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FreeBudget Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 1/1/2025
Last Updated: 9/16/2025

This Privacy Policy explains how Budget Social Inc (dba “FreeBudget”, “FreeBudget”, “we”, “our,” or “us”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects information when you use our website, app, and related services (collectively, the “Service”). By using the Service, you agree to this Policy.

We currently offer the Service to users in the United States.

1) Information We Collect

  • Account & Contact Information. Email address, name, and credentials you provide. Optional profile details (e.g., address) if you choose to add them.

  • Financial Information. Data you connect through Plaid (e.g., accounts, transactions, balances) and any financial data you enter manually. We do not store your bank credentials.

  • Usage & Device Data. IP address, device/browser type, operating system, app version, pages viewed, referring URLs, timestamps, and similar analytics.

  • Cookies & Similar Technologies. Session cookies (authentication), functional cookies, and analytics cookies.

  • Support & Communications. Content of messages you send us (e.g., support requests, feedback), and related metadata.

2) Sources of Information

  • Directly from you (account setup, manual entries, communications).

  • Plaid, when you connect accounts to import financial data at your direction.

  • Your device and browser (through logs, cookies, and analytics).

  • Service providers assisting us with operations (e.g., analytics, communications, payments, error tracking).

3) How We Use Information

  • Provide, maintain, and improve the Service.

  • Authenticate users and secure accounts.

  • Display budgeting, reporting, and financial views you request.

  • Monitor performance, debug, and prevent fraud/abuse.

  • Communicate updates, respond to inquiries, and provide support.

  • Comply with legal, accounting, and security obligations.

  • Create aggregated/de-identified insights and benchmarks (we do not re-identify this data without your consent).

We do not use financial data to infer sensitive characteristics about you beyond what is necessary to provide the Service.

4) Plaid Integration (Financial Data Access)

We use Plaid Inc. to securely connect your financial accounts. When you choose to connect an account, you authorize FreeBudget and Plaid to access and transmit your financial data from your institution to us. Your use of Plaid is governed by Plaid’s terms and privacy policy. We do not store your banking passwords. If you disconnect an account, we will stop retrieving new data for that account.

5) Payments

Payments (if any) are handled by third-party processors (e.g., Stripe). We do not store full payment card numbers; we receive payment tokens/identifiers from the processor.

6) Cookies & Tracking Choices

We use:

  • Essential cookies for login/session management and basic functionality;

  • Analytics/error-tracking (e.g., Google Analytics, Sentry) to understand performance and fix issues.

You can manage cookies via browser settings. Your browser may send a Global Privacy Control (GPC) or “Do Not Track” signal. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising; if that changes, we will honor GPC as an opt-out where required and provide an in-product opt-out.

7) Sharing & Disclosures

We do not sell personal information. We share information only as follows:

  • Service Providers / Processors. Vendors that help operate the Service (e.g., Plaid, payments, analytics, email, error tracking, hosting). We require appropriate confidentiality and security commitments.

  • Legal & Safety. To comply with law, respond to lawful requests, or protect rights, safety, and security.

  • Business Transfers. In connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets.

  • With Your Direction/Consent. If you ask us to share data or enable a feature requiring sharing.

  • Aggregated/De-identified. We may share non-identifiable statistics and benchmarks.

We do not use or disclose financial data for targeted advertising.

8) Data Retention & Deletion

We retain personal information for as long as needed to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and maintain security. We consider factors such as account status, types of data, legal retention requirements, and operational needs.
When you delete your account (or request deletion), we disable access promptly and delete or de-identify personal information within a commercially reasonable period, except where retention is required by law (e.g., records for tax/accounting, security logs).

9) Security

We use industry-standard safeguards appropriate to the nature of data we process (e.g., TLS/HTTPS in transit, access controls, least-privilege, monitoring, rate limiting, and other application-level protections). No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

10) Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your state, you may have rights to:

  • Access/Know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we hold about you;

  • Correct inaccuracies;

  • Delete personal information;

  • Portability of certain information;

  • Opt out of sale or sharing of personal information (we do not currently sell or share for cross-context behavioral advertising);

  • Limit use/disclosure of sensitive personal information (we use sensitive financial data only to provide the Service you request).

How to exercise: Use in-app controls (where available) or email support@freebudget.org. We will verify your request and respond within the time required by applicable law (with possible extensions as permitted). You may use an authorized agent as allowed by law; we may require proof of authorization. If we deny a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision; we will tell you how to appeal in our response.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights.

State Disclosures (CPRA and similar)

Categories collected in the last 12 months may include: identifiers (email), account credentials, financial data (via Plaid and manual entries), internet/activity data (usage logs), and geolocation approximated from IP. We disclose these categories to service providers for business purposes as described above. We do not sell personal information and do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not knowingly collect information from minors.

11) Children’s Privacy

The Service is intended for individuals 18+ and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

12) International Transfers

We are U.S.-based. Your information may be processed in the United States and in other locations where our service providers operate. Those locations may have different data protection laws than your state or country.

13) Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion and will reflect changes with a revised "Last Updated" date. We are not obligated to provide notice of material changes, and your continued use of the Service constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

14) Contact Us

Email: support@freebudget.org
Company: Budget Social Inc (dba FreeBudget)
Mailing Address: 6650 Rivers Ave, STE 100, Charleston, SC 29406