Privacy Policy

Last updated: 9/12/2025

This Privacy Policy describes how WanderWise ("we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and discloses your information when you use our service.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information in the following ways:

  • Information You Provide: When you create an account, you provide us with personal information that includes your name and email address. You may also provide additional information, such as a unique username, a bio, and a travel wishlist, through your profile page. When you use the itinerary, chat, or cost estimator features, you provide us with your travel details (such as origin, destinations, dates, preferences, and questions). When using the Travel Journal, you provide us with your memories, which can include text and uploaded photos.
  • Publicly Visible Information: Information you provide on your profile, such as your username, display name, photo, bio, and travel wishlist, is considered public and may be visible to other visitors of the website. Content you post in public areas, such as blog comments or in the Community Hub, is also publicly visible and associated with your public profile information.
  • Information from Third-Party Services: If you choose to sign in with a third-party service like Google, we will collect information from that service, such as your name and email address, as permitted by your privacy settings on that service.
  • Automatically Collected Information: We may collect information about your device and usage of our Service, such as your IP address, browser type, and pages visited. This is done to maintain and improve our service.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including to:

  • Provide, operate, and maintain our Service.
  • Improve, personalize, and expand our Service, for example by displaying your username and wishlist.
  • Understand and analyze how you use our Service.
  • Display your public profile information, comments, and community posts to other users.
  • Communicate with you, either directly or through one of our partners, including for customer service, to provide you with updates and other information relating to the Service.
  • Process your transactions and manage your account.
  • Store your saved itineraries, cost estimations, journal entries, chat histories, and profile information for your use.

3. Information Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information with third parties in the following circumstances:

  • Publicly Shared Content: Your public profile information (username, display name, photo, bio, wishlist) and any content you post in public areas (like blog comments or community hub posts) will be visible to other users and visitors.
  • Service Providers: We use third-party service providers like Google Firebase for authentication, database services, and file storage. These providers have access to your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
  • AI Models: The queries you make (such as destination, travel type, chat messages, and cost estimator inputs) are sent to third-party AI model providers (e.g., Google's Gemini) to generate responses. We do not send your personal account information (like your email) with these queries.
  • Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities.
  • Shared Itineraries: If you choose to share an itinerary, a copy of that itinerary will be made publicly accessible to anyone with the link.

4. Data Storage and Security

Your data, including account information, saved itineraries, chat history, and profile data (like username and wishlists), is stored using Google Cloud Firestore. Photos you upload to your Travel Journal are stored in Google Cloud Storage. We take reasonable measures to help protect your information from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access. However, no electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure.

5. Your Data Rights

You have the right to access, update, or delete the information we have on you. You can manage your profile, saved itineraries, journal entries, and chats directly within the application. To request the deletion of your account and all associated data, please contact us.

6. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

7. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us at privacy@wanderwise.example.com (this is a placeholder email).