Grounds — Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 14, 2026 (profile photos added)

Grounds shows how busy public tennis and pickleball courts are by counting, anonymously, how many people using the app are at each court. You can use it without an account. Signing in with your phone number is optional and adds a player profile, friends and your playing history.

What we collect

Everyone (no account needed)

• Location near courts. When you turn on location sharing, the app checks your location in the background. Your location is only sent to our servers when you are at or within about 150 metres of a court we track, plus one reading just after you leave (so you stop being counted). Locations elsewhere stay on your phone and are never uploaded.
• What you tell us at a court: the sport (tennis or pickleball), whether you're playing singles or doubles, and court reports ("3 of 4 courts in use"), if you choose to send them.
• Favourite courts you mark with a heart.
• An anonymous ID. The app creates a random account ID on first launch.

If you sign in

• Your phone number, to text you a sign-in code. It is never shown to other players. If "Find me by phone number" is on (you can turn it off), someone who types your full number can find your profile, but still never sees the number.
• Your profile: the name, sports, self-rated levels, singles/doubles preference and handedness you enter, a 4-digit tag we assign (e.g. Maya#2048), and a profile photo if you add one (resized on your phone before upload; the app only reads the one photo you pick).
• Friends: who you've sent, received or accepted friend requests with.
• Playing history: a summary of each visit to a court — which court, the sport, when you arrived and how long you stayed. We store these summaries, not the location readings they come from.

Who can see what

• Everyone sees only totals per court (how many people, how many courts are free) — never individual locations or IDs.
• Signed-in players can see your profile (name, photo, tag, sports, levels). While you're at a court, they can also see you under "Players here" for that court. Turn off "Show me at courts" in your profile to stay hidden.
• Your friends can also see your playing history, including friends you were at the same court with at the same time.
• Your phone number is never shown to anyone.

How long we keep it

• Location readings, singles/doubles answers and court reports are deleted after 24 hours.
• Popular times keeps per-court totals (e.g. "6 people at 6 p.m.") for up to 8 weeks. These contain no personal information.
• Your profile, friends, favourites and playing history are kept until you delete your account.

Sharing

We don't sell your data or share it with advertisers. Data is stored with our database provider (Supabase), which, like most online services, keeps standard server logs (such as IP addresses) for security for a limited time. Sign-in codes are sent by text message through Twilio, which receives your phone number only to deliver the code. Maps are provided by Apple Maps (iOS) and Google Maps (Android), which receive your location only to show the map, under their own privacy policies.

Your choices

• Turn off location sharing at any time in your phone's Settings. While sharing is off you aren't counted, and live counts are hidden in the app.
• Turn off a sport in the app to stop being counted for it.
• In your profile: turn off "Show me at courts" or "Find me by phone number", remove friends, or edit or clear any profile field.
• Delete your account in the app (profile → Delete account). This permanently deletes your phone number, profile and photo, friends, favourites, playing history and reports.
• Without an account, deleting the app removes your anonymous ID from your phone; anything already uploaded is deleted within 24 hours.

Contact

Questions: brennanhodev@gmail.com