Privacy Policy
Effective September 25, 2026.
The short version
Golf Sparks keeps your golf data on your phone. Your rounds, your shots, your swing videos and your swing analyses are stored in the app on your device, not on a server.
Two things leave your phone only when you ask for them: to analyse a swing, that video clip is sent to our server, forwarded to Google's Gemini API, and the answer is sent back; to review a round, that round's scorecard is sent the same way. Neither is saved on our server. Each exists there for the length of that one request.
The app also records a few anonymous usage events — that it was opened, and which features were used — against a random identifier, and stores any feedback you choose to send. Both go to our own database, not to an analytics company.
There is no advertising, no third-party analytics SDK, and no third-party tracker in this app. We do not sell your data.
What is stored, and where
| Data | Where it lives |
|---|---|
| Rounds, scores, clubs, lies, distances, notes | Your device only |
| Swing videos | Your device only, inside the app's private storage |
| Swing analyses (the faults, evidence and summary) | Your device only |
| Shot locations (GPS) | Your device only, stored with the shot |
| Your account identifier and email address | Google Firebase Authentication |
| Your analysis credits, whether analysis is enabled for your account, and how many analyses you have run each day | Our database, keyed by your account identifier |
| A random install identifier, used to limit free credits to one set per install | Our database |
| If you sign in with Google: your email address and display name | Our database, alongside your account identifier |
| Usage events (app opened, feature opened or completed), with a random device identifier, platform and app version | Our database |
| Feedback you choose to send (a rating and optional comment) | Our database |
That is the entire contents of our server-side database. No golf rounds, no video, no analysis text, and no location. The identifiers are random values the app generates; they are not your phone's hardware or advertising identifier.
Permissions, and why each one is asked for
Camera
To record your swing. Recording only happens while the capture screen is open and you have started a capture.
Microphone
Two reasons. The swing video keeps its audio, because the sound of the strike is used to work out exactly when impact happened. Separately, if you turn on voice control, the app listens for commands like "record."
Location
To record where each shot was played from, so the app can measure how far your shots actually travel. Locations are attached to shots and stay on your device. Denying location does not stop you recording or analysing swings.
Speech recognition
Only if you enable voice control. Speech is processed by your phone's own speech recognition service — Apple's on iOS, Google's on Android — and those services have their own privacy terms. Golf Sparks does not store what you say.
Photo library (add only)
Only used when you explicitly tap to save a swing video to your camera roll. The app asks for add-only access and cannot read your photos.
What leaves your phone when you ask for analysis
When you tap Analyse on a swing, the app sends that video clip to a Google Cloud Function we run, along with the context of the shot — the club, the lie, the distance to the flag, and what happened to the ball. That function forwards the clip to Google's Gemini API, receives a structured analysis back, and returns it to your phone, where it is saved.
The clip is held in memory for the duration of that request and is not written to storage on our side. We keep no copy. Google's handling of data sent to the Gemini API is governed by Google's API terms ↗.
If you never tap Analyse, no video ever leaves your device.
Round review works the same way. When you ask for a review of a round, the app sends that round's scorecard — course name, date, your handicap, and for each hole the par, yardage, score and the shots you logged (club, lie, direction, distance to the flag) — to the same kind of function, which forwards it to Gemini and returns the review. Your shot notes and shot locations are not included, and nothing is kept on our side.
Who else is involved
Golf Sparks uses Google Firebase for sign-in, for the analysis function, and for the small database described above, and Google's Gemini API for the analysis itself. Your use of those services is also subject to Google's privacy policy ↗. On iOS, speech recognition is provided by Apple.
There is no one else. No advertising network, no third-party analytics provider, no data broker, no crash reporter.
Deleting your data
Because your golf data is on your device, deleting the app deletes it — rounds, videos and analyses all go with it. That is worth knowing before you uninstall, because there is no cloud backup to restore from.
To delete your account and everything our database holds about it — credits, usage counts, your email and name, usage events and feedback — email matt@dyor.com ↗ from the address you signed in with and say so. If you never signed in, use Share Feedback in the app and ask for your data to be removed, so we can match the request to your install. There is no automated flow for this yet.
Children
Golf Sparks is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected or who sees it, the effective date at the top changes and the change is described here. Adding a paid subscription would be such a change, and this page will say so before it happens.
Contact
Questions, or a data request: matt@dyor.com ↗.