Privacy Policy

Effective: July 2026

1. Who we are

TripBuddy ("the App", "we", "us", "our") is operated by GPEE APPS, based in Victoria, Australia. You can contact us at privacy@gpeeapps.com or via gpeeapps.au.

We are committed to protecting your personal information and handling it in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

2. Scope — which products this covers

This policy applies to every way you can use TripBuddy, namely:

  • the TripBuddy web app at tripbuddy.gpeeapps.au, used in any browser; and
  • the TripBuddy Android app, distributed through Google Play.

Both share the same account and the same cloud backend, so information you create on one is available on the other. Sections that apply only to the Android app are marked as such.

3. Information we collect

  • Account details: first and last name, email address, and an authentication credential (your password is stored as a salted hash by our authentication provider; we never see your plain password). If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and email address from Google.
  • Profile preferences: home currency, theme settings (dark/light mode, banner colour, text colour, pastel intensity), compact view, export preferences, and feature toggles such as Trip Budgets.
  • Trip and expense data you create: trip names, destinations and countries, dates, budget figures, expense amounts, currencies, exchange rates, categories, merchants, notes, work/personal classification, tourist refund (TRS) flags, currency-exchange entries and commissions, and any receipt images, exchange receipts or cover images you upload.
  • Voice and image input: short audio recordings and receipt photographs that you deliberately capture in order to create an entry.
  • Subscription and trial status: your trial start and expiry dates, your subscription status, and a reference to your payment provider record. We do not store card numbers.
  • Usage analytics: aggregated information about feature use, screen views and actions, tagged with the platform you used (web or android).
  • Error and diagnostic logs: error messages, stack traces, app version and the actions leading up to an error, tagged with the platform.
  • Technical data: IP address, browser/user-agent string, device type, language, and timestamps of requests.
  • Location: we do not collect, request, or store precise or approximate device location. Trip destinations and countries are entered by you manually.

4. How we collect it

  • Directly from you when you sign up, edit your profile, create trips, or enter expenses and exchanges.
  • Automatically when you use the App (analytics events, error logs, technical request data).
  • From third-party services you ask us to use — for example an AI provider returning a transcript of your voice recording, or an exchange-rate provider returning a market rate.
  • From Google Play, if you install the Android app (see section 11).

5. Why we use your information

  • To provide the App and the features you choose to use.
  • To convert currencies using third-party exchange-rate data.
  • To process voice recordings and receipt images using AI providers, returning structured expense data to you.
  • To manage your trial, subscription and access level.
  • To send you administrative emails (e.g. account verification, password reset, important service notices).
  • To send the operator (us) an aggregated daily metrics digest about App usage and errors, reported separately for web and Android.
  • To debug issues, improve features, and maintain the security and integrity of the service.
  • To comply with legal obligations.

6. Android app permissions

The Android app requests only the permissions it needs, and only uses them when you trigger the relevant feature:

  • Camera — to photograph a receipt or currency-exchange slip when you choose to scan one. The camera is never opened in the background.
  • Microphone — to record a short voice entry while you are actively recording. Audio is captured only for that entry, is sent for transcription, and is not recorded in the background or while the app is idle.
  • Speech recognition service — the app queries your device's speech-recognition service (normally supplied by Google) to display live transcription text while you speak. Your device's speech settings govern that service.
  • Internet and network state — to sync with our backend and to detect when you are offline so the app can switch to offline mode.
  • Location — not requested. The app does not access or collect your device location.

You can revoke camera or microphone access at any time in Android Settings. The rest of the app continues to work without them; only voice and scan entry are unavailable.

7. Data stored on your device (Android)

To let you keep working without a connection, the Android app stores the following locally on your device:

  • An offline read cache of your trips, expenses and currency exchanges, so existing data is visible when you have no connection.
  • An offline action queue of entries you create or edit while offline, which is uploaded automatically when you reconnect and then cleared.
  • Your display and export preferences, including theme, compact view and your chosen export format and save folder.
  • Cached exchange rates, so conversions still work offline.
  • An offline sign-in credential blob, if you enable offline sign-in. This is encrypted on your device using AES-GCM with a key derived from your password (PBKDF2); it is never transmitted to us in that form.

All of this local data is removed when you sign out or uninstall the app.

8. Files and exports (Android)

When you export an expense image (PNG), a PDF, or a trip spreadsheet (Excel/CSV), the file is written using Android's system document picker to the single folder you select. We do not browse, index or read other files on your device, and the app has no general storage permission.

