Privacy Policy

We take your privacy seriously. Here is exactly what we collect and why.

Last updated: November 3, 2026

1. Who We Are and What This Covers

This Privacy Policy explains how SmartSplitter ("SmartSplitter," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information when you use the SmartSplitter mobile app, web app, guest payment and split pages, and website (the "Service"), and the choices and rights you have. The Service is intended for people in the United States. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not show ads.

2. Information We Collect

Information you give us

  • Account and profile: name, email address, password (stored by Firebase Authentication in hashed form, never readable by us), profile photo, and preferences.
  • Phone number: if you add one for two-factor authentication or security alerts.
  • Groups, trips, and expenses: group and trip names, members, expense descriptions, amounts, categories, dates, notes, splits, budgets, and balances.
  • Settlement and payment records: who paid whom, amounts, fees, dates, status, refunds, and disputes for payments made in the app, and records of payments you mark as made outside the app.
  • Payment handles: Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle usernames or links you choose to add so friends can pay you.
  • Photos and receipts: receipt images, profile photos, and trip covers you choose to upload. We only access your camera or photo library when you choose to use them.
  • Support and communications: messages you send us and your communications preferences.

Information collected when you receive card payments. To receive payouts, you complete onboarding directly with Stripe, which collects information such as your legal name, date of birth, address, the last 4 digits or full Social Security number, and bank account or debit card details to verify your identity and comply with law. SmartSplitter does not receive your full Social Security number or bank account number. We receive your Stripe account ID, verification and payout status, balance, and payout details needed to show you your money and protect against fraud.

Information about guest payers. If you pay or join a split through a link without an account, we collect the name you enter, what you claimed or owe, and the status of your payment. Your card details go directly to Stripe.

Information collected automatically

  • Device and log data: device model, operating system, app version, IP address, browser type, and timestamps.
  • Usage and diagnostics: features used, screens viewed, crash reports, and performance data (Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics). We do not collect your device's advertising identifier and do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
  • Push notification token: to send notifications you can turn off in your device settings.
  • Security signals: sign-in events, two-factor status, and rate-limit and fraud-prevention signals such as how often an action is attempted.

Information from others

  • Sign in with Apple or Google: your name and email (or Apple's private relay email).
  • Other users: people can add you to a group or expense, enter amounts that involve you, or search for you by email or name to send a friend request.
  • Stripe: payment, refund, payout, and dispute status.
  • Plaid (optional, where available): if you connect a bank account, account names, types, masked numbers, balances, and transactions you authorize. We never receive your bank login.

3. How We Use Information

  • Provide the Service: create your account, calculate balances, show shared expenses to group members, process settlements, send receipts, and support guest payment links.
  • Process payments and payouts with Stripe, including showing fees before you confirm.
  • Keep accounts and money safe: verify identity, enforce payment limits and holds, detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorized access, and handle refunds, disputes, and chargebacks.
  • Communicate with you: security codes, receipts, payment and balance notifications, service and policy updates, and support. Marketing only with your consent.
  • Read receipts you scan (see Section 4).
  • Understand usage, fix bugs, and improve the Service.
  • Comply with law, respond to lawful requests, enforce our Terms, and protect the rights and safety of users, the public, and SmartSplitter.

4. Receipt Scanning and AI

Receipt scanning first reads text on your device using Google ML Kit; those images are not sent to Google. If you use AI-powered scanning, the receipt image is sent to OpenAI through its API to extract items and totals, and the result is returned to the app. We instruct OpenAI not to store these requests for later retrieval. Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train its models and may be retained for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. Please do not scan images that show full card numbers or other information you do not want processed.

5. How We Share Information

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share information only as follows:

  • With people you interact with: group, trip, and split members see your name, photo, and the expenses, balances, and settlements in what you share with them. When you pay or request money, the other person sees your name, the amount, and the status. Your payment handles are visible to people you share a group with or are friends with.
  • With service providers that process information on our behalf under contracts limiting their use of it: Google Firebase/Google Cloud (hosting, database, storage, authentication, analytics, crash reports, notifications), Stripe (payments, payouts, identity verification, fraud prevention), Twilio (text messages), Resend (email), OpenAI (AI receipt scanning), Apple and Google (sign-in), and Plaid (optional bank connections).
  • With Stripe and card networks for payment purposes, including to resolve disputes and chargebacks.
  • For legal, safety, and fraud reasons: to comply with law, legal process, or government requests; to enforce our Terms; and to protect against fraud, security threats, or harm.
  • Business transfers: as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy.
  • With your consent or at your direction.

