Privacy

We last changed this policy on October 24, 2026.

The game plays without an account. Without one, it asks this server only whether it's online and whether a new version is out, when it starts. To keep even that on your machine, select GO OFFLINE on the game's ACCOUNT screen. This page covers what happens if you make an account. Homestead Industries LLC is responsible for it. Write to support@homeninegolf.com about anything here.

What we store

What	Why
Your email address, and whether it has been confirmed	We use it to identify the account, confirm it is yours, and let you recover a password. Passwords are stored only as a slow one-way hash. We cannot read yours.
Your display name	We use it to show you to other players in the game and, if you leave the switch on, on the public leaderboards.
Your finished rounds: every hole, every shot, the launch and club numbers, the path each shot took, the course and its version, and which of your partners were signed in	We keep them so your history follows you between machines, and so a round can be watched again. We also check that a round is what it claims to be.
Your profile: handedness, tees, the launch monitor you declared, and the carry distances the game has learned for you	We keep it so your setup follows the account.
Courses you saved to the cloud, including the course data itself, and whether you published them	We keep them so you can fetch them back elsewhere, and so other players can download the ones you published.
Your friend code, your friends, and the friend requests you sent or received	We use them to connect you with your friends. Anyone you give your code to can send you a request.
Private matches you made or were invited to, and your answers	We use them to run each match and show its board to its players.
The online lobbies you were in: the course, whose lobby it was, when it ran, and when you joined and left	We use them to run each lobby, to let its players download the host's course, and to count the lobbies a host makes in a day. While a lobby runs, the server also holds who is connected and ready, each shot, where each ball lies and each hole's score. That part is kept only in the server's memory and is gone when the lobby ends.
Problem reports you send from REPORT A PROBLEM: what you wrote, the game's version, your computer's operating system, your launch monitor and how it is connected (including its network address and port), the last lines of the game's launch monitor log, your last shots as the monitor sent them, and the end of the game's log file if you choose to include it	We use them to find and fix problems with launch monitors. The game shows you everything a report holds before you send it. Passwords, sign-in tokens and email addresses are taken out in the game and again on the server. You can send one without signing in; it is then not tied to any account.
The awards and achievements you earned, and the ball, tracer, bag and title you chose in your locker	We use them for your trophy case and your look in the game. Your title is shown beside your name.
Your signed-in devices: the device name the game reports, when the session was made and last used	We keep them so you can see where you are signed in and end a session you do not recognize.
Website sessions: the browser, and the network address it came from	We keep them so you can sign in here, and so an unfamiliar session can be recognized and ended.
A record of anything the server refused, and why: rounds that could not be verified, plan changes, takedowns, failed sign-ins, and when a copy of your data was downloaded	We use it to keep the service honest and to answer "why did this happen to my account?"
A log of email we sent you: which kind, to which address, when, and whether the provider accepted it	We keep it so we can answer "my confirmation link never arrived" without asking you to trust us.
Purchase records: when you bought the game, the amount, the payment provider's reference for it, and any refund or dispute, but never card details	We keep them to give you the game you paid for, to make refunds, and to answer questions about it.
Your trial and license: when your trial started and ends, and each computer that holds your license, as a one-way code the game works out from the computer, with the computer's name and system, and when its license was last checked	We keep them so the game works offline on your computers, and so each account and each computer gets one trial. A computer's code is kept after an account is closed, with nothing that says whose it was, so a new account can't restart the trial on it.
OpenStreetMap results, when your game imports a real course through this service. These are the places a search found and the map of a course's area. We keep them for seven days under a one-way hash of the search, with nothing about who asked.	We keep them so we do not ask those volunteer-run services for the same course twice. Their usage policies ask this of us.
Server logs, which include the network address a request came from	We use them to keep the service running and to limit abuse. We keep these for the shortest time of anything here.

Who else sees it

We use only two other companies:

• Stripe handles payments. When you buy the game, you give your card details to Stripe directly. Stripe tells us that the payment went through, and about any refund. We never see your card. Stripe is in the United States and has its own privacy policy.
• Proton Mail (Proton AG, in Switzerland) sends our email, such as the address confirmation and the password reset. They see the address the message went to and the message itself, and a copy is kept in our sent mail. Proton has its own privacy policy. When a problem report comes in, we may email ourselves a note about it with the monitor, the game's version and the start of what you wrote.

We do not sell anything to anybody. We run no advertising, and there are no analytics or third-party trackers on this website. We will hand over data if the law requires it, and we will tell you if we are allowed to.

