Privacy Policy

How we collect, use, protect, and manage your personal and financial information.

Last updated: December 2024

Quick Summary

  • • We collect financial data you enter and, with your permission, transaction data from your bank via Plaid
  • • We use this data to provide budgeting tools and insights
  • • We keep transaction data for 90 days, then automatically delete it
  • • You can delete your data anytime from your account settings
  • • We never sell your financial information to third parties

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

  • Email address – For account access and communication
  • Password – Encrypted and never stored in plain text
  • Account creation date – For record-keeping

Financial Data You Enter

When you use our budgeting tools, we collect:

  • Income information – Amount and frequency (weekly, biweekly, monthly)
  • Budget categories and amounts – Your planned spending by category (housing, food, transportation, etc.)
  • Financial goals – Your savings targets and financial priorities
  • Manual expense entries – Any spending you track manually

Storage: This data is stored indefinitely in our secure database (Firebase) unless you delete your account.

Bank Transaction Data (via Plaid)

Optional Feature: If you choose to connect your bank account using our Spending Tracker feature, we access your transaction data through Plaid, a secure third-party financial data provider.

What We DO NOT Store:

  • Your bank login credentials (these stay with Plaid)
  • Your bank account numbers or routing numbers
  • Your credit/debit card numbers

What We DO Store (for 90 days):

  • Plaid access token – A secure key that lets us request your transaction data
  • Transaction details – Merchant names, amounts, dates, and categories
  • Account balances – Current balance information (if available)

90-Day Automatic Deletion: Transaction data is automatically deleted after 90 days. This reduces our data storage responsibilities and protects your privacy.

Usage and Technical Data

To improve our service and troubleshoot issues, we collect:

  • Device information – Browser type, operating system, device type
  • Log data – IP address, access times, pages viewed
  • Feature usage – Which tools you use and how often

2. How We Use Your Information

Provide Our Services

To deliver budgeting tools, spending tracking, and financial insights you've requested.

Generate AI Insights

To analyze your financial data and provide personalized recommendations using Google Gemini AI (your data is sent to Gemini's API but not stored by Google).

Compare Spending to Budget

To show you how your actual spending (from bank transactions) compares to your planned budget.

Send Notifications

To alert you about account activity, service updates, or budget thresholds (if you opt in).

Security and Fraud Prevention

To protect your account from unauthorized access and ensure platform security.

Improve Our Platform

To understand how people use our tools and make improvements (using aggregated, anonymized data).

We do NOT: Sell your financial data to third parties, use your data for advertising, or share your data with anyone except our essential service providers (Firebase, Plaid, Stripe).

3. How Long We Keep Your Data

Account & Budget Data

Indefinite

Your account information, budgets, and financial goals are kept as long as your account is active. You can delete this anytime from your account settings.

Bank Transaction Data

90 Days

Automatic deletion after 90 days. Transaction data retrieved from Plaid is automatically deleted from our database after 90 days. This policy:

  • Reduces data storage costs
  • Minimizes your privacy risk
  • Keeps only recent, relevant data for comparisons
  • Happens automatically – no action needed

Plaid Access Tokens

Until Disconnected

The secure token that allows us to fetch your transactions is kept until you disconnect your bank account or delete your account.

Deleted Account Data

30 Days

When you delete your account, we keep a backup for 30 days in case you change your mind. After 30 days, all your data is permanently deleted.

4. Who We Share Data With

We only share your data with essential service providers who help us operate the platform:

Firebase (Google Cloud)

Stores your account data, budgets, and cached transactions. All data is encrypted.

View Firebase Privacy Policy →

Plaid Technologies

Securely connects to your bank to retrieve transaction data (only if you choose to connect your bank).

View Plaid Privacy Policy →

Stripe

Processes payments for paid subscriptions. We never see or store your credit card information.

View Stripe Privacy Policy →

Google Gemini AI

Analyzes your financial data to generate insights. Data is sent via API but not stored by Google.

View Gemini Terms →

We do NOT share your data with: Advertisers, data brokers, marketing companies, or any other third parties. We will never sell your financial information.

5. Your Rights and How to Control Your Data

You Have the Right To:

Access Your Data

View all the data we have about you anytime from your account dashboard.

Export Your Data

Download a copy of your budgets and financial data in JSON format.

How: Go to Settings → Privacy → Export Data

Correct Your Data

Update or correct any information directly in your budget tools.

Disconnect Your Bank

Remove bank connection at any time. This deletes your Plaid access token and stops future transaction syncing.

How: Go to Spending Tracker → Bank Settings → Disconnect Bank

Delete Your Account

Permanently delete your account and all associated data. This action cannot be undone after 30 days.

How: Go to Settings → Account → Delete Account

State Privacy Rights

If you're a resident of California (CCPA), Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), or other states with privacy laws, you have additional rights:

  • Right to know what data we collect and why
  • Right to delete your personal information
  • Right to opt-out of data sales (we don't sell data, but you have this right)
  • Right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights

To exercise these rights, contact us at thenextgenempowerment@gmail.com with "Privacy Rights Request" in the subject line.

6. How We Protect Your Data

Encryption in Transit

All data is transmitted over HTTPS with TLS encryption.

Encryption at Rest

Your data is encrypted in Firebase using AES-256 encryption.

Password Security

Passwords are hashed using bcrypt and never stored in plain text.

Access Controls

Firebase Security Rules ensure users can only access their own data.

Plaid Security

Bank credentials never touch our servers - Plaid handles all authentication.

No system is 100% secure. While we implement industry-standard security measures, we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please use a strong, unique password and enable two-factor authentication when available.

7. Children's Privacy

Our Services are not intended for children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately at thenextgenempowerment@gmail.com.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we make changes:

Questions or Concerns?

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, we're here to help.

Business

NextGenEmpowerment

Location

Charlotte, North Carolina

For privacy rights requests (access, deletion, export), please include "Privacy Rights Request" in your email subject line.