uUniBudz

Privacy Policy

Effective: 17 May 2026 · Last updated: 27 July 2026

Plain English first: UniBudz is a South African student app for bill-splitting, settling up with friends, friend-locating, and finding events. We keep the data we need to make those features work. Nothing more. We don't sell your data. We don't run ads. We protect it with industry-standard security. If you use the settle-up feature you can save a bank account number or PayShap cellphone number so friends can pay you back, we show it to people you share a group with, but UniBudz never moves money, is never connected to your bank, and never sees a payment happen (see §7). If you ever want to see what we hold on you or delete it, 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.

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

2. What we collect

We collect the minimum personal information needed to run the features you choose to use:

Category	What it is	Why we collect it
Account	Email address, first name, last name, password (hashed), profile photo (optional)	To create your account, sign you in, and show you to your friends and groupmates
Expense data	Group names, expense titles, amounts, categories, notes, who paid, who owes	The core bill-splitting feature
Receipt images (Pro only)	Photos of till slips you choose to scan	To extract line items via OCR (see §5). Stored privately in your account folder; auto-purged after 24 hours if not attached to an expense
Friend graph	Friend connections, friend codes, blocked users, nicknames you assign	To run the Friends tab + privacy controls
Location (when you choose to share)	GPS coordinates while the app is foregrounded	Group/friend live location features. Off by default. Only updates while the Map tab is open. Friend-wide location auto-expires when stale
SOS events	Coordinates + timestamp when you trigger SOS	To notify your friends of an emergency
Push device tokens	Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) token	To send you push notifications. Stale tokens auto-delete
Notification preferences	Quiet hours, channel choices, event toggles	To respect when and what you want to be notified about
Pro subscription status	Tier (free, trialing, or pro) and expiry date. The purchase itself is processed by Google Play and RevenueCat; we never receive your card or bank details for the subscription	To unlock Pro features for subscribers and free-trial users
Payment details for settling up (optional)	A bank account number and bank name, or a PayShap cellphone number (a "proxy"), plus an optional account-holder name, that you choose to save	So friends in your groups can pay you back what they owe. You only provide these if you use the settle-up feature, and you can remove them at any time. See §7
Settlement records	Who paid whom, the amount, an optional note, and an optional proof-of-payment image you upload	To keep each group's "who has settled up" record accurate
Payment reminders	A record of reminders ("nudges") sent between group members, and who has muted reminders from whom	To run the reminder feature and stop it being used to spam people
Reviews and submissions	Review text, ratings, suggested venues, event submissions	To improve the venue and event data for all users. Reviews are screened by automated moderation (see §5)
Usage events	Anonymous venue impressions, popup opens, action taps	To improve which venues we surface and to share aggregated stats with venues. Not tied to your account in shared reports
Device + diagnostic data	App version, error logs, basic platform info (Android version etc)	To debug crashes and improve stability

We do not collect: contact lists, photos other than what you upload, microphone, calendar, browsing history outside the app, advertising IDs, or any biometric data.

3. How we use it

To run the app. Authentication, syncing your expenses, showing your friends on the map, delivering push notifications, gating Pro features.
To help you settle up. We show a friend the payment details you chose to save so they can pay you back, record who has paid whom, and send optional 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 it safe. Filtering blocked users out of recipient lists, moderating reviews, detecting abuse.
To improve it. Aggregated usage stats help us decide which features to build next and which venue listings are stale.
To support you. If you email us, we'll keep that email so we can reply.

We do not use your personal information for advertising or profiling. We do not sell or rent your data to any third party.

4. Legal basis for processing

Under POPIA, we process your personal information on the following bases:

Your consent: you sign up for the account and choose which optional features to enable (location sharing, push notifications, and saving payment details for settling up). We record the moment you consent to save payment details, and you can withdraw it by removing them at any time.
Performance of a contract: to deliver the services you signed up for, including Pro features if you subscribe.
Legitimate interests: to keep the platform secure, prevent abuse, and improve product quality. We weigh these against your privacy rights and only act where the interest is not overridden.
Legal obligation: to respond to lawful requests from regulators or law enforcement.

