Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

PriceIt collects the following types of information:

• Account Information: When you create an account, we collect your name and email address through our authentication provider, Clerk. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive the basic profile information those providers share (typically your name and email).
• Scan Photos: When you scan an item, the photo is processed to identify the product and estimate a price, and the scan result (item name, estimated price, and the image) is saved to your account so you can revisit it later.
• Price Submission Evidence: When you submit a price, we collect the evidence photo you provide (e.g. a shelf tag or receipt), any price or store you claim, and the product it relates to. This evidence is used to verify the price and build your contributor trust score.
• Location Data: With your permission, we collect your device's location. Price submissions specifically include your precise GPS coordinates at the time of submission, so the price can be attributed to the right market. Other parts of the app may use approximate location to show pricing relevant to your area.
• Search History: Searches you perform in the app, along with the results shown, are saved to your account.
• Prediction Market and Points Activity: If you participate in prediction markets, we record your points balance, the positions you take, and the outcome of each market you participate in.
• Payment Information: If you subscribe to Premium, payment is handled by our payment processor, Paystack. PriceIt does not receive or store your full card details — we receive confirmation of payment, a transaction reference, and the email address associated with the transaction.
• Device and Usage Information: We collect basic device information (device type, operating system), app usage analytics (such as which features you use and how often), crash and error diagnostics, and a push notification token if you enable notifications.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Identify products and estimate prices: Using AI to recognize items in your photos and generate a price estimate.
• Verify submitted prices: Checking evidence photos against claimed prices, cross-referencing location and product details, and combining verified submissions from many contributors into a single consensus price and confidence score.
• Maintain trust scores, badges, and the leaderboard: Your history of verified and rejected submissions is used to calculate a trust score, badge, and leaderboard rank, which may be visible to other users of the app (see Section 3).
• Operate prediction markets: Recording your points balance and positions, and settling markets against verified consensus prices.
• Process payments and manage subscriptions: Activating and renewing Premium, and enforcing free-tier usage limits.
• Send notifications: Such as updates on a prediction market you've staked points in, if you've enabled push notifications.
• Improve the app: Analyzing usage trends and crash reports to fix bugs and improve the user experience.

3. Public and Shared Information

PriceIt's pricing data is crowdsourced, which means some information you provide is not private between you and PriceIt alone:

• Verified prices are shared: A price you submit, once verified, contributes to the consensus price shown to every user for that product and market. The verified price itself is public within the app.
• Contributor reputation is visible: Your trust score, badge, and leaderboard rank may be shown to other users. We do not display your name, email, or evidence photos publicly.
• Prediction markets are visible: Aggregate market data (total points staked on each side, number of participants) is visible to all users. Your individual positions are not shown to other users.

4. Third-Party Service Providers

PriceIt relies on the following service providers to operate the app. Each processes only the data needed for its function:

• Google Gemini API: Processes scan and price-evidence photos to identify products and extract price information. Google's handling of this data is described in Google's Privacy Policy.
• Clerk: Handles account creation, login, and authentication, including Google and Apple sign-in.
• Paystack: Processes Premium subscription payments. Paystack, not PriceIt, collects and stores your card details. See Paystack's Privacy Policy.
• PostHog: Provides app usage analytics to help us understand how the app is used and improve it.
• Sentry: Collects crash reports and error diagnostics to help us find and fix bugs.
• Expo: Delivers push notifications, if you enable them, using a device token we store against your account.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. Some of these providers may process data on servers located outside Nigeria; where that happens, we require them to protect your data to a standard consistent with this Policy.

5. Data Storage and Retention

• Account-linked storage: Your scan history, search history, price submissions, points activity, and subscription status are stored in our database, tied to your account, for as long as your account is active.
• Evidence photos: Photos submitted as price evidence are retained to support the trust and verification system (for example, to review disputed submissions). Scan photos are retained as part of your scan history.
• Account deletion: When you delete your account (see Section 6), we delete or anonymize the personal data associated with it, except where we are required to retain records (for example, payment records) for legal or accounting purposes.

6. Your Choices and Rights

• Permissions: You can revoke PriceIt's access to your camera, location, or notifications at any time through your device settings. Note that core features (scanning, price submission) depend on camera and location access.
• Access and correction: You can review your scan history, submissions, and points activity within the app.
• Account deletion: You can request permanent deletion of your account and associated data at any time. See our Delete Account page for instructions.

7. Children's Privacy

PriceIt is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

8. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data during transit and storage. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as we add new features or change how we handle data. We will notify you of material changes by posting the updated policy within the app or on this page, along with the date it takes effect.