Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Steward ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your personal and financial information. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, what we never do with it, and what rights you have over your data. We have written it in plain language because we believe you deserve to understand it without a law degree.

This policy applies to all Steward products and services, including the Steward web application and every feature within it.

2. Your data belongs to you

Your personal and financial data is yours. Steward is a tool you use to manage your finances — we are not in the business of selling, renting, or trading your information. The following commitments are absolute and apply to every Steward user, regardless of subscription tier:

• We never sell your data. Steward does not sell, rent, license, or trade your personal or financial information to any third party for any reason, at any price, ever.
• We never show ads, so your data is never used for advertising. Steward is completely ad-free at every subscription level. Your account balances, spending patterns, fund allocations, transaction history, and income information are never used to target advertisements — by us or by anyone else.
• You can delete your data. You may request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time. See the Data Retention section below for details.

3. Information we collect

Information you provide directly. When you create an account and use Steward, we collect: your name and email address; your chosen password (stored as a one-way cryptographic hash — we cannot read it); financial information you enter manually, such as fund names, budget amounts, and transaction details; and the preferences and settings you configure within the application.

Information from connected bank accounts (Essentials and Premium only). When you connect a bank account, Steward receives read-only access to your account balances and transaction history through our secure bank connectivity partner, Plaid. We collect only what is necessary to display your transactions and update your fund balances. We do not collect, store, or transmit your bank login credentials — those stay between you and your bank, inside Plaid's secure authentication flow.

Usage and technical information. We collect standard technical information needed to operate the service: device type and operating system, app version, feature usage patterns (which screens you visit, which features you use), error logs, and session timestamps. This information is used solely to improve the product and diagnose technical issues. It is never linked to your financial data for any advertising or targeting purpose.

4. How we use your information

We use your information for one purpose: to provide and improve the Steward service for you. Specifically, we use your data to:

• Operate the service — display your fund balances, generate budget recommendations, process imported bank transactions, and deliver the features you have subscribed to.
• Generate AI guidance. For Essentials and Premium subscribers, your financial data is analyzed by our AI system to suggest budget recommendations — which you review and confirm. This analysis happens within Steward's secure systems, and AI-generated guidance is never advice from a licensed financial professional.
• Communicate with you — send account notifications, product updates, security alerts, and (only with your consent) marketing emails about Steward features. You may opt out of marketing emails at any time.
• Improve the product — analyze aggregated, de-identified usage patterns to understand how features are used and where the product can get better. Individual financial data is never used in this analysis in any form that could identify you.

5. Our ad-free commitment

Steward is completely ad-free at every subscription level, including the free tier. No third-party advertisements, sponsored content, promoted placements, affiliate links, or any other form of paid promotion is displayed anywhere within Steward, at any time. This is not a tier benefit that can be removed or modified by subscription level — it is a product-wide commitment.

How Steward is funded: Steward does not sell advertising space, participate in ad networks, or generate revenue through advertising of any kind. Steward is funded entirely by subscription fees from Essentials and Premium subscribers.

Because Steward is ad-free, there is no advertising disclosure to make with respect to data usage or ad targeting. Your financial data is used solely to provide you with budgeting and financial management services within Steward — never for behavioral profiling or data brokerage.

6. Information we do not collect

Steward does not collect the following, and our systems are designed to prevent this data from ever entering our platform:

• Bank login credentials. Your bank username and password are entered directly into your bank's secure authentication system through Plaid. Steward never sees, stores, or transmits your bank login credentials.
• Social Security numbers, government IDs, or tax identification numbers. Steward does not require or collect government identification numbers of any kind.
• Credit card numbers or full payment account numbers. Steward may display masked account numbers (for example, the last four digits) for identification purposes only. Full account numbers are never stored in Steward's systems.
• Children's information. Steward is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately at the address in the Contact section.

7. Third-party data sharing

Steward shares your information with third parties only in the following limited circumstances — and never with advertisers, data brokers, marketing platforms, or any other party for commercial purposes:

• Service providers who help us run Steward. We use a small set of carefully chosen providers: Supabase (secure database hosting and account authentication), Plaid (read-only bank connectivity), Stripe (subscription payments — your card details go directly to Stripe and never touch Steward's servers), and Resend (transactional email delivery). Each processes data on our behalf under strict data processing agreements and is contractually prohibited from using your data for its own purposes.
• Bank connectivity. When you connect a bank account, Plaid receives your authorization to access your account data on our behalf and delivers transaction information to Steward in a read-only format. Bank credentials are managed entirely within Plaid's secure systems.
• Legal requirements. We may disclose information when required to do so by law, court order, or government request, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of our users or the public.
• Business transfers. If Steward is acquired or merges with another company, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you in advance and provide options regarding your data in the event of such a change.

8. Data security

Steward applies industry-standard security measures to protect your data. Key protections include:

• Encryption in transit and at rest. All data transmitted between your device and Steward's servers is encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher, and all financial data stored in Steward's systems is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption.
• Access controls. Access to production systems containing user data is restricted to authorized personnel only, governed by role-based access controls and multi-factor authentication.
• No storage of bank credentials. Because Steward never receives your bank login credentials, they cannot be compromised through Steward's systems.

While we work hard to protect your information, no security system is impenetrable. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately.

9. Data retention

Steward retains your data for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the service. Active-history periods by tier are:

• Free (Manual Mode): 12 months of transaction and budget history is actively accessible. Older data is archived — not deleted — and becomes accessible again if you upgrade to a paid tier. Archived data is retained for up to 5 years before permanent deletion.
• Essentials: 2 years of transaction and budget history is actively accessible.
• Premium: 5 years of transaction and budget history is actively accessible.

Account deletion. You can request deletion of your account at any time. Deletion includes a 30-day grace period during which you can change your mind and cancel the request. After the grace period, we delete your personally identifiable financial data within 30 days of your confirmed request, and we remove your data from backups as they cycle out. Anonymized, de-identified aggregate data used for product improvement may be retained.

10. Your rights and choices

You have the following rights over your personal data:

• Access. Request a copy of the personal and financial data Steward holds about you at any time — by contacting us, or with the data export feature in Account Settings.
• Correction. Correct or update your personal information at any time within Account Settings.
• Deletion. Request deletion of your account and all associated personal data at any time, with a 30-day grace period to change your mind. Deletion is initiated in Settings.
• Data portability. Export your Steward data — transaction history, fund structure, and budget history — at any time in CSV or PDF format from Account Settings.
• Marketing opt-out. Opt out of marketing emails at any time via the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or in your notification preferences.

11. United States and Canada

Steward launches in both the United States and Canada, and the following frameworks inform this policy:

• United States. Steward complies with applicable U.S. federal and state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) as applicable to financial technology providers. California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected and the right to opt out of the sale of personal information — and because Steward never sells personal information, that opt-out right is satisfied by our policy itself.
• Canada. Steward complies with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and applicable provincial privacy legislation. You have the right to access, correct, and request deletion of your personal information as described in the Your Rights section above.

12. Changes to this policy

Steward may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email and by displaying a prominent notice in the application at least 30 days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of Steward after that date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. If you do not agree with the changes, you may delete your account before the effective date.

13. Contact us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your data rights, or need to report a privacy concern, please reach out — a real person reads these:

• Email: privacy@steward.example
• Response time: we aim to respond to every privacy request within 30 days.