Privacy Policy

TeeFinder works without knowing who you are, and that's the default. We only hold your name and email if you create an account, by typing them in or by signing in with Google or Apple. There's no advertising, and nothing is sold or shared.

What stays on your device

Your area or location and your appearance settings are kept on your device. They're never uploaded, and clearing your browser data removes them.

Your favourite courses, saved tee times, saved deals, saved searches and lists are kept on your device too, unless you sign in with Google or Apple. Then a copy is kept on our server with your account so they follow you to your other devices. Deleting your account deletes that copy.

If you share a list, anyone with its link sees the list's name, what's on it and, if you're signed in, your first name. The link shows the list as you change it. Deleting the list or your account ends the link.

Your Passport

Your Passport, the clubs, badges and handicap you collect by using TeeFinder, is kept on your device. If you sign in with Google or Apple, a copy is kept on our server with your account so it follows you to your other devices. Your friends see your handicap, how many clubs you've collected and the badges you've won, but not your secrets or how you use the app. Deleting your account deletes that copy.

What our server keeps

• Alerts: what you asked us to watch for, such as the clubs, days, times and prices.
• Booked tee times: when you tell us you booked one, so we can remind you the evening before and two hours before. We never see the booking itself or how you paid.
• A random code your device makes for itself. It lets us count returning visits without knowing whose they are.
• Whether you're on a phone, tablet or desktop, worked out from the size of the screen.
• Which invite code you used, if any.
• What you tap: courses opened, filters used, tee times viewed and booking links followed. These are kept as actions, not as a person.

Accounts

An account is optional, and TeeFinder works fully without one. There are three kinds.

• Typing your name and email, so we know what to call you and can send updates if you turn them on. There's no password and nothing is checked, so it stays on this phone and can't be used to sign in anywhere.
• Signing in with Google. We get an ID for your Google account, your email address and your name. We never see your password.
• Signing in with Apple. The same as Google. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, we only ever see the relay address.

You can change your details or delete your account in Settings at any time. Deleting it removes the account and everything it carried, straight away.

Friends and games

If you sign in and use Friends, we keep your friends, the games you start or join, the days and times you can play, the tee times you tick, the bookings you mark, and any costs and payments you record. Everyone in a game sees your name and these details. If you start a game from your current location, that point is saved with the game to sort clubs by distance. Blocks and reports are kept so they keep working and so we can act on them. When you score a round, friends scoring at the same club that day see your round as you score it, and you see theirs. Your friends can follow a round you're scoring as you go, and so can the players in a tournament it counts for.

When you delete your account, you leave all your games. The others in them still see the costs you shared, so their balances stay right. Anything you send on WhatsApp goes through WhatsApp, not us.

Scorecards and tournaments

If you sign in and hand in a scorecard or a tour plan, the picture is sent to Anthropic's Claude, an AI service, to read the names, holes and scores. Anthropic doesn't use it to train its models. We don't keep the picture: we keep what was read with your round, the course, the date, each player's scores and the handicap played off. Everyone in your tournaments sees your scores, handicap and place.

If you add someone without TeeFinder to a tournament, we keep the name and handicap you type, so its players see them on the board, and we remember them for your next tournament. They go when you delete your account.

Location

If you tap "Use my current location", your phone asks your permission first. Your location is used to sort clubs by distance and is kept on your device. For Home's weather, your home location is rounded to about 100 metres on your phone, sent to our server and passed to Apple Weather. It isn't stored. When you search for a place, what you type goes through our server to Apple Maps. You can always pick an area from the list instead. If you ask Siri for tee times near you, your location goes to our server to answer that question and isn't stored.

Calendar

In the iPhone app, if you add a booked tee time to your calendar, the app asks your permission, adds the event on your phone, and removes it if you remove the booking. Nothing from your calendar is sent to us.

Notifications

If you turn notifications on, your browser or the TeeFinder iPhone app gives us a delivery address for that device. We keep it with your alerts and the notifications you chose, so a tee time can reach you when the app is closed. The address identifies a device, not a person.

Turning notifications off stops them. Your alerts stay saved until you delete them, so they're there if you turn notifications back on. We drop a delivery address the first time a notification can't be delivered to it.

Cookies

Six, each with one job. One remembers your invite code, if you used one. One keeps you signed in, and only exists once you have an account. One lasts ten minutes while you sign in with Google or Apple, to check the answer that comes back belongs to you. One tells a Home Screen app apart from a browser tab. One lasts a day and shows our server your device passed Cloudflare's invisible check. One is a random code that lets our server count each phone's requests, so a busy clubhouse on one mobile network isn't slowed down as one; it names nothing and nobody. There are no advertising, tracking or third-party cookies.

What we never collect

No phone number. No password. No advertising IDs, third-party analytics or tracking pixels. TeeFinder isn't on any other website, so it can't follow you there.

Your IP address isn't stored with anything you do. It's held for up to a day to stop anyone hammering the sign-in or copying the tee times, and our host keeps its own connection logs like any web host. Without an account we still hold a random device code and the invite code you used, so treat our usage records as private rather than completely anonymous.

How long we keep it

• Your account and what it carries: until you delete it.
• Friends and blocks: until either account is deleted.
• Booked tee times: until the day after the round.
• Usage records: up to 24 months, then deleted or reduced to totals.
• Reports: up to 12 months after they've been dealt with.
• Scorecards and tournaments: until you delete them or your account.
• Shared lists: until you delete the list or your account.

Where it lives, and who else is involved

Our server is in Johannesburg, run by Fly.io. Some companies outside South Africa help TeeFinder work, and your device contacts them directly, so they see your IP address under their own privacy terms:

• Fly.io: hosting, in Johannesburg.
• Cloudflare: security. Every visit passes through Cloudflare's network, which keeps attacks and automated copying out. You never see it or have to do anything.
• Anthropic: reads the scorecard and tour-plan pictures you hand in.
• Apple Maps: maps and place search. If you choose the Classic map, tiles come from OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles, with map data from OpenStreetMap contributors.
• Apple Weather: weather forecasts, asked for by our server.
• Google and Apple: only if you sign in with them.
• Apple, Google or Mozilla's push service, depending on your device: only if you turn notifications on. They carry the notification and can't read anything about you from it.
• The club, booking platform or deal seller whose link you follow to book. Some links, such as Golfscape's, carry a TeeFinder partner code.

Your rights

Under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act you can ask what we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it or stop using it. Write to us and we'll reply within 30 days. With an account, Delete account in Settings removes it straight away.

Without an account, nothing we hold identifies you. Clearing your browser data removes everything on your device and ends the link to past usage records, but it can't erase them. If you want a session's records removed and can tell us its code, write to us and we'll remove them.

If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Regulator at inforegulator.org.za.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes too.

Contact

support@teefinder.co.za