Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how the Game Caddie mobile app ("Service") collects, uses, and shares your personal data. It's operated by the individual developer trading as Game Caddie, based in the United Kingdom ("Game Caddie", "we", "us", or "our"). This Policy should be read alongside our Terms of Service.

If you have questions about this Policy or your data, contact us at Gamecaddie@outlook.com.

1. Data We Collect

Account and profile data

• Email address, first name, last name, collected from Google, Apple, or email sign-in via our authentication provider (Clerk).
• Username and handicap, which you choose during first-run profile setup. Your handicap is optional.
• Profile photo, if you choose to upload one.
• Expo push token, a device identifier used to deliver notifications, stored against your account while you're signed in on that device (sessions are single-device — signing in elsewhere replaces it).

Golf and social activity data

• Rounds you host or join, including course, game format, and per-hole scores.
• Friendships (requests, acceptances) with other users.
• Lifetime XP, badges earned, and head-to-head records against people you've played with.

Location data

• If you grant permission, your device's approximate or precise location is read once per visit to the course picker and sent with that single request to order nearby courses higher in the list. It is not stored against your account or retained after the request completes. You can deny or revoke this permission at any time in your device settings, in which case the picker simply falls back to its default (non-location) order.

Diagnostic and crash data

• We use Sentry for crash reporting and error monitoring. This can include your IP address, device/OS information, app version, and — for a sample of sessions — a replay of on-screen activity to help us reproduce bugs. Sentry does not run in Expo Go preview builds, only in real (dev-client or production) builds of the app.

Data we do not collect

• We do not collect payment information (the app has no payments, subscriptions, or in-app purchases).
• We do not use advertising trackers or sell your data to third parties.
• The app has no web-based tracking cookies — it's a native mobile app, not a website.

2. How We Use Your Data

We use the data above to:

• create and operate your account, and let you sign in;
• run the core Service — scoring rounds, syncing scores between players in real time, computing XP/badges/head-to-head, and letting friends find and invite you by username;
• order the course picker by proximity, when you've granted location permission;
• send you push notifications (e.g. round invites), when you've granted notification permission;
• diagnose crashes and bugs, and keep the Service secure and reliable;
• enforce our Terms of Service and prevent abuse.

3. Legal Basis (UK GDPR)

Where UK GDPR applies, we rely on:

• Contract — processing your account and activity data is necessary to provide the Service you've signed up for;
• Consent — for location access and push notifications, both of which are permission-gated on your device and can be withdrawn at any time;
• Legitimate interests — for crash diagnostics and abuse prevention, balanced against your right to privacy.

4. Who We Share Data With

We use third-party services to operate the app. Each only receives the data it needs to perform its function:

We don't sell your data, and we don't share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

International transfers. Some of these providers are based outside the UK/EEA (principally in the United States). Where that's the case, we rely on the safeguards each provider has in place for cross-border transfers (such as the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where applicable to that provider). We haven't independently audited every provider's specific certification status.

5. Data Retention and Deletion

We keep your data for as long as your account is active. You can permanently delete your account at any time from within the app. Doing so immediately and permanently deletes your profile, uploaded photo, friendships, XP and badge history, and head-to-head records.

If you've hosted any rounds, deleting your account also permanently deletes those rounds — including the scores of every other player who took part in them. Rounds you only joined (didn't host) are preserved, with your entry anonymized rather than deleted, so the other players' results and history stay intact. Deletion cannot be undone.

6. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate data (most of this you can already do yourself — username, handicap, and profile photo are editable in-app);
• request erasure of your data (via in-app account deletion, or by contacting us);
• restrict or object to certain processing;
• receive a copy of your data in a portable format;
• complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you believe we've mishandled your data.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at Gamecaddie@outlook.com.

7. Children's Privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under that age. If you're under 18, a parent or guardian should agree to our Terms of Service on your behalf where required by law. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data without appropriate consent, contact us and we'll delete it.

8. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures — including relying on established, reputable infrastructure providers — to protect your data. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll notify you through the app or by other reasonable means before the changes take effect.

10. Contact

Questions about this Policy, or requests relating to your data, can be sent to Gamecaddie@outlook.com.