Privacy Policy

BirdieYard, Inc. ("BirdieYard," "we," "us," or "our") operates BirdieYard, an online platform that helps golfers discover and connect with independent golf coaches and provides coaches with tools for managing their professional presence, lesson requests, students, and related coaching activities.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information when you visit or use birdieyard.com, create an account, interact with a coach or golfer, use BirdieYard's coach tools and workspace, submit or respond to a lesson request, communicate through BirdieYard, or otherwise use our products and services (collectively, the "Services").

The Services are intended for use in the United States.

1. Who Can Use BirdieYard

BirdieYard accounts are available only to individuals who are at least 18 years old.

A person under 18 may participate in a coaching relationship only through a parent or legal guardian who uses BirdieYard on the minor's behalf.

We do not permit children or teenagers to create their own BirdieYard accounts.

If we learn that a person under 18 has created an account without appropriate parent or guardian involvement, we may suspend or delete the account and associated information.

2. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on how you use BirdieYard.

A. Account and contact information

We may collect information such as:

• name;
• email address;
• optional phone number;
• account identifiers;
• login and authentication information;
• city and state;
• profile preferences; and
• communications preferences.

B. Golfer information

When a golfer creates an account, searches for coaching, submits a lesson request, or uses other BirdieYard features, we may collect information such as:

• golf experience and skill level;
• goals and areas the golfer wants to improve;
• coaching preferences;
• preferred locations or general geographic area;
• schedule or availability information;
• coaches viewed or contacted;
• lesson requests;
• lesson and booking history;
• payment and refund history where payment functionality is available;
• messages and interactions with coaches;
• recommendations or reviews; and
• other information the golfer chooses to provide.

This list is illustrative and may change as BirdieYard adds or improves features.

C. Information about junior golfers

A parent or legal guardian may provide limited information about a minor for the purpose of arranging appropriate coaching.

This may include:

• the child's first name;
• age or age range;
• golf experience;
• coaching goals; and
• other limited information reasonably necessary to help a coach understand the requested lesson.

A child's name and age are personal information even though the child does not have a BirdieYard account.

We do not intend to collect a junior golfer's personal email address, phone number, exact home address, school information, government-issued identification, advertising profile, or other information that is unnecessary to arrange coaching.

Parents and guardians should not submit more information about a child than is reasonably necessary.

We do not use junior information to build advertising profiles or intentionally disclose junior information to advertising platforms.

D. Coach account and professional profile information

For coaches, we may collect information such as:

• name and contact information;
• profile photographs and videos;
• biography and professional story;
• teaching philosophy;
• teaching specialties;
• lesson offerings and prices;
• availability;
• teaching locations;
• course and facility affiliations;
• coaching experience;
• playing background;
• professional credentials or certifications;
• GHIN or handicap-related information where relevant;
• websites and social-media links;
• recommendations;
• insurance or verification status where applicable; and
• other professional information the coach chooses to provide.

Certain coach information is displayed publicly as part of the coach's BirdieYard profile.

E. Information about students or contacts provided by coaches

BirdieYard may allow a coach to add or import information about an existing student, prospective student, or other coaching contact who does not yet have a BirdieYard account.

Information supplied by a coach may include information such as:

• name;
• email address;
• phone number;
• coaching relationship or status;
• lesson history or relevant relationship context; and
• other information reasonably necessary for the coach to manage that relationship through BirdieYard.

The coach is responsible for having the right to provide this information to BirdieYard and for using it in accordance with applicable law.

BirdieYard uses information about an imported contact to provide coach-requested relationship-management functionality, maintain records, support coaching workflows, and operate the Services.

BirdieYard does not treat an imported contact as having independently created a BirdieYard account, and we do not independently add imported contacts to BirdieYard marketing lists merely because a coach provided their information.

If BirdieYard offers a feature that allows a coach to send an invitation or communication to an imported contact through BirdieYard, the communication will be sent for the coach-related purpose disclosed through that feature. An imported contact who later creates a BirdieYard account or separately consents to BirdieYard marketing may then receive communications consistent with those choices.

F. Teaching-location information

BirdieYard may collect precise addresses or coordinates for teaching locations so that we can operate location-based search and match golfers with nearby coaches.

The information publicly displayed depends on the type of teaching location.

For public golf courses, ranges, simulator facilities, studios, or other public meeting locations, BirdieYard may display the public location.

For private or residential teaching settings, we do not publicly display the coach's precise private address or precise coordinates. Public-facing information is generally limited to an approximate location such as city and state.

More precise private-location information may be shared when reasonably necessary to arrange an appropriate lesson.

G. Messages, lesson requests, and coaching records

BirdieYard stores messages sent through the Services.

