Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how The Golf Engineer collects, uses, and shares information when you visit our website or create an account. By using the site, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

The short version: you can read the site and use the guides without an account; we use privacy-friendly analytics that set no cookies and cannot follow you to other websites; we do not sell your personal information; some links on our gear guides are affiliate links, which is disclosed on those pages; and you can turn our product analytics off for your browser at the bottom of this page.

Information you give us. If you create an account we collect your username, email address, and a password, which we store only as a salted bcrypt hash, so we never hold your actual password. If you sign in with Google we receive your basic profile and email address; we never receive your Google password and cannot access Gmail, Drive, or contacts. We also store what you save in the product: gear comparisons, combo sets, saved bags, and any values you enter into the tools.

Information collected automatically. When you visit, our analytics receive standard technical information: pages viewed, the referring page, approximate location derived from IP address at the city, region, or country level, browser and operating system, device type, screen size, and how quickly pages load, and which "Shop" links on our gear guides you click (recorded as the club's name, nothing more).

What we do not collect. No payment card or financial account details. No government identifiers, precise geolocation, biometric or health data. None of the sensitive categories defined under state privacy laws. We do not record your screen or your keystrokes; session replay is not enabled on this site.

We use two analytics tools, and both are deliberately configured to collect as little as possible. Neither sets a cookie, and neither can follow you to another website:

Product analytics: PostHog. This is what tells us which pages, guides, and tools actually get used. Its requests are first-party: the script and the data it sends are served through our own domain rather than a third-party script host.

Traffic and performance measurement: Cloudflare Web Analytics. Our site is delivered through Cloudflare, which adds a small measurement script (beacon.min.js, loaded from Cloudflare rather than from our domain) to each page. It reports the page you viewed, the page that referred you, your browser, operating system, and device type, an approximate country derived from your IP address, and how quickly the page loaded. It sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser, and does not fingerprint your device or assign you a visitor identifier, so it counts page views without being able to recognise you between visits or across sites. Cloudflare processes this as our service provider under its privacy policy.

No advertising or retargeting. We do not run Google Analytics, an advertising pixel, or any cross-site tracker. Your activity here is not used to build an advertising profile, and it cannot be linked to your browsing on other websites.

Session replay is disabled. We do not record video-style playback of your browsing, mouse movement, or form input.

Signed-in usage. If you have an account, product events are associated with an internal numeric account identifier so we can understand how features are actually used. Your email address, username, and anything you write yourself (including the names you give your saved bags) are never sent to our analytics. The Cloudflare measurement above is never associated with your account at all.

The "Shop" links on our gear guides are affiliate links to 2nd Swing, routed through Awin, an affiliate network. When you click one, Awin sets its own cookies on its domain and on 2nd Swing's to attribute a purchase to the link you followed; those cookies belong to Awin and 2nd Swing and are governed by their privacy policies, not ours.

Our pages load no Awin script and set no affiliate cookie. The only thing we record is the click itself, as a product-analytics event carrying the club's name — never anything about what you look at or buy on 2nd Swing. The "No advertising or retargeting" commitment above remains true: the affiliate link does not change it, and nothing about it lets your activity here be linked to your browsing elsewhere.

We set no cookies for analytics, advertising, or tracking. Instead, our product analytics stores a randomly generated visitor identifier and basic campaign attribution in your browser's local storage. That identifier is not tied to your name or email, and it is readable only by this site; unlike a tracking cookie, it cannot be used to recognise you elsewhere on the web. Our traffic and performance measurement stores nothing in your browser at all.

The exceptions are strictly necessary, and none of them are for tracking. If you sign in, we set a single cookie that keeps you signed in; it is required for accounts to work at all and cannot be switched off while you are signed in. Separately, because the site is delivered through Cloudflare, Cloudflare sets a short-lived security cookie (__cf_bm) to tell automated traffic from real visitors, and the bot check on our sign-up form may set one of its own. These are security measures, they expire quickly, and they are not used to profile you or to measure your use of the site.

