Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how arvie ("we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, stores, and shares your information when you use the arvie mobile application ("the App"). By using the App, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

1. Who We Are

arvie is a social golf application that lets golfers log rounds, track their handicap index, and share scores with friends. The App is operated by arvie Golf Limited ("the Company").

If you have questions about this policy, contact us at: info@arviegolf.com

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account and Profile Information

When you create an account, we collect:

• Email address — used for account authentication and communications
• Username — your unique public identifier in the App
• Password — stored as a one-way cryptographic hash; we never store or transmit your plain-text password
• Date of birth — required at sign-up to confirm you meet our minimum age requirement (13+). Never shown on your profile or to other users.
• Display name — optional, shown publicly on your profile
• Photo — optional, uploaded from your camera or photo library
• Bio — optional, up to 300 characters, shown publicly on your profile
• Location — optional, a text field shown on your profile (e.g. "Dublin, Ireland")
• Country — optional
• Handicap index — your golf handicap, calculated from your submitted rounds and displayed on your profile
• Home course — optional, your preferred golf course
• Playing dexterity — optional (right or left handed)
• Gender — optional

2.2 Golf Round Data

When you log a round, we collect:

• Score and par for the round
• Date played
• Golf course
• Tee set played
• Hole-by-hole scores (if entered)
• Match format and result (e.g. stroke play, stableford, match play)
• Playing partners (free text you enter)
• Notes
• Whether the round was a competition round or simulator round
• Handicap differential (calculated from your score and the course rating)

2.3 Social and Activity Data

• Posts you create (text, score summaries, images)
• Reactions you give to other users' posts
• Users you follow and who follow you
• Golf club bag contents you enter
• Course reviews and ratings you submit
• Competition entries and results
• Group memberships
• Accounts you block (kept only so the block can be enforced; never shown to the blocked user)
• Reports you submit about other users or content (target, reason, and any details you provide), used solely to review and action the report

2.4 Device and Technical Data

• Push notification token (Firebase Cloud Messaging) — used to deliver notifications to your device. Stored in our database and updated when you open the App.
• Authentication tokens — JWT tokens stored on your device to keep you logged in. Expire after 7 days.
• Basic request metadata (IP address, timestamps) captured in standard server logs.
• Crash and diagnostic data (Sentry) — if the App or our servers hit an error, an error report is sent to Sentry: the error and where it happened in the code, your device model, operating system and App version, and, for server errors, the request that failed (with passwords and tokens removed). Reports are not linked to your account, and we do not send your IP address with them. Sentry deletes them automatically after its retention period (no more than 90 days).

2.5 Payment Data

If you enter a paid competition, payment is processed through RevenueCat. We receive a payment reference, status, and provider name. We do not receive or store your full card details — these are handled entirely by RevenueCat and Apple's payment systems.

3. How We Use Your Information

Purpose	Data Used
Providing your account and authenticating you	Email, username, password hash, auth tokens
Displaying your profile to other users	Username, display name, avatar, bio, location, handicap, home course, bag
Calculating and maintaining your WHS Handicap Index	Round scores, course ratings, slope ratings
Showing your rounds and posts in the social feed	Scores, round details, posts, images
Delivering push notifications	FCM push token
Detecting and fixing crashes and errors	Crash and diagnostic data (via Sentry)
Analytics within the App (your personal stats)	Rounds, scores, courses played
Processing competition entry fees	Payment reference via RevenueCat
Improving and maintaining the App	Server logs, error data

We do not use your data for targeted advertising. We do not sell your data to third parties.

4. Information Shared with Other Users

arvie is a social app. The following information is visible to other users of the App:

• Username, display name, avatar, bio, location, country
• Handicap index and tier
• Home course and golf bag
• Rounds and scores you post to the feed
• Posts, images, and reactions
• Following/follower counts
• Course reviews
• Competition results and leaderboard positions
• Group memberships

Your email address is never visible to other users.

5. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate the App:

Firebase (Google)

Used for push notifications. When you use the App, a device token is registered with Firebase Cloud Messaging to enable notifications. Firebase may process this data in accordance with Google's Privacy Policy.

RevenueCat

Used to process in-app purchases for paid competition entry fees. RevenueCat receives your App Store transaction data. See RevenueCat's Privacy Policy.

Railway

Our backend infrastructure and database are hosted on Railway. Your data is stored on Railway's servers. See Railway's Privacy Policy.

Cloudinary

User profile photos and post images may be stored and served via Cloudinary's image CDN. See Cloudinary's Privacy Policy.

