TripSplit
Privacy Policy
Effective November 2, 2026. Applies to the TripSplit app for iPhone.
TripSplit is made by Richard Baughman ("I", "me"), an individual developer. This policy explains what information the app handles, where it goes, and the choices you have. In short: your trips live on your device and in your own iCloud account. I have no user accounts, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking, and I do not sell your data.
Summary
- I do not run a server that stores your trips, expenses or contacts.
- Receipt photos you choose to scan are sent to an AI service (Anthropic) to read them, and are not kept by me.
- Place searches are sent to Google Places; currency rates are fetched from a public rates service.
- There are no ads, no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs, and no cross-app tracking.
Information stored by the app
You enter this yourself, and it is stored on your device and synced through your private iCloud (CloudKit) database:
- Trips and expenses: trip names, dates, currencies, expense amounts, merchants, categories, notes, who paid and how it is split.
- People: names, optional email addresses, and group sizes of the people you add to a trip. If you choose someone from your Contacts, the app copies only what you pick (such as name and email) into TripSplit. It does not read your address book in the background.
- Receipt images and locations: photos you attach to expenses, and the place or coordinates of an expense if you add one.
- Settings: your preferences, such as home currency.
- Trial and scan counts: when your free trial started, how many AI receipt scans you have used and how many expenses you have added (counts only, never their contents), so that reinstalling the app or using a second device does not restart your trial. This record contains no personal information. It is kept in your private iCloud database and in a protected item in your iPhone's Keychain; the Keychain item can remain on your device after you delete the app.
Because this data is in your private iCloud database, I cannot see or access it. Apple's handling of iCloud data is described in Apple's Privacy Policy.
Information sent to other services
Some features need a network request. Requests from the app go through a small relay service I operate on Cloudflare, which adds the credentials needed to reach the services below so that no secret keys are shipped inside the app. The relay passes your request on and returns the answer. It does not save receipt images or search text to storage. As with any web service, Cloudflare may process technical data such as your IP address to deliver the request.
| Feature | What is sent | To whom |
|---|---|---|
| Receipt scanning | The receipt photo (resized and compressed) and today's date, only when you scan a receipt. The photo may show whatever is on the receipt, such as merchant, items, and sometimes partial card digits or names. Your trips, contacts and location are not included. | Anthropic (Claude AI), via the relay |
| Place search | The text you type into location search, and your current location (if you have allowed location access) to rank nearby results. | Google (Places API), via the relay. Apple Maps search (MapKit) may also be used; see Apple's policy. |
| Currency rates | A request for the latest rates. It contains no personal information beyond your IP address. | Frankfurter (api.frankfurter.app), a public exchange-rate service |
| Email export | A trip summary that you choose to send, composed in the Mail composer on your device and sent by your own mail account. | The recipients you choose. I never receive a copy. |
Under Anthropic's commercial API terms, data submitted through the API is not used to train its models by default. Anthropic and Google each handle data under their own policies, linked above. Before your first scan, the app asks whether receipt photos may be sent to the AI service, and nothing is sent until you allow it. You can change this at any time in Settings under AI Receipt Scanning. If you decline, receipts are read on your device only, using Apple technologies on supported iPhones, without sending the image anywhere. This is less accurate than the AI scan, and on iPhones that do not support it, you can enter expenses by hand.
Permissions the app may ask for
- Camera: to photograph receipts.
- Photos: to attach existing receipt photos, and (optional, can be turned off in the app's settings) to save receipt photos to your Camera Roll.
- Location (while using the app): to label where an expense happened and suggest the local currency. You can say no and still use the app.
- Contacts: TripSplit uses Apple's contact picker, which shows only the contacts you select.
You can change these at any time in Settings > TripSplit.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are sold and billed by Apple. I do not receive your payment details. The app asks Apple whether a subscription is active and shows the result in Settings. Your Apple Account and purchase information are covered by Apple's privacy policy.
What I collect
I do not collect personal information on my own servers. I do not use analytics or advertising tools and do not track you across other companies' apps or websites. If you email me for support, I will receive your email address and message, and I use them only to reply and to fix problems. I may delete support emails after the issue is resolved. Apple may provide me with aggregated, non-identifying statistics and crash reports from users who have chosen to share them.
Retention and deletion
Your data stays until you delete it. Deleting trips or expenses in the app removes them from your device and (after sync) from iCloud; items in Recently Deleted can be restored until they are removed. Deleting the app does not delete iCloud data; to remove it, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Account Storage > TripSplit and delete the data. Data already sent to Anthropic, Google or Cloudflare for a request is handled under their retention policies, not mine.
Sharing
I do not sell or rent your information or share it for advertising. Information leaves your device only as described above, to run the features you use, or if the law requires it.
Children
TripSplit is not directed to children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country) and I do not knowingly collect information from children. The "children" option in the app only adjusts how much of an expense a person's group counts for; it does not involve information about a child.
Your rights
Because your data is held in your own device and iCloud account, you can view, edit, export and delete it yourself in the app. Depending on where you live (for example under the EU/UK GDPR or California law), you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal information, to object to or restrict processing, and to complain to your data protection authority. Email me and I will help with anything that involves information I hold, such as support emails. I process data to provide the app you asked for (contract), to reply to you (legitimate interests), and, where you grant it, based on your consent (camera, photos, location).
International transfers and security
Anthropic, Google, Cloudflare and Apple operate globally, so data may be processed outside your country. Requests use encrypted connections (HTTPS), and iCloud data is protected by Apple. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure.
Changes
If this policy changes in a meaningful way, I will update the date above and, where appropriate, tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions about privacy: support@tripsplitapp.org.