Legal
Hootworth Privacy Policy
1. Overview
This Privacy Policy explains how Michael Perea, the individual currently operating Hootworth as an educational and beta-testing software project, collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects information when you use Hootworth.
Hootworth is currently a non-commercial beta. Paid subscriptions are not active, and Hootworth does not collect payment-card information for purchasing the app.
Because Hootworth can contain sensitive household financial information, this Policy is intended to state plainly what information comes from you, what comes from Plaid, what technical information is generated by the service, and why each category is used.
2. Information you provide directly
Account and profile information. This may include your email address, authentication identifier, user ID, account role, household membership, invitation information, settings, and information you provide in your profile.
Bill and planning information. Bill information is entered by you or another authorized household member. It may include biller names, bill amounts, due dates, recurring schedules, payment status/history, income and paycheck schedules, reservations, savings/planning settings, manual account names and balances, and other information you choose to enter.
Hootworth does not currently obtain your bills, bill amounts, due dates, or payment obligations directly from billers.
Feedback and support information. If you report a bug, participate in testing, or contact support, we may receive information you choose to provide, along with relevant technical context needed to investigate the issue.
3. Information from a financial account you connect through Plaid
Connecting an account through Plaid is optional.
What Hootworth currently retrieves
The current beta retrieves limited information used to display and monitor account balances, which may include:
- financial institution name and account metadata;
- account type/subtype;
- masked account identifiers;
- available and/or current balance information; and
- connection health/status information needed to maintain the integration.
Hootworth primarily uses Plaid’s cached account information for routine balance updates. A cached balance may not reflect activity that occurred after Plaid’s most recent update.
Hootworth may make an occasional live balance request through Plaid when a tester requests a fresh balance. Live requests are used sparingly and may be throttled.
Plaid Transactions service
Hootworth enables Plaid’s Transactions product as part of the financial-account connection so Plaid can maintain regularly updated cached account information. The current reviewed Hootworth implementation does not download or store Plaid transaction-history records.
Plaid may itself access or process transaction information as part of providing its Transactions service. Plaid’s handling of information within Plaid is governed by Plaid’s own legal and privacy policies.
Possible future transaction-based beta features
Hootworth may later test features that use transaction activity to:
- recognize whether an expected income/paycheck deposit appears to have arrived; or
- identify a transaction that appears to correspond to a bill you track, so the app can improve payment-status accuracy.
If Hootworth begins retrieving or storing transaction-history records for such features, this Policy and the just-in-time Plaid disclosure should be updated before the new collection/use begins, and any additional consent required by law or Plaid’s terms should be obtained.
Credentials and money movement
Hootworth does not receive your financial institution username or password from Plaid. Hootworth does not initiate payments, transfers, withdrawals, or deposits and does not hold your funds.
4. Technical and operational information
Household-sharing information. We process household owner/member relationships, member email addresses, invitation codes, and access-control information so authorized household members can share data.
Notification information. If you enable push notifications, we store information needed to deliver them, such as a push endpoint, cryptographic subscription keys, device/browser user-agent information, preferences, and update timestamps.
Diagnostic and support information. Error or support records may include a user ID, email address when available, error code/message, technical context, browser user-agent, timestamps, and information you choose to provide.
Browser and offline-storage information. Hootworth is a progressive web application and uses browser/device storage such as local storage, IndexedDB, and service-worker caches to maintain settings, authentication state where applicable, reliability, and offline functionality.
Security information. Hootworth and its service providers may process IP address, device/browser characteristics, request metadata, security tokens, and other signals necessary for authentication, App Check, fraud/abuse prevention, and service security.
5. How information is used
Hootworth uses information to:
- authenticate users and operate accounts;
- store and display bills, paychecks, schedules, and payment status;
- calculate schedules, projections, and shortfall/insufficient-funds warnings;
- display connected-account balances;
- support household sharing;
- send notifications you enable;
- troubleshoot defects and support beta testers;
- protect accounts and infrastructure from unauthorized use;
- maintain, test, and improve the beta; and
- comply with applicable law and enforce the Beta Tester Terms.
Hootworth does not use connected financial data to move money or execute bill payments.