We may also store:

• lesson-request information;
• coach responses;
• scheduling proposals;
• booking information;
• follow-up history; and
• other records related to a coaching relationship.

These records help us provide the Services, maintain continuity, resolve disputes, investigate safety concerns, and support users.

A Smart Lesson Request is intended to remain private among BirdieYard, the golfer who submitted it, and the coach who received it.

We will not intentionally distribute a golfer's request to another coach without authorization from the golfer. This does not prevent BirdieYard from offering the golfer the option to share a request with one or more alternative coaches.

H. Coach notes

BirdieYard's coach tools may allow coaches to maintain notes concerning prospective or current students.

Coach notes are not publicly displayed and are not routinely shown to the golfer through the product unless the coach intentionally shares them.

BirdieYard personnel may access these records when reasonably necessary for support, security, safety, legal compliance, or operation of the Services.

Information contained in coach notes may also be subject to applicable legal privacy rights.

I. Payment information

BirdieYard uses third-party payment processors such as Stripe.

Stripe Connect may collect coach identity, tax, banking, payout, or related financial information directly through Stripe-hosted experiences.

BirdieYard does not intend to store full credit-card numbers, bank-account credentials, Social Security numbers, or government identification documents collected by Stripe.

When lesson payment functionality is available, Stripe may provide BirdieYard with limited information such as:

• transaction identifiers;
• transaction amounts;
• payment status;
• refund or dispute status;
• connected-account status;
• payout status; and
• limited payment-method information such as card brand or last four digits.

Stripe processes information under its own terms and privacy practices.

J. Background-check information

BirdieYard may offer or require background-check verification for certain coaches or categories of coaching, including potentially coaching minors or coaching in private settings.

When such functionality is available, a third-party background-check provider, such as Checkr, may collect sensitive identity and background information directly.

BirdieYard intends to receive only information reasonably necessary to administer the verification program, such as verification status or legally appropriate results, rather than storing raw Social Security numbers or identity documents.

A background-check or verification designation reflects only the specific check performed. It is not a guarantee of safety, character, coaching quality, or future conduct.

K. Information from connected accounts and login providers

BirdieYard may allow login or account connections through third-party services.

Depending on the connection and permissions you grant, we may receive information such as:

• name;
• email address;
• account identifier;
• profile information; or
• authentication credentials or tokens necessary to operate the connection.

We do not control the privacy practices of those third-party platforms.

L. Support communications

If you contact BirdieYard for support, we collect the information contained in the request, including your contact information, the content of your message, and any files or screenshots you choose to provide.

M. Device, usage, analytics, and error information

When permitted by your privacy choices, we may automatically collect information about use of the Services, such as:

• IP address;
• browser and device type;
• operating system;
• pages or screens viewed;
• referring pages;
• interactions with features;
• clicks and navigation;
• product events;
• approximate location derived from technical information;
• errors and exceptions; and
• timestamps and session information.

We currently use PostHog for product analytics, measurement, and error monitoring.

When a signed-in user has consented to analytics, analytics may be associated with the account holder's account identifier and limited account information.

We maintain rules intended to prevent private messages, private coach notes, junior details, precise private addresses, and similar sensitive content from being intentionally included in analytics event properties.

N. Session replay

We may use session-replay technology on selected portions of the Services to understand usability and diagnose problems.

When session replay is used, we configure masking and exclusions designed to avoid capturing passwords, payment credentials, private messages, junior information, private notes, and other sensitive content.

Session replay is enabled only when the user has consented to Analytics technologies where our consent system applies.

3. How We Collect Information

We may collect information:

• directly from you;
• from a parent or guardian acting for a junior golfer;
• from a coach who adds or imports an existing student or contact;
• from a coach or golfer interacting with you through BirdieYard;
• from connected services you authorize;
• from payment, verification, or authentication providers;
• automatically through cookies, analytics technologies, and device information;
• from public professional sources used to validate a coach's credentials or course affiliation; and
• from other lawful sources necessary to operate and protect BirdieYard.

4. How We Use Information

We may use personal information to:

Provide BirdieYard

This includes:

• creating and maintaining accounts;
• publishing coach profiles;
• providing coach discovery and search;
• matching golfers with nearby coaches;
• processing Smart Lesson Requests;
• supporting coach-golfer communication;
• maintaining student and coaching records;
• supporting scheduling and follow-up;
• providing coach business and relationship-management tools;
• supporting transactions and payouts where available; and
• responding to support requests.

Verify information and protect trust

We may use information to:

• review coach profiles;
• validate credentials or course affiliations;
• administer background-check or other verification programs;
• detect fraud or misrepresentation;
• investigate safety issues;
• enforce our Terms;
• protect minors;
• prevent review manipulation; and
• suspend or remove inappropriate accounts or content.

