Privacy Policy

The next generation of golf course mapping is already here—33,600+ golf courses fully mapped with interactive, drone-style 3D flyovers, live now and free to explore in your browser.

Last updated: June 1, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Golfapedia ("we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and safeguards information when you visit our website and use our interactive 3D golf course tours and directory (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

Overview

We collect only the information we need to operate and improve the Service, and we are transparent about how that information is used. We do not sell personal information.

Information We Collect

We collect the following types of information:

  • Information you provide. When you contact us or submit feedback through the in-app feedback form, you may share your name, email address, a star rating, and the contents of your message. We also store the page URL the feedback was sent from, your browser's user agent, and your IP address (used to detect spam and abuse).
  • Usage information. We collect non-identifying details about how you interact with the Service, such as pages viewed, courses viewed in 3D, searches performed, and aggregate device or browser information.
  • Approximate location. If you use the "Search Near Me" feature, your browser asks your permission before sharing your device location. We use the latitude/longitude only for that single search request and do not store it on our servers. We may also derive an approximate location from your network connection (city/region level).
  • Cookies. We set a small number of first-party cookies, the most important of which is gp_session — an HttpOnly, Secure, signed session token used for anti-scraping and basic abuse prevention. We also use localStorage to remember your cookie-consent choice and a few UI preferences.

How We Use Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Provide, operate, and maintain the Service;
  • Display relevant golf course results, directions, and 3D tours;
  • Respond to your questions, feedback, and support requests;
  • Understand how the Service is used so we can improve it;
  • Protect the Service against abuse, fraud, scraping, and security issues.

Legal Bases for Processing (EU/UK/EEA Visitors)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we process personal data on the following legal bases under the GDPR:

  • Consent — for non-essential cookies, optional analytics, and the geolocation prompt. You can withdraw consent at any time.
  • Legitimate interests — for security, fraud prevention, anti-scraping, and core service operation.
  • Performance of a contract / pre-contractual steps — when you contact us for support.

Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under laws such as the GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), including the right to access, correct, delete, or port your personal information, and the right to object to or restrict certain processing. You may exercise these rights by emailing support@golfapedia.org. We do not sell or "share" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are defined under California law.

Cookies and Analytics

We use first-party cookies and localStorage to keep the Service working correctly (for example, remembering your cookie-consent choice and our anti-abuse session token). We also use Google Analytics to measure aggregate, anonymous usage trends. We do not use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

When you first visit, a cookie banner lets you Accept All, Reject All, or open Cookie Settings to choose which categories to allow. Strictly necessary cookies are always active because the Service cannot function without them; all non-essential cookies (such as analytics) are loaded only after you give consent. You can review, change, or withdraw your consent at any time by selecting Cookie Settings in the site footer, or by clearing cookies in your browser settings.

Third-Party Services

The Service relies on the following third-party providers. Each provider acts as an independent controller or processor for the data they receive, in accordance with their own privacy policies:

  • Microsoft Azure — application hosting, database, and email delivery (Azure Communication Services). Information you submit (e.g. feedback) is stored in our Azure SQL database in the United States.
  • Google Maps Platform & Google Fonts — maps, place search, geocoding, and web fonts. Loading the maps and fonts shares your IP address and browser headers with Google.
  • Cesium ion — 3D terrain, imagery, and tile streaming used to render the immersive 3D course tours.
  • Cloudflare CDN (cdnjs) and jsDelivr — static asset delivery for icon fonts, charts, and similar libraries. All externally-loaded assets are pinned with Subresource Integrity (SRI) hashes.
  • OpenAI — when you use the AI chat feature, your prompt is forwarded to OpenAI's API to generate a response. Do not include sensitive personal information in AI prompts.
  • Google Translate widget — optional in-page translation.

We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you interact with.

Geolocation Data Flow

The "Search Near Me" feature is opt-in and only triggers after an explicit click. When you accept your browser's permission prompt, your device sends a latitude/longitude pair to our server, which uses it for a single nearby-courses query and does not persist it. Server-side rate limiting is applied so that the geolocation-backed search endpoint cannot be abused.

Data Retention

Feedback messages are retained until they are no longer needed for support, abuse prevention, or product-quality purposes. Server access logs and rate-limit data are kept for short operational windows (typically 30–90 days) and then discarded or aggregated. You can request deletion of feedback you submitted by emailing us.

Data Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse, including HTTPS-only transport with HSTS, signed session cookies, server-side rate limiting, anti-bot defences, and a Content Security Policy. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

International Transfers

The Service is operated from the United States. If you access it from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, which may have different data-protection laws than your country.

Links to External Sites

The Service may contain links to websites we do not operate. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those sites. We recommend reviewing the privacy policy of every site you visit.

Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so we can remove it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: