Privacy Policy
Short version: we don't sell your financial data. Here's exactly what we collect, why, and how you can control it.
1. Overview
This Privacy Policy explains how ThinkBudgets ("ThinkBudgets," "we," "us," or "our") handles your information when you use our budgeting app at thinkbudgets.com. By using ThinkBudgets, you're agreeing to this policy. It's part of our Terms of Service.
ThinkBudgets is available to US residents only.
2. What We Collect
What you give us
- Account info: your name, email, and password when you sign up.
- Budget data: categories, transactions, income, loans, goals, and notes you enter.
- Support messages: anything you send to hello@thinkbudgets.com.
What we collect automatically
- Usage data: which pages and features you use, and how often.
- Device info: IP address, browser type, OS, and referring URL.
- Logs: server logs for security and debugging.
- Ad interactions: whether you watched an ad to unlock a feature. We don't share your financial data with ad networks.
From third-party services
- Bank data (via Plaid): if you link a bank account, we receive transactions, balances, and account info from Plaid. See Section 7.
- Sign-in providers: if you use Google to log in, we receive your name and email from them.
3. How We Use It
We use your information to run the app, improve it, show you relevant features, serve ad-supported features, prevent abuse, and communicate with you about your account. We analyze usage in aggregate and anonymized form to make ThinkBudgets better.
AI-assisted features
ThinkBudgets uses Anthropic's Claude API to power budget insights. Anthropic processes the input and returns a short insight that we then save to your workspace.
- Daily insights — premium workspaces (automatic): If your workspace is on a premium plan and has had transactions in the last 30 days, we automatically send a summary of that workspace once per day to Anthropic to generate a short budget-health insight.
- Daily insights — free workspaces (user-initiated): If your workspace is on a free plan, an insight is only generated when you click the "Generate insight" button and complete a short ad. When you click and the ad finishes, we send the same workspace summary described above to Anthropic.
What we send to Anthropic in either flow: category names (including any personalized labels you set, like "Mom's Allowance"), total budgeted vs. actual amounts per category, and the names of any unplanned or zero-budget categories.
What we do NOT send: your name, your email, individual transaction descriptions, merchant names, dollar amounts of individual transactions, bank account information, Plaid credentials, or any data from workspaces other than the one being analyzed.
Per Anthropic's Commercial Terms, Anthropic does not use API inputs to train their models, and inputs are retained for up to 30 days for trust & safety review only. We do not authorize any third-party AI provider to use your content for model training. We do not sell your financial data.
If you do not want your workspace data used for AI insights, you have control: on a free plan, simply don't click the Generate button; on a premium plan, you can downgrade or email hello@thinkbudgets.com to disable insights for your workspace.
Example plans on the shared budget gallery
Separately from anything you do in your account, the ThinkBudgets team occasionally publishes example budget plans on the public share gallery to help new users see how ThinkBudgets works. These examples are seeded from publicly posted budgets on sites like Reddit. Our team uses an internal parser tool that sends the source text from those public posts to Anthropic to extract a structured budget; Anthropic does not use that input to train its models (see the disclosure above). This tool is only used by the ThinkBudgets team and does not process any data from your workspace or your account.
If you originally posted a budget on Reddit (or elsewhere) that we have used as the basis for an example plan, you can ask us to remove it by emailing hello@thinkbudgets.com with the link to the example plan and a way to confirm you wrote the source post. We'll take it down within a reasonable time.
If you choose to "import" an example plan into your own workspace, no AI processing happens at that point — we simply copy the plan structure into your account for you to edit.
5. Advertising
ThinkBudgets displays advertising via Google AdSense to support the free tier. Ads are selected and served by Google — we don't choose the specific ads shown to any individual user.
What Google may collect when ads load on a page you visit:
- Device and browser information (user agent, screen size, language, OS)
- IP address and approximate location
- Pages on ThinkBudgets where ads are served
- Ad interactions (impressions, clicks, dwell time)
- Cookies or similar identifiers Google uses for frequency capping and (where permitted) personalization
We do not share your budgets, transactions, goals, account email, or any data you enter in the app with Google or any advertiser. Google's use of advertising data is governed by Google's Advertising Policies and Privacy Policy.
Your choices
- Manage or turn off personalized advertising across Google services at adssettings.google.com.
- Opt out of personalized advertising from many participating ad networks at DAA WebChoices or NAI Opt-Out.
- You will still see ads after opting out — they just won't be personalized to you.
6. Affiliate Links
Some links in the app may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one, we may earn a small commission — at no cost to you. We only promote things we think are genuinely useful, and we disclose affiliate relationships wherever they appear, per FTC guidelines.
7. Bank Connections
Linking a bank account is optional and goes through Plaid. You log in directly with your bank through Plaid — we never see or store your banking credentials. We get read-only access to your transactions and balances. Plaid's own privacy policy also applies to that connection.
You can disconnect a bank account anytime from your workspace settings. We'll stop pulling new transactions, but data already imported stays unless you delete it.
9. Data Retention
We keep your data as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we'll remove your personal data within 90 days, except where we're legally required to keep it or need it to resolve a dispute. To delete your account, email hello@thinkbudgets.com.
10. Security
We use HTTPS, access controls, and secure credential storage to protect your data. That said, no system is perfectly secure — if you think your account has been compromised, contact us right away at hello@thinkbudgets.com.
In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify affected users without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovering the breach, as required by applicable law.
11. Children
ThinkBudgets is for users 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you think we have, let us know and we'll remove it.
12. Your Rights
Depending on your state, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal data, and to opt out of targeted advertising. To make any of these requests, email us at hello@thinkbudgets.com. We'll verify your identity and respond in a reasonable timeframe. We won't penalize you for exercising these rights.
California residents (CCPA/CPRA)
If you're a California resident, you have the following additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act:
- Know: request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we've collected about you, and how we use and share it.
- Delete: request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
- Correct: request that we correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
- Opt out of sharing: opt out of the sharing of your personal information with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising (e.g., targeted ads).
- Non-discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
We do not sell your personal information as defined under CCPA. We may share limited non-financial data (such as device identifiers and ad interaction signals) with third-party ad networks for targeted advertising purposes. To opt out of this sharing, use the DAA opt-out tool or adjust your device's ad tracking settings.
To exercise your California rights, email hello@thinkbudgets.com with "California Privacy Request" in the subject line. We'll respond within 45 days as required by law.
13. Third-Party Services
The full list of third-party services we share data with, and what each one does, is in Section 4. We also load Google Fonts on our public pages — Google's privacy policy governs that. Their own privacy policies govern how each provider uses your data. We're not responsible for what they do with it.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We'll update the date at the top and notify you of material changes by email or in-app notice. Continuing to use ThinkBudgets after changes go live means you accept them.
15. Contact
Questions about your privacy? Reach us at hello@thinkbudgets.com.