Baseline — Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Baseline Financial ("Baseline," "we," "us," or "our") is a personal finance application that helps users track spending, manage budgets, and receive AI-powered financial insights. Our primary service is the Baseline iOS app, accessible at baseline-financial.com.

We are headquartered in the United States. If you have questions about this policy, contact us at support@baseline-financial.com.

2. Information We Collect

Account Information. When you create an account, we collect your email address and the password you choose (stored as a secure hash — we never see your raw password).

Financial Data (via Plaid). Baseline uses Plaid Technologies, Inc. to connect to your financial institutions. Plaid retrieves financial data on a read-only basis, which may include:

Banking accounts: account balances, transaction history, and account metadata
Credit accounts: credit card balances, available credit, utilization, and transaction data
Investment accounts: holdings, securities, quantities, cost basis, and portfolio values — for display and tracking purposes only

We never receive, store, or have access to your bank login credentials. All connections are read-only — Baseline cannot initiate transactions, transfers, or trades.

Investment data is used solely for portfolio display and tracking; we do not use it to provide personalized investment advice. Plaid's privacy policy governs how Plaid handles your data, and is available at plaid.com/legal.

Usage Data. We collect information about how you use the app — features accessed, session duration, crash reports — to improve the product. This data is anonymised where possible.

Communications. If you contact us via our website or support email, we retain those communications to respond to you and improve our service.

Waitlist Data. If you join our waitlist, we collect your email address solely to notify you about app availability.

Referral Information. When you participate in our referral program, we collect your unique referral code, referral relationships (who referred whom), bank-linking status of referred users, reward redemption history, and referral acceptance timestamps and device information.

Social Features Information. When you use social features, we collect friend connections and relationships, activity feed posts and interactions, reactions and comments, challenge participation and progress, shared financial statistics (opt-in only), and social nudges.

3. How We Use Your Information

To provide, operate, and improve the Baseline app and services
To display your financial data, budgets, and AI-generated insights to you
To send transactional emails (account confirmations, support replies)
To notify waitlist members of launch and early access
To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents
To comply with legal obligations
To track referral relationships and eligibility, calculate and award Pro subscription rewards, and analyze referral program effectiveness
To enable friend connections and interactions, display activity feeds and achievements, support challenges and competitions, and send notifications about friend activity

We do not use your financial data for advertising, scoring, or selling to third parties.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We share information only in the following limited circumstances:

Plaid: to connect to your financial institutions, including banking, credit, and investment accounts. Data is transmitted securely; Plaid is SOC 2 Type II certified. You may disconnect any linked account at any time from the app’s Settings.
Firebase / Google Cloud: we use Google Firebase for authentication, database, and hosting. Google's infrastructure is subject to Google Cloud's privacy and security standards.
Claude by Anthropic (Pro AI insights): Pro subscribers receive AI-powered financial insights generated by Claude. Transaction data and financial summaries are sent to Anthropic's API to generate personalized insights. Anthropic does not use this data to train their models per their API usage policies.
Google Gemini (basic AI features): free-tier users receive basic AI features powered by Google Gemini. Transaction data and spending summaries are sent to Google's API for basic categorization and insights. You can disable AI features at any time in Settings.
Legal requirements: we may disclose information if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of Baseline and its users.

Referral data. We do not share your referral code or referral relationships with third parties, except as anonymized analytics to improve the program, with law enforcement if required by law, or to prevent fraud or abuse.

What friends can see when you connect. Your username and profile, financial achievements you choose to share (e.g. savings milestones), your activity feed posts, and challenge participation and rankings.

What friends can never see: your specific transactions or amounts, your bank account details, your exact account balances, or any information you haven't explicitly chosen to share.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required for legal compliance or fraud prevention purposes.

Financial transaction data synced via Plaid is retained to power your historical insights. You may request deletion at any time by contacting support@baseline-financial.com.

6. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including:

TLS encryption for all data in transit
Firebase Security Rules limiting data access to authenticated users only
Face ID / biometric authentication support on device
Read-only bank access via Plaid (we cannot initiate transactions)

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We encourage you to use a strong unique password and enable device-level security.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
Correction: request correction of inaccurate data
Deletion: request deletion of your account and associated data
Portability: request your data in a portable format
Opt out of communications: unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the link in any email we send
Social features control: control what information is visible to friends, remove friends at any time, delete your activity feed posts, opt out of social features entirely, and export your social data

To exercise any of these rights, email us at support@baseline-financial.com. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Children's Privacy

Baseline is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify registered users of material changes via email or in-app notification. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of Baseline after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact Us

For privacy-related questions, requests, or concerns, contact Baseline Financial at support@baseline-financial.com.

Questions about anything here? Write to support@baseline-financial.com or read the Terms of Service.