Because we use no tracking or advertising cookies, we do not show a cookie consent banner. What we offer instead is a real off switch: the analytics opt-out at the bottom of this page, described under "Your choices" below.

We use the information described above only to operate your account and keep you signed in; to save and display the content you create; to send messages necessary to run your account, such as password resets and verification; to understand aggregate site usage so we can improve our content and tools; to detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents; and to comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not use your information to build advertising profiles.

Turn product analytics off. Use the analytics opt-out at the bottom of this page. It takes effect immediately and is remembered on that browser. It is stored per-browser and per-device, so repeat it anywhere you want it applied. It covers the product analytics described above, the part that can associate activity with a visitor or an account. The Cloudflare traffic and performance measurement has no per-visitor identifier to switch off; it counts page views and page-load times and keeps nothing that points back to you.

Global Privacy Control. If your browser or an extension sends a GPC signal, we honour it automatically and collect no product analytics for that visit. You do not need to do anything else, and we do not record that you sent one.

Clear your site data. Clearing this site's data in your browser settings removes the analytics identifier described above. A new one is generated on your next visit unless you have opted out.

Your account. You can review and update your profile, and delete your account, from your account page at any time.

Depending on where you live you may have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you, correction, deletion, or a portable copy, and to opt out of sale, sharing, targeted advertising, or profiling. We do none of those, so there is nothing to opt out of. We do honour access, correction, and deletion requests regardless of where you live. Email [email protected] and we will verify the request by confirming control of the account email address and respond within the time applicable law allows (generally 45 days). We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.

Account data is kept while your account is active. Analytics data is retained in aggregate and is not used to re-identify you.

When you delete your account we delete it. Your account record is removed from our database, and with it your email address, your profile details, your password, any linked Google sign-in, every active session, and everything you saved to your profile: comparisons, combo sets, and saved bags. We also delete the corresponding profile and event history from our analytics. Your username is released for someone else to claim, and because nothing about the account is kept, the email address can be used to register a new account later. Residual copies may persist in encrypted backups for a limited period before being overwritten in the ordinary course.

We use a small number of service providers that process information on our behalf and are contractually limited to that purpose: our hosting provider, our database provider, PostHog for the product analytics described above, Cloudflare for content delivery, security, the bot check on our sign-up form, and the traffic and performance measurement described above, Resend for account emails, and Google if you choose to sign in with Google.

Retailers and affiliate networks are different. When you follow a "Shop" link, Awin and 2nd Swing receive information directly from your browser (the page you came from, your IP address, and the identifiers in their own cookies) so the purchase can be attributed to the link. We do not send them anything, they do not act on our behalf, and their handling of that information is governed by their own privacy policies rather than by this one.

We may also disclose information if required by law or valid legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Golf Engineer, our users, or the public. If the site is ever involved in a merger or sale of assets, account information may transfer as part of that transaction, and we will post notice here before your information becomes subject to a materially different policy.

The Golf Engineer is not directed to children under 13, and accounts require you to be at least 13 years old, the same minimum stated in our Terms & Conditions. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13.

If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete it and close the associated account promptly. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, contact us at [email protected]. You do not need an account to make that request.

The commitments above apply to every user, minors included: we do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use it for targeted advertising, at any age.

Passwords are stored as salted bcrypt hashes, the site is served over HTTPS, and database access is restricted to the application. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Use a strong, unique password, and tell us promptly at [email protected] if you believe your account has been compromised.

The Golf Engineer is based in the United States and intended for users in the United States. If you use the site from elsewhere, your information will be processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in your country.

We may update this Privacy Policy as the site evolves. Changes are reflected on this page with an updated effective date. If we make a material change (for example, if we begin using a new category of tracking technology), we will provide notice on the site before the change takes effect.

Questions or privacy requests: [email protected].