Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 26, 2023

Welcome to budge.top. We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website budge.top and use our personal budgeting and financial management services.

Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this privacy policy, please do not access the site or use our services. By using our website and services, you consent to the data practices described in this policy.

1. Information We Collect

We collect several types of information from and about users of our website, including information:

1.1 Personal Information You Disclose to Us

When you register for an account, use our services, or contact us, you may voluntarily provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you. This may include:

• Account Data: Name, email address, username, password, and other registration details.
• Financial Data: Transaction details, income, expenses, savings goals, and budget categories you input into the service. We do not store your bank login credentials. If you link external accounts via a secure third-party service (e.g., Plaid), the collection and use of that data is governed by that service's privacy policy.
• Communication Data: Any correspondence you send to us, including emails and support tickets.
• Profile Data: Your preferences, feedback, and survey responses.

1.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit, use, and navigate the site, we may automatically collect certain information. This information does not reveal your specific identity but may include device and usage information, such as:

• Log and Usage Data: Service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our website. This includes your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, device information, pages visited, clicks, and the dates/times of your visits.
• Device Data: Information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access our services.
• Location Data: General location information (e.g., country or city) derived from your IP address.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various business purposes, including to:

• Provide and Maintain Our Service: Create and manage your account, authenticate you, and provide the core budgeting and financial tracking features.
• Improve and Personalize Your Experience: Analyze usage trends to optimize our website and services, and to tailor insights and recommendations to your financial behavior.
• Communicate with You: Send you service-related emails (e.g., account verification, changes/updates to features, technical and security notices). With your consent, we may also send promotional communications.
• Ensure Security and Prevent Fraud: Monitor and protect the security of our service, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, and fight spam.
• Comply with Legal Obligations: Fulfill our legal and regulatory requirements, respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

We will not sell, rent, or lease your personal financial information to third parties for their marketing purposes.

3. Data Protection and Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. Our measures include:

• Encryption: We use encryption (SSL/TLS) to protect data transmitted between your browser and our servers. Sensitive data at rest is also encrypted.
• Access Controls: Strict internal access controls limit access to personal information to authorized personnel only, on a need-to-know basis.
• Regular Security Assessments: We regularly review our information collection, storage, and processing practices to guard against unauthorized access.
• Data Minimization: We only collect and retain the minimum amount of personal data necessary for the purposes outlined in this policy.

However, please also remember that we cannot guarantee that the internet itself is 100% secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our site is at your own risk. You should only access our services within a secure environment.

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies to access or store information. Cookies are small data files placed on your device. We use both session cookies (which expire when you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your device until deleted) to:

• Keep you signed in and maintain your session.
• Remember your preferences and settings.
• Understand how you use our site to improve our services.
• Gather analytics data.

You can control cookie settings through your browser. If you choose to disable cookies, some parts of our service may not function properly.

We may also use third-party analytics services (like Google Analytics) that use cookies to collect information about your use of the site. This data is generally aggregated and anonymized.

5. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. These may include the right to:

• Access and Portability: Request access to and a copy of your personal data.
• Rectification: Request correction of any inaccurate or incomplete data we hold about you.
• Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): Request deletion of your personal data, subject to certain legal exceptions.
• Restrict Processing: Request restriction of processing of your personal data.
• Object to Processing: Object to our processing of your personal data.
• Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent to process your data.
• Data Export: Request an export of your data in a structured, machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in the "Contact Us" section below. We will respond to your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

6. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, or as required to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. If you close your account, we will initiate deletion of your personal data from our active systems within a