Roundside

Privacy Policy

Effective 2026-10-20. This policy covers the Roundside iPhone app and the roundside.app website, for users in the United States.

Roundside lets a golfer share progress with the people waiting for them. Location tracking stays on the iPhone by default. Exact location is shared only when the golfer turns it on for this round. We do not run ads or third-party analytics, and we do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising.

What stays on your devices

  • Location used for hole tracking. Raw GPS readings (latitude, longitude and accuracy) are processed in memory on your iPhone to work out which hole you are on. Roundside does not upload or keep a history of those readings or a route of where you walked. If you turn on location point sharing for this round, the app separately sends one latest location point, its accuracy and sample time; anyone with the round link can see that point.
  • Watch GPS and pending scores. Watch GPS fixes stay in memory on Watch for yardages and are never sent to the iPhone or server. The selected course and phone-owned score snapshot are cached locally; saved Watch edits can wait in a durable outbox until the iPhone accepts them.
  • Your private scorecard. Scores are saved in protected scorecard storage on your iPhone for personal history and remain there when score sharing is off. The scorecard also keeps when the round started and finished and how long it was paused, so your history can show how long you played.
  • Your elevation and adjusted distances. Your elevation is worked out on your iPhone from the location reading the app already uses for the round and the course elevation grid. Adjusted (“plays like”) distances for elevation, wind and temperature are estimates calculated on your iPhone. They are not stored and not sent to Roundside, Apple or your Watch.
  • Competition mode. Whether competition mode is on for a round, and the default you last chose, are stored only on your iPhone and never sent to Roundside.
  • Your secret key. A random secret that proves an update comes from you is kept in your iPhone’s keychain. Our servers keep only a scrambled (hashed) version of it.
  • Round updates waiting to upload. If you lose signal, the latest round progress is kept in the app’s protected storage on your phone until it can be delivered. It is cleared after delivery, or dropped 24 hours after the round finishes if it cannot be delivered.

What we receive and store

  • Display name. The first name or nickname you enter, so followers know whose round it is.
  • Course and round details. The course, how many holes you plan to play, your starting hole, and when the round starts and ends.
  • Hole progress. Which hole you are on, when you started each hole, and whether the round is going, paused or finished. Roundside uses this to estimate your finish time.
  • Optional latest location point. If you turn on location point sharing for a round, the server stores one latest latitude, longitude, horizontal accuracy and sample time in round_locations. Anyone with the share link can see the current point and its accuracy. It is not a route or location history. A point expires five minutes after its sample time. The server deletes it when a pause, round end, opt-out or link revocation reaches the server; if the phone is offline, the last server point can remain link-visible until that expiry. Location samples are uploaded directly, not queued for offline delivery; samples older than two minutes are rejected. Backup jobs exclude round_locations row data.
  • Published scores (optional, off by default). If you opt in, we store the strokes you entered for each hole, the opt-in state, a revision number and update time so the score appears on your active share link. Turning score sharing off sends an empty, newer snapshot to clear the published scores. While your phone is offline, this change stays queued and recipients may still see the last published scores until the server accepts it.
  • Share link. We store only a hashed version of your share link. The link itself is only in the message you send. It stops working no later than 12 hours after the round starts, or 2 hours after it ends, whichever comes first.
  • Push tokens and alert choices. When someone follows your round in the app, we store their lock-screen token and, if they opt in to app alerts, a separate alert token, whether each token is for testing or production, and which started, hole and finished alerts they chose. We keep a hashed follower secret so they can stop following.
  • Alert delivery queue. We temporarily store per-round started, hole and finished alert events, including the hole and event time when relevant, while attempting delivery. Queue rows contain no location and are deleted with the round.
  • Lock-screen update queue. We temporarily queue a round update reason and delivery state for lock-screen updates. Queue rows contain no location and are deleted with the round.
  • Free-round limit. To enforce the lifetime limit of one free tracked/shared round, we store a SHA-256 hash of the App Store app-transaction ID together with the ID of each free round. This is a pseudonymous identifier, not a guarantee of anonymity. While a round record exists, the round ID can be associated with that round’s display name and course details. We keep this hash and round ID indefinitely to enforce the lifetime limit.
  • Round entitlement record. When a round is created under the free tier or a subscription, we store a round-level record with the round ID, access type and time, a hash of the app-transaction ID, and, for a subscription, the original Apple transaction ID. This record can be associated with the round’s display name and course details while the round record exists. It is deleted when the round is purged.
  • Subscription status from Apple. To verify Roundside Plus, we store the original Apple transaction ID, product, subscription status, environment, expiration and revocation times, and the time Apple last updated the status. These status records have no automatic expiration. A subscription transaction ID can be associated with a round and its display name while the round record exists. Apple, not Roundside, handles your payment information.
  • App Store notification records. We store each verified Apple subscription notification’s ID, type, subtype, received time, and complete signed payload for idempotency and audit. A signed payload may contain transaction details, including a raw app-transaction ID. These records have no automatic expiration.
  • Push delivery log. For troubleshooting, we store the time, event, priority and response code for push notifications sent to Apple. This log has no location and is deleted when the related round is purged.
  • Waitlist signup. If you join the waitlist on roundside.app, we store your email address, whether you want a beta invitation, a referral code we make for you, the referral code of the friend who sent you (if any), where you came from (a source or campaign tag in the link you followed, if any), a SHA-256 hash of your private waitlist page link, and the times you joined and were invited. We store no IP address with a signup. To limit automated signups, signup and removal requests are capped at five per minute per IP address, using counters held in server memory for about a minute. Your private page link is shown to you right after you join; we keep only its hash. When your beta batch opens, we enter your email address in Apple App Store Connect, and Apple sends the TestFlight invitation. We use your email address for that invitation and one launch email, and to order beta invitations. You can remove yourself at any time with “Remove me from the waitlist” on your private page, or by emailing [email protected].
  • Application request logs. Like most web services, our servers log the time, the request path and the caller’s IP address. Share-link and waitlist page tokens are redacted from application request paths. Our application request logs omit complete query strings. These logs are kept in a rolling window of about 30 MB per service and then overwritten.

