Privacy Policy

How TripsCircle collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use our Service.

Effective June 23, 2026 · Version 1.6 · Updated August 21, 2026

1. Introduction

TripsCircle LLC ("TripsCircle," "we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, how we share it, and the choices available to you when you use the TripsCircle mobile applications, websites (including tripscircle.com), and related services (collectively, the "Service").

This Privacy Policy applies to information we process as a controller. It should be read together with our Terms of Service.

If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Service.

2. Who Is Responsible for Your Information

For purposes of applicable data protection laws, TripsCircle LLC is the controller of personal information for which it determines the purposes and means of processing. Other users, such as trip organizers, may independently decide what information they add to a shared trip and are responsible for having permission to provide it.

Privacy questions and requests may be sent to [email protected]. General support is available at [email protected].

3. Information We Collect

We collect information in the following categories:

3.1 Account and profile information

When you register or maintain an account, we may collect:

Email address and authentication credentials (passwords are stored in hashed form by our authentication provider).
Name, display name, first name, and last name.
Profile photo, biography, gender, interests, and home city or base location.
Profile visibility preferences (public, friends/connections, or private).
Optional payment-handle fields such as Venmo username or Cash App tag, if you choose to provide them.
Distance unit, theme preference, and other account settings.
Sign-in metadata from third-party authentication providers (such as Sign in with Apple), where enabled.
Account identifiers assigned by TripsCircle and authentication providers.
A coarse, one-time age-eligibility status, its source, and an operational timestamp. At account creation, TripsCircle first uses Apple’s silent regulatory preflight where available. Apple’s Declared Age Range sheet is requested only when Apple reports that age-range sharing is required for that person; otherwise, accepting the 13+ account terms is recorded as a self-declared fallback. A completed result does not expire or repeat at later sign-ins.
TripsCircle does not ask for or store your date of birth, birth year, exact age, or Apple-provided age-range bounds, and does not display an age range on your profile.

3.2 Trip, travel, and planning information

When you create or participate in trips, we may collect:

Trip titles, descriptions, emojis, dates, status, budgets, and cover photos.
Destinations, itinerary items, locations, coordinates, notes, and travel preferences.
Expense records, payer and participant details, split rules, categories, and receipt images or URLs.
Packing lists, tasks, reservations, documents, and group membership roles.
Trip privacy settings, feed visibility choices, and invite lists.
Achievements, badges, travel stats, bucket-list items, saved places, and recap content.
Destination and place searches, imported travel-idea links or screenshots, and the results you choose to save.

3.3 Precise and live location information

If you grant location permission or use location-based features, we may collect precise location information from your device, including latitude, longitude, accuracy, heading, speed, and update time.

Nearby discovery uses your location to show nearby trips and destination recommendations.
Live trip sharing lets you share your current location with members of the relevant trip while sharing is enabled.
Itinerary visit tracking may use your current location to identify when you are near planned stops during an active trip.
You can stop live location sharing in the trip experience and can revoke location permission through your device settings.

3.4 Social and communications information

When you use social features, we may collect:

Friend/connection requests, acceptances, and relationship status.
Direct messages, group chat messages, mentions, and conversation metadata.
Comments, kudos/likes, feed interactions, and shared trip links.
Invite emails, invite tokens, and responses to invitations.
Reports, blocks, and moderation actions you initiate or that relate to your account.
Public-link activity, such as responses to polls or availability cards, together with the limited token or browser information needed to prevent duplicate or abusive submissions.

3.5 User-generated media and files

If you upload photos, receipts, or other files, we collect and store those files and related metadata (such as upload time and associated trip or expense).

3.6 Device, technical, and usage information

We automatically collect certain technical information, including:

Device type, operating system, app version, and browser type on web.
Push notification tokens and notification permission status.
IP address, general region, timestamps, and request logs.
Local diagnostic events stored on your device for troubleshooting (which you can clear in Settings).
Privacy-minimized crash, performance, and security-related logs processed by Sentry and our infrastructure providers. TripsCircle disables Sentry session replay and default personal-data collection.
On public marketing, Explore, and legal pages, Microsoft Clarity may collect browser and device details, general location derived from IP address, page views, clicks, scrolling, cursor movement, and page structure changes to provide website analytics and session playback. Clarity is not loaded on TripsCircle sign-in, password, invitation, account-action, or private-sharing pages.
Actions you take in the Service, such as feature usage necessary to operate core functionality.

3.7 AI feature inputs and outputs

If you choose to use AI-assisted planning, we process the prompts and structured inputs you provide (such as destination, dates, budget, pace, and preferences), relevant recent conversation or trip context, generated itinerary drafts and summaries, and limited technical metadata needed to provide, secure, and troubleshoot the feature.

