Privacy policy

1. Controller

The controller is Marc Lauper, Golf Advisor, Thunstrasse 16A, 3110 Münsingen, Switzerland. For privacy enquiries, email info@studio360.ch or use the contact form.

2. Scope and principles

We process personal data under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, processing is based, as appropriate, on performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps, legitimate interests, legal obligations or consent. We observe purpose limitation, proportionality, transparency, data minimisation and appropriate security.

3. Access data and server logs

When you visit the website, technical data may be processed, including your IP address, access time, pages viewed, referrer, browser, operating system and volume of data transferred. We use this information to operate the site securely, diagnose errors and prevent misuse.

4. Contact form

When you contact us, we process the details you provide, particularly your name, email address, message and technical metadata, to respond, document the correspondence and prevent misuse.

5. Account, profile and personal areas

For registration and login, we process your name, email address, password hash, login times, security status and two-factor authentication details. Optional profile details may include a photo, handicap, home course, location, languages, interests and golf preferences. Your visibility settings determine which profile details are public.

Dashboard, trip planning, saved lists, journal, scorecards, community activity and AI consultations are linked to your account. Content is published only when the relevant feature provides for publication and you initiate it.

In the Golf Performance Lab, you can voluntarily import club data, training sessions and measurements such as carry, total distance, lateral deviation, ball and club speed, spin, face angle and swing path. The Swing Studio can store private swing videos, titles, notes, recording speed, impact markers, lines and angles. These data belong to your account and are not public.

Swing videos are stored outside the publicly accessible file area and are delivered only after login and an account check. There is no automatic AI assessment. The AI Swing Coach starts only when you request it: four still images generated from the video are shown before transmission and separate consent is requested. The full video and analysis drawings are not sent to OpenAI. You may delete videos together with their notes, drawings and coach reports; reports may also be deleted individually.

The optional onboarding assistant saves your current setup step, selected golf interests and checklist status. It combines existing account information into a progress display. Selecting interests does not subscribe you to the newsletter or make your profile public. You can skip onboarding and hide the checklist.

6. Reviews, community and collaborative trips

For reviews, experience reports, following, playing-partner requests and collaborative trips, we process your submissions, relationships, roles and necessary technical metadata. Public content may appear with your chosen profile name; private trip groups and conversations are available only to authorised members.

After a completed round is confirmed, participating members may receive one optional in-account reminder to review the course. Existing reviews, hidden reminders, blocks and deletions are respected. A device notification is sent only if community and push notifications were voluntarily enabled; no automatic email is sent.

7. Artificial intelligence and OpenAI

Selected functions use OpenAI through a server-side interface: the AI Golf Concierge, Academy drafts, translations, SEO and text suggestions, quality checks, image analysis and image or image-metadata generation.

The Concierge sends your question, a limited conversation history and relevant Golf Advisor content to OpenAI. Handicap, home course and saved preferences are included in an answer only when you deliberately enable that option. Conversations are also saved privately in your Golf Advisor account and can be deleted individually.

After express consent, the AI Swing Coach sends exactly four still images selected by you and optional details about camera angle, handedness, club and training goal to OpenAI. The images are generated from the private video in your browser and are not saved by Golf Advisor as separate image files. We save the private structured report, selected image times, context, consent time and version, and technical usage and cost metadata. An analysis based on a few two-dimensional images cannot reliably determine movement or physical strain and does not replace golf instruction or medical advice.

Editorial AI features may transmit the selected texts, images and metadata. Users and editors should not submit unnecessary confidential or particularly sensitive personal data. Images of identifiable people require the necessary rights and permissions.

Where supported by the endpoint, API calls use store: false. According to OpenAI, API data are not used for model training by default unless the API customer opts in. OpenAI may generally retain inputs and outputs in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days, subject to legal or security-related exceptions. See OpenAI API data controls. AI output can be incomplete or inaccurate and does not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. Editorial AI content is not published automatically; recommendations, prices, availability and booking information must be checked.

8. Weather data and external providers

For forecasts, the Golf Weather Score, recommended playing windows and travel weather, we may use WeatherAPI.com or Open-Meteo. Requests are server-side and contain course coordinates and necessary forecast parameters, not course names, profiles, handicap information, trip groups, comments or other account data. Results are cached for a limited period. Forecasts are not safety warnings, course clearances or guaranteed tee times. See WeatherAPI.com and Open-Meteo.

9. Maps and external media

Pages with interactive maps use Leaflet. The library files load from unpkg and your browser loads map tiles directly from OpenStreetMap Foundation servers. These providers receive necessary connection data, especially your IP address, browser and request information; the map provider can also see the requested map sections. The maps display golf courses and trips. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy and unpkg.

Editorial articles may contain embedded YouTube or Vimeo videos. YouTube embeds use youtube-nocookie.com, but that alone does not prevent technical connection data from reaching the video provider. Loading or playing a video may transmit your IP address, browser data, referrer and usage data. See the Google privacy policy and Vimeo privacy policy. Our Instagram profile is linked, not embedded; merely viewing our page does not load Instagram content.