What other players see

Other players who are signed in see your display name and the title you chose. Some of them see more:

• Your friends see when you became friends and when you last played. They can see your recent rounds and watch them again, shot by shot. They do not see your handicap index or who you played with.
• Players in a private match see who is in it, who has answered, and its board. They can watch the rounds entered in it.
• Anyone signed in can watch a round you entered in Tour Week.
• Players in an online lobby with you see your display name and which hand you play. They also see whether you are connected and ready, each shot as you play it (its numbers and its flight), where your ball lies, and your score on each hole. Anyone with a lobby's code can join it while it waits.

When you decline a friend request, the sender is not told.

Your name on the public leaderboards

Public leaderboards on this site show a display name, the player's title, a launch monitor and a score. A switch on your account page keeps your name off them. With it off, your row still appears in the same place with the same score, under "Private player" and with no title. Email addresses, account IDs, handicaps, partners and round details are never on a public page. Closed accounts do not appear on any board.

What the game contacts, from your machine

Some game features reach other services directly from your computer. These requests do not go through us, and we do not see them.

• OpenStreetMap is asked when you search for and import a real course with no cloud server set. A game pointed at this service asks us instead. We then ask OpenStreetMap under our own name, so they see what was searched for and the area of the course, but not your network address.
• Elevation services are asked for the lay of the land. These are Mapzen/Tilezen terrain tiles, and the U.S. Geological Survey in the United States.
• Map data from the USGS and the USDA is also fetched for real courses.
• The U.S. National Weather Service is asked for live weather when you turn it on. It is asked only about courses in the United States.

Each of these sees your network address and what you asked for, like any website. They are listed in licenses. If you leave live weather off and import no real course, the game contacts none of them.

What stays on your machine

• Swing camera video never leaves your computer. The clips are saved in the game's folder on your machine, and body tracking runs there too. Nothing of either is sent to us or anybody else. KEEP CLIPS in the settings decides how many are kept, and you can delete the folder at any time.
• Some launch monitor links work over your home network only. The game can look for an Open Launch Nova there, and it can take shots from a program on another computer in your home. None of this reaches the internet.

Cookies

This website sets one cookie, and only when you sign in to it. It remembers that your browser is signed in. It is not shared, and it is not used to follow you anywhere. There are no other cookies, so there is nothing to consent to and no cookie banner. Signing out of the website ends that cookie. It does not sign your simulator out at home.

How long we keep it

• Your account, rounds, courses, friends, matches and achievements: we keep them until you close the account and ask us to erase them.
• Sessions: we keep a game sign-in until it expires or you end it, and a browser sign-in for seven days.
• Confirmation, reset and change-of-address links: we never store the link itself, only a hash of it. A confirmation or change-of-address link lasts 24 hours, and a reset link lasts one hour. Each link works only once.
• The email log and the refusal record: we keep them so we can answer a question about your account months later.
• Online lobbies: we keep a lobby and who was in it for 90 days after it ends. A lobby's live play is never stored.
• Problem reports: we keep each one for a year after you send it, and then delete it.
• Billing records: we keep them as long as the law requires us to keep records of a sale.
• Server logs: we keep them for a short period, measured in days, for running the service.

What you can do

• Change your display name, or take it off the public leaderboards, from your account page.
• Change your email address from your account page, with your password. We send a link to the new address, and nothing changes until it is opened. We also tell your current address that a change was requested.
• See and end your sessions, browser and game alike, from your account page.
• Remove a friend or cancel a friend request in the game. You can also get a new friend code there. The old one stops working.
• Decline a match, or leave one before you post your round, in the game.
• Leave an online lobby at any time, in the game.
• Have a problem report deleted by writing to support@homeninegolf.com. For one sent without signing in, tell us its reference and when you sent it.
• Download a copy of everything we hold about your account at any time. Use Download my data on your account page, or ask for the same copy from the game. It is one file, in a plain format any program can read. It holds your account and profile, your purchase, trial and computers, and every round with every shot. It also holds your courses, friends, matches, online lobbies, problem reports, achievements and sessions, the email we sent you and the record the server keeps. The top of the file says what it leaves out and why. Each download is noted on your account.
• Close your account from your account page. It is disabled immediately, and every session ends.
• Ask for erasure by writing to support@homeninegolf.com from the address on the account. A person handles it, and we will confirm when it is done.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, restrict or object to what we hold. Ask and we will do it. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to your data protection authority.

Children

The service is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly keep an account for one. If you believe a child has made an account, tell us and we will remove it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and we will tell account holders by email about any change that matters.