data travels over TLS and is encrypted at rest. Access to rounds is enforced in the database itself, per account, as well as in the app's code. No system is perfectly secure, so if you believe your account has been compromised, write to us right away.
9. Children
Spread Golf is not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, write to us and we'll delete it.
10. International users
We store and process data in the United States. By using Spread Golf from elsewhere, you understand your information will be handled there.
11. This website
This site sets no cookies and uses no analytics. It remembers your Light, Dark or Automatic choice in your browser's local storage, which never leaves your device. Our servers keep standard request logs to operate and secure the site.
12. Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date above. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app before it applies.
13. Contact
DB Golf Technologies LLC. Questions or requests: support@spreadgolf.app.