What the app does
SmackTrack uses your phone's GPS to measure how far you hit a golf ball. That's it.
Location data
- GPS is used only to calculate the distance between your start and end positions on the golf course.
- A foreground service with a visible notification keeps GPS active while you walk to your ball, even if the screen locks. The service runs only during active shot tracking and stops automatically when the shot completes or after 15 minutes.
- Your approximate coordinates are sent to the Open-Meteo weather API to fetch wind and temperature conditions. No other service receives your location.
- Raw GPS coordinates are not stored. Only the calculated distance in yards/meters is saved to your shot history.
Weather data
- When a shot is recorded, the app sends your approximate location (rounded to ~1 km) to the Open-Meteo weather API to fetch current wind and temperature conditions.
- Open-Meteo is a free, open-source weather API. Their privacy policy is available on their website.
Optional Google Sign-in & cloud sync
- You can optionally sign in with your Google account to sync shot history, settings, and achievements across devices.
- If you sign in, your data is stored in Google Firebase Cloud Firestore, scoped to your account. Only you can access your data.
- We store your email address solely to identify your account. We do not share it with any third party.
- If you do not sign in, all data stays on your device only. The app is fully functional without an account.
- You can sign out at any time in Settings. Your data remains available locally after sign-out.
Data stored on your device
- Shot history: Club used, distance, weather conditions, and timestamp.
- Settings: Your preferred units (yards/meters, mph/km/h, °F/°C), trajectory, and club selections.
- Achievements: Unlocked achievement badges and unlock timestamps.
- All data is stored locally using Android SharedPreferences. If you opt in to cloud sync, a copy is also stored in Firestore.
Analytics
- The app uses Firebase Analytics to collect anonymized, aggregated usage data such as shot counts and achievement unlocks.
- Firebase Analytics does not collect personally identifiable information. No GPS coordinates, shot distances, or user content is sent to analytics.
- This data helps us understand how the app is used so we can improve it.
- You can opt out of analytics collection at any time via the Usage analytics toggle in the app's Settings screen, or through your device's Google settings.
- Analytics data is retained per Google's standard retention policy (14 months for event data, 2 months for user-level data). Anonymized aggregate data may be retained indefinitely.
App integrity
- The app uses Firebase App Check with the Google Play Integrity API to verify that requests to our cloud services come from the genuine SmackTrack app.
- This protects against API abuse and does not collect personal data.
Crash reporting
- The app uses Firebase Crashlytics to collect anonymous crash reports, including stack traces and device information (model, OS version).
- Crash reports do not contain personal data, GPS coordinates, or shot history. They are used solely to identify and fix bugs.
Third-party services
- Google Play Services — GPS location via FusedLocationProviderClient
- Open-Meteo — Weather data (approximate coordinates sent for weather lookup)
- Firebase Authentication — Optional Google Sign-in
- Firebase Cloud Firestore — Optional cloud sync
- Firebase Analytics — Anonymized usage data (can be disabled in Settings)
- Firebase Crashlytics — Anonymous crash reports
- Firebase App Check — App integrity verification
No advertising networks or social media SDKs are included in the app.
Data deletion
- Delete your account and cloud data: Open Settings in the app and tap "Delete Account" to permanently remove all cloud data and your Firebase Auth account. See our Data Deletion page for full instructions.
- Local data: Delete individual shots from History, or uninstall the app to remove all local data.
- Firebase Analytics: Anonymized analytics data cannot be tied back to you and is retained per Google's standard policies.
Children's privacy
The app does not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, including children under 13.
Changes to this policy
If we update this policy, the changes will be posted on this page with a new "last updated" date.
Contact
Questions or concerns? Open an issue on our GitHub repository.