Privacy Policy
We believe in transparency. Here's exactly how we handle your data.
Introduction
Welcome to Travely, an AI-powered travel planning app operated by Tiltely. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your personal information when you use our mobile application, web application, and related services.
We believe in transparency. This policy uses plain language to help you understand exactly what data we collect, why we collect it, and who we share it with.
This policy includes all data collection and sharing disclosures required by Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Data We Collect
To provide you with personalized travel planning, we collect and process the following types of information:
Personal Information
Name, email, and hashed password — collected during registration for account creation and authentication. If you sign in via Google or Apple, we receive your name, email, and provider-specific account identifier. We never receive or store your Google or Apple password.
Location & Travel Data
City destinations, place search queries, and GPS coordinates (only when you tap 'Get Directions').
App Activity & AI Content
Saved itineraries, AI-generated place histories, local curiosities, visit guidelines, destination summaries, and cached audio narration files.
Security & Access Logs
IP address, user agent (browser/device info), and timestamps are logged for login attempts (both successful and failed), password changes, and other security-sensitive actions. This data helps us detect unauthorized access and protect your account.
Activity Logs
We log user actions such as itinerary creation, AI content generation requests, and feature usage. These logs include timestamps and action types but are used solely for service improvement and abuse prevention.
Place Curation Sessions
When you use the AI-powered place curation feature, a real-time WebSocket connection is established between your browser and our servers. During this session, your city name, selected categories, and language preference are transmitted to our servers. Your authentication token is included in the connection handshake to verify your identity. AI-suggested places are streamed back in real time. Session state is held in server memory only for the duration of the connection and is discarded on disconnect.
Shared Place Database
To improve performance and avoid redundant AI calls, place data generated during your curation sessions (place names, coordinates, categories, descriptions, and photos) is stored in a shared internal database and reused for all users who visit the same location. This place data contains no personal identifiers — your name, email, or account ID is not linked to the stored place records.
What We Don't Collect
No photos, videos, contacts, calendar, camera, SMS, call logs, or third-party analytics/tracking SDKs (no Firebase, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Sentry, or crash reporters).
Third-Party Services
We integrate with trusted services to deliver core features. Here's who we share data with and why:
OpenAI — AI Content Generation
Travel preferences, city names, and place names are sent to OpenAI for itinerary generation, place history generation, local curiosities, visit guidelines, destination summaries, and content moderation. No personal identifiers (name, email) are included in these requests. We use various OpenAI models including gpt-4o-mini and gpt-4.1-mini for content generation.
Chatterbox TTS / RunPod — Audio Narration
AI-generated text content is processed by the Chatterbox TTS model running on RunPod's GPU infrastructure for text-to-speech conversion. No personal identifiers are included in these requests — only the text content to be narrated. The resulting audio files are cached on our servers for future playback.
Google Maps — Maps & Places
Map viewport coordinates, city search queries, place detail requests, autocomplete queries, and place photo requests. Transmitted from the mobile app SDK and our servers.
DigitalOcean Spaces — Audio File Storage
AI-generated audio narration files are stored on DigitalOcean Spaces (S3-compatible cloud storage) and served via CDN. These files contain no personal information — only AI-generated spoken content about places and travel topics.
Google & Apple — Authentication
If you choose to sign in with Google or Apple, your authentication token is verified directly with Google's or Apple's servers. We receive only your name, email, and a provider-specific identifier.
Stripe — Payment Processing
When you subscribe to the Traveler Pass, you are redirected to Stripe's hosted checkout. Stripe processes your payment card details directly — we never receive or store your raw card data. We share your name, email address, and an internal user identifier with Stripe to create a billing customer record. Stripe stores your subscription status and billing history on our behalf. Stripe's privacy policy governs their data handling: stripe.com/privacy.
Data Stored on Your Device
The app stores some data locally to improve performance and enable offline access. This data never leaves your device unless you explicitly sync or open external apps:
Authentication Tokens
On mobile, stored securely using iOS Keychain or Android Keystore. On the web app, stored in browser sessionStorage (cleared when the tab closes). Tokens expire after 24 hours.
Cached Content
Travel plans, summaries, and place histories cached for faster loading and offline access.
Audio Files
Downloaded MP3 narration cached locally for offline playback. Refreshed after expiration.
App Preferences
Language preferences and app settings stored locally to personalize your experience.
Curation Progress
When using the AI place curation feature, your in-progress accept/reject decisions, selected city, and chosen categories are saved to browser sessionStorage under the key 'curation_progress'. This data exists only in your browser tab and is automatically cleared when the tab is closed or after you successfully generate a route. It is never transmitted to our servers.
Data Retention & Deletion
Here's how long we keep your data and how to delete it:
Server Storage
- Account & Itineraries: Retained while active. Deleted within 30 days of account deletion.
- Security Logs: IP addresses, user agents, and login activity retained for 90 days for fraud detection, then auto-deleted.
- Activity Logs: User action logs retained for 90 days for service improvement, then auto-deleted.
- AI Usage Records: Per-user records of AI feature usage (provider, action type, model, token counts, estimated cost) are retained for 1 year for billing, abuse detection, and analytics. Records include your internal user ID but no message content or personal identifiers.
- Cached AI Content: Place histories are refreshed every 180 days, guidelines every 60 days, and local curiosities every 30 days.
- Server-Side Caching: Place data and search results are temporarily stored in an in-memory cache (Redis) on our servers with a 1-hour expiry to reduce response times. This cache holds place names, coordinates, and metadata, not personal account data.
How to Delete
- Delete individual itineraries via the trash icon.
- Log out to remove auth tokens from your device.
- Email tilt@travely.com for full account deletion.
Planned: Affiliate Partnerships
We are planning to integrate affiliate links from third-party booking services (such as tour operators and restaurant reservation platforms). When these integrations are live, clicking an affiliate link may place a tracking cookie from the respective service for up to 30 days. We will update this policy with full details before these features are enabled. No affiliate tracking is currently active.
Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction (GDPR, CCPA), you have these rights:
Email tilt@travely.com to exercise any of these rights. We'll respond within 30 days.
Additional Information
Children's Privacy (COPPA)
Travely is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided information, contact tilt@travely.com.
International Data Transfers
Our servers and third-party services (OpenAI, Stripe, Google, DigitalOcean) operate globally. For EU/EEA users, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and third-party GDPR compliance. By using Travely, you consent to these international data transfers.
Account Security
Passwords are hashed using bcrypt and never stored in plain text. Authentication tokens (JWT) expire after 24 hours. We implement rate limiting on authentication endpoints to prevent brute-force attacks. Security-sensitive actions are logged with IP address and device information for fraud detection.
Policy Updates
We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The effective date at the top will be updated, and for material changes we'll notify you via email or in-app notification.
Questions about your privacy?
Reach us at tilt@travely.com — we'll get back to you quickly.