WanderBuddy Privacy Policy

WanderBuddy ("the app", "we", "us") helps groups plan trips together. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We do not sell your personal data, and we show no ads.

Information we collect

Account information. Your email address and the profile details you choose to provide: display name, username, bio, profile photo, year of birth (to confirm you meet the minimum age), gender, nationality (passport country), and your travel answers such as interests, habits, travel style and dream destination. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name and email address from that provider.

Trip content. Trips you create or join: names, destinations, dates, itinerary items, notes, expenses, tags, and member lists.

Messages. Group and direct messages you send in a trip's chat.

Photos. Images you choose to upload (profile photo, trip photos). If you allow location access, an uploaded trip photo may include its location (from the photo's own GPS data, or your device's current location at the time of upload) so you can organise and map photos by place. This is optional and best-effort; a photo without a location still uploads normally, and we convert the coordinate to a place name (e.g. "Gion, Kyoto") using our maps provider.

Face grouping (optional, off by default). If you turn on face grouping in a trip's Photos tab, the app finds faces in that trip's photos on your device and turns each face into a numerical face template, which is biometric data. The templates, small face crops, and the resulting groups of photos by person are stored on our backend with the trip's photos, so every member of that trip sees the same groups. We use face data only to group that trip's photos. We never sell it, use it for ads, or use it to identify anyone outside the trip. Trip photos can show people who don't use WanderBuddy, so only turn this on when the people in your photos are comfortable with it.

Videos. Trip videos (reels) you upload are stored and streamed by our video provider (Mux). A reel you make public appears in the app's public feed only after review.

Precise location. Collected in three situations, all under your control: (1) when you actively turn on live location sharing for a trip, shared only with the trip members you approve, for a duration you choose; (2) when you upload a geotagged photo as described above; and (3) when you send an SOS from the Safety screen. We keep the most recent position you shared until you delete your account. An SOS sends your exact position, as a map link, to the members of the trips the app names before you confirm (never the Welcome trip or very large trips). They get it as a push and an in-app alert, and it stays in their alerts until they delete it or you delete your account. When you open trip navigation, that position and your destination are sent to our maps provider to calculate the route. We do not collect your location in the background.

Translation & AI text. When you use chat translation or the "Talk to a Local" live translator, the text to be translated is sent to our translation providers. When you use the AI travel assistant, the planner, stop suggestions, or add stops or expenses by voice, your request and the relevant trip details (and, for suggestions, the interests and dream destination on your profile) are sent to our AI providers to generate a reply. We use Groq first. When Groq is busy or unavailable, the same request goes to OpenRouter, which passes it to one of the third-party AI companies it works with (chosen by price) to run the model. To answer, the assistant may also look up real places and weather near your trip through Google Maps Platform; those lookups carry the place or area, not your name. For live conversation and voice input, your speech is turned into text by your phone's speech-recognition service (Google on most Android phones, Apple on iPhone), which may process the audio on the device or on that provider's servers; WanderBuddy receives only the text. Avoid including sensitive personal information in these messages.

AI ticket reading. When you add a ticket by uploading a PDF or a photo, the file goes to our servers and its contents are sent to our AI providers (Groq or OpenRouter) to read the travel details, such as passenger names, booking references, flight or train numbers, places and times. The file is read once to fill in the form and is not stored by this feature. Only the details you review and save are kept with the trip.

Listing trips by voice (travel agencies). When a travel agency describes itself or its trips out loud, on wanderbuddyapp.com/partners/list or in its WanderBuddy CRM, the recording is sent to Groq to turn it into text. That text, or a message the agency pastes instead, is sent to our AI providers (Groq or OpenRouter) to fill in the form. Neither the recording nor the text is stored by this feature. Only the details the agency reviews and sends are kept.

