Privacy and Data Protection Policy

World Golf Competition (WGC) recognises the importance that our members, visitors to our websites, users of our mobile applications, and all other people who engage with us or who are involved with us in any capacity (for example staff, officials, club administrators, golfers, sponsors, volunteers, spectators, etc.), place on the privacy of their information. This Privacy Policy has been developed to demonstrate our firm commitment to protecting the privacy of your information as described below and to explain the privacy policies and procedures of WGC.

This Privacy Policy describes how WGC collects, uses, and shares information gathered from visitors to the WGC Web Site and mobile applications (apps) where this Privacy Policy appears (the Web Site and the Apps are collectively referred to herein as “services”), and data collected offline from people who engage with us or who are involved with us in any capacity. 

POLICY CHANGES

We suggest you review this Privacy Policy periodically, as we may modify it from time to time as our services evolve. We will notify you of material changes or updates to our Privacy Policy as required by law.

WHAT INFORMATION DOES WGC COLLECT?

WGC collects two types of information from users of the our services, and from people who otherwise engage with us or who are involved with us in any capacity: (1) non-personal information, for example, which is collected automatically as you interact with our services that cannot, of itself, be used to specifically identify or contact an individual (except as described below) (“Non-Personal Information”); and (2) information that can be used to specifically identify or contact an individual (“Personal Information”).

Non-Personal Information

If you are using one of our services, or if you otherwise engage with us or are involved with us in any capacity, we may gather certain Non-Personal Information about you. For example, when you use our services, we automatically recognise and collect:

·   your Internet service provider and domain name;

·   usage and “clickstream” data, which includes the type of device and browsing software you are using and their settings (including language settings), your browser ID, general geographic information derived from your IP address, URL information, the address of the web site from which you linked to a service, the pages, content or ads you see or click on during your visit and when and for how long you do so, items you download, any search terms you have entered on our services or a referral site, and the time stamps of your visits to our services;

·   App data, including counts of the screens and features of the App that are used, the countries from which the App is used, time stamps of uses, device language settings, and the types of devices, operating systems, carriers, IP addresses and wireless connections our users are using to access the App;

·   unique numerical identifiers, including mobile device identification numbers;

·   information about your interactions with our email messages;

·   geolocation information, including precise information about the location of your mobile device, to the extent that such information is provided by your device.

Personal Information

When you use any of our services, or if you otherwise engage with us or are involved with us in any capacity, you may be asked to provide or choose to provide Personal Information, or we may otherwise collect Personal Information, which may include:

·       your Internet Protocol (IP) Address;

·       contact information, such as your name, physical address (including post code), e-mail address, telephone and/or fax number, your national golf/handicap identification number.

·       password or other login credentials (selected by you) to create and access your accounts on our services;

·       credit card information (for example, if you make a purchase through our services);

·       health or physical information (for example, if you submit a request through our services to use motorised transportation at a WGC event, or if we are managing travel for you as a part of the competition, or if a ruling is required under our Gender Policy, etc.);

·       golf background, such as whether you are an amateur or a professional, the name and address of your golf club, and your nationally recognised Handicap;

·       information you submit when you contact us or post on our services; and

·       demographic information, such as your age and gender.

The above are only examples of the types of Personal Information we may collect. The actual types of Personal Information collected depend on the specific product or service you request, the types of transactions you conduct on our services, the various activities in which you participate, or the capacity in which you engage with us or are involved with us.

HOW DOES WGC COLLECT MY INFORMATION?

WGC uses passive tracking tools to automatically collect information, such as browser cookies, Web beacons, pixels or similar technologies. We collect information about users over time when you use our services or view our emails. We may also have third parties collect information this way, such as ad networks, web analytics companies, and social networking platforms. You can control cookies and tracking tools. If you turn off cookies, certain features and functions of our services may not be available to you.

We may collect information from you when you purchase goods and services, or create an account with WGC, or have an account with WGC created on your behalf where the creation of such an account is known by you or is fundamental to the services we provide (for example, an account in our Global Ranking System), or contact us through our services, or submit an entry application to play in an event, or submit other forms or information through our services, or if you otherwise engage with us or are involved with us.

