Privacy policy

Brokepacker keeps your trips, expenses, notes and settings on your phone. They never leave it. There is no account, no ads and no tracking, and we never sell data. The app sends anonymous usage stats to help improve it, and you can turn them off.

The app talks to the internet for five things only: fetching exchange rates, fetching a cover photo for each trip, checking for app updates, and sending anonymous crash reports and anonymous usage stats (if you leave them on). All five are described below. This website also has a waitlist; if you join it, we keep your email address (see “The waitlist”).

Brokepacker is made and run by an independent developer based in Israel, who is responsible for this policy. You can reach us at hello@brokepacker.app.

We collect your email only to send Brokepacker launch news. It’s stored with our email provider, Loops, never sold, and you can unsubscribe anytime with the link in any email. The app itself still needs no account.

Everything you enter in Brokepacker — trips, expenses, amounts, notes, countries, payment methods and your preferences — is stored in a database on your device. We can’t see it, and it isn’t uploaded anywhere. If you delete the app, that data is deleted with it.

Backups your iPhone makes itself, to iCloud or a computer, include Brokepacker’s data like any other app’s; Apple handles them under its own privacy policy, and we can’t see them.

To convert your spending into your home currency, the app downloads currency exchange rates from ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com), about once a day while you’re online. The request contains no information about you or your trips. Like any website, that service can see the IP address the request comes from; see its terms and privacy information.

Each trip shows a photo of its destination from Unsplash. To find one, the app sends the two-letter codes of the trip’s countries (for example “TH,LA”) to brokepacker.app, which looks up a photo with Unsplash and sends back its address and the photographer’s name. The trip’s name, dates, budget and expenses are never sent. Once a cover is saved, the app also tells brokepacker.app which photo it used, so we can report the download to Unsplash as its rules require; that message holds only the photo’s ID. We don’t log these requests beyond what our host (Vercel) keeps for running the site. The photo itself then loads directly from Unsplash, which can see your IP address like any website; see Unsplash’s privacy policy.

When the app crashes, it can send an anonymous crash report to our crash-reporting provider, Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.), so we can find and fix the bug. Crash reports are stored in Sentry’s EU data region in Frankfurt, Germany. A report contains technical details: the error, where in the code it happened, the app version, and the device model and operating system version.

Before a report leaves your phone, the app removes anything that could identify you or reveal what you entered: no trips, amounts, notes, names, device name or user identifiers are included. Crash reports are not used for advertising or tracking and are not linked to you.

You can turn crash reports off at any time in Settings → Privacy → Share crash reports.

To learn which parts of the app people use and where they get stuck, the app can send anonymous usage stats to our analytics provider, PostHog (PostHog, Inc.). They are stored in PostHog’s EU data region in Frankfurt, Germany, and we use them only to improve Brokepacker.

A usage stat is a short note that something happened in the app: for example, a screen was opened, a trip was created, an expense was added by card or in cash. It includes the app version, the iPhone model and iOS version, and a few general details about the action, such as which category or kind of payment was picked. Usage stats never include your trips, amounts or notes, or trip names, countries, dates or your location.

To count how many people come back without knowing who they are, the app creates a random ID the first time it opens. It isn’t tied to your name, email, Apple ID or your device’s advertising identifier, and we never try to find out whose it is. Deleting the app deletes the ID, and reinstalling creates a new one. Like the rest of the app’s data, it’s included in your iPhone’s own backups. We’ve set PostHog not to store IP addresses or work out a location from them.

Usage stats aren’t used for advertising or tracking, aren’t linked to you, aren’t combined with data from other companies and are never sold. You can turn them off at any time in Settings → Privacy → Share usage stats, and the app stops sending them.

Small fixes reach you without a new App Store version: when the app opens or comes back to the screen, it asks our update service, Expo (650 Industries, Inc.), at u.expo.dev whether a newer version of the app’s code is available, and downloads it if so. The request says which version, release channel and update the app is running, that it’s on iOS, and a random ID the app makes for itself and keeps on your phone. If the app failed to start on its last launch, the next request also includes a short description of that error, so Expo can roll back a bad update; this happens even with crash reports turned off. It contains no trips, expenses or other data you entered, and the ID isn’t tied to your name, email, Apple ID or your device’s advertising identifier. Like any website, Expo can see the IP address the request comes from; see Expo’s privacy policy.

We don’t keep any of your trip data — it exists only on your phone, and in any backups your iPhone makes of it, for as long as you keep it there. Crash reports are kept by Sentry for up to 90 days so we can investigate a bug, and are then deleted automatically. Usage stats are kept by PostHog for up to one year, the retention period on our plan, and are then deleted.

You can delete individual expenses and trips in the app at any time. To delete everything, delete the Brokepacker app from your phone; that removes its database for good.

Crash reports and usage stats can’t be traced back to you, so we can’t pick out and delete “your” reports or stats — but you can stop sending them at any time in Settings → Privacy → Share crash reports and Share usage stats.

Brokepacker doesn’t ask for access to your location, contacts, camera, microphone or photos.

brokepacker.app is a simple website: its pages, the small service that finds trip cover photos, and the waitlist form. It doesn’t use cookies, analytics or tracking. Our hosting provider may keep standard server logs (such as IP addresses and request times) for security and reliability.

Brokepacker isn’t directed at children under 13 and doesn’t knowingly collect personal information from children.

Because your data lives on your phone, you’re always in control of it: you can view, change, export or delete it in the app, and deleting the app removes it. The only records about the app kept elsewhere are anonymous crash reports, usage stats and update checks, which don’t hold your name or contact details. If you have a question about your privacy or want to exercise a right under laws such as Israel’s Privacy Protection Law, the GDPR or the CCPA, email us and we’ll help.

If we change this policy, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects what the app sends off your phone, we’ll also tell you in the app’s release notes.

Questions? Email hello@brokepacker.app.