Privacy Policy

1. Permissions We Require

ExpenseBot requires the following permissions from your Google Account to function effectively:
Gmail (Read and Modify): Gmail integration is optional. These permissions are requested only after you choose to connect Gmail. Depending on the feature you select, ExpenseBot may scan messages you label, recent messages found by daily automation, or messages in a historical date range you request. We use three specific Gmail scopes:

  • gmail.readonly: To search for and read likely receipts, invoices, income notices, and related attachments
  • gmail.labels: To create and manage the "ExpenseBot" and "Processed" labels
  • gmail.modify: To apply ExpenseBot status labels after processing; ExpenseBot does not send or delete your email

Google Photos (Read and Add): We access your Google Photos to scan for receipts using AI and can save receipt photos you upload directly to your Google Photos library for easier organization.
Google Drive (Limited Access): We create and manage a folder for receipt photos and a Google Sheets spreadsheet to help organize your expenses.

2. Gmail API Integration

ExpenseBot uses Gmail API integration to:

  • Search connected Gmail accounts for likely receipts, invoices, income notices, refunds, and related financial records
  • Apply a "Processed" label to emails after they've been analyzed to help you track what's been processed
  • Extract expense or income information from relevant message content, links, and attachments

Important Privacy Considerations:
  • Gmail integration is completely optional and starts only after you connect Gmail and request a scan or enable daily automation
  • We never permanently store your email content on our servers
  • Daily scans search recent messages, historical scans search the date range you request, and label-based scans process messages you select. We exclude Spam, Trash, and routine promotional or social mail from historical discovery.
  • Message content and attachments are processed transiently and are not retained as a permanent copy on our servers
  • Your structured expense and income records and source documents are stored in your own Google Sheets and Google Drive; ExpenseBot retains only the limited service metadata described below

Limited Use Statement: The use of information received from Gmail APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. This means we only use your Gmail data to provide you with the ExpenseBot service, and we don't use this data for advertising purposes, sell it to third parties, or use it for any purpose other than providing our service to you.

3. Financial Account Integration (Plaid)

ExpenseBot uses Plaid to securely connect to your financial accounts for automated expense tracking:

  • Access your transaction history to automatically identify and categorize expenses
  • Retrieve account balances and basic account information
  • Sync new transactions as they occur

Important Privacy Considerations:
  • Bank account connection is completely optional
  • We use Plaid's secure infrastructure to connect to your financial institutions
  • We never store your banking credentials - they are securely handled by Plaid
  • We only access transaction data relevant to expense tracking
  • You can disconnect your financial accounts at any time through your account settings

Data Processing: By connecting your financial accounts, you authorize us to retrieve and process your financial data through Plaid in accordance with Plaid's End User Privacy Policy. We use this data solely to provide expense tracking and management services.

Security: Your financial data is transmitted using bank-level encryption and is processed in accordance with industry security standards. Access tokens are stored securely and are never exposed in client-side code.

4. How We Use Your Data

We use your data solely to provide and support our service. Our AI processes receipt photos and relevant financial messages to identify documents, extract information, and classify records. Files and message content are processed transiently and are not retained as a permanent copy on our servers. Your source documents and spreadsheets remain in your Google Drive under your control.

Email Data: Gmail integration is completely optional. After you connect Gmail, ExpenseBot processes messages only through the scan modes you choose: a manual or label-based scan, a historical date range, or daily automation you enable. Candidate selection may use sender, subject, attachment, link, and message-body signals. Ambiguous candidates may be evaluated by Google Gemini before a financial record is created. We do not permanently store email content or use it for advertising.

Financial Data: When you connect your bank accounts, we use the transaction data to automatically identify expenses, categorize them, and sync them with your expense tracking spreadsheet. We only store minimal transaction metadata necessary to prevent duplicate processing and maintain sync status. Your full transaction details are stored in your Google Sheets, under your control.

5. Data Storage and Security

ExpenseBot does not retain a permanent copy of your receipt photos, source documents, or email content on our servers. Your source documents and Google Sheets records remain securely stored in your Google Drive, where you have full control. We retain limited account, processing, lineage, security, and billing metadata needed to operate the service. We use encrypted transmission during processing.

Email Data: We do not permanently store email content on our servers. We only store minimal metadata about processed emails (such as reference IDs) to prevent duplicate processing. Email content is processed transiently and then immediately deleted after processing is complete.

Processing and storage regions:

  • Durable receipt files, reports, and spreadsheets are stored in your Google Drive. Their storage location is governed by your Google account or Google Workspace configuration.
  • ExpenseBot's primary document and Gmail processing service runs on Google Cloud Run in Montreal, Canada. Temporary document objects used by the OCR pipeline are processed through a Google Cloud Storage US multi-region bucket and are removed after the processing workflow completes.
  • Limited account, integration, processing, security, entitlement, and audit metadata is stored in Google Cloud Firestore's United States Central multi-region.
  • ExpenseBot's web and API layer runs on Vercel, with server-side functions currently configured in Washington, D.C., United States. Static website content is delivered through Vercel's global network.
ExpenseBot does not currently offer UK-only or EEA-only data residency. If your organization requires a specific residency boundary, contact us before connecting production data.

