Privacy Policy
This Privacy Notice for Travel Buddy ("we," "us," "our") describes how and why we access, collect, store, use, and share ("process") your personal information when you use our Services, including when you:
- Visit our website at https://travels-buddy.com
- Download and use our mobile application Travel Buddy
- Engage with us in other related ways
Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you have any questions or concerns, contact us at [email protected].
Summary of Key Points
- What personal information do we process? We process the personal information you provide when you register, post listings, message other users, or otherwise interact with the Services.
- Do we process sensitive personal information? No, we do not process sensitive personal information.
- Do we collect information from third parties? No, we do not collect information from third parties.
- How do we process your information? To provide, improve, and administer the Services, communicate with you, and ensure safety. We process information only with a valid legal reason.
- With whom do we share information? With service providers (Supabase, Expo, Google Places, Pexels, Wikipedia) as needed to operate the Services. We do not sell data.
- How do we keep your information safe? Reasonable technical and organizational security measures, including hashed passwords, HTTPS, and Row Level Security.
- What are your rights? Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or obtain a copy of your personal information.
- What information do we collect?
- How do we process your information?
- When and with whom do we share your personal information?
- How long do we keep your information?
- How do we keep your information safe?
- Do we collect information from minors?
- What are your privacy rights?
- Controls for Do-Not-Track features
- Do United States residents have specific privacy rights?
- Do we make updates to this notice?
- How can you contact us about this notice?
- How can you review, update, or delete the data we collect from you?
1. What Information Do We Collect?
Personal information you disclose to us
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide when you register on the Services, post listings or messages, or otherwise interact with us. The personal information we collect may include:
- Names (display names)
- Email addresses
- Usernames
- Passwords (stored hashed, never in plain text)
- Contact preferences
- Phone numbers (only when you provide an emergency contact; optional)
- Date of birth / age
- Gender
- Profile photos
- General location (a city you select; not real-time GPS)
- Push notification tokens
- User-generated content (listings, messages, reviews, trip shares)
Sensitive Information
We do not process sensitive personal information.
Application Data
If you use our application, we may collect the following information if you choose to provide us with access or permission:
- Push Notifications. We may request to send you push notifications regarding your account or features of the application. If you wish to opt out, you can turn them off in your device settings.
- Photo Library Access. Only when you choose to upload an avatar or other photo. We do not access your photo library without your action.
This information is needed for the security and operation of our application, for troubleshooting, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.
Google API
We use the Google Places API to provide location autocomplete and destination photo lookup. Our use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
All personal information you provide must be true, complete, and accurate. You must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
2. How Do We Process Your Information?
We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:
- To facilitate account creation and authentication and manage user accounts
- To deliver and facilitate delivery of services — including matching you with other users based on destination and date
- To enable user-to-user communications — chat between matched users
- To send push notifications regarding messages, join requests, and trip events
- To request feedback and contact you about your use of our Services
- To enable trip sharing — only when you tap "Share Trip" to send a one-time link to an emergency contact
- For safety and abuse prevention — enforcing rate limits, processing reports and blocks
- To identify usage trends and improve the Services
- To comply with our legal obligations, respond to legal requests, and exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights
3. When and With Whom Do We Share Your Personal Information?
We may share information in specific situations and with the following service providers, who are bound by contract to handle data only for the purpose of providing services to us:
- Supabase — database hosting and authentication (US region)
- Expo Push Service — delivery of push notifications
- Google Places API — geocoding and photo lookup; receives only your search query, never your personal information
- Pexels — anonymous photo lookup
- Wikipedia — anonymous photo lookup
We may also need to share your personal information in the following situations:
- Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition.
- Other Users. When you share personal information by posting comments, listings, reviews, or contributions to the Services, that information may be viewed by other users. When you join a trip, other members of that trip can see your display name, avatar, and reviews.
- Trip Sharing. When you generate a trip-share link and share it with a non-user, that person can view the trip summary (destination, dates, member display names) until the link expires (7 days after trip end).