What WanderBuddy knows (optional, off until you say yes). If you agree when the assistant asks, WanderBuddy fits its answers to you. It uses parts of your profile (food and drink preferences, smoking, interests, why you travel and your dream trip) and it remembers short facts you tell it about yourself, such as "I'm vegetarian" or "I avoid early starts". A small AI model picks these facts out of the messages you send the assistant in the app, on WhatsApp or on Instagram, and you can also add them yourself. The facts are stored with your account and sent, with your questions, to our AI providers so the answers fit you. Until you say yes, the assistant does not use your food, drink and smoking answers or why you travel, and it remembers nothing. The trip planner and suggestions still use the interests and dream destination on your profile, as described under Translation & AI text. We do not keep facts about religion, politics, ethnicity, sexuality, or health beyond food allergies and mobility needs. You can see every fact, delete any one, forget everything, or switch the feature off at any time in Profile → What WanderBuddy knows. When it is off, nothing there is used and nothing new is remembered. All of it is deleted when you delete your account.

Moderation data. When you report content or a user, or block a user, we store that action: who reported, the user or item reported, the reason you selected, relevant context (such as the reported message text or item type), your block list, and timestamps, so our moderators can review it and act. Reports are readable only by you (your own) and our moderators.

Purchase information. If you buy a digital add-on or subscription, the app store (Apple App Store on iOS, Google Play on Android) processes the payment and returns a purchase receipt, which we use to unlock and restore your entitlement. For real-world travel bookings, our payment processor (Razorpay) handles the transaction. We never receive your card details.

Diagnostics. In production builds, we collect crash reports (via Firebase Crashlytics) to find and fix stability problems. Crash data is not linked to your identity and is not used for tracking. Google's map and on-device face-detection components may also send Google anonymous usage and diagnostic data. Apart from Meta's App Events SDK (see Meta ads measurement below), we do not use any third-party analytics or advertising SDK.

Usage data. To understand how the app is used and improve it, we record in-app events in our own backend, such as screens opened, features used, signing in and out, and app errors, together with your account ID and a random install ID. This stays first-party: it is not shared with analytics or advertising companies and is not used for ads. The one overlap is that the moment your account is created, and the first time you create or join a trip or add a stop, are also sent to Meta as described under Meta ads measurement. Raw events are deleted after 180 days.

Meta ads measurement. We advertise WanderBuddy on Facebook and Instagram, and the app includes Meta's App Events SDK so we can tell which ads bring people to the app. The SDK sends Meta Platforms these events: the app being installed, each time you open it, in-app purchases (the product, price and currency, never your card details), your account being created, and the first time you create or join a trip or add a stop. With each event it sends your IP address, basic device information (such as model, operating system, app version, language and time zone), a random ID the SDK creates for this install, and, on Android, your device's advertising ID. On iPhone, WanderBuddy never asks for permission to track you, so the SDK cannot read your device's advertising identifier (IDFA) and none is sent; Meta can still count iPhone installs from its ads in aggregate through Apple's SKAdNetwork, which does not identify you. We use this data only to measure our ads and to let Meta optimise who sees them. We do not send Meta your name, email address, messages, trip content, photos or precise location. Meta handles the data under its own Privacy Policy and may match it with information it already has, for example if you use Facebook or Instagram, to link an install to the ad you saw. On iPhone, because you have not given permission to track, Meta measures our ads under its Aggregated Event Measurement and reports results to us only in aggregate. To reset or delete your advertising ID, see Your rights & choices below.

Travel agencies booking a call. If you run a travel agency and book a call with us on wanderbuddyapp.com/partners, we keep your name, agency, WhatsApp number, email (if you give one) and your answers to the three questions, to hold the time and follow up on the call. If you run 4 or more trips a month, we also tell Meta that a call was booked, through Meta's Conversions API, so Meta can show our ads to agencies like yours. With that event we send your email address, WhatsApp number and first name hashed (SHA-256, so Meta can match them to accounts it already knows but cannot read them), the IP address and browser of your visit, Meta's click ID if you came from one of our ads, and how many trips a month you said you run. If you do not book, nothing about your visit is sent to Meta.

Saved reels, WhatsApp and Instagram. If you share a reel with WanderBuddy, from your phone's share sheet or by messaging our WhatsApp or Instagram account, we read the reel's public caption and details to find the places it mentions and save them to your trip ideas. If you link your WhatsApp number or Instagram account to WanderBuddy, we store that link so messages you send us reach your account, and our WhatsApp assistant uses your trips' details to answer the questions you send it.

