uUniBudz

Privacy Policy

Effective: 17 May 2026 · Last updated: 23 September 2026

Plain English first: UniBudz is a South African app for splitting bills, settling up, finding deals and events, and looking out for your mates on a night out. We keep what those features need and nothing more. We don't sell your data, we don't run ads, and we don't build advertising profiles. UniBudz never moves money: if you save bank or PayShap details, we only show them to people in your groups so they can pay you back (§7). You can delete your account in the app at any time (see unibudz.co.za/delete-account). For anything else, email unibudzapp@gmail.com and we'll act within 30 days.

1. Who we are

UniBudz is operated as a sole proprietorship by Ryan Daniel van Eeden ("we", "us", "our"), based in South Africa. We are the Responsible Party under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA) for the personal information described in this policy. Our Information Officer is Ryan Daniel van Eeden.

Contact for any privacy question, request for your data, deletion request or complaint: unibudzapp@gmail.com.

2. What we collect

We collect what the features you use need. Most of it you give us directly. Some of it is created as you use the app.

Your account

What	Details	Why
Account and profile	Email address, first and last name, university, friend code, an optional @handle and an optional profile photo	To create your account and show you to your friends and groupmates. Your university decides which campus you belong to in the app (events, deals and the campus photo feed)
Sign-in codes	A one-time 6-digit code we email you each time you sign in. UniBudz doesn't use passwords	To check it's really you
Age check	We ask for your date of birth when you sign up and check it on your phone. Your birthday is never sent to us. We store the date and time you confirmed you are 18 or older. If an existing account tells us it is under 18, we store that answer and when it was given, only until we delete that account (§11)	UniBudz is for people aged 18 and over (§11)
Activity status	When you were last active in the app, and whether it is open right now	To show your friends "online now" or "active 2h ago"
Settings	Notification choices and quiet hours, location-sharing settings, and a profile visibility setting	To respect what you asked for
Phone number (older accounts only)	An earlier version of sign-up asked for a phone number. We no longer ask for it or use it	Not used

Groups, expenses and settling up

What	Details	Why
Groups and expenses	Group names, members and the name each member uses in the group, expense titles, amounts, categories, notes and dates, who paid and each person's share, recurring expenses you set up, and the group's activity feed (for example "Ryan added Pizza R120")	The core bill-splitting feature
Receipt scanning	When you tap Scan, the photo is sent through our server to Google Gemini, which reads the line items, and the result comes back to your phone. We don't keep a copy of the scan on our servers. If you then save the expense, the photo is attached to it as proof (next row)	To fill in the expense for you. Your first scan is free, after that it is a Pro feature
Proof photos	Photos you attach to an expense or to a payment, such as a receipt or a screenshot from your banking app	So your group can see what was paid
Payment details for settling up (optional)	A bank account number and bank, or a PayShap cellphone number, plus an optional account-holder name, and the date you agreed to save them	So people in your groups can pay you back. You only give these if you use settle-up, and you can remove them at any time (§7)
Payments between members	Who paid whom, the amount, an optional note and proof photo, and whether the other person confirmed or disputed it	To keep each group's "who has settled up" record accurate
Reminders	Payment reminders sent between group members, including automatic ones if you turn on Debt Autopilot (Pro), and who has muted reminders from whom	To run reminders and stop them being used to spam people
Pro subscription	Whether you're on the free plan, a free trial or Pro, when it ends, any promotional Pro period, how many free receipt scans you've used, and whether Debt Autopilot is on. We never receive your card details; Google Play takes the payment	To unlock Pro features for the right people

