This policy explains how travelBuddy handles personal data on the travelBuddy website and in the travelBuddy web app. We’ve written it in plain language. If anything is unclear, email us.
Who we are
travelBuddy is run by Georgios Assiotis, a private individual, Kliitas, Kapsalos, 3083 Limassol, Cyprus. He is the data controller for the personal data described here.
Contact for anything about your data: georgios.assiotis@yahoo.com
The short version
- We collect what’s needed to run your trips: your account, and what you and your travel group put into a trip.
- We don’t sell your data, show ads, or use advertising or tracking tools. The app measures how fast its screens load, without cookies and without identifying you.
- We don’t use cookies. The app keeps data on your device only so that it works offline and you stay signed in.
- Your trip is visible to the people you invite to it, and to nobody else.
- Anyone holding a live invite link can see the trip’s name and the display name of whoever created the link before joining, also in the link’s preview when it’s shared in a chat.
- You can delete your account yourself, in your profile, and ask us to see, correct or export your data at any time.
The website
The website stores nothing on your device and uses no cookies, analytics or tracking. Like any website, our hosting provider sees your IP address and the pages you request, and keeps short-lived access logs for security.
What we collect in the app
Your account. Your email address, used to sign in: an account needs one, so without it we can’t provide travelBuddy. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address, profile picture link and Google account ID with us. We use the name and email; the picture isn’t shown in the app. Your display name comes from your Google name or the first part of your email address, and you can change it in your profile.
What you put into a trip. Trip names, destinations and dates. Plans, with times, places, addresses, booking references, websites and notes. Documents you upload, such as tickets, booking confirmations and insurance papers. Expenses, who paid and how they’re split. Budgets, polls and votes, and lists with who ticked what.
Other people in a trip. Members’ display names and roles (organizer, editor or viewer). Organizers can also add children who don’t have an account. For a child we store the name you type in (a first name or nickname is enough) and whatever the group links to them: their share of expenses, lists made for them and documents assigned to them, such as their ticket.
Trip activity. A feed of what happens in each trip: who added or changed a plan, document, expense, poll or list, and who joined, with the time. We also note when you last opened the feed, so the app can show what’s new.
Notifications, if you turn them on. The address your browser gives for this device to receive push notifications, with its encryption keys, and which kinds of activity you want to hear about. Turning notifications off or signing out on that device removes the address.
Invites. A random invite link, its role and when it expires. We don’t collect the email addresses or phone numbers of the people you share it with.
Technical data. When the app talks to our servers, our providers see your IP address, device and browser type and the time of each request, and keep logs for a short time for security and troubleshooting.
Page speed. The app measures how quickly each screen loads and responds to taps, and sends those timings to Vercel Speed Insights, a performance tool from our hosting provider. With them go the kind of screen (for example “a trip’s map”, never which trip), which part of the screen was slow, your device type, browser and connection speed; Vercel works out your country from your IP address. It uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and doesn’t follow you across sites. We use it only to find and fix slow screens. The website doesn’t measure this.
What we don’t collect. We don’t track your location. If you tap Show my location on the map, your device shows your position on the map; it isn’t sent to us, and we don’t store it. The map then loads the area around you from OpenFreeMap, and those map pieces stay on your device for up to 30 days, like any area you view. We don’t ask for special categories of data, such as health information. Documents are stored exactly as you upload them, so please upload only what you’re comfortable sharing with the people in your trip.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
- To provide travelBuddy (your account, your trips, syncing between devices, sharing with your group): this is necessary to perform our agreement with you, the terms (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)).
- Data about other people you add, such as a child’s name or the members in an expense: our and your group’s legitimate interest in organizing a shared trip (Article 6(1)(f)). Only add children you’re the parent or guardian of, or whose parent or guardian agrees.
- Measuring page speed: our legitimate interest in keeping the app fast and working well (Article 6(1)(f)). You can object by emailing us.
- Security and preventing abuse (logs, keeping accounts and trips separate): our legitimate interest in keeping the service and your data safe (Article 6(1)(f)).
- Answering you when you email us: our legitimate interest in replying, or taking steps you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) and (f)).
We don’t use your data for automated decision-making or profiling.
Who can see your data
People in your trips. Everyone you invite to a trip sees that trip: its plans, documents, expenses, polls, lists and members’ names. Votes in polls show who voted for what. Other members never see your email address.
Service providers who process data for us, under data processing agreements:
- Supabase, which hosts our database, document storage and sign-in. Your data is stored in the European Union (Ireland). Supabase also sends the sign-in emails.
- Vercel, our web hosting provider, which serves the website and app files and measures the app’s page speed.
