Privacy Policy

Data storage

All trip data you create in Payani — trips, calendar events, checklists, notes, and documents you add — is stored only on your device, using local on-device storage. Nothing is uploaded to us, because we don't operate any backend server. If you delete the app, that data is deleted with it.

AI features (optional)

Payani can optionally connect to an AI assistant to help plan trips, answer questions, and search the web for bookable links. This feature is off by default. To use it, you provide your own API key for a provider you choose in Settings — Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, OpenRouter, Google Gemini, Mistral, Groq, Together AI, DeepSeek, xAI, or a self-hosted/custom server on your own network.

When you use the AI assistant, the trip details relevant to your request (and, if you enable web search, your search queries) are sent directly from your device to whichever provider you chose, governed by that provider's own privacy policy:

• Anthropic
• OpenAI
• OpenRouter
• Google
• Mistral, Groq, Together AI, DeepSeek, xAI — see each provider's own site
• Self-hosted/custom — governed by whatever server you point it at, often nowhere if it's on your own network

Your API key is stored only on your device and is never sent to us.

When you open the assistant from a screen, it is also told what that screen shows, so a request like "find me somewhere for lunch" can be answered for the right place and day: which screen it is, the day in view, the trips on it, and for each of those trips that day's stop and events — including the places you saved for them (names, addresses and map coordinates). This goes to the same provider, as part of your request, only when you send one.

If you ask the assistant to use a document's actual content — for example, "create an event from this boarding pass" — Payani reads that document (its text, or its image/PDF bytes when your chosen provider and model have been verified in Settings to accept that kind of content) and sends it to the same provider as part of your request. This happens when you ask for it this way, or — if you've set up an AI provider and left Settings > Automatic assistant on — automatically as soon as you add a document to a trip, so the assistant can suggest the events and checklist items it supports. (Turn Automatic assistant off to stop this; nothing it suggests is added until you approve it.) Otherwise the assistant only ever sees each document's name and file type, never its contents.

AI content safety

Every request to the AI assistant carries a fixed instruction to keep replies suitable for a general audience aged 8 and up, using the same content categories Apple's App Store age ratings and Google Play's IARC rating questionnaire use to gate content at that level — the same systems Payani itself is rated under.

The assistant is instructed to decline and steer the conversation back to trip planning, rather than engage with, regardless of how the request is phrased:

• Sexual or suggestive content
• Graphic violence or gore
• Self-harm or suicide
• Illegal drugs, or alcohol/tobacco encouragement
• Gambling
• Hate speech or content demeaning a protected group
• Instructions for weapons or other dangerous activities
• Profanity or crude language

This instruction travels with every AI request alongside the trip context described above; it doesn't change what data is sent or to whom.

Destination photos

To show a photo for a trip's destination, Payani searches Pexels' photo library (api.pexels.com), and Wikipedia's public API (en.wikipedia.org) if Pexels has nothing. Only the destination names — or the words you type when searching for a cover photo yourself — are sent; no personal data is included. A cover photo you choose is saved on your device.

Today's weather

To show today's weather on the Today screen, Payani asks for your device's location (when-in-use only), rounds it to about 1km of precision before using it, and sends only those rounded coordinates to Open-Meteo's free weather API (open-meteo.com) and a reverse-geocoding lookup (api.bigdatacloud.net) to show a nearby place name. The same rounded coordinates go to Open-Meteo's air-quality service (air-quality-api.open-meteo.com) for the air's PM2.5 reading. In Singapore, the PSI and PM2.5 readings come instead from the Singapore government's open data service (data.gov.sg): Payani downloads the readings for every region and picks the nearest on your device, so no location is sent. For a trip's stops, weather is looked up by the stop's name through Open-Meteo's place search (geocoding-api.open-meteo.com). None of these services requires an account or API key, and no other personal data is included. Location access is optional — if you decline it, the weather card shows the weather at your trip's stop while a trip is under way, and otherwise just asks for it.

Exchange rates

The Today screen's currency converter gets its rates from a free exchange-rate service (open.er-api.com). Only the currency codes being converted are sent — never amounts, your location or any personal data.

Live maps (optional, off by default)

If you turn on Live maps in Settings, Payani can record your route during journey events — flights, transport, auto rentals and Explore outings — so you can look back at where you went. Recording only happens for a journey you start (or allow Payani to start at its scheduled time), uses "While using the app" location access, and stops when the journey ends or you stop it. While a route is recording, your phone shows the system location indicator (and, on Android, an ongoing notification). Routes are stored only on your device; they are never sent to Payani or anyone else, and you can delete them at any time (Settings > Live maps > Delete all routes, or by deleting the event). For Explore outings, Payani can also read your step count from your phone's motion sensors (Motion & Fitness on iOS); step counts are stored with the route, on your device only.

Event locations

For place events such as restaurants, sights and hotels, you can save a location by searching for it, tapping a map, or using your current location. On iOS, searches use Apple's built-in place lookup. On Android, a search by name (a restaurant, say) goes to Photon (photon.komoot.io), a free search over OpenStreetMap data, and a search by address goes to your phone's built-in lookup (Google's). Only the text you type is sent to Photon — no location or identifier. Searches sent to Apple or Google, and, for "Use my current location", your coordinates, are handled under their own privacy policies, and searches sent to Photon under komoot's. Payani itself receives nothing; saved locations are stored only on your device with the event. Maps in the app are drawn by Apple Maps (iOS) or Google Maps (Android), so viewing a map involves requests to Apple or Google (such as the area being viewed and your IP address), under their own privacy policies. "Open in Maps" hands the place to your chosen maps app only when you tap it.

Donations (optional)

The website offers an optional way to send the developer a voluntary donation via PayPal. This is entirely separate from the app itself — there is no donation flow inside Payani, and choosing not to donate has no effect on the app. If you do choose to donate, your payment details are provided directly to PayPal and are never seen by or stored by Payani, governed by PayPal's own privacy policy. See the donate page for the full donation terms.

Website analytics

This website (payani.app — not the app itself) uses Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the site: which pages are viewed, roughly how many visitors, and general information like browser, device type, and country inferred from IP address, rather than any identifier tied to you personally. Google Analytics sets cookies to do this; you can block or clear them in your browser's own settings, or opt out entirely via the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. This data is governed by Google's own privacy policy.

Data the app collects itself

None. The Payani app has no analytics, no crash reporting, and no tracking of any kind, and no server that receives your data. Recorded routes, saved event locations and step counts never leave your device. (The website analytics described above run only on this website, in your browser — they have no access to anything inside the app.)

Permissions

Payani may request access to your photo library, camera, files, microphone/audio settings (for voice input into AI, if used), your device's location (when-in-use only) — for the Today screen's weather card, for saving an event's location, and, if you turn on Live maps, for recording journey routes — and motion & fitness data (step counts during Explore outings, if Live maps is on). These are used on-device (or, for weather, rounded before being sent to the weather lookup described above) and are not transmitted anywhere except as described above.

Contact

Questions about this policy: support@payani.app