Improve and measure the Services

With appropriate consent where required, we may use analytics information to:

• understand product usage;
• measure funnels and conversions;
• identify points of confusion;
• improve features;
• troubleshoot errors;
• evaluate marketing;
• develop new products; and
• understand how people find BirdieYard.

Communicate with you

We may send:

• account notices;
• authentication messages;
• lesson-request notifications;
• scheduling or booking notices;
• payment or refund notices;
• security alerts;
• legal notices;
• customer-support responses;
• product updates; and
• promotional or lifecycle marketing.

You may unsubscribe from promotional emails at any time.

Unsubscribing from marketing does not prevent us from sending necessary transactional, account, security, payment, lesson, or legal communications.

Advertising and measurement

If you consent to Advertising technologies, we may use services such as Google Ads and Meta advertising technologies to:

• measure advertisements;
• attribute visits or conversions;
• create or measure audiences;
• improve campaign performance; and
• show or measure advertising.

We do not intentionally send private coaching messages, private coach notes, junior information, Smart Lesson Request free text, or payment credentials to advertising platforms.

Comply with law and protect rights

We may use information when reasonably necessary to:

• comply with legal obligations;
• respond to lawful requests;
• establish or defend legal claims;
• investigate fraud or misuse;
• protect BirdieYard, our users, or others; and
• enforce agreements and policies.

5. Artificial Intelligence

BirdieYard uses artificial-intelligence technologies in selected features.

Current AI providers may include Google Gemini, Anthropic, and OpenAI. We may change models or providers based on performance, cost, reliability, or the needs of a particular feature.

BirdieYard currently uses external AI primarily to assist coaches with public-facing profile content. Information provided to AI services is limited to information reasonably necessary for the relevant feature, such as coaching background, specialties, teaching philosophy, and other intended public-profile context.

We do not intentionally send golfer or student records, junior information, private messages, Smart Lesson Request content, exact private locations, or payment credentials to AI model providers.

AI-generated content is not automatically treated as verified fact. Coaches remain responsible for reviewing and approving information published on their profiles.

If BirdieYard materially changes how private golfer or student information is used with AI systems, we will update this Privacy Policy or provide additional notice or consent where appropriate.

6. How We Disclose Information

We may disclose personal information in the following circumstances.

A. Between golfers and coaches

We disclose information as necessary to enable a requested coaching relationship.

For example, a coach receiving a lesson request may receive information about the golfer's goals, experience, schedule, and contact information needed to respond.

A golfer viewing a coach may see information that the coach has made public on their profile.

Coaches may use golfer contact information obtained through BirdieYard for the coaching relationship and reasonable related follow-up. They may not use that information for unrelated marketing, sell it, or add it to unrelated marketing lists without appropriate consent.

B. Parents and junior coaching

Information about a junior golfer may be shared with the coach selected by the parent or guardian when reasonably necessary to evaluate or provide the requested coaching.

We do not intentionally share junior information with advertising platforms.

C. Service providers

We use companies that help us operate BirdieYard.

Categories may include:

• cloud-hosting and infrastructure providers;
• database providers;
• content-management and file-storage providers;
• analytics and error-monitoring providers;
• email providers;
• payment processors;
• identity and authentication providers;
• background-check and verification providers;
• advertising and attribution providers;
• AI providers;
• security providers; and
• professional advisers.

Current or planned providers may include Render, Vercel, Sanity, Resend, PostHog, Stripe, Google, Meta, Google Gemini, Anthropic, OpenAI, and, when background-check functionality is available, providers such as Checkr.

Our providers may change over time without requiring us to update this policy for every vendor change, provided the material purposes and practices described here remain accurate.

D. Legal and safety disclosures

We may disclose information when we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary to:

• comply with law, regulation, court order, subpoena, or lawful government request;
• investigate fraud, abuse, harassment, or safety issues;
• protect a child or other person;
• enforce our agreements;
• protect BirdieYard's legal rights; or
• prevent harm.

E. Corporate transactions

If BirdieYard is involved in a financing, merger, acquisition, restructuring, asset sale, bankruptcy, or similar transaction, information may be disclosed or transferred as part of that transaction, subject to applicable law.

F. With your direction or consent

We may disclose information when you ask us to or authorize us to do so.

7. Sale and Sharing of Personal Information

BirdieYard does not sell personal information for money.

Certain advertising and measurement technologies may be considered a "sale," "sharing," "targeted advertising," or similar activity under some state privacy laws even though BirdieYard does not receive money in exchange for personal information.

You may opt out of Advertising technologies through our privacy or cookie settings and through Global Privacy Control as described below.

