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Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Last updated: June 03, 2026

Short Game Wizard is a golf analytics app built by a small, independent team. We're golfers ourselves, and we treat your data the way we'd want ours treated: with respect and transparency.

This document covers both our privacy practices and terms of service. We've written it in plain English because legalese helps no one.


Privacy Policy

What We Collect

Account Information

When you sign up, we collect your email address and a password (which is encrypted). That's it. No name required, no phone number, no profile photo.

Golf Data

The whole point of the app is to capture your short game data: putts, chips, bunker shots. This includes distances, break directions, slopes, club selections, results, and similar details. This data belongs to you. We store it so you can analyze your patterns.

Payment Information

If you subscribe to a paid plan, your payment is processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full credit card number. Stripe handles all payment security, and they're PCI-compliant (the highest standard for payment security).

Technical Data

Like most web applications, our servers automatically log basic request information: IP address, browser type, pages visited, and timestamps. We use this for debugging and abuse prevention, not tracking.

What We Don't Collect

  • Location data or GPS coordinates
  • Contacts or address book
  • Device identifiers for advertising
  • Data from other apps on your device

How We Use Your Data

  • To provide the service: storing your golf data, generating insights, syncing across devices.
  • To improve the app: aggregate, anonymized statistics help us understand what features are useful.
  • To communicate: occasional emails about your account, security notices, or major updates. No marketing spam.

Who Sees Your Data

Nobody, except:

  • You: your data is private to your account.
  • Our hosting providers: we use standard cloud infrastructure. Our servers run on secure, reputable providers.
  • Stripe: for payment processing only.
  • Legal requirements: if compelled by law, we may have to share data. We'll notify you unless prohibited.

We don't sell your data. We don't share it with advertisers. We don't mine it for AI training.

Data Retention & Deletion

Your golf data stays in your account until you delete it. You can export all your data at any time via Settings → Export.

If you delete your account, we delete your data. No retention games, no "anonymized" copies. It's gone within 30 days (some backups take time to rotate out).

Your Rights (GDPR & Similar)

If you're in the EU, UK, California, or anywhere with privacy rights, you can:

  • Access: export your data anytime
  • Correct: edit your data in the app
  • Delete: delete individual records or your entire account
  • Portability: export is available in JSON and CSV formats

To exercise these rights, go to Settings or email us. We respond within 30 days.

Cookies

We use a session cookie to keep you logged in. That's it. No tracking cookies, no analytics cookies, no third-party cookies.

Security

We use HTTPS everywhere, encrypt passwords with bcrypt, and follow Rails security best practices. While no system is unhackable, we take security seriously and promptly address any issues.


Terms of Service

The Basics

By using Short Game Wizard, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, don't use the app. (We'll be sad, but we'll understand.)

Your Account

  • You must be 13 or older to use this app.
  • You're responsible for your account security. Use a strong, unique password.
  • Don't share your account or API tokens with others.

Acceptable Use

Don't use Short Game Wizard to:

  • Break the law
  • Harass anyone
  • Attempt to compromise our security
  • Scrape data or overload our servers
  • Resell access without permission

Basically: use it to track your golf game. That's what it's for.

Our Responsibilities

We will:

  • Keep the service running with reasonable uptime
  • Protect your data to the best of our ability
  • Give you notice before making major changes
  • Not suddenly delete your data without warning

We won't:

  • Guarantee 100% uptime (no one can)
  • Be liable for lost golf insights due to bugs or downtime
  • Offer refunds for subscription time during outages (unless it's egregious)

Intellectual Property

Your data is yours. The app (code, design, branding) is ours. You grant us a license to store and process your data only as needed to provide the service.

API Usage

We offer an API for accessing your own data. Don't abuse it. Rate limits exist. If you need higher limits, ask.

Termination

You can leave anytime. Delete your account in Settings. We can terminate accounts that violate these terms, with notice when possible.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms. For significant changes, we'll email you. Continuing to use the app after changes means you accept them.


Contact

Questions? Concerns? Found a bug in our logic (or our app)?

Email: [email protected]


Acknowledgments

These policies are adapted from Basecamp's open-source policies and used under the CC BY 4.0 license.

Basecamp has generously made their policies available to the community because, as they put it, "we wanted to see more of these so we're giving ours away." We're grateful for their example of treating customers like humans, not legal adversaries.