We do not sell your personal information, and we have not disclosed, sold, or shared personal information to third parties for commercial purposes in the preceding twelve (12) months.
4. How Long Do We Keep Your Information?
We keep your personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law:
- Active accounts: data is retained while the account is active
- Soft-deleted accounts: 30 days, then permanent deletion (GDPR-compliant)
- Reviews: retained after account deletion, but shown as "Deleted user"
- Chat logs: retained 90 days after account deletion for safety / abuse investigation
- Trip share links: expire 7 days after the trip end date
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will delete or anonymize it, or securely store it and isolate it from further processing until deletion is possible.
5. How Do We Keep Your Information Safe?
We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. These include:
- Passwords stored hashed, never in plain text
- Session tokens stored in iOS Keychain / Android Keystore (not plain storage)
- HTTPS encryption for all data in transit
- Database-level Row Level Security restricting users to their own data
- Rate limiting to prevent abuse
However, despite our safeguards, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We cannot promise that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.
6. Do We Collect Information From Minors?
We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent's use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under 18, please contact us at [email protected].
7. What Are Your Privacy Rights?
You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time, depending on your country, province, or state of residence.
Withdrawing your consent
If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details below. Note that this will not affect the lawfulness of processing before its withdrawal.
Account Information
If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:
- Log in to your account settings and update your user account, or
- Use the "Delete Account" option in Settings (30-day soft delete, then permanent)
Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with investigations, enforce our legal terms, or comply with legal requirements.
If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at [email protected].
8. Controls for Do-Not-Track Features
Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored. At this stage, no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. We do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online.
9. Do United States Residents Have Specific Privacy Rights?
If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have the right to request access to and receive details about the personal information we maintain about you and how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, get a copy of, or delete your personal information.
Categories of Personal Information We Collect
| Category | Examples | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| A. Identifiers | Real name, alias, postal address (emergency contact only), email, account name, phone number (emergency contact only), IP address | YES |
| B. Personal information as defined in the California Customer Records statute | Name, contact information | YES |
| C. Protected classification characteristics | Gender, age (from birth year) | YES |
| D. Commercial information | Transactions, purchase history, payment information | NO |
| E. Biometric information | Fingerprints, voiceprints | NO |
| F. Internet or other similar network activity | Browsing history, search history, advertising interactions | NO |
| G. Geolocation data | General city (you select); no precise GPS tracking | YES (general) |
| H. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar information | Profile photos (avatars) | YES |
| I. Professional or employment-related information | Job title, work history | NO |
| J. Education Information | Student records, transcripts | NO |
| K. Inferences drawn from collected information | Profiles or summaries about preferences and characteristics | NO |
| L. Sensitive personal information | Contents of chat messages between users | YES (messages) |
We retain collected personal information as needed to provide the Services or as long as the user has an account with us.
Your Rights
You have rights under certain US state data protection laws. These rights may be limited by applicable law. They include:
- Right to know whether we are processing your personal data
- Right to access your personal data
- Right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data
- Right to request the deletion of your personal data
- Right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared
- Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
- Right to opt out of targeted advertising, sale of personal data, or profiling (we do none of these)
How to Exercise Your Rights
To exercise these rights, email us at [email protected] or contact us using the details at the bottom of this notice.
Appeals
If we decline to take action regarding your request, you may appeal our decision by emailing [email protected]. We will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken in response to the appeal.
10. Do We Make Updates to This Notice?
Yes, we will update this Privacy Notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Last updated" date at the top. If we make material changes, we may notify you either by posting a notice or by sending you a direct notification.
11. How Can You Contact Us About This Notice?
If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact us at:
Travel Buddy
Illinois, United States
Phone: +1 (765) 761-2070
Email: [email protected]
12. How Can You Review, Update, or Delete the Data We Collect From You?
Based on applicable laws of your country or state of residence in the US, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, details about how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, or delete your personal information. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please email [email protected] or use the in-app Settings → Delete Account option.