Last updated: August 2026
Ground ("we," "our," or "us") is a personal finance app that helps you understand your real financial picture without judgment. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights around it.
Information you provide directly:
Information from your bank (via Plaid):
We use Plaid Technologies, Inc. ("Plaid") to connect to your financial institution. When you connect your bank, your banking credentials go directly to Plaid — we never see or store your username or password. Plaid's use of your data is governed by Plaid's End User Privacy Policy.
Information collected automatically:
What our AI features send to Anthropic. To categorize transactions and generate spending, bill, and budget suggestions, we send transaction details such as descriptions, amounts, dates, and categories. When you use Ask Ground, we additionally send a summary of your financial picture, including your balances, income, bills, budgets, goals, debts, and recent transactions, together with the messages you type so it can answer using your real numbers. We never send your bank login credentials, account numbers, or bank-connection tokens.
Anthropic processes this data only to generate a response. It is not used to train Anthropic's AI models, it is not used for advertising, and it is never sold. You choose when to use Ask Ground; transaction categorization and recurring-bill discovery may run automatically for active Pro or trial accounts.
Reporting an Ask Ground response. If you report a response, we store that response and any note you choose to include so a Ground team member can read and investigate it. Reports are private to Ground and are not visible to other users. Please do not include account numbers, login details, or other sensitive information in a report.
We do not use your financial data to serve ads, build marketing profiles, or sell to third parties.
Our marketing measurement does not include your email, name, balances, bills, expenses, transactions, messages, or other financial information. TikTok and Meta measurement remain limited to the public marketing website. The Android app uses Google Analytics for Firebase only for app and campaign measurement, including completed account creation, with advertising-ID collection and ad-personalization signals disabled. Ground's separate first-run diagnostics use only the limited checkpoints described above.
Your active data is stored in Google Firebase Firestore and encrypted in transit and at rest. Encrypted recovery snapshots are stored in a restricted Google Cloud Storage bucket. Other Ground users cannot access your data unless you intentionally link them through the household feature described below.
Ground's operator (the founder) has administrative access to user data for providing support, investigating abuse, restoring data, and operating the service. Access is limited through administrator authorization and account security controls. We do not browse or review user financial data except when necessary to operate the service or resolve a support or security issue.
Your Plaid access token (used to refresh your transactions) is stored in Firestore and protected by Firebase's encryption. We do not store your bank account number, routing number, or login credentials.
If you link a partner account, the following data is shared between both accounts: expenses, bills, budgets, goals, debts, and account balance. Both partners can read and write this shared data. Settings that remain private to each individual include your subscription status, notification preferences, and bank connection credentials.
You can unlink your household account at any time from app settings. When you unlink, a copy of the shared data is returned to your personal account.
We share your data with the following service providers solely to operate the app:
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party. We do not share your financial or account data for advertising purposes.
We retain active data and recovery snapshots while your account remains open. Anonymous first-run diagnostic sessions are deleted after 30 days. If you delete your account, Ground cancels active Ground subscriptions, revokes its Plaid Item access, removes active data and associated recovery snapshots, and closes the sign-in account. For a scheduled deletion, bank access and subscription billing stop when deletion is scheduled; saved Ground data remains recoverable until the displayed 30-day deletion date. Restoring saved data does not automatically reconnect a bank or restart a subscription. Limited security, billing, and provider records may remain where required for fraud prevention, accounting, dispute handling, or legal compliance under the applicable provider's policy.
Ground is not directed at 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.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting a notice in the app or sending an email to your registered address. Your continued use of Ground after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to exercise your data rights, contact us at:
Ground
support@groundbudget.com