Privacy Policy

Effective August 29, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how BudgetTrip AI (“BudgetTrip AI”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, and shares personal information when you use our website at budgettripai.app and our mobile app (together, the “Service”). This policy is provided in English.

Who we are

BudgetTrip AI is a travel-planning service that builds and tracks trip itineraries. We are the controller of the personal information described below. You can reach us at support@budgettripai.app.

Information we collect

Information you provide

  • Account details — your name and email address, and (if you register with a password) a securely hashed password. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name and email address from that provider.
  • Travel preferences and content — trip inputs (destinations, dates, budget, interests, food preferences), the itineraries and saved places you create, and settings such as default currency, theme, and email-notification choice.
  • Support messages — anything you send us by email.
  • Contributions — if you make an optional support contribution on our website, our payment processor (Stripe) handles your card details; we receive only the amount, date, and payment reference. Card numbers never reach our servers. Contributions are not available inside the mobile app.

Information collected automatically

  • Location— while you use the live trip-tracking screen, and only with your device’s permission, we collect your GPS coordinates and the time of the fix. We use this to show your progress, estimate arrival times, and update your lock-screen Live Activity. The most recent fix is stored on our servers so tracking continues while the app is in the background; we do not sell location data or use it for advertising. You can turn location off at any time in your device settings.
  • Usage and device data — IP address, browser and device type, operating system, referring pages, and interactions with the Service, collected through server logs and cookies.
  • Cookies — we use a small number of strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to remember your locale and theme. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

How we use your information

  • To create, save, and display your trip itineraries and provide live trip tracking.
  • To authenticate you and keep your account secure.
  • To generate itinerary suggestions and answer trip questions using AI providers (see below).
  • To show maps, places, routes, and travel times.
  • To send you a trip-reminder email before a trip begins, if you have that setting enabled.
  • To process and record optional support contributions.
  • To monitor, debug, secure, and improve the Service.
  • To comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms.

Where the GDPR or similar laws apply, we rely on the following legal bases: performance of our contract with you (providing the Service), your consent (device location, optional emails), and our legitimate interests (security, debugging, and improving the Service).

How we share your information

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers that process it on our behalf:

  • Hosting and infrastructure — Vercel (website and API hosting), Neon (database), and Render (background jobs), all processing data in the United States.
  • Authentication — Google and Apple, when you choose to sign in with them.
  • Maps, places, and routing — Google Maps, LocationIQ, and our own self-hosted routing server, to display maps and calculate directions and travel times.
  • AI providers — OpenAI and Anthropic, which receive your trip inputs (not your name, email, or precise location) to generate itinerary suggestions and answer trip questions.
  • Flight information — publicly available flight search results are retrieved from Google Flights.
  • Images — place and destination photos are retrieved from third-party image providers such as Pexels.
  • Email — Resend, to deliver trip-reminder and account emails.
  • Payments — Stripe, to process optional contributions made on the website.
  • Push notifications — Apple Push Notification service, to update the iOS Live Activity.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

International transfers

We are based in, and process data in, the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to and processed there, where data-protection laws may differ from those in your country.

Data retention

We keep your account information and trip content for as long as your account is active. Live location fixes are short-lived and overwritten as new fixes arrive. Server logs are retained for a limited period for security and debugging. When you delete your account, we delete your account information, trips, saved places, preferences, and related records, and we revoke the sign-in tokens issued by Google or Apple. Some records may be retained where required by law (for example, contribution records for tax and accounting).

Your rights and choices

  • Access and correction — you can view and edit your profile, preferences, and trips in the app, or contact us for a copy of your information.
  • Deletion— you can permanently delete your account and its data at any time from Settings → Delete account, or by contacting us.
  • Location — you can grant or revoke location access in your device settings.
  • Email — you can turn off trip-reminder emails in Settings.
  • Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights (such as data portability or the right to object). Contact us to exercise them; we will not discriminate against you for doing so.

Security

We protect your information with encryption in transit (HTTPS), hashed passwords, access controls, and reputable infrastructure providers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the effective date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app or by email. Continued use of the Service after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information? Email us at support@budgettripai.app.