6. Developer access during beta testing
Because Hootworth is an actively developed beta operated by an individual developer, the project operator may access stored account, configuration, diagnostic, or financial-planning information when reasonably necessary to investigate a reported problem, maintain the service, test a fix, address a security issue, or support a tester.
Access should be limited to information reasonably necessary for the task and to people who have a legitimate need to access it. Sensitive information should not be accessed merely out of curiosity or for unrelated purposes.
7. How information is shared
Hootworth does not sell personal information or financial data. Hootworth does not use financial data for targeted advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising.
Information may be processed by service providers necessary to operate the beta, including:
- Google/Firebase for authentication, database storage, hosting, server-side processing, security, and related infrastructure;
- Plaid for financial-account connectivity and Plaid’s associated account/Transactions services; and
- browser/device push-delivery services when you enable notifications.
Shared household data is disclosed to household members you or the household owner authorize. Depending on current feature design, authorized household members may be able to view, add, edit, or delete shared information.
Information may also be disclosed when reasonably necessary to comply with law or enforceable legal process, protect users or the service, investigate abuse or unauthorized access, or establish/defend legal claims.
8. Household sharing and privacy
Household sharing is intentionally collaborative. If you join a shared household, other authorized members can receive access to sensitive household financial information. If you invite another person, you direct Hootworth to provide that person with the level of shared access described in the product.
Use household sharing only with people you trust. Hootworth cannot control what an authorized household member remembers, screenshots, copies, or records after legitimately viewing shared information.
9. Offline data and device security
Information that has been loaded into Hootworth may be cached locally in your browser/device so the PWA can continue working offline. Financial information may therefore remain available on a device after you close Hootworth.
Protect devices containing Hootworth information with appropriate screen locking and account security. On a shared or public device, sign out and clear Hootworth site/application data when finished. Clearing data on one device does not automatically delete cloud data associated with your account.
10. Push notifications
If enabled, notification payloads may include financial information such as upcoming bill totals or account balances. Depending on your operating system and browser settings, these details may appear on a lock screen or notification preview.
You can disable Hootworth notifications in the app and/or through browser/device settings.
11. Cookies, analytics, and tracking
Hootworth uses browser/device storage and may use cookies or equivalent technologies necessary for authentication, security, preferences, offline functionality, and service operation.
Hootworth does not currently intend to use advertising trackers, cross-site advertising cookies, or financial data for targeted advertising.
Before enabling non-essential analytics, session replay, marketing tracking, or another materially different measurement practice, the privacy disclosures and any required consent controls should be updated to match the actual deployed behavior.
12. Security
Hootworth uses administrative and technical safeguards designed to protect information handled by the beta. Current controls include authenticated access, database authorization rules, encrypted network transport, provider encryption at rest, Google Cloud KMS protection for Plaid access tokens, App Check/security controls where enabled, restricted administrative access, and ongoing development/testing of security-sensitive code.
No online system can guarantee perfect security. If a security incident involving personal information occurs, Hootworth will investigate and provide notices as required by applicable law.
13. Retention and deletion
Hootworth retains account and household information for as long as reasonably necessary to operate the beta and for the purposes described in this Policy. During active testing, data may also be migrated, reformatted, corrected, reset, or removed when reasonably necessary for testing, defect recovery, security, or product changes.
When an account or household is deleted through the available process, applicable data should be removed from active Hootworth systems, subject to technical verification and household ownership rules. Limited residual information may remain temporarily in provider backups, security/audit logs, fraud/abuse-prevention records, or records that must be retained by law. Residual backup data should not be used for ordinary product purposes and should expire or be overwritten according to provider/operational schedules.
14. Your choices
You can use available controls to edit information, disconnect a financial institution, manage or leave a household as permitted by your role, change notification preferences, and request account deletion.
You may also contact support@hootworth.com to ask questions or request access, correction, or deletion of personal information. Additional legal rights may apply depending on your location and whether a particular law applies to Hootworth’s current scope.
15. Children
Hootworth is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 18. A person under 18 should not create a Hootworth beta account.
16. Changes to this Policy
This Policy may change as the beta changes. If a change materially alters how previously collected personal information is used or shared, Hootworth will provide appropriate notice and obtain affirmative permission when required rather than relying solely on a silent policy edit.
17. Contact
Privacy questions, general beta/support questions may be sent to support@hootworth.com.