AI inputs and outputs are sent through OpenRouter to the selected underlying model provider. Do not include highly sensitive information or personal information about another person unless you have permission to do so.

3.8 Purchases and subscription information

When you purchase or restore TripsCircle Premium through the Apple App Store or Google Play, the applicable store processes your payment details. TripsCircle receives purchase and entitlement information needed to provide Premium, such as product identifier, store transaction or purchase-token identifiers, purchase and expiration dates, verification status, and subscription status. TripsCircle does not receive your full payment-card, Apple ID payment, or Google Account payment details.

3.9 Information from others

Other users may provide information about you when they invite you to trips, send connection requests, mention you in chats, or add you to shared expenses.

If someone uploads a receipt or photo that includes your information, that content may be stored as part of the associated trip record.

3.10 Information you provide to support

If you contact support, request account deletion, or participate in surveys, we collect the information you submit, such as email content, diagnostics snapshots you choose to share, and correspondence history.

4. How We Use Information

We use information to:

Create and administer accounts and authenticate users.
Confirm eligibility for our 13-and-older Service without requesting a birthday, restrict ineligible accounts, and maintain a minimal eligibility audit trail.
Provide trip planning, collaboration, expense tracking, messaging, maps, notifications, and social features.
Honor your privacy, visibility, and notification preferences.
Generate optional AI planning suggestions and related trip drafts.
Verify purchases, restore subscriptions, and provide Premium entitlements.
Send transactional emails and push notifications (such as invites, comments, messages, and security notices).
Operate, maintain, secure, debug, and improve the Service.
Detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, abuse, spam, and security incidents.
Enforce our Terms of Service and protect users and the public.
Comply with law, regulation, legal process, and governmental requests.
Send product updates or marketing communications where permitted and according to your preferences.
Analyze aggregated or de-identified usage to understand feature performance and plan improvements.

5. Legal Bases for Processing (EEA, UK, and Similar Jurisdictions)

Where the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), UK GDPR, or similar laws apply, we rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

Contract: processing necessary to provide the Service you request.
Legitimate interests: securing and improving the Service, preventing abuse, and communicating about your account, balanced against your rights.
Consent: where required for optional marketing, certain notifications, or specific features.
Legal obligation: compliance with applicable laws and lawful requests.
Vital interests or public interest: only where applicable and permitted by law.

6. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information in the following circumstances:

6.1 With other users, according to your settings

Depending on your profile and trip privacy choices, other users may see:

Your profile information, travel stats, achievements, and public trips.
Trips, itineraries, expenses, and chats you share with trip members or friends.
Your live location, accuracy, and related location status when you choose to share it with a trip.
Messages and comments you send to recipients you select.
Payment handles you choose to display for settlement convenience.

6.2 With service providers

We use trusted vendors to help us operate the Service. They process information on our instructions and subject to contractual protections. Categories of providers include:

Cloud hosting, database, authentication, storage, and serverless functions (Supabase).
Web hosting and content delivery (such as Cloudflare Pages).
Mapping and place search (Apple Maps on iOS; Google Places and Mapbox for place details, imagery, geocoding, or fallback results).
Transactional email delivery (Resend).
Push notification infrastructure (Expo and platform notification services such as Apple Push Notification Service and Firebase Cloud Messaging).
AI model routing and inference providers (OpenRouter and the underlying model provider selected for a request).
Optional media or image services (such as Pexels) where enabled.
Crash and performance diagnostics (Sentry), configured without session replay or default personal-data collection.
Public-website usage analytics and session playback (Microsoft Clarity), limited to marketing, Explore, and legal pages.
Subscription purchase and verification services (Apple and the App Store; Google and Google Play).
Privacy-preserving age-range sharing and age-assurance services (Apple), where supported.
Website font delivery (Google Fonts).

6.3 For legal and safety reasons

We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with law, respond to lawful requests, protect the rights, property, or safety of TripsCircle, our users, or the public, or investigate fraud or security issues.

6.4 Business transfers

If TripsCircle is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction subject to standard confidentiality protections.

6.5 With your direction

We share information when you ask us to, such as when you share a trip link, export content, or email support with attached diagnostics.

6.6 Service-provider safeguards

We require service providers that process personal information for us to protect it consistently with this Privacy Policy and applicable law, use it only to provide contracted services or as otherwise permitted by law, and apply appropriate confidentiality and security protections.

7. International Data Transfers

TripsCircle is based in the United States and may process information in the U.S. and other countries where we or our service providers operate.

Where required, we implement appropriate safeguards for cross-border transfers, such as standard contractual clauses or equivalent mechanisms.

By using the Service, you understand that your information may be transferred to countries that may have different data protection laws than your own.

8. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as necessary to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and maintain security.