Device data. A push-notification token, used only to deliver the notifications you've enabled. On Android, an install-referral code may be read once to complete a trip invite you followed, and Meta's SDK reads your advertising ID as described under Meta ads measurement.

How we use your information

• To provide core features: trips, itineraries, group and direct chat, optional live location sharing, photo sharing and photo-by-location, translation, the AI travel assistant, and saved reels.
• To group a trip's photos by person, only if you turn on face grouping.
• To answer the questions you send our WhatsApp assistant.
• To read the tickets you upload into your trip's travel details.
• To fit the assistant's answers to you, only if you turn on What WanderBuddy knows.
• To understand how the app is used and improve it (first-party usage data).
• To measure our ads on Facebook and Instagram and let Meta optimise who sees them (Meta ads measurement).
• To authenticate you and keep you signed in.
• To deliver notifications you've enabled.
• To process and restore purchases, and to process real-world bookings.
• To keep the community safe: to review reports and blocks and act on objectionable content and abusive users, and to run an on-device filter that blocks objectionable text before it's posted.
• To diagnose crashes and improve reliability.

Third-party services

We use the following processors, each with its own privacy policy. Data is shared only as needed to provide the feature:

On-device storage

Your sign-in session and purchase entitlement are stored in your device's encrypted storage (Android Keystore / iOS Keychain). Trip and account data is stored on our backend (Supabase) so it syncs across devices and trip members.

Data sharing

We do not sell your personal data. The app shows no ads, and we do not use your profile, messages or trip content for advertising. The only third-party SDK in the app that shares data for advertising is Meta's App Events SDK. It sends Meta the events and identifiers described under Meta ads measurement so we can measure our own ads on Facebook and Instagram. On iPhone, WanderBuddy never asks for permission to track you, so the SDK runs with tracking off and cannot read your device's advertising identifier. Trip content is visible to the other members of that trip, which is the point of the app. We may disclose information if required by law, or to enforce our Terms and Community Standards.

Trips run by travel agencies

Some trips are run by travel agencies that use WanderBuddy's tools to manage bookings, documents and messages. The details an agency keeps about you in those tools, such as your booking and the messages you send the agency, are handled by WanderBuddy on the agency's behalf under our Data Processing Terms, and the agency's own privacy notice applies to them. Passport, ID and card numbers are removed before any of it reaches an AI model. To see, change or delete those details, contact the agency, or write to us and we will pass your request on.

Your rights & choices

• Access / export: view your profile and trip data in the app; contact us for an export.
• Delete: permanently delete your account and data from Profile → Delete account. This removes your profile and the data linked to it. Trips and itinerary items you created in a shared trip are kept for the other members, with your authorship removed. This cannot be undone. No app? Request deletion at wanderbuddyapp.com/delete-account.
• Location: live sharing is off by default; photo location is optional and controlled by your device's location permission, which you can revoke any time.
• Face grouping: off by default; turn it off in the Photos tab at any time. Face templates made from a photo are removed when the photo or its trip is deleted, and all face data made from your photos, including face crops, is deleted when you delete your account. Contact us to have it deleted sooner.
• What WanderBuddy knows: off until you say yes. See, delete or switch off what the assistant uses in Profile → What WanderBuddy knows. It is all deleted with your account.
• Advertising ID (Android): open your phone's Settings and search for "Ads" (usually under Privacy or Google), then choose Reset advertising ID or Delete advertising ID. Once you delete it, apps, including WanderBuddy, can no longer read it, so Meta receives no advertising ID from your phone. You can also see and disconnect activity that apps share with Meta in Meta's Accounts Center, under Your activity off Meta technologies.
• Notifications: manage in your device settings.
• Safety: report or block any user from within the app.

Children

WanderBuddy is not directed to children under 13 (or your country's minimum age of digital consent). We do not knowingly collect their data, and we delete such accounts when we learn of them.

Data retention

We keep your data while your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete the data linked to it as described above; residual copies in encrypted backups and operational logs are purged on a rolling basis. Chat messages are also processed by our chat provider (Stream) and removed according to account deletion. Moderation records may be retained as needed to enforce our Terms and to keep abusive users off the platform.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy; we'll revise the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app.

Contact

Questions or requests: support@wanderbuddyapp.com

See also our Terms of Service.