Foreboard — Privacy Policy
Foreboard is a golf-day scoring app published by Thumb Fort (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa, registration number 2026/698144/07. This page explains what the app records, where it goes and how long it stays. It covers the Android app and the web page at thumbfort.games/golf. Version 1.1 of the app, and the web page that goes with it, add the parts marked from version 1.1; version 1.0.2 has none of them.
WHAT THE APP RECORDS
A golf day is shared between every phone that joins it with its code, so the day lives on our server rather than on one phone. For each day we hold what the organiser and the scorers type in: the day's name, date and course, the players' names and playing handicaps, which fourball each is in, the scores, fines, side prizes and the entry fee, and the organiser's choices for the day (the format, the colours, whether fines are played). There are no accounts: no password, phone number or profile.
From version 1.1, on a corporate day the organiser may add a small picture, a sponsor's logo, which the phone shrinks to at most 64 KB before it is saved. It is kept with the day, shown on every phone that joins it and on the clubhouse screen, and deleted with the day.
From version 1.1, when a golfer joins a day they may ask for their scorecard at the end of the round, by email or by WhatsApp, and give an email address or a phone number for that. It is optional ("No thanks" works the same as not answering), it is kept with that day only, it is shown only to the day's organiser, it is used only to send that card (the server emails it; a WhatsApp card is sent from the organiser's own phone), and it is deleted with the day. A golfer can change or withdraw it from the Score tab at any time.
From version 1.1, an organiser may add one email address, when making a day or later in Setup, so that we can email them the organiser PIN if they forget it. It is optional. It is kept with that day only, is never shown to players or on any other phone, is used for nothing else and is deleted with the day.
To tell one phone from another during a day, the web page makes a random identifier when it first runs. It is used to let only the chosen scorer's phone enter a fourball's scores (on a casual game, from version 1.1.2, any phone that has joined by the code can score). It is not your advertising ID, not a hardware serial number, and it is not linked to your name or any account.
From version 1.1, the Android app sends us one message the first time it is opened, so that we can count installations: a second random identifier that the app makes for this purpose, the app's version and build number, where the app was installed from (Google Play, our website or a test build), and your phone's make, model and Android version. It is sent once and never again. If you email us from the app (Send feedback, or Delete my data), the message carries that installation identifier and the app version so we can match a request to the phone; delete them from the message if you prefer. Apart from a monthly total of distance-map opens on phones without Google services (from version 1.1.1, described below), we keep no other usage statistics, and the app has no crash reporter of our own; the Google Maps SDK described below reports crashes inside its own code to Google.
THE DISTANCE MAP
From version 1.1, the Android app has a distance map: a satellite view of where you are standing, with the distance to any spot you tap. It is optional. It opens only when you tap it, and only works if you allow the app to use your phone's location when Android asks; if you refuse, the rest of the app works as before.
Your position is used on your phone to place you on the map and to measure. The app does not send your position to our server and does not keep it. The map itself comes from Google: the Google Maps SDK in the app requests map imagery from Google for the area on the screen, and in doing so Google receives the map's position, your phone's address on the internet, technical details about the phone and the app, identifiers the SDK makes for its own counting (not your advertising ID), how you move and zoom the map, and crash reports if the SDK's own code fails, under Google's privacy policy. We do not receive any of it.
From version 1.1.1, on a phone without Google services (such as a recent Huawei phone), the same satellite map is a page from our website, thumbfort.games, that runs Google's Maps JavaScript API inside the app. Google receives the same kinds of information as above, under its own privacy policy. Your position still stays on the phone: the app draws you on that page itself and sends nothing about it to us. Each time this map opens, the page asks our server first, so that we can stay within Google's free allowance: our server sees your phone's address on the internet, keeps it in memory for at most an hour to stop the same address opening the map over and over, and stores only the number of map opens each month and each day, with nothing that identifies you or your phone.
TYPEFACES
The page loads its typefaces from Google Fonts when it opens, so Google's font servers see your phone's internet address and browser details. No golf-day data goes with that request. Without a connection the page uses the fonts already on your phone.
WHERE IT GOES
To our own server, over an encrypted connection, and to every phone that has joined the same day by its code. When an organiser asks for the PIN to be emailed, or a golfer asked for their card by email, that address and that one message pass through our email host, which sends it for us. Beyond the map and the typefaces described above, nothing goes to anyone else: we show no advertisements and we sell nothing. Anyone who has the code for a day can see that day's names and scores, anyone who has the organiser's clubhouse big-screen link can see its leaderboard, and whoever the organiser gives the clubhouse PIN can check and correct the cards, so share codes, PINs and links only with your group.
HOW LONG IT STAYS
A day is kept while it is open, moved to an archive seven days after the organiser closes it, and deleted thirty days after that: about five weeks after the day is closed. A day that is never closed is archived after thirty days without activity. Backups of the server are kept for fourteen days, so a deleted day leaves the last backup within two weeks of its deletion.
WHAT WE DO NOT COLLECT
No contacts, microphone or camera. The only picture we hold is a sponsor logo an organiser chooses; a player list loaded from a file is read on the phone and only the names are sent. The app does not use your advertising ID, has no analytics beyond the one installation count and the monthly total of web-map opens, and has no crash reporter of our own (the Google Maps SDK reports crashes inside its own code to Google, as described above). Your location is never sent to us.
WHATSAPP AND LINKS
Send on WhatsApp hands a message to the WhatsApp app on your phone; what you send and to whom is between you and WhatsApp. Nothing about it comes back to us. The organiser can also send themselves an organiser link (it contains the PIN) by WhatsApp or email from their own phone; that goes through those apps, not through us.
YOUR CHOICES
Uninstalling the app or clearing its storage removes everything it keeps on your phone. From version 1.1, Android's own backup does not copy the PINs or the identifiers the app keeps. You can refuse or later withdraw the location permission in Android's settings; only the distance map needs it. To have a day removed from our server before its time, or to have your name taken off one, write "delete my data" to the address below and quote the day's code. The organiser of a day can also rename or remove any player from Setup at any time.
CHILDREN
Foreboard is for adult golf days and is not directed at children under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
CHANGES
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. If a future version adds accounts, advertisements or purchases, this page will say so before that version is released.