TotalGuide, LLC ("TotalGuide," "we," "us," or "our") operates the website at totalguide.net, the Golf TotalGuide iOS application, and related services (collectively, the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use the Service.
Scope — website vs. app. The website at totalguide.net is a free, public information site that does not require an account. The practices described in this Policy that relate to accounts, subscriptions, saved content, and account deletion (including Sections 1, 5, and 7) apply only to the Golf TotalGuide iOS application. If you only visit the website, we do not create an account for you or process account, subscription, or user-content data about you.
1. Information We Collect
Information You Provide
- Account Information: Name (display name, first and last name), email address, and authentication credentials when you create an account in the Golf TotalGuide iOS app, plus optional contact details (phone number, mailing address) if you choose to provide them. Accounts exist only in the iOS app; the website at totalguide.net is a free, public information site with no login. In the app you may sign in with email and password, with Google, or with Apple. If you sign in with Apple and choose to hide your email, Apple will provide us with a private-relay email address; we use this address only to communicate with you, and you can stop the relay at any time in your Apple ID settings.
- Profile Information: Golf handicap, home course, playing preferences, location, and quiz responses
- User Content: Reviews, ratings, and other content you submit
- Offer Redemptions: When you redeem a coupon or offer in the app, we record which offer you redeemed and when — so it can be marked as used and cannot be redeemed twice
- Payment Information: TotalGuide does not collect or store payment information. iOS subscriptions are processed by Apple through your Apple ID. We receive a record from Apple confirming that your subscription is active and at what tier; we do not receive credit card numbers, billing addresses, or any other payment details.
- Round and Scoring Data: Scores you enter hole by hole, putts, fairways and greens hit, penalties, the tees you played, and the courses and dates you played them. If you use a shared scorecard, the golfers on that card can see and — where you have given them the card — enter scores on your row.
- Photographs: A profile picture if you choose to add one; a photograph of a scorecard if you use the camera to enter a round; and, in a BackNine league, a photograph of the end-of-round screen you post as your team's card. League card photographs are visible to everyone in that league.
- Friends and Groups: The golfers you add as friends, the challenges and leagues you join, and the teams you belong to. Friends can see the rounds you have completed, and people in a league or challenge can see the scores you post to it.
- Communications: Messages you send to us or through the Service
Information Collected Automatically
- Usage Data: Pages visited, features used, search queries, chat interactions, and course views
- Device Information: Browser type, operating system, device type, and screen resolution
- Location Data: Approximate location based on IP address is used for nearby-course suggestions. In the iOS and watchOS apps, precise GPS location is used during a round to show your distance to the green, to work out which hole you are playing, and — when you have turned shot tracking on — to record where each shot came to rest. Some of this location data is sent to and stored on our servers: when you save or end a round, the positions of your recorded shots and, where the watch recorded it, the path you walked during that round are uploaded and stored with your scorecard. This is what draws the map of your round and measures the distance you walked. It is stored against your account, is not shared with other users except through the features you choose to use (see "Friends and Groups" above), and is deleted with your account. Outside a round — for example when you tap "locate me" on the Plan tab — your position is used on your device only. Location requires your iOS permission grant, which you can revoke at any time in iOS Settings; revoking it disables distances, hole detection, and shot tracking.
- Motion and Fitness Data: If you wear an Apple Watch with shot tracking turned on, the watch reads the motion of your wrist to work out when you have hit a shot. Motion readings are processed on the watch; what reaches our servers is the resulting list of shots — a time, a position, and the club we believe you used. You can turn shot tracking off in the watch app at any time, and it is off unless you switch it on.
- Microphone: Where shot tracking is enabled, the watch app may listen for the sound of a ball strike to help distinguish a real shot from a practice swing. Audio is analysed on the watch in short windows around a detected swing and is not recorded, retained, or transmitted. The microphone is never used outside a round with shot tracking switched on, and requires your iOS permission grant.
- Health Data (Apple Health): With your permission, the watch app starts a golf workout while you play. This keeps GPS active while your wrist is down and saves the round as a workout in Apple Health. The iOS app reads back four values from that workout — distance, duration, active energy, and step count — and stores them alongside your scorecard so we can show the miles you walked and your Walking Club statistics. We read nothing else from Apple Health, and we do not share, sell, or use health data for advertising. You can grant or revoke this access at any time in the iOS Health app.
- Push Notification Token: If you allow notifications, Apple issues a device token that we store so we can send you friend requests, challenge and scorecard invitations, and similar alerts. You can turn notifications off in iOS Settings at any time.
- Cookies & Tracking: A chat session identifier for maintaining conversation context, plus essential functional cookies (for example, your theme and active-state preferences). The website does not require a login. We do not currently use third-party analytics or advertising cookies.
AI Chat Data
When you use our AI-powered chat features, your messages and the AI responses are processed to generate answers and may be stored to maintain conversation history and improve the Service. Chat data is associated with your account and is not shared with third parties for their own purposes, and is not used to train any third-party AI model. We retain chat logs for as long as your account is active and do not delete them on a fixed schedule; you can delete them at any time from the app or by contacting us, and they are removed within 30 days of account deletion.
