PickleStack Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 5, 2026
PickleStack is a pickleball scorekeeping app for iPhone and Apple Watch. This page describes what data the app uses and where it goes. It is written to be read, not to cover anyone.
No account, and no PickleStack server
You never create an account or a password, and PickleStack has no server of its own. Everything it stores goes through Apple’s iCloud (CloudKit), using the Apple ID already signed in on your device.
Where your data lives, and who can see it
Private to you: your roster, your settings, and your own copies of your matches are stored in your personal iCloud account. Apple provides the storage; nobody else can read it.
Shared with other players: so that a game can show up for everyone who played in it, match records are also written to a public CloudKit database belonging to the PickleStack app. These records include the scores, the date, and the player names on each seat. They are readable by other PickleStack users, and by the developer, who queries this database while building and debugging the app.
That is the practical thing to know: a name you type onto a scoreboard is not private. Use whatever name you are happy for the people you play with to see.
Groups
Groups let a set of players see the matches played within them. Group membership and the matches attached to a group ride the same public records described above.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is used so other players’ Apple Watches can join the match your iPhone is hosting, and so scores stay in sync on the court. It runs directly between devices in range, needs no internet connection or account, and nothing about it is reported anywhere.
Apple Health
When a match starts, the Apple Watch app runs a pickleball workout. It saves that workout to Apple Health, and while the workout is running it reads your heart rate, active energy and resting heart rate so the watch can show them and can tell when play has stopped. These values stay on your device and in Apple Health. They are never uploaded, never attached to a match record, and never used for advertising or analytics.
Motion & Fitness
Step counts are read on the watch to detect when play has paused. This happens entirely on-device and is never transmitted.
Camera
The camera is used only when you choose to scan another player’s QR code to add them to your roster. No photo or video is recorded or stored.
Contacts
If you add someone from your Contacts, the app uses Apple’s built-in contact picker and you choose one contact at a time. PickleStack never reads or uploads your address book.
Diagnostics
TestFlight builds keep a diagnostic log on the device to help debug problems. It stays on your phone unless you explicitly export and send it, and it is switched off in App Store builds.
Third-party services
PickleStack contains no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking SDKs of any kind. It uses no advertising identifier and does not use Location Services at all. Your data is never sold, and there are no third parties to share it with.
Deleting your data
Deleting the app removes its data from your device. To remove what is held in your own iCloud, use Settings › [your name] › iCloud on your iPhone. To have shared match records removed, email the address below and say which ones.
Children’s privacy
PickleStack is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13.
Changes to this policy
If these practices change, this page changes with them, and the date at the top changes too.