We may also receive information about you from third parties. For example, our business partners, service providers, and social media platforms may provide us with information about you.

We combine information. Information obtained through our services (including both Personal Information and Non-Personal Information) may be combined and used in conjunction with information obtained through sources other than our services or at different times, including both offline and online sources and from third parties.

HOW DOES WGC USE MY INFORMATION?

WGC uses your information to:

·       understand your needs and interests and to personalise your experience on our services;

·       provide you with better products and services and to improve our services;

·       deliver products, services, information, or to meet our operational obligations (for example, we may use your information for processing and evaluating your entry application, to appropriately serve you, to appropriately administer and manage your engagement with golf or with any golf industry stakeholder, for processing your membership application, for processing transactions on certain of our services, for processing your registration on certain of our services, and for contacting you with regard to your membership, registration, transactions and other activities or accounts on our services);

·       manage events;

·       communicate with you or update you about your account, our relationship, or with regard to this Privacy Policy or the WGC Terms of Use;

·       send you newsletters and marketing information, such as updates and notices about WGC (or select third parties) products, services, and benefits we think you would be interested in;

·       serve you tailored ads on our services and elsewhere based on your interests and history with us. To learn about your choices with regard to interest-based advertising and marketing communications, please see the Choices section below;

·       contact you for market research;

·       send push notifications and other information through our Apps; and

·       for security purposes (for example, we may use your information to protect WGC, our users, employees, sponsors and business partners, and players) and to protect our services.

We may use the information we collect as otherwise permitted by law or as we may notify you from time to time.

SHARING WITH THIRD PARTIES

WGC may share your information with third parties in certain circumstances. For example, we will share your information:

·       with service providers, technical consultants, and vendors who assist us, where such sharing is reasonably necessary to provide you with a requested service or to operate and maintain our services (such as Web site or database hosting companies, address list hosting companies, e-mail service providers, analytics companies, advertising companies, distribution companies, fulfillment companies, payment processing companies and other similar vendors and services providers);

·       if we have to in order to comply with legal requirements, such as in response to court orders or subpoenas, or as part of a government or administrative agency investigation;

·       with our affiliates;

·       with third-party auditors;

·       to permit us to investigate suspected fraud, harassment, or other violations of any law, rule, or regulation, the rules or policies of our Services, or the rights of third parties, or to investigate any suspected conduct which WGC deems improper;

·       when we have reason to believe that someone is causing injury to or interference with our rights or property, other users of our services, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities;

·       to an acquirer or successor entity in the event we, or a substantial portion of our assets, undergo a business restructuring, transfer of ownership, or similar transaction; and

·       as otherwise permitted by this Privacy Policy or as expressly permitted by you from time to time.

Except as provided above, WGC does not share your Personal Information with any third party without your opt-in permission. However, we may share Non-Personal Information with third parties for their marketing and other purposes, with or without your consent.

We may also disclose Non-Personal Information regarding our users and user behaviour as a measure of interest in, and use of, our Services to third parties, including, for example, aggregate data, such as overall patterns or demographic reports that do not describe or identify any individual user.

THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISERS

Please note that at times, some of the advertisers on our services and their and our ad service providers (including affiliate network providers and third-party ad servers) may set cookies or use related technologies or web beacons when you view and/or click their advertising banners, links or other ads. Information from cookies, tracking pixels, clear GIFs and other tracking technologies placed through third-party ads and links may be collected directly by those advertisers and ad service providers and used to cause relevant ads to be displayed to you.

For example, these companies may collect and use information about you and your visits to the Services and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. These advertisements may appear on our services and on other Web sites. The advertiser’s privacy policy and/or that of its service provider will govern the use of this information, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such companies. We encourage you to read these businesses’ privacy policies to learn about how they treat your information.

HOW DOES WGC TRY TO PROTECT MY INFORMATION?

The security of your information is important to us. However, while we strive to protect your information, due to the inherent open nature of the Internet we cannot guarantee that communications between you and any Services, or information stored on any Web Site or servers, will be free from unauthorised access by third parties such as hackers. Your use of our services demonstrates your assumption of this risk.