Course search and “Near me”

When you type a course name, your search text is sent. If Near me has supplied an approximate position, that position is also used to rank your search results. Near me is optional: if you choose it, the app sends an approximate position, rounded to about 1 km, so the server can find nearby courses. Our application database does not store search text or approximate search positions, and our application request logs omit complete query strings. Cloudflare also processes request IP addresses and URLs to deliver and protect the service; see its separate retention information below. Separately, a shared round sends your course and hole progress to Roundside.

Weather and elevation

Weather. During a round, your iPhone asks Apple WeatherKit for current temperature and wind at the course’s public location, not at your location. Apple receives that course coordinate and the time of the request. The app asks when the round or hole map screen opens and about every 10 minutes while it stays open, keeps only the latest reading in memory for the round, and shows Apple Weather attribution wherever weather appears. Nothing about weather is sent to Roundside.

Course elevation. Course elevation comes from public-domain U.S. Geological Survey 3DEP data, which Roundside stores with the course and delivers with the course data. Your elevation is computed on your iPhone from that data and the location reading the app already uses for the round, so nothing new is sent to Roundside. The Watch and the follower map never receive elevation.

Who can see what

Anyone with your share link can see your display name, course, hole-by-hole progress and estimated times, finish window, round status, and when the last update arrived. If you turned on location point sharing for that round, the link also shows the latest location point and accuracy. The point expires five minutes after its sample time. The server deletes it when a pause, end, opt-out or revocation reaches the server; if the phone is offline, the last server point can remain link-visible until it expires. Course and hole progress can also reveal which part of the course you are on. Apple Push Notification service handles lock-screen updates for followers in the app; its payload contains hole progress, finish estimate and round status and, while opted in, a compact score summary, not location coordinates.

How long we keep it

  • Rounds: the round, hole progress, share link hash, followers and their alert choices, push delivery log, alert queues and round-level entitlement record and score-sharing snapshot are purged once more than 30 days have passed since the round ended, or since it started if it never ended.
  • Optional latest location point: at most one point per round is retained at a time. It is eligible for no more than five minutes after sampling. The server deletes it when a pause, end, opt-out or revocation reaches the server; while the phone is offline, the last server point can remain link-visible until expiry. The worker also deletes stale or ineligible points. Backup jobs exclude round_locations row data.
  • Free-round record: the hashed app-transaction ID and round ID are kept indefinitely to enforce the lifetime limit of one free tracked/shared round. While the round record exists, this record can be associated with its display name and course details.
  • Subscription records: the latest subscription status and verified Apple notification payloads have no automatic expiration.
  • Backups: each database backup is retained for 30 days from its creation. Backup jobs exclude round_locations row data, so shared location points are not present in backups. Other records deleted from the active database may remain in earlier backups until those backups expire.
  • Waitlist signups: until you remove yourself on your private page (the row is deleted immediately) or ask support, or until the waitlist closes after launch. Database backups keep a removed signup for up to 30 days.
  • Application request logs: a rolling window as described above.
  • Cloudflare request analytics and security events: on our current plan, sampled request analytics can be retained for up to seven days and security events for up to 24 hours. For requests flagged by security controls, event data can include course-search text and approximate Near Me coordinates in the URL, as described below.

