SmartSpend Privacy Policy
Effective Date: March 29, 2026 | Last Updated: March 29, 2026
SmartSpend ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your information when you use the SmartSpend mobile application ("App").
1. Information We Collect
1.1 Account Information
When you create an account, we collect:
- Email address and display name (email/password sign-up)
- Authentication tokens from Google or Apple if you use social sign-in
- Profile photo URL (if provided by your social login provider)
You may also use the App in Guest (Demo) Mode without creating an account, in which case no account information is collected.
1.2 Financial & Budget Data
You may voluntarily provide:
- Monthly budget amount
- Spending records (buy/skip decisions)
- Savings goals (title, target amount, progress)
1.3 Product Scan Data
When you scan or look up products, we process:
- Barcode/UPC numbers — sent to product lookup APIs to identify items
- Product URLs — fetched to extract product information (name, price, description)
- Product photos — sent to Google Gemini AI for product identification
1.4 Device & Usage Data
- Notification permission status
- Camera and photo library permission status
- App preferences (currency, theme, notification settings)
2. Third-Party Services
We use the following third-party services to provide App functionality:
| Service |
Data Shared |
Purpose |
| Google Firebase (Auth & Firestore) |
Account info, budget data, scan history, goals |
Authentication & cloud data sync |
| Google Gemini AI |
Product photos (base64 image data) |
AI-powered product identification |
| Barcode Lookup / UPC Item DB / Open Food Facts |
UPC barcode numbers |
Product information lookup |
| Rainforest API |
Product search queries |
Amazon price comparison |
| BlueCart API |
Product search queries |
Walmart price comparison |
| eBay Browse API |
Product search queries |
eBay price comparison |
| Sovrn Commerce |
Product search queries |
Multi-retailer price comparison |
| Mavely API |
Product URLs |
Affiliate link generation |
Each third-party service is governed by its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review their policies.
3. How We Use Your Information
- Provide core features — product identification, price comparison, budget tracking, and savings goals
- Personalize your experience — opportunity cost calculations and AI spending insights based on your budget
- Social features — display your name on shared goal templates and the savings leaderboard (opt-in)
- Notifications — send local budget alerts, goal milestones, and reminders (with your permission)
- Affiliate links — generate retailer links that may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you
4. Data Storage & Retention
Local Storage (On Your Device)
- User preferences and scan history — stored via AsyncStorage
- Price comparison cache — automatically deleted after 24 hours
- Affiliate URL cache — automatically deleted after 7 days
Cloud Storage (Firebase Firestore)
- Account profile, goals, and scan history (last 50 items) — retained until you delete your account
- Shared goal templates — retained until you or we delete them
- Shared product database — product info expires after 30 days; prices refresh every 24 hours
5. Data Sharing
We do not sell your personal information. We share data only in the following circumstances:
- Third-party APIs — as described in Section 2, to provide product lookup and price comparison features
- Community features — if you publish a goal template, your display name and goal details are visible to other users
- Leaderboard — if you participate, your name and aggregated savings stats are visible to other users
- Legal compliance — if required by law, regulation, or legal process
6. Your Rights & Choices
- Guest mode — use the App without creating an account
- Notifications — enable or disable all notification types in Settings
- Camera & photos — grant or revoke permissions through your device settings
- Delete your data — you may request account and data deletion by contacting us (see Section 10)
- Delete shared content — you can delete your own goal templates at any time within the App
7. Children's Privacy
SmartSpend is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
8. Security
We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information:
- Authentication managed by Firebase Auth with industry-standard encryption
- Passwords are hashed and never stored in plain text
- API communications use HTTPS encryption
- Firestore security rules restrict data access to authorized users
However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
10. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please contact us at:
Email: hello@guloombe.com
App: SmartSpend by guloombe