Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

BillBell (billbell.online) is a free web service that emails you a reminder before your recurring bills are due. It is run by an individual on a voluntary, non-commercial basis. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean the person who runs BillBell. For any privacy question or request, email privacy@billbell.online.

This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept and what your choices are. It applies together with our Terms of Use.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

• Account details: first and last name, email address and time zone.
• Password, if you sign up with email. We store only a one-way scrypt hash of it, never the password itself.
• Reminders: what you enter for each bill: title, optional amount and currency, optional note, optional payment link, due date, how often it repeats, and when you want to be reminded.
• Consent records: which version of the Terms of Use you accepted, and when.
• Messages you send to us by email.

Information we get from Google

If you choose "Sign up / Log in with Google", Google shares with us, with your permission, only the basic profile information covered by the openid, email and profile permissions: your name, email address, whether that email address is verified, and your Google account ID. We use this only to create your BillBell account and sign you in. We do not store your profile photo, and we do not access your contacts, Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar or any other Google data.

Information created when you use BillBell

• Reminder history: which reminder emails were sent to you, for which due date, and whether delivery succeeded.
• Session cookie: one encrypted, essential cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. We use no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies.
• Technical data: your IP address is used briefly, in memory, to limit repeated login and sign-up attempts (it is not stored in our database). Our server logs may record IP addresses, request times and errors; they are rotated and kept only for a short time.

3. How we use it

• To create and run your account and sign you in.
• To send the emails you asked for: confirming your email address, re-opening a closed account, and your bill reminders.
• To keep the service secure: preventing abuse, spam and attempts to guess passwords.
• To answer you when you contact us, and to comply with the law.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling or marketing, we do not send newsletters, and we do not sell, rent or trade your personal data. We process your data because it is necessary to provide the service you signed up for, and, for security measures, because of our legitimate interest in keeping BillBell safe.

4. Google user data

BillBell's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Information received from Google is used only to sign you in and to run your BillBell account, is not transferred to anyone except as needed to provide the service (see section 5), is never used for advertising, and is never read by humans except with your consent, for security reasons, or when required by law.

5. Who we share it with

We share personal data only with the service providers that run BillBell on our behalf, and only what they need:

• DigitalOcean hosts our server and database.
• Mailgun delivers our emails, so it receives your email address and the content of the emails we send you.
• Google, only if you use Google sign-in (Google already knows you're signing in, as described in Google's own privacy policy).

If you donate, you do so on Buy Me a Coffee, under their own privacy policy. We don't receive your payment details. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, for example to answer a valid legal request.

These providers may process data in other countries than yours, under their own security and privacy commitments.

6. How we protect it

The site is served only over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, the session cookie is encrypted and inaccessible to scripts, and the database is a private file on our server that is not reachable from the internet. Access to the server is limited to the person who runs BillBell.

No system is perfectly secure, and reminder emails travel over regular email, which is not end-to-end encrypted. That's why you should never put passwords, card or account numbers or other sensitive information into a reminder (see section 4 of the Terms of Use).

7. How long we keep it

• While your account is open, we keep your account details and reminders. A reminder you delete is removed immediately, together with its history.
• When you close your account (Settings → Close account), all your reminders and their history are deleted immediately. We keep your basic account record (name, email, time zone, password hash and Google account ID) so you can re-open the account by signing up again with the same email.
• To have everything erased, including that record, email privacy@billbell.online from the address on the account. We'll erase it within 30 days.
• Backups of the database are kept for up to 14 days and then overwritten, so erased data disappears from them within that time.
• Server logs are rotated and overwritten after a short time.

8. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, or the Privacy Act 2020 in New Zealand), you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it;
• correct it: you can change your name and time zone in Settings at any time;
• delete it: delete reminders in your dashboard, close your account in Settings, or ask us to erase everything;
• object to or restrict how we use it;
• withdraw Google's access at any time in your Google account permissions.

To exercise any of these, email privacy@billbell.online. We'll reply within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

9. Children

BillBell is not meant for children under 16, and we don't knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has signed up, contact us and we'll delete the account.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as BillBell changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change significantly affects how we use your data, we'll tell you by email before it takes effect.

11. Contact

Questions, requests or concerns about your privacy: privacy@billbell.online.