8. Cookies and Privacy Choices

BirdieYard uses a three-category consent model:

Necessary

Necessary technologies support essential functions such as authentication, security, account operation, consent storage, and core functionality.

These technologies cannot generally be disabled through our consent interface because the Services may not function without them.

Analytics

Analytics technologies help us measure product usage, diagnose problems, and improve BirdieYard.

Analytics technologies are not intended to initialize until Analytics consent has been provided where our consent system applies.

Advertising

Advertising technologies help us measure, attribute, and improve advertising.

Advertising technologies are not intended to initialize until Advertising consent has been provided through our consent system.

You may change your nonessential privacy choices through the privacy or cookie settings made available through the Services.

9. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

BirdieYard honors the Global Privacy Control ("GPC") signal.

When we receive a valid GPC signal, we treat it as an instruction to opt that browser or device out of personal-information sale or sharing and targeted advertising through nonessential advertising technologies to the extent those activities are occurring.

A valid GPC signal takes precedence over a prior BirdieYard advertising-consent choice for the browser or device sending the signal.

Traditional browser "Do Not Track" or "DNT" signals do not currently have a uniform industry or legal standard. Other than recognized opt-out preference signals such as GPC, we do not currently respond to DNT signals in a standardized manner.

Third-party advertising or analytics providers may collect information about your activity over time and across websites or online services when the applicable technologies are enabled.

10. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy.

Factors we consider include:

• how long an account remains active;
• whether information is needed to provide the Services;
• whether a coaching or payment relationship remains active;
• fraud and safety prevention;
• dispute resolution;
• tax and accounting requirements;
• legal obligations;
• enforcement of our agreements; and
• legitimate business recordkeeping.

Different categories of information may have different retention periods.

For example, transaction, tax, fraud, safety, or dispute records may need to be retained longer than ordinary account data.

Analytics and session-replay information may be subject to separate configured retention periods.

When information is no longer reasonably necessary, we may delete or de-identify it, subject to technical, legal, and backup limitations.

11. Account Deletion

You may request deletion of your BirdieYard account or personal information by contacting:

privacy@birdieyard.com

BirdieYard may also provide self-service deletion functionality through account settings.

Deleting a coach account may result in the coach's profile being unpublished.

Deletion does not require BirdieYard to erase information we reasonably need to retain for:

• completed transactions;
• financial or tax records;
• fraud prevention;
• safety investigations;
• legal claims;
• dispute resolution;
• enforcement history; or
• other legal obligations.

Information may also remain temporarily in backups until those backups are overwritten in the ordinary course.

12. Your Privacy Choices and Requests

Subject to applicable law and reasonable identity verification, you may ask BirdieYard to:

• provide information about personal information associated with you;
• provide a copy of certain personal information;
• correct inaccurate personal information;
• delete personal information;
• update account information;
• unsubscribe from marketing; or
• opt out of certain advertising-related processing.

BirdieYard intends to offer reasonable access, correction, deletion, and portability requests even where a particular state privacy statute does not technically require us to do so.

Requests may be sent to:

privacy@birdieyard.com

We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising privacy rights provided by applicable law.

13. California Privacy Disclosures

California law requires certain online services to describe the categories of personal information they collect, how that information is used, categories of third parties with whom it may be disclosed, and practices concerning online tracking.

Those disclosures are contained throughout this Privacy Policy.

Depending on BirdieYard's size, activities, and the applicable law at a particular time, additional California privacy rights may apply.

Where BirdieYard is legally required to honor a California right to know, access, correct, delete, opt out of sale or sharing, limit certain uses, or avoid discriminatory treatment, we will do so as required by law.

BirdieYard does not sell personal information for monetary consideration.

Information collected by advertising technologies may constitute "sharing" or similar targeted-advertising processing under applicable law when those technologies are enabled.

14. Security

BirdieYard uses reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information.

These measures may include access controls, authentication protections, encrypted network communications, vendor security controls, and other measures appropriate to the nature of the information we process.

No internet service, database, or security system is completely secure.

Accordingly, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or disclosure will never occur.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and promptly notifying us if you believe your account has been compromised.

15. Third-Party Services and Links

BirdieYard may link to websites, golf facilities, coach websites, social-media services, payment providers, or other third parties.

Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.

BirdieYard is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party services that we do not control.

16. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as BirdieYard evolves or as laws, products, vendors, or practices change.

We will update the "Last Updated" date when we make changes.

If changes are material, we may provide additional notice by email, through the Services, or by another appropriate method.

Where applicable law requires affirmative consent to a change, we will request it.

17. Contact Us

Questions, privacy requests, or concerns may be directed to:

BirdieYard, Inc.
2261 Market Street STE 14825
San Francisco, CA 94114
United States

Privacy: privacy@birdieyard.com
Support: support@birdieyard.com