6. How Long We Keep Information

  • While your account is open: we keep your information to provide the Service.
  • When you delete your account: we delete or de-identify your profile, contact details, photos you uploaded, devices, friend connections, and private data within 30 days, except as described below. Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis.
  • Shared records: expenses, settlements, and payment history you share with other people are part of their records too, so they remain visible to the other members. They show "Deleted User," or, if you left an unsettled balance, your first name and last initial, so the people involved can keep track of what is owed.
  • Payment, fraud, and legal records: records of card payments, refunds, payouts, disputes, and fraud-prevention actions are kept for as long as needed to resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and meet legal, tax, and accounting obligations, generally up to 7 years. Stripe keeps its own records under its privacy policy.
  • Bank data: deleted when you disconnect the bank account or delete your account.
  • Security logs and diagnostics: kept for a limited time, generally no more than 2 years, unless needed to investigate an incident.

7. Your Choices

  • Access and update: edit your profile in the app, or ask us for a copy of your data. You can also export your expenses from the app.
  • Delete: in Settings in the app, or email us.
  • Notifications: manage push notifications in the app or your device settings, unsubscribe from marketing email using the link in the email, and reply STOP to text messages.
  • Permissions: you can revoke camera and photo access in your device settings at any time.
  • Bank connections: disconnect at any time in Settings. To ask Plaid to delete data it holds, see Plaid's End User Privacy Policy.

8. U.S. State Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, and other states with consumer privacy laws), you may have the right to: know or access the personal information we have about you and get a portable copy; correct inaccurate information; delete your information; opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, targeted advertising, and certain profiling; and not be discriminated against for using these rights. We do not sell or share personal information, do not use it for targeted advertising, and do not use it for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. We treat Global Privacy Control signals as a valid opt-out request, although there is nothing for us to opt you out of.

How to make a request. Email privacy@smartsplitter.app from the email on your account, or use account deletion in the app. We will verify your request by confirming control of your account email and may ask for more information if needed. You may use an authorized agent, who must show us your signed permission, and we may still ask you to verify your identity. We respond within 45 days, and may extend once by 45 days when reasonably necessary. If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying to our decision with "Appeal" in the subject line; we will respond within 45 days (60 days in Colorado), and if you are unhappy with the result you may contact your state attorney general. Some information may be kept despite a deletion request where the law allows, for example to complete a transaction, prevent fraud, or comply with legal obligations.

California notice (CCPA/CPRA). In the past 12 months we collected the following categories of personal information, from you, your devices, other users, and the providers described above, for the purposes in Section 3, and disclosed each for business purposes only to the recipients in Section 5: identifiers (name, email, phone, account and device IDs, IP address); customer records and financial information (payment records, payment handles, Stripe account status, and, if you connect a bank, limited bank data); commercial information (expenses, settlements, subscriptions); internet or electronic activity (usage and diagnostics); audio/visual information (photos and receipt images you upload); and sensitive personal information (account login credentials, and financial account information if you connect a bank or receive payouts). We use sensitive personal information only to provide the Service, secure accounts, prevent fraud, and comply with law, so the right to limit its use does not apply. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16. California residents may also request information about disclosures for direct marketing under California Civil Code ยง 1798.83; we make no such disclosures.

9. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect information, including encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest, access rules that limit each user to their own data and groups they belong to, optional two-factor authentication, Firebase App Check to help ensure requests come from our app, rate limits and fraud controls on payments, and limited, authenticated access to production systems. Card numbers are handled by Stripe and never stored by us. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and regulators as required by law.

10. Children

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Users between 13 and 18 may use the Service only with a parent's or guardian's permission and may not send or receive card payments. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact privacy@smartsplitter.app and we will delete it.

11. Users Outside the United States

The Service is designed for the United States, and information is stored and processed in the United States. If you use it from elsewhere, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live. If laws such as the EU or UK GDPR apply to you, you may contact us to exercise the rights they provide, and you may complain to your local data protection authority.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy. We will post the new version here with a new "Last updated" date and, for material changes, notify you by email or in the app before they take effect. Where the law requires your consent to a change, we will ask for it.

13. Contact Us