Privacy Policy

Last updated November 6, 2026

BudgetBuilt helps a household see where its money went each month. This page explains what we collect, why, who helps us run the service, and the choices you have. If anything here is unclear, email hello@budgetbuilt.app.

The short version

• We never see or store your bank password. You sign in to your bank on Plaid's screen.
• Bank connections are read-only. BudgetBuilt cannot move money or make payments.
• We do not sell your personal information, and we do not show ads.
• Each household's data is kept in its own separate database.
• You can delete your household at any time, yourself in Household settings or by asking us.

What we collect

When you sign up

Your first and last name, email address, and anything you choose to tell us in the optional note. If you give a mobile number, we keep it, and we keep a record of whether you agreed to receive text messages and the wording you agreed to.

When you use BudgetBuilt

• Sign-in details: your email, name, and two-step verification settings, held by our sign-in provider, Clerk.
• Account and transaction data: when you connect a bank, we receive account names, types, the last few digits of account numbers, balances, and transactions (date, amount, description, and merchant) from Plaid.
• What you enter: budgets, planned bills and paychecks, notes, categories, month-end decisions, net-worth items, and any documents you upload.
• Household members: the names and emails of people you invite.

When you visit our public pages

We count visits to the landing page, public guides, the guided tour, sign-in, and the sign-up form. For each visit we store the page, the time, your approximate city and country, whether you are on a phone or computer, your internet provider, and the site that sent you. We do not store your IP address; we use it to look up the approximate location, and we keep only a scrambled visitor code made from it so a person is counted once a day. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. When you sign up, we use the same visitor code to look for your earliest recorded visit in the preceding 30 days and save its traffic source with your signup. This helps us understand which outreach brings new households. Matching is approximate and may be unavailable if you change devices or networks; we do not attach balances or transactions to this measurement.

How we use it

• To run BudgetBuilt for your household: syncing accounts, sorting transactions, building budgets, and reconciling each month.
• To answer questions you ask in the app, such as Ask BB, and to explain why a transaction was sorted the way it was.
• To set up your household, send your sign-in invitation, and contact you about your account.
• To send text messages, only if you agreed to them. Reply STOP to opt out at any time.
• To keep the service secure, fix problems, and understand which pages people use.

Who helps us run BudgetBuilt

We share information only with the companies that provide parts of the service, and only what each one needs:

• Plaid connects your bank accounts. Plaid's handling of your data is described in the Plaid End User Privacy Policy.
• Clerk handles sign-in and two-step verification.
• OpenAI powers Ask BB and some transaction explanations. When you use them, the relevant transaction details, account names, and amounts are sent to OpenAI to produce the answer. We ask OpenAI not to store these requests, and OpenAI does not use API data to train its models.
• Cloudflare protects the sign-up form from spam with Turnstile.
• Vultr hosts our servers and databases in the United States.
• Google delivers our email.

We may also share information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users or the service. If BudgetBuilt is ever sold or merged, this policy would continue to apply to your information.

How we protect it

• The keys that let us read your bank data are encrypted in our database.
• Each household's financial data lives in its own separate database.
• Every account must turn on two-step verification before it can see anything.
• All traffic to BudgetBuilt is encrypted with HTTPS.

No system is perfectly secure, but we work to keep your information safe and will tell you promptly if a breach affects your data.

How long we keep it

We keep your household's data while your household is active. When your household is deleted, whether you use Delete everything now in Household settings or ask us, we disconnect your banks, revoke our access with Plaid, remove your sign-in accounts and documents, and delete your household's database. Copies in our backups are deleted within 90 days. Visit counts from our public pages are kept in aggregate.

Your choices

• See or correct your data: most of it is visible and editable in the app. For anything else, email us.
• Delete your household: in Household settings, choose Leave BudgetBuilt (your data is kept until the date shown, then deleted) or Delete everything now. You can also email hello@budgetbuilt.app from your account's email address.
• Stop text messages: reply STOP, or turn texts off in Household settings.
• Disconnect a bank: you can also revoke BudgetBuilt's access through Plaid's portal at my.plaid.com.

Depending on where you live, you may have further rights, such as getting a copy of your data or objecting to how we use it. Email us and we will help.

Children

BudgetBuilt is for adults managing household money. It is not meant for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions or requests: hello@budgetbuilt.app.