Privacy Policy

1. Who this policy covers

This policy explains how NextGen Empowerment ("we", "us", "our") handles personal information when you use thenextgenempowerment.com and the Empowerment Suite tools (the "Services"). We are based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Services are intended for people in the United States.

Capable Kids, our free in-person program for children, is run offline and is not part of this website. Any information collected for that program is collected directly from a parent or guardian and will carry its own notice at the time.

2. Information we collect

Account information

When you create an account we collect:

• Name - first and last, used to personalize your account.
• Email address - for sign-in, receipts, and service messages.
• Date of birth - to confirm you are 18 or older.
• Password - handled entirely by Firebase Authentication. It is stored only as a salted cryptographic hash. We never see or store your actual password.

Financial information you enter

When you use the planning tools we store what you put in, which may include:

• Income amounts and pay frequency.
• Budget categories, planned amounts, and saved budget scenarios.
• Savings goals and financial priorities.
• Manually entered expenses, notes, tags, and category rules.
• Assets and liabilities you record in the Net Worth tool.

Subscription and billing information

If you subscribe to Premium, payment is processed by Stripe. We store your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, your plan, your subscription status, and your renewal date so we can show you the right account information.

Technical and usage information

• Server logs from our host, Netlify, which include IP address, timestamps, and the pages or functions requested. These are used for security, debugging, and abuse prevention.
• Device and browser information such as browser type, operating system, and screen size.
• Usage analytics on our public pages, described in section 9.

3. Bank data through Plaid

This is optional and off by default. Premium members may connect a bank account so the Spending Tracker, Financial Insights, and Net Worth tools can work from real data. The connection is handled by Plaid Inc.

What we never receive

• Your online banking username or password. You enter these with Plaid, not with us.
• Your full bank account number or routing number.
• Your debit or credit card numbers.

What we do store

• A Plaid access token - a key that lets us request your data. It is stored server-side and is never exposed to your browser.
• Transaction records - date, amount, merchant or description, and category.
• Account balances - including the total value of any investment or retirement accounts you connect, used for Net Worth. We do not request individual holdings, securities, or cost-basis data.
• Institution and account names - so you can tell your connected accounts apart.

Plaid handles your information under its own end user privacy policy.

4. How we use your information

• To run the Services - build your budgets, track spending against plan, calculate net worth, and save your work across devices.
• To generate insights - including AI-assisted analysis, described in section 5.
• To manage your subscription - process payments, apply your tier, and show accurate billing information.
• To communicate with you - service notices, billing confirmations, security alerts, and replies to your support requests.
• To keep the platform secure - detect abuse, prevent fraud, enforce rate limits, and investigate problems.
• To improve the product - understand which features get used, using aggregated and de-identified information.
• To meet legal obligations - such as tax and accounting records for payments.

5. AI processing

Some Premium features use Google's Gemini AI to summarize your finances and suggest things to consider. When you run one of these features, the relevant financial information is sent to Google's Gemini API, processed, and a written response is returned to you.

• AI analysis runs only when you ask for it. Nothing is sent for analysis in the background.
• We send the financial figures needed for the analysis. We do not send your password, your payment details, or your Plaid access token.
• Google processes this data under its own Gemini API terms.
• AI output is informational only and can be wrong. See our Terms of Service.

6. Who we share data with

We share information only with the service providers that make the platform work, and only as much as each one needs.

Other limited situations

• Legal requirements. If we are required by law, a subpoena, or a court order, or where necessary to protect someone's safety or our legal rights.
• Business transfer. If the organization is ever merged, acquired, or reorganized, your information may transfer as part of that. We will notify you and this policy will continue to apply until replaced.

7. How long we keep data

8. Your rights and controls

What you can do yourself

• See and correct your data. Everything you entered is visible and editable inside the tool you entered it in.
• Export from a tool. The budget tools offer CSV export of your data.
• Disconnect your bank. Profile Settings, Disconnect Bank. Stops syncing and deletes the access token.
• Cancel your subscription. Manage Subscription, then complete cancellation in the Stripe billing portal.
• Delete your account. Profile Settings, Delete Account. Permanent and immediate.

What to email us for

A complete export of all your data is not yet a self-service button. Email us and we will put it together for you. We aim to respond within 30 days.

State privacy rights

If you live in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, or another state with a comprehensive privacy law, you have the right to:

• Know what personal information we collect and why.
• Access a copy of it.
• Correct inaccurate information.
• Delete your personal information.
• Opt out of sale or sharing for targeted advertising. We do not sell or share your information this way, so there is nothing to opt out of, but the right exists.
• Not be treated differently for exercising any of these rights.

9. Cookies and analytics

We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies:

• Essential. Firebase Authentication uses browser storage to keep you signed in. Without this you cannot use an account.
• Analytics. Our public marketing and article pages use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and understand which content is useful. It is not loaded on your account, billing, or tool pages.
• Security. Google reCAPTCHA runs on our signup and checkout pages to block automated abuse.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

You can block or clear cookies in your browser settings, though blocking essential cookies will prevent sign-in. You can also install the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

10. How we protect your data

• Encryption in transit. All traffic uses HTTPS with TLS.
• Encryption at rest. Data stored in Firebase is encrypted by Google Cloud.
• Password handling. Firebase Authentication stores a salted hash of your password. It never reaches our servers in readable form.
• Access rules. Firestore security rules restrict each account to its own data.
• Server-side verification. Actions that touch billing or personal data verify your identity token on the server before doing anything.
• Secrets management. API keys and credentials are held in server environment variables, never in the code sent to your browser.
• Data minimization. We do not collect bank credentials or card numbers at all, so there is nothing there to lose.

More detail is available on our Security page.

11. Children's privacy

The Services are for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 through this website.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us at thenextgenempowerment+service@gmail.com and we will delete it promptly.

12. Changes and contact

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy as the Services change or the law requires. The "Last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version. For material changes, such as collecting a new category of data or sharing with a new provider, we will notify you by email before the change takes effect.

Contact us

See also our Terms of Service.