Privacy Policy
Effective Date: November 7, 2026 · Last Updated: November 7, 2026
IOU helps friends split receipts. To do that, it needs your phone number, your name and the receipts you add. This policy explains what we collect, why, who helps us run IOU, and how to delete everything. In short: we only use your information to run IOU, we don't sell it, and we don't show ads.
1. Who We Are
This Privacy Policy applies to the IOU mobile app, the website at useiou.com, and related services (together, the "Service"). The Service is operated by Jillian Gallagher in Connecticut, United States ("IOU", "we", "us" or "our"). Our Terms of Service also apply to your use of the Service.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information you give us
| Phone number | To sign you in with a one-time text code, and so friends who saved your number can find you on IOU (see Section 5). |
|---|---|
| Name | The name you choose when you sign up. People in your events see it. |
| Sign in with Apple | If you use it, Apple gives us an account identifier and, if you choose to share it, your email address or a private relay address. We use it only to sign you in. |
| Events and receipts | Event names and dates; receipt details (place, date, items, prices, tax and tip); who paid; and who claimed which items. |
| Friends you add | Names and, if you include them, phone numbers of people you add to events, groups or your Friends list. |
| Messages to us | If you email support, we keep that conversation so we can help you. |
2.2 Receipt photos
When you scan a receipt, the photo is sent to our receipt-reading provider (see Section 4) to read the items, prices, tax and tip. The photo is used only for that and is not stored by IOU.
2.3 Information collected automatically
Our hosting and database providers keep standard technical logs (such as IP address, device type and the time of a request) for security and to fix problems. IOU does not use third-party analytics, advertising identifiers or ad trackers, and does not collect your location, your full contacts list or your browsing activity.
3. How We Use Information
- To provide the Service: sign you in, save events and receipts, calculate each person's share, and show who owes whom.
- To connect you with friends: invite links, showing friends as "On IOU", and linking people added by phone number when they sign up.
- To keep the Service secure: preventing abuse, enforcing rate limits and investigating problems.
- To support you and tell you about important changes to the Service or these policies.
- To comply with the law.
We don't sell your personal information, share it for targeted advertising, or use it to build advertising profiles.
4. How Information Is Shared
4.1 With people in your events
People in an event see that event's members, receipts, items, claims and balances. Your groups and your Friends list are private to you.
4.2 Through invite links
Anyone you send an invite link to can, after signing in, see the event's name and dates, who invited them, and the names of people in the event who aren't on IOU yet, so they can pick their own name and join. Invite links expire after 60 days.
4.3 With service providers
These companies process information on our behalf only to provide the Service:
- Supabase: database, account storage and sign-in.
- Twilio: sends one-time sign-in codes by text message.
- Anthropic: reads receipt photos with its Claude AI model and returns the items and prices. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, this data isn't used to train its models.
- Apple: Sign in with Apple, TestFlight and the App Store.
- Cloudflare: hosts this website and handles email sent to useiou.com.
4.4 For legal reasons
We may disclose information if required by law, or if we believe in good faith it's necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of our users, the public or IOU.
4.5 If IOU changes hands
If IOU is reorganized (for example, moved into a company) or sold, your information may be transferred as part of that, and this policy will continue to apply to it.
5. Contacts and Finding Friends
When you tap Add from Contacts, your iPhone opens its own contact picker. IOU receives only the one person you tap: their name and phone number. IOU never reads or uploads your whole address book.
When you save a friend's phone number, IOU checks whether that number belongs to an IOU account. If it does, they show as "On IOU", and events you add them to appear in their app. Only numbers you've saved are checked; nobody can browse or search who uses IOU, and an account can add at most 200 friends a day. This means someone who has your number and adds you can see that you use IOU, but nothing else about you unless you're in an event together.
When you add someone's name or number, you confirm you're allowed to share it with us for this purpose.
6. Payments
IOU shows who owes whom but doesn't process payments. If you pay a friend back with Venmo, Cash App, Apple Cash or another service, that happens outside IOU and is covered by that service's own privacy policy.
7. How Long We Keep Information
We keep your information while you have an account. When you delete your account, it's removed from IOU's database right away; copies in our providers' backups are overwritten within a few weeks. We may keep limited records longer where the law requires it.
8. Deleting Your Account
In the app, tap your picture on the Home tab, then Account, then Delete account. This deletes:
- your account, profile and sign-in;
- your groups and saved friends; and
- events you created, for everyone in them.
In events other people created, your name stays on the receipts you were part of so their totals still add up, but it's no longer linked to an account. You can also email support@useiou.com and we'll delete your account for you.
9. Your Choices and Rights
You can change your name in the app at any time. You can ask us for a copy of your information, or to correct or delete it, by emailing support@useiou.com. Depending on where you live (for example California, or the European Union and United Kingdom), you may have additional rights, such as to know what we collect, to object to certain uses, or to complain to a data protection authority. We'll honor those rights as the law requires and won't treat you differently for using them.
10. Age Requirement
The Service is only for people 18 and older, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, email us and we'll delete it.
11. Security
Information is sent over encrypted connections, and database rules limit each person to the events they're part of. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect your information and will notify you as the law requires if a breach affects it.
12. Where Information Is Processed
IOU is based in the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. By using the Service, you understand your information will be processed there.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. We'll post the new version here and update the "Last Updated" date. If we make a material change to how we use your information, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect.
14. Contact
Questions or requests about privacy: support@useiou.com