Retention periods depend on the type of information, whether your account remains active, the feature through which it was created, legal and contractual requirements, and security, fraud-prevention, support, and dispute-resolution needs.

When you delete your account, deletion of the account and data tied only to it begins through the in-app deletion flow. We then delete or de-identify remaining personal information within a reasonable period, except where retention is required or permitted by law, needed for security or dispute records, or necessary to preserve information shared with other users as described below.

If an account is identified as ineligible under our 13+ policy, access and new collection are disabled, active sessions are revoked, and the account enters a recoverable administrator-reviewed deletion workflow. A minimal eligibility transition record may be retained for safety, compliance, and dispute purposes without age details.

Residual copies may remain in protected backups until those backups are overwritten under our normal backup cycle. We do not use backup copies for ordinary product purposes.

Messages, trip records, and expenses shared with other users may remain visible to those users according to product behavior and their own copies.

9. Security

We implement administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and row-level security policies in our database where applicable.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials and devices.

If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us promptly at [email protected].

10. Your Choices and Privacy Controls

You can control your information through the Service and your device:

Edit profile details and visibility in Edit Profile.
Set trip privacy and feed visibility when creating or editing trips.
Manage notification and marketing preferences in Settings.
Enable or disable push notifications in Settings and your device OS.
Enable, stop, or avoid live location sharing in trip screens, and revoke location permission through your device OS.
Sign out on all devices from Settings.
Export a copy of account data from Settings.
Permanently delete your account from Settings after confirming your identity, or start a deletion request at https://tripscircle.com/delete-account/ if you cannot access the app.
Clear local diagnostic logs from Settings.
Block or report users through profile moderation controls.

11. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or port certain personal information, and to withdraw consent where processing is consent-based.

You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

To exercise your rights, contact [email protected] or [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

11.1 California residents (CCPA/CPRA)

California residents may have the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of certain sharing. TripsCircle does not sell personal information and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined by California law.

You may designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf where permitted by law.

11.2 EEA and UK residents

You may object to processing based on legitimate interests, request restriction or erasure in certain cases, and request data portability where applicable.

12. Children's Privacy

TripsCircle accounts and online features are available only to people age 13 or older. We do not offer child accounts or an under-13 online mode.

At account creation, we use a one-time, privacy-preserving eligibility check. Where Apple’s silent regulatory preflight reports that age-range sharing is required, TripsCircle requests one 13-year age gate through Apple’s Declared Age Range service and receives only the eligibility result needed by the app. Where it is not required, unsupported, or unavailable, acceptance of the 13+ account terms is recorded as a self-declared fallback. The completed check is not repeated at later sign-ins. TripsCircle does not receive or retain the birthday, exact age, or age-range bounds.

If an account is identified as under 13, we immediately restrict access and data collection, revoke sessions, stop push and live-location activity, and route the account to a recoverable deletion review. If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact us and we will take appropriate steps to investigate and delete it.

Users between 13 and the age of majority should use the Service only with parental consent where required by law.

These safeguards support our product policy but are not a claim that one technical mechanism alone satisfies every age-assurance or child-privacy law worldwide.

13. Cookies and Similar Technologies (Web)

When you use TripsCircle on the web, we and our service providers may use cookies, local storage, and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, protect the Service, operate public sharing, and understand usage.

Microsoft Clarity may use first-party and third-party cookies on public marketing, Explore, and legal pages to connect page views and produce aggregated analytics and session playback. Clarity masks sensitive content by default. Where a valid consent signal is required and consent is not provided, Clarity operates in a limited no-consent mode without persistent Clarity cookies.

Essential cookies are necessary for authentication and core functionality. You can control non-essential cookies through your browser settings, though some features may not work correctly if you disable them.

We do not use third-party advertising cookies on the core authenticated product experience.

14. Third-Party Links and Services

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, maps, booking tools, or payment apps. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies.

If you authenticate through a third party or use integrated services such as Sign in with Apple, the App Store, Apple Maps, Google Places, Google Fonts, Mapbox, OpenRouter, Pexels, or payment apps, those providers may process information under their own terms and privacy policies.

15. Automated Processing and AI

TripsCircle uses automated systems to suggest itineraries, calculate expense settlements, rank feed content, detect abuse, and route notifications.

AI outputs are drafts for your review and are not sole bases for legal or similarly significant decisions about you.

If you have questions about automated processing in your jurisdiction, contact [email protected].

16. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will provide notice through the Service, by email, or by updating the effective date above.

If applicable law requires consent for a material change, we will request it. Otherwise, the updated policy applies from its stated effective date, and you may stop using the Service and delete your account if you do not agree.

17. Contact Us

Privacy inquiries: [email protected]

General support: [email protected]

TripsCircle LLC Attn: Privacy Website: https://tripscircle.com/privacy