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Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 14, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what information Budgetoria (operated by Loutronics, d/b/a Budgetoria — "we," "us") collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to budgetoria.com, app.budgetoria.com, and our SMS service.

1. Information we collect

  • Account information — name, email address, password (stored by Amazon Cognito; we never see your password), household name, and timezone.
  • Phone numbers and SMS content — the mobile numbers you register for yourself and the members of your household, your opt-in consent record (timestamp), and the content of text messages you exchange with the Service.
  • Accountability partner details — if a member of your household nominates someone outside it as an accountability partner (Section 6), we store that person's mobile number, the first name the member gave them, the tone the member picked, which member nominated them, the date the member confirmed they had agreed, and whether they have accepted or declined. That is the whole record. We never ask a partner for anything else, and we never receive anything else about them.
  • Do-not-text records — if any number replies STOP, we keep that number and the date on a suppression list. We keep this even for numbers we hold nothing else on, because it is the only way to be sure we never text them again.
  • Financial transaction data — transactions, balances, and account metadata from banks you connect through Plaid (read-only). We do not receive or store your bank username or password; those are handled by Plaid. See the Plaid End User Privacy Policy.
  • Payment information — handled entirely by Stripe; we store only your Stripe customer ID and subscription status, never card numbers.
  • Usage and log data — technical logs needed to operate the Service (timestamps, request identifiers, error diagnostics).

2. How we use it

  • To provide the Service: sync and categorize transactions, compute budget status, and send you digests, alerts, questions, and answers.
  • To generate message text: transaction summaries and your questions are processed by an AI language-model provider (xAI) to compose replies. We send only what is needed for the reply.
  • To send accountability nudges: if a member has nominated accountability partners and chosen categories to watch, we text those partners when a watched category goes over its limit for the month (Section 6).
  • To operate the business: billing (Stripe), support, fraud prevention, and legal compliance.

3. What we never do

  • We never sell your personal or financial data.
  • We never share your data with advertisers or data brokers.
  • We never move money — bank access is read-only.
  • We never send an accountability partner an amount, a limit, a percentage, a merchant, a transaction, a balance, or your household's name.
  • We never text a nominated partner anything but the invitation until they accept it.
  • We never use a phone number given to us for anything but running the Service — no marketing to it, and we never share it with anyone for theirs.

4. Service providers

We use a small set of processors to run the Service: Amazon Web Services (hosting, storage, SMS delivery), Plaid (bank connectivity), Stripe (payments), xAI (AI text generation), and Cloudflare (DNS and email routing). Each receives only the data required for its function.

5. Sharing inside your household

Budgetoria is a family product: members of the same household see shared budget and transaction information by design. Adults you add can view spending and edit budgets; kid-role members can ask questions but cannot change budgets. Do not add members you don't want to share this information with. Sharing with people outside your household is a separate feature with much tighter limits — see the next section.

6. Accountability partners

An adult in your household can nominate up to three people outside the household as accountability partners, and choose which budget categories those people are told about. When a watched category goes over its limit for the month, we text them. Because those people never signed up with us, this section spells out exactly what happens.

Nobody is texted on somebody else's say-so alone. The member nominating a partner has to confirm the partner has agreed to hear from us. We then send that number one text containing a six-digit code and nothing else. Until they reply with it they receive no nudges and learn nothing about your household. Silence is not consent, so we never treat a number that has not answered as a partner.

What a partner is told. A nudge names two things and only two: the first name of the member who nominated them, and the name of the budget category that went over. It is a fixed sentence with nowhere for a number to go. Partners never see an amount, a limit, a percentage, a merchant, a transaction, an account, a balance, or your household's name. Nor can a partner ask our texting service about your money — it will not answer questions from them. Budgets belong to the whole household, so a nudge tells a partner that the household went over a category the member asked them to watch. It does not say who spent what. A child's own namesake budget can never trigger one.

How often. At most one text per partner, per watched category, per calendar month.

If you were nominated as an accountability partner. You are not our customer, you have no account with us, and you owe us nothing. Reply NO to the invitation to turn it down, or STOP to turn it down and be added to our do-not-text list — either way we say so once and then leave you alone. Reply HELP, or email support@budgetoria.com, to ask what we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted. We will not tell the person who nominated you anything beyond the fact that you declined.

Why we remember a "no". When you decline we write a small, separate record: your number, the household that invited you, and the date. We keep it after that household removes you from their list, and it is the reason you only have to say no once — without it, someone could remove you, add you back, and ask again. It holds nothing but those three facts, is never used for anything else, and is deleted when that household deletes its account. If you would rather we did not hold it, email us and we will remove it — though that household will then be able to invite you again.

7. Retention

Transaction and budget data are retained while your account is active. Chat history is retained for 90 days. When you delete your household in the portal we delete its data straight away — including every accountability partner record and every decline record belonging to it (Section 10).

Two kinds of record are kept on purpose. A decline record outlives the nomination it refused, for as long as the inviting household exists, so a "no" cannot be undone by removing and re-adding someone (Section 6). And a do-not-text record — a number and a date, nothing else — is kept indefinitely, because deleting it is the one thing that could cause us to text someone who told us to stop.

8. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Bank access tokens are stored encrypted in AWS. Access is limited to what the Service needs to operate. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affecting your data occurs, we will notify you as required by law.

9. Children

Accounts may only be created by adults 18+. Household "kid" members may receive and send texts with a parent or guardian's consent; we collect only their phone number and message content, and only to provide the Service. A child's own namesake budget can never trigger an accountability-partner text, and accountability partners must be adults.

10. Your choices and rights

  • Stop texts: reply STOP to any message.
  • Disconnect a bank: anytime, in the portal or via support.
  • Delete your account and data: use "Delete my account" in the portal and we delete your household's data — transactions, budgets, chat history, phone numbers, and accountability partner and decline records — immediately. Ask us by email at support@budgetoria.com instead and we complete it within 30 days. We keep only what we must for legal or billing-dispute purposes, plus do-not-text records (Section 7).
  • Stop being someone's accountability partner: reply STOP to any nudge, or email us. See Section 6.
  • Access/correction: email us and we'll provide or correct the personal information we hold about you.

11. Changes and contact

We'll announce material changes to this policy by email, text, or in the portal before they take effect. Questions or requests: support@budgetoria.com.

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© 2026 Budgetoria. Not financial advice. Msg & data rates may apply — reply STOP to cancel texts, HELP for help. See our SMS Terms.