Privacy | Ribbon Golf

What we collect and why

Ribbon Golf is an invite-only alpha for golfers in the United States who are 18 or older. It is operated personally by its founder, Justin Paterno.

We keep your rounds, scores, shots, clubs, corrections, precise GPS locations, and Apple Watch motion data. Motion is uploaded hole by hole when connected. Your confirmed card is our record of what happened. We compare it with the automatic result to improve shot detection and club prediction for you and other golfers.

We keep your bag, distances, preferences, and saved memories. If you use Talk, we process the words, voice, and relevant golf context you choose to send so we can answer you and recall what you have told us. We keep Talk transcripts. Voice audio is not kept after processing.

Tester rounds are not recorded by microphone. Round microphone recording is limited to the founder’s own field rounds. You do not need to use Talk or the microphone to track a round.

We collect Sentry crash reports, including app and device details, to fix failures. In-app feedback includes your message, build details, and any logs or round reference you leave attached. If you sign in, we keep your Apple account identifier and the profile details you choose to share. Without sign-in, round data still syncs under a tester or installation identifier. We also keep a record of your consent.

The Watch uses an on-device golf workout session to keep tracking active with your wrist down. The app requests workout access, not access to read your Health history.

Where it goes and who sees it

Data is kept on your iPhone and Apple Watch and on our app server and database hosted by Fly.io in Virginia, United States. The founder can review it to improve tracking, provide Talk, and fix problems.

Services that run the app
Service	What it does with your data
Fly.ioUS, Virginia	Hosts the app server and database, including synced rounds, shots, GPS, motion files, bag and profile data, Talk transcripts, and consent records.
SentryUS	Processes crash reports, including app and device details, so we can find and fix failures.
AnthropicClaude	Processes Talk text, golf questions, and relevant golf context to provide answers. API data is not used to train Anthropic’s models.
OpenAI	Processes voice and relevant conversation context for voice conversations and transcription.
ElevenLabs	Receives text to generate the spoken voice. It receives text only, not your microphone audio.
Open-Meteo	Receives a course location to provide weather. We do not send your identity.
Linear	Receives in-app feedback only, including your message, build details, and any logs or round reference you leave attached.
Apple	Provides TestFlight distribution and beta diagnostics, and Sign in with Apple if you choose to sign in. HealthKit and the golf workout session operate on your device; we do not read your Health history.
GHIN	If you link GHIN, receives your score only when you tap Post. Confirming a card does not post it.

We do not sell your data, do not use it for ads, and share it only with the services above that run the app.

How long it stays

Data retention
Data	How long we keep it
Rounds and profile	Rounds, scorecards, shots, GPS, bag, distances, preferences, profile, and saved memories stay while your account or installation is active, unless you delete them sooner.
Raw Watch motion files	12 months.
Talk transcripts	12 months. You can remove them sooner with “forget that”.
Talk voice audio	Not kept after processing. Round microphone recording is limited to the founder’s field rounds.
Crash reports	90 days in Sentry.
In-app feedback	12 months, including attached logs and round references.
Consent records	For the life of the account or participating installation. After withdrawal, we keep only a minimal record of the withdrawal.
Backups	A rolling 30 days. Deleted data is gone from backups within 30 days.

Anything learned only from one golfer is deleted with their account or installation data. Shared aggregate detector and club settings stay. Your rounds are excluded from every future tuning run after withdrawal or deletion, including identifiable copies used for training and evaluation.

Your choices and deletion

Choose Not now on the consent screen to stay out of the alpha. Consent is separate from your device’s location, motion, workout, and microphone permissions. Talk is optional.

To delete your account, open Settings → You → Delete account. You are signed out at once. If you never signed in, choose Withdraw in the app to leave the alpha and request deletion of the data linked to your installation.

You can also email support@ribbongolf.com to withdraw or request deletion, including if you cannot open the app. We erase your server data within 30 days of the request. Backup copies expire within the same 30-day window.

Withdrawal stops future alpha collection and uploads, including queued phone and Watch uploads. Uninstalling or signing out is not a deletion request.

Say “forget that” in Talk to remove the associated transcript and saved memory. To remove all your data, use Delete account, Withdraw, or email us.

You can ask for access to your data, a correction, or help with any of these choices at the same email address.

This website

This website is hosted on Cloudflare. Cloudflare processes basic request information, such as your IP address, to deliver and protect the site. We do not add analytics, advertising trackers, or tracking cookies. Fonts and images are served with the site.

When you request an invite, we keep your name, email, and optional home course and note to manage alpha invites, and delete them on request. To limit spam, we also keep a one-way hash of your IP address, never the address itself. If you email us instead, the founder receives your email address and the information you include to respond to your request.

Contact

For questions, access requests, or deletion help, email support@ribbongolf.com.