In the iOS app, the most recent chat messages are cached on your device for quick access and are removed when you tap "Clear chat" in the chat input pill, sign out, or delete the app. We may, in the future, store short summaries of past conversations to provide better context in later chats; if we do, this Privacy Policy will be updated and you will be able to clear that data from your account settings.
2. How We Use Your Information
- Provide, maintain, and improve the Service
- Generate personalized golf course recommendations and match scores
- Record and display your rounds, scores, statistics, shot maps, walking distance, badges and Century Club progress
- Operate the social features you choose to use: friends, shared scorecards, challenges and leagues
- Send push notifications for friend requests, invitations and other activity you have opted into
- Verify your iOS subscription status with Apple to grant access to paid features
- Send transactional emails (account confirmations, password resets, important Service updates)
- Moderate user-generated content
- Analyze server-side usage patterns to improve features and user experience
- Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents
- Comply with legal obligations
We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your data to train third-party AI models.
3. How We Share Your Information
We may share your information with:
- Service Providers: Supabase (authentication and primary database), Apple (Sign in with Apple, and iOS in-app subscription billing — receives only what is required to process your purchase; we never receive your payment details), RevenueCat (subscription management and receipt validation — receives your app-level user identifier and subscription status, but not your payment card details), Google (Google Sign-In), OpenAI (AI chat completions), Render (server hosting), Amazon Web Services (course-data assets, and the photographs you upload — profile pictures, scorecard photographs, and league card photographs — stored in S3), and public mapping/imagery providers used to display course satellite views in the iOS Plan tab (state GIS programs such as MassGIS, RIGIS, and VCGI, and Esri World Imagery). Map-tile requests do not include your account information.
- Participating Courses (offer redemptions): When you redeem an offer or coupon, we may share redemption information — such as which of a course's offers were redeemed and how many — with the participating course. We do not share personally identifying information about you (such as your name or email address) with a course in connection with an offer.
- Legal Requirements: When required by law, court order, or governmental authority
- Business Transfers: In connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets
- With Your Consent: When you explicitly authorize sharing
- Other Golfers: Features you choose to use share information with the people you use them with. Friends can see the rounds you have completed. Golfers on a shared scorecard can see the scores on that card. Everyone in a challenge or a BackNine league can see the scores and card photographs you post to it. You can remove a friend, leave a card, or leave a league at any time.
User reviews and ratings are displayed publicly on the Service. Your display name (if set) will be associated with your reviews.
4. Cookies & Tracking Technologies
We use the following types of cookies and similar technologies:
- Essential Cookies: Session cookies used for core website functionality (the website does not require a login)
- Chat Session Identifier: A cookie that maintains conversation context across chat turns
- Functional Cookies: Remember your preferences (theme, active state, quiz progress)
The website uses Google Analytics to understand which pages and features are used; you can decline non-essential analytics through the cookie banner. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and the iOS application does not use IDFA or any cross-app tracking technology.
You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings. Disabling essential cookies may prevent you from using certain features.
We honor Do Not Track browser signals where technically feasible.
5. Data Retention
We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. You can delete your account at any time from the Account screen in the iOS app or by emailing support@totalguide.net. After account deletion:
- Account, profile, saved courses, trip plans, and quiz data are removed within 30 days
- Chat history is removed within 30 days
- Rounds, scores, shot positions, walking tracks and uploaded photographs are removed within 30 days
- Scores you posted to a shared scorecard, a challenge or a league may remain visible to the other people in that group as part of that group's record
- Published reviews may be anonymized and retained
- Apple holds subscription billing records on its own systems; we do not control retention there. You can review or request data from Apple via your Apple ID
- Aggregated, non-identifiable usage data may be retained indefinitely
6. Data Security
We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information, including encryption in transit (TLS), secure authentication, access controls, and regular security reviews. However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify affected users without undue delay and as required by applicable law.
7. Your Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights:
- Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- Correction: Request correction of inaccurate information
- Deletion: Request deletion of your personal information
- Portability: Request your data in a portable format
- Opt-Out: Opt out of marketing communications at any time
- Restrict Processing: Request that we limit how we use your data, where technically feasible
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@totalguide.net. We will respond within 30 days.
8. U.S.-Only Service
The Golf TotalGuide iOS app is available only in the United States App Store, and the Service is intended for users located in the United States. It is operated from, and your information is processed in, the United States. The Service is not directed to individuals in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or other regions outside the United States, and we do not intend to offer it to, or knowingly collect personal information from, individuals in those regions.
9. Children's Privacy
The Service is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected information from a child under 13, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us at support@totalguide.net.
10. Third-Party Links
The Service may contain links to third-party websites (golf course websites, booking platforms, etc.). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.
11. Content Protection
All content on the Service — including course data, analyses, recommendations, and AI-generated content — is protected intellectual property. You may not scrape, crawl, harvest, or use automated means to collect data from the Service. You may not use any content from the Service to train, develop, or improve any artificial intelligence or machine learning system without our express written consent.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email, in-app notification, or through the Service. The "Last Updated" date at the top indicates when the policy was last revised.
13. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, contact us at:
TotalGuide, LLC
Email: support@totalguide.net