Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 3, 2026

GiftCrew ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our mobile application and website (collectively, the "Service").

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

  • Email address - Used for account identification and communication
  • Name - Your display name shown to other users
  • Profile picture - Optional, provided through your authentication provider
  • Birthday - Month, day, and year used for birthday tracking within groups

User Content

When you use the Service, you may provide:

  • Wishlist items - Titles, descriptions, links, and images of items you want
  • Chat messages - Messages sent within group chats and Secret Santa anonymous chats
  • Images - Photos uploaded for wishlist items
  • Group information - Group names, descriptions, and membership

Automatically Collected Information

We automatically collect:

  • Device information - Browser type, device type for push notifications
  • Usage data - Features used, pages visited
  • Push notification tokens - If you enable notifications

Payment Information

We do not directly collect payment information. Payments are processed by:

  • Stripe (via Clerk) for web subscriptions
  • Google Play for Android app purchases
  • Apple App Store for iOS app purchases

We receive confirmation of your subscription status but do not have access to your full payment details.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

  • Provide, maintain, and improve the Service
  • Create and manage your account
  • Enable you to create wishlists and share them with groups
  • Facilitate Secret Santa name draws and anonymous gift assignments
  • Facilitate group communication through chat
  • Send push notifications (with your consent)
  • Process subscription payments
  • Display birthday reminders to your group members
  • Respond to your inquiries and support requests
  • Generate personalized AI gift suggestions using your wishlist data (Pro plan only)
  • Protect against fraudulent or unauthorized activity

3. Information Sharing

Within Groups

When you join a group, other group members can see:

  • Your name and profile picture
  • Your birthday (month, day) and age
  • Your wishlist items
  • Your chat messages within that group

Gift claims are hidden from the birthday person to preserve surprise, but visible to other group members to prevent duplicate gifts.

In Secret Santa groups, name draw assignments are private — each participant can only see who they were assigned to gift. Anonymous chat messages are visible only between the assigned gifter and their recipient.

Third-Party Service Providers

We share information with service providers who help us operate the Service:

  • Clerk - Authentication and user management
  • Convex - Database and real-time data synchronization
  • Payment processors - As described above
  • Perplexity AI - AI-powered gift suggestion generation. When you use the AI Suggestions feature, your wishlist item titles, descriptions, and selected interest categories are sent to Perplexity AI to generate personalized gift recommendations. This data is used solely for generating suggestions and is not used by Perplexity for model training purposes. See the AI Gift Suggestions and Data Processing section below for details.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or governmental authority, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

4. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored securely using industry-standard encryption and security practices. We use Convex for data storage, which provides:

  • Encryption in transit (TLS/SSL)
  • Encryption at rest
  • Regular security audits

While we implement safeguards to protect your information, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

5. Third-Party Services

Our Service integrates with third-party services, each with their own privacy policies:

6. AI Gift Suggestions and Data Processing

Feature Availability

AI gift suggestions are available to users who have available credits. Pro plan subscribers receive a monthly allocation of credits. Users who cancel or downgrade their subscription retain access to any previously granted, unexpired credits.

Data Shared with Perplexity AI

When you use AI suggestions, the following data is transmitted to Perplexity AI's API:

  • Your wishlist item titles and descriptions (to understand your interests)
  • Selected interest categories (if you choose them instead)
  • Your birthday month (to provide seasonally relevant suggestions)
  • Previously generated suggestion titles (to avoid duplicate recommendations)

Data NOT Shared

Your email address, full name, profile picture, group information, chat messages, and payment details are never sent to Perplexity AI.

Purpose Limitation

Data sent to Perplexity AI is used exclusively for generating gift suggestions in real-time. It is not stored by Perplexity beyond the duration of the API request.

No Training Use

Your data is not used by Perplexity AI for training, fine-tuning, or improving their models. We use the Perplexity Sonar API, which operates under a Zero Data Retention Policy — no prompt or response data is stored by Perplexity beyond processing your immediate request.

Opt-Out

You can choose not to use the AI suggestions feature. The feature is entirely optional and does not affect any other functionality of the Service.

7. Your Rights

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

Access and Portability

You can access most of your data directly through the app (your profile, wishlists, and messages).

Correction

You can update your profile information, wishlist items, and messages at any time through the app.

Deletion

You can:

  • Delete individual wishlist items and messages
  • Leave groups
  • Delete your account directly through your profile settings

When you delete your account, your personal data is removed, including your profile information, wishlist items, images, notification subscriptions, billing records, and AI suggestion data. Messages you previously sent in group chats are retained in a de-identified form (displayed as "Deleted user") to preserve conversation context for other group members. Chat threads about your wishlist are deleted along with your wishlist items. Groups where you are the only member are deleted. Groups with other members remain active, and ownership is automatically transferred to another group member.

Push Notification Control

You can enable or disable push notifications at any time through your device settings or the app's notification settings.

GDPR Rights (European Users)

If you are in the European Economic Area, you have additional rights including the right to object to processing and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

CCPA Rights (California Users)

California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, request deletion, and opt-out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.

8. Children's Privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@giftcrew.app and we will delete such information.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. For significant changes, we may also notify you through the app or by email.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:

Email: support@giftcrew.app