5. Third-party processors (Operators under POPIA)

We use a small number of trusted service providers to run the app. Each is bound by their own privacy obligations and only processes data on our instructions:

Operator	What they do	Where
Supabase	Database, authentication, file storage, server-side logic	Hosted in EU (Ireland)
Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google)	Delivers push notifications	Google global infrastructure
Resend	Sends transactional emails (sign-up codes, password resets)	USA / global
OpenAI	Receipt OCR (Pro feature), review moderation, deal text extraction. Data submitted to OpenAI is not used to train OpenAI models	USA
RevenueCat	Manages Pro subscription status and entitlements. Receives your account ID and subscription events. Does not receive your card or bank details	USA
Google Play Billing (Google)	Processes the Pro subscription payment and free trial. Your card details are handled entirely by Google; we never receive them	Google global infrastructure
Mapbox	Map tiles + geocoding for the map screen	USA
Google Maps / Places	Venue location and detail enrichment	Google global infrastructure
Quicket	Public event listing data (read-only, no personal information sent)	South Africa
Cloudflare	Hosting for the website and admin dashboard, DNS, edge caching	Global edge network

We have selected these providers because they offer industry-standard security controls (encryption in transit and at rest, SOC 2 or equivalent compliance) and provide contractual protections appropriate to cross-border transfers.

6. Cross-border transfers

Because the providers above operate outside South Africa, some of your personal information is transferred internationally. Under POPIA s72, we only transfer personal information to a country that has comparable data protection laws, the recipient is bound by binding rules / contracts providing comparable protection, you have consented, or the transfer is necessary for the performance of our contract with you. We rely on the operators' standard contractual clauses and equivalent safeguards.

7. Sharing with other users

Some information is visible to other UniBudz users by design:

Inside a group: your display name, profile photo, friend code, expenses you create, and your share of group expenses are visible to all group members.
Friends: your friend code, name, profile photo, and online/active status are visible to people who add you as a friend.
Live location: only members of groups you've opted into sharing with, or friends with whom you've reciprocally enabled location sharing, can see your position. Off by default.
Reviews: any review you post is publicly visible to all UniBudz users, attributed to your display name.
Payment details (settling up): if you save a bank account number or PayShap cellphone number to collect what you're owed, it is shown to members of a group you share with them when they go to settle a debt with you, together with the account-holder name you entered so they can check they're paying the right person. This is the purpose of the feature. It is never shown to anyone you don't share a group with, and you can remove it at any time in the app.
Settlements: a settlement record (who paid whom, the amount, any note, and a proof image if you attach one) is visible to the members of that group.

We never touch your money. UniBudz is not a bank, a payment processor, or a money-transfer service. We only display the payment details you chose to save and record what people tell us they have paid. The actual transfer 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. Data retention

Account data: kept while your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of account deletion.
Expense and group data: kept while you remain in the group. When the group is deleted, expenses are cascade-deleted.
Friend locations: auto-purged after a short period of inactivity (typically < 1 hour).
Receipt images: kept while attached to an expense; orphan uploads purged after 24 hours.
Payment details for settling up: kept until you remove them in the app or delete your account, whichever comes first.
Settlements and reminders: kept as part of a group's history while you remain in the group; removed when the group is deleted or your account is deleted.
Notification preferences: kept while account is active.
Push device tokens: auto-removed when invalid or when you sign out.
Backups: held by Supabase for up to 7 days after deletion, then purged.

9. Your rights under POPIA

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

Access: request a copy of what we hold on you.
Correction: ask us to fix anything inaccurate.
Deletion: close your account and have your personal data deleted (subject to legitimate retention obligations).
Object: object to specific processing activities at any time.
Withdraw consent: withdraw consent for any optional processing (location, push, etc.) at any time, from within the app.
Lodge a complaint: with us first at unibudzapp@gmail.com, or with the South African Information Regulator at complaints.IR@justice.gov.za or inforegulator.org.za.

We will respond to all requests within 30 calendar days.

10. Security

We protect your information with:

TLS encryption for all data in transit between the app and our servers.
Encryption at rest for the database and file storage (provided by Supabase).
Row-Level Security policies that prevent users from accessing data that isn't theirs.
Hashed passwords (we never see your password in plain text).
Restricted internal access: only the UniBudz operator can view administrative data, and only for support and operational purposes.

No system is 100% secure. If we ever discover a personal data breach that creates a risk to you, we will notify you and the Information Regulator without unreasonable delay, in line with POPIA s22.

11. Children

UniBudz is intended for users aged 18 or older (university students). We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn we have, we will delete it. If you believe a minor has signed up, please email unibudzapp@gmail.com.

12. Cookies and tracking

The mobile app does not use cookies or advertising trackers. It embeds two operational SDKs that are essential to features you use, not analytics or advertising: the RevenueCat billing SDK (to manage Pro subscriptions) and Firebase Cloud Messaging (to deliver push notifications). The companion website at unibudz.co.za uses Cloudflare's standard infrastructure logs (IP address, browser type) for security and performance. We do not embed advertising or analytics trackers.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app evolves. If we make material changes, we will notify you in-app and bump the "Last updated" date at the top. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact

Privacy questions, access requests, deletion requests, or complaints:
unibudzapp@gmail.com