Resend

Used to send transactional emails (e.g. password reset, email verification). Your email address is processed by Resend to deliver these messages. See Resend's Privacy Policy.

Sentry

Used to receive crash and error reports from the App and our servers so we can find and fix bugs (see §2.4). Sentry is operated by Functional Software, Inc.; arvie's error data is stored in Sentry's EU (Germany) region. See Sentry's Privacy Policy.

Golf Course Data Providers

Course information (names, ratings, slope, yardage) is sourced from third-party golf course databases. We store this course data on our own servers; your personal data is not shared with these providers.

6. Device Permissions

The App requests the following permissions:

Permission	Why
Camera	To take a profile photo
Photo Library (read)	To choose a profile photo from your library
Photo Library (write)	To save images to your library
Push Notifications	To send you notifications about your social activity and rounds

You can revoke any of these permissions at any time in your iOS Settings. Revoking notifications will not affect your ability to use the App.

7. Data Retention

• Account data is retained for as long as your account is active.
• If you delete your account, your personal data (profile, scores, posts, follows) is permanently deleted from our systems. This action is irreversible.
• Server logs may be retained for up to 90 days for security and debugging purposes.
• Push notification tokens are removed when you delete your account or log out.
• Reports you submit about other users or content are retained for as long as needed to review the report and to maintain a record for repeat-offender enforcement.

7.1 Requesting Deletion Without the App

You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Close Account inside the App. If you no longer have the App installed, you can request deletion of your account and data at arviegolf.com/delete-account. We process these requests within 30 days and confirm by email.

8. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Correction — request that inaccurate data is corrected
• Deletion — request that your data is deleted (you can also delete your account directly in the App)
• Portability — request your data in a portable format
• Objection — object to certain types of processing
• Withdrawal of consent — where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@arviegolf.com. We will respond within 30 days.

GDPR (EEA/UK users): We process your data on the basis of contract performance (providing the App you requested) and, where applicable, legitimate interests. Because the service providers listed in §5 are based in the United States, using the App involves transferring your personal data outside the UK and EEA. We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and/or Data Privacy Framework certifications maintained by those providers as the safeguard for these transfers. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

CCPA (California users): We do not sell your personal information. You have the right to know what personal information we collect and to request its deletion.

9. Children's Privacy

The App is not directed at children under the age of 13. Account creation requires entering a date of birth, and registration is rejected for anyone under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us at info@arviegolf.com and we will delete it promptly.

9.1 Reporting, Blocking & Child Safety

Every post, comment, review, and profile in the App can be reported, and any account can be blocked, directly from the App (see our Community Guidelines for what's prohibited). We review reports within 24–48 hours. Content or accounts involving child sexual abuse or exploitation (CSAE) are removed immediately and reported to NCMEC and law enforcement as required by law.

Child Safety Standards contact: info@arviegolf.com

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including:

• Passwords stored using bcrypt hashing
• All data transmitted over HTTPS/TLS
• Authentication via short-lived JWT tokens
• Database access restricted to authenticated backend services

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at info@arviegolf.com.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you via a push notification or a prominent notice in the App. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will always reflect the most recent version.

Continued use of the App after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Data Safety Summary (Google Play)

This section summarises our data practices in the categories used by app stores' data safety disclosures. It doesn't replace the sections above — it's a quick reference.

Data category	Collected?	Shared with third parties?
Name, email address	Yes	No (email is never shown to other users or shared)
Photos	Yes (profile photo, post images, optional)	Yes — Cloudinary (hosting only)
App activity (posts, scores, follows, reviews)	Yes	No — visible to other users within the App only, not shared externally
App info & performance (crash logs, diagnostics)	Yes	Yes — Sentry (error monitoring only, not linked to your account)
Financial info (purchase status/reference)	Yes (competition entry payments only)	Yes — RevenueCat and the app store (full card details never reach us)
Device or other IDs (push token)	Yes	Yes — Firebase Cloud Messaging (delivery only)
Precise or approximate location	No	No
Advertising or tracking identifiers	No	No
Health, fitness, or contacts data	No	No

• All data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS).
• Data collection tied to your account (posts, scores, profile) is deleted when you delete your account.
• Data sharing is limited to the service providers required to run the App — see Section 5. We do not sell data, and we do not share it for advertising purposes.
• All the data types above are collected because they are required for the App's core functionality (social feed, handicap tracking, notifications, payments) — none is optional data collected solely for analytics or advertising.

For how to report unsafe content, a user, or a child safety concern, see our Trust & Safety page. For acceptable use of the App, see our Community Guidelines.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact: