Privacy Policy

👋 Introduction

Budget Utopia ("we," "us," or "our") operates the Budget Utopia mobile application and website. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your personal information when you use our services.

By using Budget Utopia, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use our services.

📋 Information We Collect

Information you provide directly:

• Account information: your name and email address (provided via Replit Auth)
• Financial data you enter: budget categories, transaction amounts, savings goals, debt balances, subscription details, and net worth items
• Profile preferences: currency selection, notification settings, and display preferences
• Referral information: referral codes you share or redeem

Information collected automatically:

• Usage data: which features you use, how often you open the app, and interaction patterns (used solely to improve the app)
• Device information: device type, operating system version, and app version for debugging and compatibility purposes
• Push notification tokens: if you enable push notifications

🎯 How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, operate, and improve the Budget Utopia app and its features
• Personalize your experience (your financial dashboard, badge progress, leaderboard ranking)
• Send push notifications you've opted into (streak reminders, bill reminders, goal milestones)
• Process premium subscription payments via RevenueCat (we do not store payment card details)
• Respond to your support requests and feedback
• Maintain security and prevent fraud or abuse
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not use your financial data to train AI models, build advertising profiles, or make automated decisions about your creditworthiness. When you use the optional AI Coach feature, a limited subset of your data is sent to a third-party language-model provider so it can answer your question — see the "AI Coach" section below for full details.

🤖 AI Coach (Generative AI Feature)

Budget Utopia includes an optional AI Coach feature that lets you ask questions about your finances in plain language. To answer your question, we use a third-party large language model service provided by Anthropic, PBC (the makers of Claude).

What we send to Anthropic when you use the AI Coach:

• The text of the question you typed
• A summary of your relevant transactions, including: description, amount, category, and date
• Your active savings goals and budget targets, when they are relevant to your question
• A non-identifying session ID so the conversation has context within a single chat

What we do not send to Anthropic:

• Your name, email address, phone number, or any other directly identifying contact information
• Your account password, authentication tokens, or any banking login credentials
• Your payment method details (card numbers, billing addresses)
• Your precise location, device identifiers used for advertising, or contacts
• Any photos, receipts, or attachments you may have stored in the app

How Anthropic uses this data: Anthropic processes the data only to generate the response shown to you. Per Anthropic's commercial API terms, your inputs and outputs are not used to train Anthropic's models. Anthropic retains data for a short period for abuse-monitoring purposes only, after which it is deleted. You can review Anthropic's privacy practices at anthropic.com/legal/privacy.

Your choices:

• The AI Coach is optional. You can use Budget Utopia without ever opening the AI Coach screen.
• You can report any AI Coach response you believe is inaccurate, offensive, or unsafe by tapping the "Report" link beneath the response, or by emailing [email protected]. Reports help us improve the feature and, where appropriate, are forwarded to Anthropic.
• You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from Settings → Profile → Delete Account, or by emailing [email protected]. Deleting your account also removes the conversation history stored on our servers.
• You can request a copy of the data we hold about you, including AI Coach conversation history, by emailing [email protected].

Important — the AI Coach is not professional financial advice. It is an informational tool that uses your spending data to suggest possibilities and explain patterns. It is not a substitute for advice from a licensed financial advisor, accountant, or attorney. Decisions about borrowing, investing, taxes, or major purchases should be made with appropriately qualified professionals.

🤝 Information Sharing

We never sell your personal data. Period.

We share data only in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: We use trusted third parties to operate our services (database hosting, authentication via Replit Auth, payment processing via RevenueCat, and — only when you use the AI Coach — Anthropic, PBC for language-model responses). These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data. See the AI Coach section above for the specifics of what is shared with Anthropic.
• Leaderboard: If you participate in the anonymous savings leaderboard, your display name and savings score are shared publicly. No personally identifiable information (email, real name) is ever visible to other users.
• Legal compliance: We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.
• Business transfers: In the event of a merger or acquisition, your data may be transferred. We will notify you before any such transfer takes effect.

🔒 Data Security

• All data is encrypted in transit using TLS/HTTPS
• Your financial data is stored in a secured PostgreSQL database with access controls
• Authentication is handled by Replit Auth — we never store your password
• Premium subscription billing is processed by RevenueCat and Apple/Google — we never see or store your payment card details
• We perform regular security reviews and apply patches promptly

While we take strong measures to protect your data, no system is 100% immune to breaches. In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you within 72 hours.

🌍 Data Retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account:

• Your personal data, financial records, and AI Coach conversation history are permanently deleted within 30 days
• Anonymized, aggregated data (e.g., anonymous leaderboard contributions) may be retained
• Backup copies are purged within 90 days

⚡ Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of all personal data we hold about you
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal data
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and all associated personal data
• Portability: Request an export of your financial data in a machine-readable format
• Opt-out: Disable push notifications at any time in your Profile settings or device settings
• Restriction: Object to or restrict certain types of data processing

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected].

👶 Children's Privacy

Budget Utopia is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately and we will delete it.

🔔 Push Notifications

If you grant permission for push notifications, we may send you:

• Streak reminders (daily activity nudges)
• Bill renewal reminders for subscriptions you've set up
• Goal milestone celebrations
• Weekly budget summaries

You can disable any category of notification in the Profile → Notifications section, or disable all notifications in your device's system settings. Notification tokens are stored securely and are never shared.

🔄 Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes by:

• Posting the new policy on this page with an updated effective date
• Sending a push notification or in-app notice for significant changes

Continued use of Budget Utopia after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

📬 Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please reach out:

• Email: [email protected]
• Response time: We aim to respond to all privacy requests within 5 business days