1. Introduction

A Real Budget ("we", "us", or "the Service") provides personal finance forecasting and budgeting tools. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we protect it, and the choices you have.

By using A Real Budget, you consent to the practices described in this policy.

2. Information We Collect

Account information. Email address and authentication identifiers provided through our authentication provider (Clerk).

Financial data via Plaid. When you connect a bank account, we use Plaid Inc. to retrieve, on your behalf:

• Account metadata (institution name, account type, last four digits, account balances)
• Transaction history (date, amount, merchant name, description, category)

We do not receive or store your bank login credentials. Plaid handles authentication directly with your financial institution. See Plaid's End User Privacy Policy.

User-generated data. Budget categories, planned expenses, category rules, and any notes or scenarios you create.

Usage data. Standard web logs (IP address, browser, timestamps) processed by our hosting provider (Vercel) for security and operational purposes.

3. How We Use Your Data

• Display your accounts, transactions, and balances within the app
• Generate cash flow forecasts and budget projections
• Auto-categorize transactions based on rules you create
• Power the "Can I afford X?" feature (sends anonymized summary data to OpenAI to generate your personalized response)
• Maintain and improve the reliability and security of the Service

We do not sell your personal or financial data. We do not use your data for advertising. We do not share your financial data with third parties except the subprocessors required to operate the Service (listed below).

4. Subprocessors

We use the following vendors to operate A Real Budget:

• Plaid Inc. — bank connectivity and transaction data
• Clerk — user authentication and identity
• Vercel — application hosting
• Neon — managed PostgreSQL database
• OpenAI — AI responses for the "Can I?" feature

5. How We Protect Your Data

• All traffic between your browser and our servers is encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher
• Data at rest is encrypted by our database provider
• Access to production systems is protected by multi-factor authentication
• Plaid access tokens are stored server-side and never exposed to the client
• Each user's data is isolated by user ID; API endpoints enforce ownership checks on every request

6. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. You can:

• Disconnect a bank at any time from the Accounts page, which revokes the Plaid access token and stops further data retrieval
• Delete your account from the Settings page, which permanently removes all financial data, categories, rules, and preferences within 30 days

See our full Data Retention & Deletion Policy for details.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction (including residents of California under the CCPA and the EU/UK under GDPR), you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data
• Object to or restrict certain processing
• Request a copy of your data in a portable format

To exercise these rights, email joeschwartz0@gmail.com.

8. Children's Privacy

A Real Budget is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the Service or by email. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

10. Contact

Questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices? Email joeschwartz0@gmail.com.