9. Diagnostics and debug logging

The Android app includes an optional "Capture debug logs" switch in Setup. It is off by default.

  • When it is off, we record only ordinary error reports (message, stack trace, app version, platform).
  • When you turn it on, the app additionally keeps a short rolling log in memory (roughly the last few hundred entries) describing which screens you visited and which operations ran. This is attached to error reports and to any crash so we can reproduce the problem.
  • Log entries are scrubbed of personal detail such as email addresses, access tokens and amounts before they leave your device.
  • An anonymous session identifier is generated so related entries can be grouped. It is not linked to any advertising identifier.
  • You can share the log with us yourself using "Share diagnostics", and you can clear it at any time. Turning the switch off stops collection.

10. AI processing notice

When you use voice entry or receipt scanning, the audio or image is transmitted to a third-party AI provider for processing. Per the providers' published terms, content sent through their commercial APIs is not used to train their models. We retain only the structured result and, where you chose to keep it, the original receipt image. Receipt and cover images are stored in private cloud storage that is accessible only to your account.

11. Payments

Paid access is processed by our payment provider. Payment card details are entered with that provider and are never seen, transmitted or stored by us. We receive only a transaction reference and your resulting subscription status. If you purchase through the Android app, the transaction may instead be processed by Google Play under Google's own terms and privacy policy, and we receive only confirmation of entitlement.

12. Disclosure to third parties

We do not sell your personal information. We share limited data with the following service providers strictly to operate the App:

  • Cloud hosting, database, authentication and file storage providers — to run the service and store your account and trip data.
  • AI providers (e.g. Google Gemini, OpenAI, accessed via a managed AI gateway) — to transcribe voice recordings and extract data from receipt images.
  • Exchange-rate API providers — to look up published market rates between currencies.
  • Email delivery providers — to send transactional and administrative emails.
  • Payment provider — to process subscriptions and unlocks.
  • Google Play — for distribution of the Android app. Google independently collects installation, crash and performance (Android vitals) data under its own privacy policy.
  • Government, regulators or courts — where required by law.

13. International data transfers

Some of our service providers process data outside Australia (including in the United States and the European Union). By using the App you consent to this transfer. We take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs.

14. Data retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account remains active. Usage and error events are retained for a limited period for diagnostic purposes and are then purged. If you delete your account, we will delete or de-identify your personal information within a reasonable period (typically 30 days), except where we are required to retain it for legal, accounting or security reasons.

15. Deleting your account and data

You can delete your account and all associated data directly from the app at any time. In the web app, open Settings → About → Account, click Delete my account, review the warning, enter your password when asked, and confirm. In the Android app, open Setup → About → Account, tap Delete my account, review the warning, enter your password when asked, and confirm. The deletion is immediate and permanent.

Alternatively, you can request deletion by emailing privacy@gpeeapps.com from the address registered to your account, with the subject "Delete my account". We will verify that the request comes from you before acting on it.

Deletion removes:

  • your trips, expenses, currency exchanges and commissions;
  • your tourist refund (TRS) records and checklists;
  • your uploaded receipt and cover images from our storage;
  • your custom expense categories, profile, preferences, trial and subscription records; and
  • your sign-in account itself.

Deleted data is removed from our active servers immediately. Some residual data may be retained in backups or logs for a limited period (typically 30 days) before being purged. Aggregated, de-identified usage statistics that cannot be linked back to you may be retained. Uninstalling the Android app removes all locally cached data from your device but does not by itself delete your cloud account.

16. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including HTTPS encryption in transit, hashed credentials, row-level security on our database so each account can only reach its own records, private storage buckets for uploaded images, on-device encryption of the optional offline credential, and access controls on administrative functions. No system is perfectly secure, and you are responsible for keeping your account password confidential.

17. Your rights

Under the Privacy Act and the APPs, you may:

  • Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
  • Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.
  • Request deletion of your account and associated data (see section 15).
  • Make a complaint about how we handle your information.

Email privacy@gpeeapps.com and we will respond within a reasonable period (usually 30 days). If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

18. Cookies and local storage

The web app uses browser local storage and cookies to keep you signed in, remember your theme preferences, and remember which "What's New" entries you've seen. The Android app uses the equivalent on-device storage described in section 7. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, and we do not use advertising or cross-app tracking identifiers.

19. Children

TripBuddy is not directed at children under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

20. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced through the App's "What's New" panel or by email. The "Effective" date at the top of this page indicates when the current version took effect.

21. Contact

Privacy enquiries: privacy@gpeeapps.com
Support: help@gpeeapps.com
Website: gpeeapps.au