Friends, location and safety

What	Details	Why
Friends	Your friends and friend requests, nicknames and pins you give friends, people you have blocked, and which friends you have chosen to share your location with and until when	To run the friends features and your privacy controls
Group live location (optional, off by default)	Your GPS position, for groups where you have switched on location sharing. It only updates while you are on the Map tab with the app open	So your group can see each other on the map
Friend live location (optional, off by default)	Your GPS position, shared only with the friends you pick, for as long as you choose (until 8am, 1 hour, 3 hours, or until you stop). When you accept a friend's request to see where you are, only that friend sees you, for the hours you pick. It keeps updating with the app closed and your phone locked, and your phone shows a notification the whole time it is on. It stops when the time runs out or you stop it	So the friends you trust can find you on a night out
Location requests	A friend asking to see where you are, and your answer	To run "where are you?" requests
SOS alerts	Your position when you start an SOS, and your live position for as long as the alert is on, including with the app closed and your phone locked (your phone shows a notification while it is on). Starting an SOS sends your live position to the people listed in §7 for the length of the alert, even if you normally keep location sharing off	To alert the people around you in an emergency (§7)
Deal redemptions	To redeem a venue special, your phone sends its position so we can check you are within 250 metres of the venue. We keep a record that you redeemed that special on that night, not your coordinates	To stop specials being claimed from home and to enforce per-night limits

Jols (night-out photos)

Jols is being rolled out and may not be in your version of the app yet.

What	Details	Why
Your jols	The photos you post, their caption, the venues you tag, the audience you pick (your crew or your whole campus), when you posted and your campus	To show your night out to the people you chose (§7)
Likes and reports	Which jols you like, and any jol you report, including that it was you who reported it	Likes are shown to the person who posted. Reports go to us for review
Venue reposting (optional)	Whether you ticked "Tagged spots can repost this photo" on a jol	So we only ever offer a photo to a venue with your permission (§7)
Moderation	Whether a jol has been hidden, and why (for example someone in the photo asked for it to be taken down)	To keep the feed safe

Community content and help

What	Details	Why
Reviews	Your rating and review of a venue	To help other students. Reviews are screened by automated moderation when you submit them in the app (§5)
Suggestions and reports	Venues, deals and events you suggest, problems you report about a venue, and reviews you report. We record who sent each one	To keep venue and event information accurate and to handle abuse
Saved events	Events you save	So you can find them again
Help messages	If you contact us through Help: your name, email address and message, plus the app version, your phone's browser details, your account ID and the screen you were on. We also record that you sent a message	So we can answer and fix the problem. The record stops the form being used to spam us

Behind the scenes

What	Details	Why
Usage events	Which venues you open on the map; whether you tap for directions, to call them, or to visit their website or Instagram; when you read a venue's reviews or rate it; and which events you open or click through to buy tickets. These are recorded against your account	To learn which venues and events are useful. We only ever share totals with venues and event organisers, never names or account IDs (§7)
Push notifications	A push token for your phone from Firebase Cloud Messaging	To send you notifications you have allowed
Sign-in and security	The IP address and phone or browser details of each signed-in session, and short-lived server logs kept by our hosting provider	To keep your account secure, stop abuse and fix problems
Abuse limits	Counts of certain actions, such as joining groups, starting an SOS or scanning receipts	To stop the app being abused

The website

What	Details	Why
Waitlist	If you join the waitlist on unibudz.co.za: your email address, your university, the page or link that brought you there, your browser details and the time. This is kept separately from app accounts	To tell you when UniBudz reaches your campus
Page analytics	Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits to our website without cookies: the page visited, the site that sent you, your browser type and your country	To see which pages and posters bring people to us

We do not collect your contacts, microphone, calendar, browsing outside UniBudz, advertising IDs or any biometric data, or any photo you don't choose to upload. We never see a payment happen and never see your bank balance.

3. How we use it

To run the app. Signing you in, syncing your groups and expenses, showing friends on the map, sending notifications, and unlocking Pro features.
To help you settle up. We show the payment details you chose to save to people in your groups so they can pay you back, record who has paid whom, and send reminders. UniBudz is not a payment provider: we never hold, move or transfer money, and we are never connected to your or anyone else's bank account. Every payment happens in your own banking app, directly between you and the other person.
To keep people safe. Checking age at sign-up, sending SOS alerts, keeping blocked users apart, screening reviews and campus captions in the app, handling reports, and stopping abuse.
To improve it. Usage totals help us decide what to build next and which venue listings are out of date.
To support you. Answering your messages.