If you turn on notifications, they’re delivered through your browser’s push service (Google for Chrome, Apple for Safari, Mozilla for Firefox). It receives your device’s push address and when a notification is sent; the notification’s content is encrypted so the push service can’t read it.
Where a provider or its staff may access data from outside the European Economic Area, the transfer is protected by the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
Services your device contacts directly. To show maps, search for places, show the weather and convert currencies, the app connects from your device to these services. They receive your IP address and the details below, and their own privacy policies apply:
- OpenFreeMap (map tiles): which part of the map you’re viewing, including the area around you if you use Show my location.
- Photon by komoot (place search): the text you type when searching for a place, and roughly where your trip is.
- Open-Meteo (weather): the cities and coordinates of your trip’s stops, and the dates.
- Frankfurter (exchange rates): your trip’s currency.
- Google: only if you choose Sign in with Google, under Google’s privacy policy. When you tap Directions, the route opens in Google Maps, outside travelBuddy.
We don’t sell or rent personal data, and we don’t share it with advertisers. We’ll disclose data only if the law requires it.
Storage on your device
The app keeps some data on your device so that it opens quickly, works without a signal and keeps you signed in. This isn’t tracking, and none of it is a cookie. It’s needed for features you asked for, so the law doesn’t require a consent banner for it.
- Browser local storage: your sign-in session, and which account the offline data belongs to (your user ID and email), so it’s never shown to the next person who signs in on the same device.
- The browser’s database (IndexedDB): an offline copy of your trips, documents saved for offline use, expenses and uploads waiting to be sent, and recent weather and exchange rates.
- The app’s offline files (Cache Storage): the app itself, and map areas you’ve viewed.
How long it stays: signing out deletes your trips and documents from the device. Expenses and uploads that haven’t been sent yet stay until they’re sent, and are only ever sent with your own account; deleting your account removes them. Once a trip ended more than 14 days ago, its document files are removed the next time the app is online. Map areas expire after 30 days. If the app isn’t used for 30 days, the offline copy of your trips is discarded. You can delete everything at any time in your browser’s settings for this site.
Anyone who can use your unlocked device can open what’s saved there. On a shared device, sign out when you’re done.
How long we keep data
- Your account: until you delete it in your profile, or ask us to.
- Trips: until an organizer deletes the trip, which deletes everything in it, including its documents.
- If you leave a trip: your membership is removed. You can’t leave while expenses name you, so the group’s balances stay correct.
- If you delete your account: your account, profile and sign-in records are deleted. Trips where nobody else has an account are deleted with everything in them. You leave every shared trip: if you were its last organizer, another member becomes organizer. Where expenses name you, your display name stays on them, without an account behind it. Plans, documents and expenses you added stay with the group, no longer linked to you. Invite links you created stop working.
- Trip activity: kept while the trip exists. After you delete your account, what you did shows as “Someone”, and your “joined the trip” entries are removed (unless expenses still name you).
- Invite links: they stop working when they expire (14 days by default), reach their limit of uses, or are deleted.
- Sign-in records (time, IP address and browser): kept by our sign-in provider while your account exists, and deleted with it.
- Page speed measurements: kept by Vercel for a limited period, then deleted. They aren’t linked to your account.
- Server logs: kept by our providers for a short period, usually days, then deleted.
- Backups: deleted data can remain in our provider’s backups for a limited time until they’re overwritten.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- get a copy of your personal data (access)
- have it corrected (rectification)
- have it deleted (erasure)
- limit how we use it (restriction)
- receive it in a machine-readable format (portability)
- object to processing based on our legitimate interests
You can change your display name and delete your account in your profile. For everything else, email georgios.assiotis@yahoo.com from the address you sign in with. We’ll reply within one month and won’t charge you.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In Cyprus that’s the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection, Iasonos 1, 1082 Nicosia, Cyprus (www.dataprotection.gov.cy). You can also complain to the authority in the EU country where you live or work. We’d appreciate the chance to sort it out first.
Children
Accounts are for people aged 16 and over. Children can be part of a trip without an account, added by an organizer who is their parent or guardian, or who has the parent’s or guardian’s permission. For a child we store only the name you type in. If you believe a child under 16 has created an account, tell us and we’ll delete it.
Security
Data travels encrypted (HTTPS). Database rules let each person reach only the trips they belong to. Documents are stored privately and opened through links that expire after a minute. The app only runs scripts served from its own address: a Content-Security-Policy blocks scripts from anywhere else. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we’ll report it to the authority, and if it’s likely to put your rights at high risk, we’ll tell you without undue delay.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we’ll tell you in the app or by email before the change takes effect. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.