Privacy Policy

Last Modified: January 25, 2026

Effective: January 25, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Budgets and Things LLC, doing business as Athena Money ("Athena Money," "we," "our," or "us"), collects, uses, and shares information. Throughout this document, "Athena Money," "we," "our," or "us" refers to Budgets and Things LLC.

Introduction

In the world of budgeting apps, trust is everything. At Athena Money, we understand that your financial data is incredibly personal and sensitive. That's why we've crafted this Privacy Policy to be as clear and straightforward as possible. We believe that just as you should have control over your money, you should have control over your data.

We know privacy policies aren't exactly thrilling reads, but we encourage you to take the time to understand how we protect your information. Your trust is the foundation of our service, and we're committed to earning it every day.

Before diving into the details, here are the key points of our privacy commitment:

Your data, your control: We provide tools for you to access, modify, or delete your information at any time.
Security first: We employ industry-leading security measures to protect your financial data.
No data sales: We do not sell your personal information or financial data. Period.
Transparency is key: We're clear about how we use your data and why.
Subscription-based model: Our revenue comes from subscriptions, not from exploiting your data for ads.
Continuous improvement: We use data to enhance our services, always with your privacy in mind.
Limited data sharing: We only share data when necessary to provide our services or when required by law.

The following sections provide the legal and technical details of our privacy practices. While it may seem daunting, we've tried to make it as readable as possible. If you have any questions, our team is always here to help.

Remember, at Athena Money, we believe that financial empowerment starts with data empowerment. Let's dive in.

Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Information
Data Retention
Children's Privacy
Your Rights and Choices
Information for California Residents
Cookies, Online Analytics, and Advertising
Third Party Applications and Integrations
Data Security
Data Location and Transfers
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Contact Us

1. Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Information

Summary: The information collected as you use the Services is used for the following purposes: to contact you, to fulfill our agreements with you, and to perform routine business activities and operations, including marketing. The following sections offer details about the types of information collected, how and why we collect, protect, use, and disclose that information.

Categories of Information We Collect

We collect information about you, including information that directly or indirectly identifies you, through your use of Athena Money. We do so:

When you provide the information, by filling out forms or otherwise providing information through the Services;
When you create or add to your budgets and budget categories or we connect to your financial institutions in order to retrieve financial transaction data on your behalf or you provide other financial transaction data within the Product (collectively "Financial Data");
Automatically (through cookies and similar tools) when you browse our app or interact with our marketing communications;
When you correspond with us to receive customer support via email or chat.

This includes:

Information that you provide by filling in forms on the Services, including information provided at the time of registering to use or subscribing to use paid aspects of the Services (e.g., email address), requesting further services, entering a contest or promotion we sponsor, completing surveys, or otherwise contacting us.
Your IP address when you interact with the Services.
Your address (including postal code) for billing purposes.
When you choose to directly link financial accounts to Athena Money, we receive certain information about those financial accounts, including account balances, transactions and holdings.
Your location when you record a transaction via the Services, including general location information.
Your communications with us (including email addresses), if you contact us.
Details of transactions you carry out through the Services, such as records of when you purchase a subscription to Athena Money.
To provide you with customer support or service offerings, including responding to and resolving your inquiries and requests.
Technical and usage information when you use the Services or interact with our marketing communications.

Sources of Information

We collect most of the information referred to above from you directly. However, we may also collect information about you from the following third-party sources:

Bank data vendors, such as Plaid, which provide access to certain information about your financial accounts.
Other users of the Services, for instance in relation to a referral program.
Analytics providers.

Legal Bases for Use of Your Information

Our legal bases for processing your personal data include:

To perform our obligations pursuant to a contract (or pending contract) with you.
For our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others.
To comply with our legal obligations.
With your consent.

Disclosure of Information

We may share your information in the following circumstances:

Service Providers: We share data with service providers who help us operate our business and provide our Services, including hosting and technology vendors, security and fraud prevention consultants, and customer support vendors.

Financial Data Aggregators: We use Plaid to facilitate account connections and data synchronization. When you connect your bank accounts, Plaid receives your bank credentials directly—we never see or store your bank login information.

Payment Processors: We use Stripe to process subscription payments. When you subscribe, Stripe collects your payment information (card number, expiration date, CVV) directly—this information never passes through our servers. We receive and store only your name, email, billing address, and the last four digits of your payment method.

AI Service Providers: We use third-party AI services, including Anthropic and Perplexity, to improve transaction categorization and merchant name recognition. These services receive only transaction descriptions, merchant names, and location data (city, state)—never your name, email, account numbers, or other personally identifiable information.

Household Members: If you use shared budgeting features, other authorized members of your household may have access to shared financial data, budgets, and transaction information. Household members can view and modify shared data based on the permissions you grant.