We do not use your personal information for advertising and we don't build advertising profiles. We do not sell or rent your data to anyone.

4. Legal basis for processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on these bases:

Your consent, for optional features: location sharing, notifications, saving payment details, and letting a venue repost a jol photo. We record when you agreed to save payment details. You can withdraw consent at any time in the app.
Performing our agreement with you, to deliver the features you signed up for, including Pro if you subscribe.
Legitimate interests, to keep the app secure, prevent abuse, and understand how it is used, where that interest is not outweighed by your privacy.
Legal obligation, to comply with the law, including checking age and responding to lawful requests from regulators or law enforcement.

5. Service providers (Operators under POPIA)

We use a small number of service providers to run UniBudz. They process personal information on our behalf and under their own security and privacy commitments:

Operator	What they do	Where
Supabase	Database, sign-in, file storage and server-side functions	Database and files in the EU (Ireland). Server-side functions run on Supabase's global network and may run in a region near you
Google Gemini (Google)	Reads receipt photos when you tap Scan. Also reads public venue websites, menus and public Google reviews of venues to find deals, which involves none of your data	Google global infrastructure
OpenAI	Screens venue reviews, and the captions of jols posted to your campus, for abuse when you submit them in the app, and tidies deal text people submit. OpenAI does not use this data to train its models and may keep it for up to 30 days to monitor for abuse	USA
Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google)	Delivers push notifications. Google's servers carry the content of each notification, such as a friend's first name or an expense title and amount, and for an SOS the sender's first name, account ID and position	Google global infrastructure
Resend	Sends sign-in codes by email, and forwards messages you send through Help to our inbox	USA / global
RevenueCat	Keeps track of Pro subscriptions. The app connects to RevenueCat whenever you are signed in on Android, so RevenueCat holds a record under your account ID with your phone's IP address and basic device and app details, plus, if you subscribe, the subscription events Google Play reports (plan, price, currency and dates). Never receives card details	USA
Google Play Billing (Google)	Takes the Pro subscription payment and runs the free trial. Your card details stay with Google	Google global infrastructure
Cloudflare	Hosts our website and admin dashboard, runs the cookie-free website analytics, and routes email sent to unibudz.co.za addresses to our inbox	Global edge network
GitHub (Microsoft)	Runs our scheduled maintenance jobs, such as the event sync, the deal finder and the daily clean-up of unused files. The clean-up sees file names, which include account IDs	USA

We picked these providers because they offer industry-standard security and data processing terms, including protections for data sent outside South Africa.

Services your phone contacts directly, or that use data under their own terms

These are not our operators. They receive the information below under their own privacy policies, not on our instructions:

Service	What they receive	Where
OpenStreetMap Foundation	Map images for the Map tab are fetched by your phone straight from OpenStreetMap, so their servers see your IP address and the area you are looking at, never your account	UK / global
Quicket	We get public event listings from Quicket. Event poster images load straight from Quicket's image server, so Quicket sees your IP address and which events you are looking at, never your account. Tapping to buy tickets opens Quicket's own website	South Africa
Google Maps / Places (Google)	We use Google Places for venue locations and details, which involves none of your data. Tapping "Get directions" opens the Google Maps app, which Google runs under its own privacy policy	Google global infrastructure
Gmail (Google)	Our inbox is a standard Gmail account, so emails you send us, including privacy and deletion requests and Help messages, are held by Google under Google's own terms	Google global infrastructure

6. Sending data outside South Africa

Because most of the providers above are based outside South Africa, some of your personal information leaves the country. Under POPIA section 72 we only send personal information abroad where the recipient is subject to laws, binding corporate rules or an agreement that give it comparable protection, where you have agreed, or where it is necessary to provide the service you asked for. For our operators we rely on their data processing agreements and standard contractual clauses. The services in the second table in §5 act under their own terms: map images and event posters are fetched by your phone directly, and emails you send us are held by Google as part of a standard Gmail account.