Stopping sharing

You can turn off location point sharing at any time; the setting changes on your phone right away. The server deletes its point when it receives the change. Pausing or ending the round works the same way, and server-side link revocation clears it there. If the phone is offline, the last server point can remain link-visible until five minutes after it was sampled. Location samples are not queued for later upload. Stop sharing turns off the link. Followers can leave with Stop following in the app, or by closing the web page.

Score sharing is off by default. If enabled, recipients see entered hole scores and a partial-safe stroke total. Turning it off sends a newer empty snapshot; the app marks it pending until the server confirms it. Scores on your private iPhone scorecard remain available locally.

Ads, tracking and sale of data

Roundside has no advertising, analytics or ad tracking. The website sets no cookies. The iPhone hole map’s default Map view is drawn on your iPhone from course data the app already has and makes no network request. Its optional Satellite view, available only when your iPhone is online, uses Apple’s native MapKit, which requests imagery for the area shown; Apple receives that area and can infer the approximate part of the course you are viewing. Your position on the hole map comes from the round’s existing location reading on your iPhone. The hole map asks for no new permission, the app draws your position itself rather than sending it to Apple, and nothing new is sent to Roundside. The recipient map loads MapKit JS and map tiles from Apple only when the map is visible and a MapKit token is configured; otherwise it uses the course geometry preview. Apple receives map requests and the geographic area shown in the app or recipient’s browser. When the optional golfer point is visible in that area, Apple may be able to infer its approximate location from the map request. Roundside does not send the point to Apple for search or directions. We do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising.

Payments

Each Apple ID gets one free tracked/shared round. After that, a Roundside Plus subscription is required to share another round; without one, the round is still tracked on your iPhone but is not sent to followers. Subscriptions are bought and billed by Apple through your Apple Account. Apple, not Roundside, handles your payment information. Following a round is always free.

Service providers

  • Google Cloud hosts our servers and database in the United States.
  • Cloudflare processes request IP addresses and URLs to deliver and protect the service. Its security systems can retain sampled request information; for requests flagged by security controls, this can include course-search text and approximate Near Me coordinates in the URL. On our current plan, request analytics can be retained for up to seven days and security events for up to 24 hours.
  • Apple provides the Apple Push Notification service, subscriptions, the App Store and TestFlight. If you are invited to the beta, Apple receives your email address through App Store Connect and sends the invitation.
  • Apple WeatherKit provides current weather for the course during a round. Apple receives the course’s public coordinate and the time of the request from your iPhone, not your location.
  • Apple Maps provides native MapKit satellite imagery when you choose Satellite in the iPhone hole map, and MapKit JS and basemap tiles when a recipient opens a configured web map. Apple receives map requests and the geographic area requested by the app or recipient’s browser; from the app it can infer the approximate part of the course you are viewing, and if the golfer point is visible in the browser’s area, Apple may be able to infer its approximate location. Roundside does not send the point to Apple for search or directions.

Children

Roundside is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us information, email [email protected] and we will delete it.

Your California privacy rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use it (this policy describes it), to request deletion or correction, and to not be treated differently for using these rights. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. To make a request, email [email protected]. We may ask you to identify the round (for example by its course and date) or provide transaction details so we can find related records. App transaction hashes and transaction IDs can be associated with round and display-name records while those round records exist. We retain free-round hashes and round IDs indefinitely to enforce the lifetime limit, and subscription status and verified notification records have no automatic expiration.

Course data

Course maps use data from OpenStreetMap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Elevation: U.S. Geological Survey 3DEP (public domain).

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update this page and the effective date above. If a change is significant we will also tell you in the app.

Contact

Questions or requests: [email protected].