You should be aware that any information and content, including Personal Information you post to message boards, community tools, or other publicly accessible forums, may be viewed and used by anyone with access to such forums. By using these services, you assume the risk that the Personal Information provided by you may be viewed and used by third parties.

COMMUNITY TOOLS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

If you desire to have access to certain restricted sections of our services, you will be required to become a registered user and submit certain Personal Information requested during the registration process and described above. Once registered, you may provide additional information on your profile to better identify yourself and find new friends and opportunities on our services that may be available. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration is entirely optional and provided at your own risk.

Depending on your profile settings (if applicable), WGC may display your profile to other registered users to enable you to connect with them on WGC’s network, if such a feature is available. You may be able to access and control the information included in your profile and decide whether you want your profile made visible to other registered users and perhaps the general public. Our default privacy setting with respect to your profile may be set to make your profile “publicly” available, unless and until you choose otherwise, which you can do by opting out in the account preferences area of your Web Site account (if applicable), or by contacting us using the information set forth in the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy below.

To deactivate your user account, you may email info@worldgolfcompetition.com. or follow the procedures in the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy. We will remove your profile but may retain any record of your information that is necessary to comply with applicable international, federal, state, or local law.

By registering for a user account, you acknowledge and consent that, even after removal of your profile and Personal Information from our Web Site, your information may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of individuals who have copied or stored such information or content.

For the avoidance of doubt, “profile” in the context of this Privacy Policy does not include any handicap record. It is an integral feature of the official handicap system globally that all handicap records are publicly available to anyone who wants to view them on our services. This is a key part of the design of the world handicap system and it provides a further layer of protection against handicap manipulation.

YOUR CHOICES

You can control cookies and tracking tools. If you turn off cookies, certain features and functions of our services may not be available to you.

You can opt out of receiving promotional emails from WGC. To do so, email us at info@worldgolfcompetition.com, or follow the instructions in any promotional message you get from us. Please understand that if you opt out of receiving promotional correspondence from us, we may still contact you in connection with your relationship, activities, transactions and communications with us.

If you wish to stop receiving push notifications through the App, you may change the settings for the App and/or your device.

The precise geographic location of your device may be transmitted to our servers in real time any time that the App is running (even if you are not actively using the App or it is minimised on your device). You may stop allowing us to have access to your device’s location information by accessing the App’s location settings on your device and setting your device not to share its location with us.

Please note that WGC is not responsible for removing your information from third-party lists or databases.

LINKS TO OTHER WEB SITES

Any of the Services may contain links, banners, or advertisements to other web sites. When you click on such links, banners, or advertisements, the privacy policies of the web sites to which you are linked and/or their service provider (as applicable) will govern the use of your information collected on such sites. WGC does not have access to or control over any technologies or practices that may be used by third parties.

This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by WGC via our services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage our users to read the privacy statements of each web site visited after leaving the Services through such a link, banner or advertisement, in order to learn how such third parties may treat your information.

CHILDREN

If You are under the age of 18, You acknowledge and understand that You will not provide any personal information through the WGC Services without the express permission of Your parent or legal guardian (when this parent or legal guardian is legally permitted to authorise such data provision). If WGC learns we have collected Personal Information from a person under the age of 18 without such permission, we will delete this information.

WHERE IS THE INFORMATION STORED?

Our services are intended for users across international borders. By using our services, you agree and acknowledge that our services are hosted in Australia and that information collected through our services (including Personal Information) will be stored and processed in Australia. By using our services, you consent to such transfer and the application of the laws of Australia, which may not be as protective or comprehensive as those that exist in your home jurisdiction. Your information may also be transferred to entities other than WGC and its affiliates. These entities may be located in countries outside of your own. Each of these countries may have different privacy laws that afford varying levels of protection for your information, and such laws may not be as protective or comprehensive as those that exist in your home jurisdiction.

CHANGE INFORMATION

To the extent available, you can access, view and change your preferences, profile, and other information by visiting www.worldgolfcompetition.com . You may also inform us of changes by following the procedures described in the Contact Us section of this Privacy Policy, and WGC will take reasonable steps to correct any information about you that is incorrect.

CONTACT US

WGC welcomes your questions and comments about privacy. Please feel free to contact us by sending an email to info@worldgolfcompetition.com.