7. Who can see what

Other UniBudz users

People in your groups see the name you use in that group, your profile photo, the expenses you add, your share of each expense, payments between you and other members (with any note and proof photo), and the group's activity feed. If you switch on group location sharing, they see your live position while you're on the Map tab, and the last place you were seen for up to about an hour after you leave it.
Your saved payment details (bank account with the account-holder name you entered, or PayShap number) can be seen by anyone who shares a group with you. The app shows them when someone goes to pay you back, so they can check they are paying the right person. They are never shown to anyone you don't share a group with, and you can remove them at any time.
Your friends, and anyone you have a pending friend request with, see your name, profile photo, friend code, whether you are online or when you were last active, and whether you are sharing your location with them (and until when). If you share your location, only the friends you pick see your live position, until the time you chose. When you accept one friend's request to see where you are, only that friend can see you, for the hours you pick. They also see all your jols, crew and campus, including on the map for 24 hours at the venue you tagged.
During an SOS, all your accepted friends and everyone in every group you belong to get a notification and see your first name, profile photo and live position (it keeps updating with your phone locked) until the alert ends. After it ends, only you can see it. People you have blocked don't see it.
Everyone on UniBudz who has picked the same university as you sees jols you post to the campus feed: the photos, caption, your name and profile photo, tagged venues, when you posted and how many likes it has. We don't check that people really study there, so treat a campus jol as visible to anyone who signs up and picks your university.
The person who posted a jol can see who liked it.
Anyone signed in to UniBudz can see your venue reviews. The app shows them without your name, but each review is linked to your account.
If you mute payment reminders from someone, they can tell: the app tells them you have reminders turned off when they try to remind you.
Profile photos are stored at a web address that is very hard to guess and changes every time you change your photo. Anyone who is given that address can open the photo, so a photo is not protected once its link has been shared. When you replace or remove your photo, the old link stops working.
Blocking someone removes them as a friend, cancels location requests between you, and hides your live location, your SOS alerts and your campus jols from them. If you share a group, they still see that group's expenses and payments and your saved payment details. In the app you can block a friend, or the person who posted a jol you can see.

Venues and event organisers

We may share totals with venues and event organisers, such as how many people viewed a venue or redeemed a special. Totals never include names or account IDs.
Jol photos you allow to be reposted. If you tick "Tagged spots can repost this photo" on a jol, we may give the venues you tagged that photo, its caption and your name (so they can credit you), for them to post on their own pages, such as Instagram. If you delete the jol, or ask us, we stop offering it. We can't pull back a photo a venue has already posted, but if you ask we will ask the venue to take it down.

We never touch your money. UniBudz is not a bank, a payment processor or a money-transfer service. We only show the payment details you chose to save and record what people tell us they have paid. The payment itself always happens directly between you and the other person, in your own banking app. We have no access to your bank account and we never move funds.

