Your answers stay yours.

Trip Out The Chat ("Trip Out The Chat", "we", "us") operates tripoutthechat.com and is the controller of the personal information described in this policy. You can reach us at hey@tripoutthechat.com.

We collect only what we need to run the product:

• Account information. Your email address, display name and, if you sign in with Google, the basic profile details Google returns (name, email, profile image). We never receive your Google password.
• Trip and voting data. Trip names, travel windows, group size, destination shortlists, and the answers each participant submits. Participants who vote through an invite link may provide only a first name.
• Purchase information. If you buy the planner or a Plus membership, our payment processor collects and processes your card details. We receive a record of the transaction (amount, currency, product, status, and a customer reference) but never your full card number.
• Messages you send us. Anything you submit through the contact form, including your name, email, topic and message.
• Technical and usage data. IP address, browser and device type, pages visited, referring page, and interactions such as clicks on partner links. Some of this is collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies.

• To create and secure your account and authenticate you when you sign in.
• To run trips: generate invite links, collect votes, calculate group match results and show them to the trip host and participants.
• To process purchases, deliver digital products, manage memberships and handle refunds.
• To respond to your messages and provide support.
• To send you emails you have asked for, such as trip updates, receipts and (if you opt in) our newsletter.
• To measure and improve the product, diagnose faults, prevent fraud and abuse, and keep the service secure.
• To meet legal, tax and accounting obligations.

Where GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract. To provide the account, trips, planner and membership you have asked for.
• Legitimate interests. To secure the service, prevent abuse, understand how the product is used and improve it — balanced against your rights.
• Consent. For optional analytics or marketing cookies and for marketing emails, where required. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation. To keep records we are required by law to keep.

This is the core promise of the product. Individual answers submitted through a trip are used to compute the group result and are not displayed to other participants as attributable choices. Trip hosts can see who has voted and the aggregated outcome, but not another person's individual budget answer or private preference responses. Deleting a trip removes its votes.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We share data only with:

• Service providers who host our database and authentication, send our email, process payments and provide analytics, each bound to process data only on our instructions.
• Other trip participants, to the limited extent described in section 5 (your display name and the aggregated result).
• Authorities or third parties where required by law, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, safety and property of users or the public.
• A successor in the event of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, subject to this policy.

Our site contains affiliate links. When you follow one, the partner sets its own cookies and processes your data under its own policy. See our affiliate disclosure.

Our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Where personal information is transferred out of the EEA or the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

• Account data: for as long as your account is open, then up to 12 months after closure.
• Trip and vote data: until the trip is deleted by its host or the account is closed.
• Purchase records: up to 7 years, where tax and accounting law requires it.
• Contact form messages: up to 24 months.
• Technical logs: typically up to 12 months.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Delete your information, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Object to or restrict certain processing, including direct marketing.
• Receive your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out.
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information — we do not sell or share it, so there is nothing to opt out of.
• Be free from discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

To exercise a right, email hey@tripoutthechat.com. We respond within 30 days (45 days for US state requests where permitted). You may authorise an agent to act for you, and you may appeal a refusal by replying to our decision. EEA and UK users may also complain to their local data protection authority.

We use encryption in transit, row-level access controls on our database, hashed credentials handled by our authentication provider, and least-privilege access for staff. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will notify you and any relevant regulator of a qualifying breach without undue delay.

Trip Out The Chat is not directed at children. You must be at least 16 to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16; if you believe we have, contact us and we will delete it.

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and optional cookies to understand usage. Full detail is in our cookie policy.

If we make a material change we will update the date above and, where appropriate, notify you by email or in the product before the change takes effect.

Questions, requests or complaints: hey@tripoutthechat.com or through our contact form.