ShareTheCost Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Philip Bobbett of 15 Kelbrook Grove, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 3RJ, United Kingdom ("we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use ShareTheCost (the "App").

ShareTheCost may be used worldwide. Privacy laws differ between countries. This Policy is intended to describe our practices clearly and does not reduce any rights you have under the law that applies to you.

1. Who is responsible for your information

Philip Bobbett is the controller of personal information processed for ShareTheCost. Contact details are in section 13. We use specialist service providers to host, secure, process, and deliver parts of the App.

2. Information we collect

Account and profile information

When you create or use an account, we may collect:

• your display name, email address, phone number, profile photo, and Firebase Authentication identifier;
• account type, account creation and update dates, and sign-in or account security information;
• trip credits, purchase entitlements, ad-free status, and information needed to prevent abuse of the one-free-trip offer; and
• preferences such as default currency, split method, notification settings, date format, guest-password settings, and archived-trip deletion threshold.

Trip, expense, and settlement information

When you create or join a trip, we process trip names, dates, descriptions, currency, invite codes, guest access information, member names, member contact details, optional payment details, groups, expenses, splits, balances, receipt images, receipt drafts, OCR text, translations, and settlement records.

Contacts

If you choose to use a contact-picker or address-book feature and grant permission, we access the contact information needed for the contact you select, such as a name, email address, or phone number. We do not need to upload your entire address book to use this feature.

Device, notification, and technical information

We and our service providers process device type, operating system, App version, language, network information, diagnostic information, security logs, and identifiers needed to keep the App working. If you enable push notifications, we store Firebase Cloud Messaging device tokens.

3. How we use information

We use information to:

• create and authenticate accounts and temporary guest access;
• create, operate, secure, and synchronise trips, expenses, receipt drafts, balances, and settlements;
• display information to members of the trip to which it belongs;
• scan, parse, translate, and organise receipts when requested;
• deliver push notifications, service messages, and support;
• provide, restore, and protect purchased credits and entitlements;
• show and measure advertising, and remove advertising for ad-free accounts;
• prevent fraud, abuse, and unauthorised access; and
• comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

4. Legal bases (UK & EEA)

Where required under UK or EEA data protection law, we rely on Contract (to provide services), Legitimate Interests (to secure and maintain the App), Consent (for optional permissions & ad choices), and Legal Obligations.

5. What other trip members can see

ShareTheCost is built around shared trips. Members with access to a trip may see the trip information, display name, member contact info, optional payment details, expenses, receipt images, splits, balances, and settlement records for that trip.

6. Service providers and sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with specialized service providers:

• Google Firebase and Google Cloud: for authentication, Firestore database, file storage, and push notifications;
• Google Gemini: to parse and translate receipt images or OCR text upon request (we do NOT use receipts to train AI models);
• Apple, Google Play, and RevenueCat: for in-app payments, purchase validation, and entitlement restoration; and
• Google Mobile Ads: to display and measure ads for free tier accounts.

7. How long we keep information

• Active trips: kept until deleted or closed by the trip owner.
• Archived trips: automatically purged after the owner's set threshold (30, 60, or 90 days).
• Account deletion: permanently removes or anonymises personal user data. We retain only a one-way SHA-256 hash of the email to prevent free-trip offer abuse.

8. Your choices and rights

You can update your profile in the App or request data export, correction, or account deletion at any time by contacting us.

9. Contact Us

Questions, privacy requests, and complaints can be sent to:

Philip Bobbett
15 Kelbrook Grove, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 3RJ, United Kingdom
Email: kringebob@gmail.com