6. Information We Collect

ExpenseBot collects and stores minimal information necessary to provide and improve our service. Specifically, we store:

  • Your name, email address, and profile image link from your Google account.
  • The ID of the Google Sheets spreadsheet we create for you to organize your expenses.
  • The ID of the Google Drive folder we create to store your receipt photos.
  • Reference IDs for processed emails to prevent duplicate processing.
  • Authentication tokens to enable secure interaction with your Google account.
  • Plaid access tokens to maintain connection to your financial accounts (stored securely and encrypted).
  • Minimal transaction metadata (IDs and sync status) to prevent duplicate processing.
  • Your Stripe subscription ID and customer ID (if applicable), for managing subscriptions.
  • Product usage, device, referral, and diagnostic events collected through Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and LinkedIn Insight Tag to understand service performance and acquisition.

We do not retain a permanent copy of your source photos, documents, email content, or Google Sheets rows. Those records remain in your Google Drive under your control. ExpenseBot may retain the limited identifiers, processing outcomes, user settings, entitlements, and audit metadata needed to operate, secure, and support the service.

7. Data Sharing, Disclosure, and Transfer

We do not sell your personal information. We share or disclose data only as described below:
With Service Providers: We disclose data only as necessary to providers that operate parts of ExpenseBot, including Google services (such as Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Cloud, Gemini, and Vision), Vercel for web and API hosting, Twilio SendGrid for transactional email, Stripe for payments, Plaid for optional financial connections, and Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and LinkedIn for product and acquisition analytics. If you connect an accounting or automation platform, we send only the data needed to perform the sync or action you request. These providers process data under their own service terms and data-protection commitments.
International Transfers: ExpenseBot is operated from Canada and uses providers and infrastructure in Canada, the United States, and other locations where those providers operate. For UK and EEA personal data, our Google Cloud and Vercel service terms include contractual transfer safeguards, including applicable standard contractual clauses and UK transfer terms. You can review the Google Cloud Data Processing Addendum and the Vercel Data Processing Addendum. Contact us at the address below if you need information about the safeguards that apply to a particular service before deployment.
For Legal Reasons: We may share your information to comply with legal obligations, such as in response to a legal request or to enforce our legal rights.
Business Transfers: If ExpenseBot is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, the minimal data we collect (such as your email, profile information, and subscription data) may be transferred as part of that transaction to ensure continuity of service. In such cases, we will obtain your explicit consent before transferring any Gmail data.

8. Data Deletion and Reset

You can disconnect integrations or request account deletion at any time. ExpenseBot's reset and deletion tools explain which application records and Google Drive items will be removed before you confirm the action. Billing or one-time purchase records may be retained when required for accounting, fraud prevention, or legal compliance.

Email Data: Since we do not permanently store email content on our servers, there is no permanent mailbox copy to delete. We retain limited operational metadata, such as Gmail message IDs, scan status, timestamps, and processing outcomes, to prevent duplicate records, resume scans, diagnose failures, and provide an audit trail.

Gmail Authorization Revocation: You can revoke ExpenseBot's access to your Gmail account at any time through your Google Account settings. You can also disable daily scanning without disconnecting the account.

9. Third-Party Services

ExpenseBot integrates with third-party services such as Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, Plaid, and Stripe, which are governed by their own privacy policies. We use Google Vision and Google Gemini to analyze documents and relevant financial messages as part of the service. ExpenseBot does not use Google Workspace data to train a generalized AI model.

10. Google Workspace API Compliance

ExpenseBot does not use data obtained from Google Workspace APIs to develop, improve, or train generalized AI or machine-learning models. All data from Google Workspace APIs, including Gmail, Google Photos and Google Drive, is used solely to provide and support our service to you. We fully comply with Google's "Limitation on User Data Transfer" policy, which prohibits the use of Workspace user data to train non-personalized AI or ML models.

Our use of Gmail API services adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We request only the minimum necessary Gmail API scopes required to provide our service functionality.

11. Legal Bases and Privacy Rights

We process personal information as needed to provide the service you request and perform our contract with you; to secure, support, and improve the service where we have a legitimate interest; to meet legal, tax, fraud-prevention, and accounting obligations; and with consent where applicable law requires it.

Depending on where you live and the processing involved, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or portability of your personal information, and to withdraw consent where processing relies on consent. These rights are not absolute and may be limited by applicable law. Send requests to info@expensebot.ai. UK users may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

12. Data Retention

We keep account, integration, and operational metadata while your account is active and for as long as needed to provide, secure, and support the service. Gmail message references, scan outcomes, and lineage records are retained only as long as needed for duplicate prevention, recovery, diagnostics, and auditability. Temporary source documents are removed after processing. Billing, fraud-prevention, security, and legal records may be kept longer where required by law or reasonably necessary to establish or defend legal claims. When you request deletion, we remove eligible application data and disconnect integrations, subject to those limited obligations. Files already in your Google Drive remain under your control unless the confirmed deletion flow says they will also be removed.

13. Changes to Privacy 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 effective date. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.

14. Contact Information

ExpenseBot is operated by J2Play Ltd. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Email: info@expensebot.ai

15. Effective Date

This Privacy Policy is effective as of August 22, 2026.