8. How long we keep it

Your account and profile: until you delete your account. Deleting in the app happens straight away; a deletion request by email is completed within 30 days. How to do both: unibudz.co.za/delete-account.
Groups and expenses: while the group exists. When you delete your account, your shares, your payments, payments recorded between you and others, reminders and the photos you uploaded are removed. Expenses you added stay in the group for the other members without your name on them, and your lines in the activity feed change to "Former member".
Receipt scans: a scan is not kept on our servers unless you save the scanned expense. Then the photo is kept as that expense's proof until the expense, the group or your account is deleted.
Files nothing uses any more (for example a photo from a jol that failed to post, or a replaced profile photo): removed automatically within about two days.
Payment details: until you remove them in the app or delete your account.
Group live location: deleted about an hour after your last update. Friend live location: deleted about 12 hours after your last update, so friends can still see where you were last seen that night.
SOS alerts: deleted 30 days after the alert ends. Once it ends, only you can see it.
Location requests: deleted after 30 days.
Who you share your location with: each share ends at the time you chose, or when you stop it, sign out or delete your account. Ended shares are deleted within about 30 minutes.
Jols, likes and reviews: until you delete them or your account. A jol hidden by moderation stays hidden from everyone until it is deleted.
Reports you make: until you delete your account.
Venue, deal and event suggestions, and venue problem reports: kept to maintain the listings. When you delete your account, your name is removed from them.
Usage events: venue views and taps are deleted after 90 days. Event opens and ticket clicks are unlinked from your account after 90 days; after that we keep them without any link to you.
Deal redemptions, saved events, blocks, friend nicknames and settings: until you change them or delete your account.
Push tokens: removed when you sign out, when the token stops working, or when you delete your account.
Signed-in sessions (IP address and device details): until you sign out on that device or delete your account. Our hosting provider's server logs are kept for a few days.
Abuse-limit counts, including the record that you sent a Help message: deleted after 2 days.
Age confirmation: until you delete your account. An under-18 answer is kept only until we delete that account.
Pro subscription records at RevenueCat: RevenueCat keeps your account ID and any subscription history after you delete your UniBudz account, as a record of the purchase. Ask us and we will have it deleted. Google Play keeps its own purchase records under Google's privacy policy.
Help messages and emails to us: until we have dealt with them, then only as long as reasonably needed in case you follow up. You can ask us to delete them.
Website waitlist: until you ask us to remove you. When UniBudz launches at your campus we email you once and then delete your entry. Deleting an app account does not remove a waitlist entry, so ask us if you want both gone.
Backups: our database provider keeps backups for up to 7 days, so deleted data drops out of them within 7 days.

9. Your rights under POPIA

Access: ask for a copy of what we hold about you.
Correction: ask us to fix anything that is wrong. Most of your details you can also change in the app.
Deletion: delete your account in the app, or ask us by email. See unibudz.co.za/delete-account for what is deleted and what stays.
Objection: object to us using your information in a particular way.
Withdrawing consent: switch off location sharing and notifications, or remove saved payment details, in the app at any time. To withdraw permission for a venue to repost a jol you already posted, delete the jol or email us.
Complaints: to us first at unibudzapp@gmail.com, or to the Information Regulator at complaints.IR@justice.gov.za or inforegulator.org.za.

We answer every request within 30 days. We may ask you to email us from the address on your account, so we know the request really comes from you.

10. Security

Encryption (TLS) for everything sent between the app and our servers.
Encryption at rest for the database and stored files, provided by Supabase.
Database access rules (row-level security) that stop people from reading data that isn't theirs.
No passwords: you sign in with a one-time code emailed to you, so there is no UniBudz password to steal.
Only the UniBudz operator can see administrative data, and only to run and support the app.

Profile photos are the one kind of data protected only by a hard-to-guess link (§7). No system is completely secure. If we discover a breach that puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the Information Regulator as soon as reasonably possible, as POPIA section 22 requires.

11. Age: UniBudz is 18+

UniBudz is for people aged 18 and over, because under POPIA a person under 18 is a child and because the app shows drink specials. When you sign up we ask for your date of birth before anything else and don't let anyone under 18 create an account. The date is checked on your phone and never sent to us.

If someone tells us during the age check on an existing account that they are under 18, we sign them out and delete the account and its data within 30 days. If you believe someone under 18 is using UniBudz, please email unibudzapp@gmail.com and we will look into it and delete the account where appropriate.

12. Cookies, trackers and our website

The app does not use cookies, advertising trackers or analytics SDKs. It includes two service SDKs that the features need: RevenueCat (Pro subscriptions) and Firebase Cloud Messaging (notifications). Fonts and code libraries are built into the app, so opening UniBudz does not contact any font or code service.

Our website at unibudz.co.za does not set cookies. It uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits without cookies (§2). Like any web server, Cloudflare sees your IP address to deliver the page. The website's fonts are served from our own site, and the waitlist form sends what you enter to our database (§2).

13. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the app changes. If we make a material change, we will tell you in the app and update the date at the top. If you keep using UniBudz after a change, the updated policy applies.

14. Contact

Privacy questions, requests for your data, deletion requests or complaints:
unibudzapp@gmail.com

How to delete your account: unibudz.co.za/delete-account