Legal Requirements: We may disclose information to comply with legal obligations or respond to lawful requests from public authorities, including court orders, government requests, or regulatory compliance.

Business Transfers: In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company.

With Your Consent: We may share information with your consent or at your direction.

We may also share de-identified or aggregated data with third parties for various purposes, including to improve our Services.

Automated Decision-Making

We use algorithms to automatically categorize transactions and recognize merchant names. These automated processes supplement your decisions rather than replace them—you can always manually recategorize any transaction or change any merchant name. We do not use automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you.

2. Data Retention

We retain your information as necessary to provide the Services and to fulfill the transactions you have requested, and for other necessary purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, enforcing our agreements, and for fraud prevention and related security purposes.

More specifically:

We retain account data for a reasonable period after your subscription or trial expires to allow you to return and resume using the Services.
After you delete your account, we may retain your email address to be able to confirm deletion of associated data and respond to any follow-up inquiries.
We retain certain information as required for legal, tax, and regulatory compliance.

You can request deletion of your information at any time by following the steps in the Your Rights and Choices section of this Policy.

3. Children's Privacy

The Services are not intended for anyone under 18 years of age. No one under 18 may provide any personal data to the Services. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on the Services or through any of its features. If we learn we have collected or received personal data from anyone under 18, we will delete that information.

If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at privacy@athenamoney.com.

4. Your Rights and Choices

We extend the following rights to all users regardless of location. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have additional legal protections for these rights.

Your Rights

You may request:

Access: Information about what personal data we have collected about you and a copy of that data.
Correction: Updates or corrections to inaccurate personal information.
Deletion: Deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions required by law.
Portability: A copy of your data in a commonly used, machine-readable format.

You also have the right not to face discrimination for exercising these rights.

How to Exercise Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at privacy@athenamoney.com. We will respond to your request within 45 days as required by applicable law.

You may also authorize an agent to exercise your rights on your behalf. To do this, you must provide your authorized agent with written permission to exercise your rights on your behalf, and we may request a copy of this written permission from your authorized agent when they make a request on your behalf.

Appeal Process

If we deny your request, you may appeal our decision by emailing privacy@athenamoney.com with "Privacy Appeal" in the subject line. We will respond to your appeal within the timeframe required by applicable law.

Marketing Communications

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any marketing email.

5. Information for California Residents

If you are a California resident, you have certain rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), including:

The right to know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell
The right to request deletion of your personal information
The right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information
The right to non-discrimination for exercising your CCPA rights

Important: We do not sell your personal information or Financial Data. We do not share your personal information for targeted advertising purposes. Because we do not engage in these practices, there is no need to opt out.

To exercise your rights under the CCPA, please contact us at privacy@athenamoney.com.

6. Cookies, Online Analytics, and Advertising

We and our service providers use cookies, web beacons, and similar tracking technologies to collect information about your use of our Services and to enhance your experience.

Analytics

We use analytics services, including Amplitude, to help us understand how users interact with our Services. These services use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about your use of our Services, which helps us improve our product.

Advertising

We do not currently use advertising cookies or work with third-party advertising networks to show you targeted ads.

Your Choices

You can control cookies through your browser settings and other tools. However, if you block certain cookies, you may not be able to use all features of our Services.

Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track

We recognize Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals. Because we do not sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising purposes, these signals do not change our data practices—we already do not engage in these activities.

Our Services do not currently respond to browser-based Do Not Track (DNT) signals, as there is no industry-standard way to honor these signals. However, because we do not engage in cross-site tracking for advertising purposes, the practical effect is the same.

7. Third Party Applications and Integrations

Our Services may allow you to connect or integrate with third-party applications, services, or platforms. When you use these integrations, you may be allowing these third parties to access and collect certain information from your account. The information collected by these third parties will be subject to their own terms and policies. We encourage you to review the privacy practices of these third parties before connecting to or using their applications or services with our platform.

8. Data Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:

Encryption of data in transit and at rest
Secure credential handling (we never store your bank login information)
Regular security assessments
Access controls limiting employee access to personal data

However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic system is completely secure, so there is no guarantee that data may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed in connection with a breach of our physical, technical, organizational, or managerial safeguards.

9. Data Location and Transfers

Athena Money is based in the United States, and our Services are intended for users located in the United States. All information we collect is processed and stored in the United States.

If you access our Services from outside the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, where our servers are located and our central database is operated.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last Modified" date at the beginning of this Policy. For significant changes, we may also notify you by email.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Budgets and Things LLC d/b/a Athena Money

Email: privacy@athenamoney.com
General Support: support@athenamoney.com
Address: Montclair, NJ