10. Cookies and similar technologies

Necessary and functional browser storage supports operation, security, language, login, saved lists and trip planners you use, and your cookie choices. Analytics and marketing technologies are activated only after the relevant consent.

11. Cookie settings

You can change your choices at any time. Open cookie settings

“Accept all” enables analytics and marketing; “Reject optional” keeps only necessary and functional storage. Withdrawal updates consent signals immediately. If third-party tags have already loaded, the page is reloaded once.

12. Google Tag Manager, analytics and marketing

We may use Google Tag Manager to manage analytics and marketing tags. All non-essential Google consent signals default to denied. The container loads only after consent to analytics or marketing. Google Consent Mode v2 controls the two categories separately. The protected administration area may also use Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights to retrieve performance data or check public Golf Advisor URLs. These server-side checks do not set extra visitor cookies or transmit profile, community or trip-planning data.

Depending on the tags configured in production, providers may process usage data, device information, approximate location, interactions and pseudonymous identifiers. The list of active services must match the production Tag Manager configuration. Marketing tags must not be triggered solely by analytics consent, or vice versa.

13. Newsletter and Mailchimp

Our optional newsletter uses Mailchimp, part of Intuit. We process your email address, first and last name, language, optional interests, sign-up source, consent version, times and subscription status, as well as a local consent and synchronisation history. Subscription becomes active only after confirmation by email (double opt-in). Depending on campaign settings and applicable law, delivery, opens and clicks may be measured. Newsletter consent is separate from cookie choices and account creation.

You can unsubscribe via any newsletter or your account. Mailchimp processes customer data as a processor and may process them in the USA or other countries. Applicable contractual and organisational safeguards, including standard contractual clauses, are used. See the Mailchimp Data Processing Addendum and Intuit privacy statement.

14. Error monitoring with Sentry

We may use Sentry to detect and fix technical errors. Privacy-conscious error reports may include the error, a shortened stack trace, URL path, time, app version, runtime, browser and operating system. We do not send query parameters, form fields, cookies, sessions, authorisation headers, email addresses, AI requests, newsletter data or session replays to Sentry. An IP address may be processed temporarily when connecting, but IP storage is disabled in the project settings. Local limits reduce error events. Sentry is not used for advertising or profiling. See Sentry's privacy policy.

15. Golf Companion, offline content and device notifications

After voluntary activation, Golf Companion combines account-related alerts about collaborative trips, community events, planned rounds, weather and Academy content. You can change or disable categories, device alerts and quiet hours. Without activation, no personal Companion alerts are prepared for existing accounts.

The installable web app uses a service worker and local storage. Public app files may be cached; protected trips and personal pages are saved on your device only when you explicitly choose “Save offline”. You can remove these copies in Golf Companion and should avoid saving them on shared devices.

Device notifications also require browser or operating-system permission. After activation we save, for each device, a push endpoint, public device keys, device name, browser identifier, delivery status and error count. Encrypted notifications are delivered through the push service used by your browser or operating system. We do not use an additional push-marketing provider or disclose full profiles to the push service. You can disable notifications per device; invalid subscriptions are deactivated and subscriptions are removed or disabled on logout or account deletion.

16. Hosting and technical providers

Providers may support hosting, operation, maintenance and security. They process personal data only as needed for the agreed purposes.

17. Recipients and international transfers

Necessary recipients may include hosting providers, Mailchimp/Intuit, OpenAI, Sentry and, depending on cookie choices, Google. Viewing a map or embedded video also sends connection data directly to OpenStreetMap and unpkg or to Google and Vimeo. Weather providers receive only course coordinates and forecast parameters, not account or trip data.

Depending on the service, data may be transferred in particular to the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or the USA. Distributed technical services may involve additional locations; see the linked providers' privacy notices. Where there is no recognised adequate level of protection, we rely on appropriate safeguards, particularly recognised standard contractual clauses and supplementary measures, subject to statutory exceptions.

18. Data security

We apply appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised access, loss, misuse and alteration. Absolute security in internet transmission cannot be guaranteed.

19. Retention and deletion

We retain personal data only as long as required for their purpose, legal duties, security or legal claims. Account data generally remain while the account is used. You can delete Concierge conversations, Performance Lab sessions, private Swing Studio videos and AI Swing Coach reports individually. Deleting a swing video also removes its coach reports. Limited newsletter evidence may remain after unsubscribing to document consent and prevent further mailings. Backups are overwritten in operational deletion cycles.

20. Your rights

Subject to applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction of processing or data portability, or object to processing. You can withdraw consent for the future.

21. Consent and withdrawal

Newsletter consent, optional profile personalisation and non-essential website technologies are requested separately. You may withdraw consent at any time for the future without losing access to necessary site features.

22. Changes

We may update this policy when our features, services or legal requirements change. The version published here applies.

Last updated: 1 October 2026