Privacy policy

CreditBase is a directory of credits, perks, grants and government programs. This page says what we collect when you use it, why, and who else handles it. We do not sell personal data and we do not run third-party analytics or advertising trackers.

What we collect

• Account. Your email address and a user id, through Firebase Authentication (Google). If you sign up with a password, Firebase stores it hashed; we never see it. If you use Google sign-in, Google tells us your email address.
• Your account data. Applications you track, when you created the account, and, for Pro members, your Scout chat history (up to the last 100 messages, until you clear it).
• Payments. Razorpay processes every payment. We receive the payment and order ids, the amount, the email you entered and what you bought. We never receive or store card, UPI or bank details.
• Scout questions. What you type into Scout, your profile answers (country, stage and similar) and the programs you saved are sent to our AI provider (Groq, or OpenAI as a fallback) to write the answer. Do not put personal or confidential details in your questions.
• Messages. What you send through the contact or submit forms, and the email address you give so we can reply.
• Ads. If you book an ad: the name, tagline and link you provide, your email and the booking dates.
• Usage counters. To stop abuse, we count requests per IP address and per browser for a short time in memory, and count Scout questions per account, browser and IP address for the current month. Referral visits are stored as a salted hash, never as a raw IP address.

Stored in your browser

Your personalization profile, your saved programs, your Pro key and a random browser id for the Scout allowance are kept in your browser’s local storage. They stay on your device; clear your site data to remove them. Firebase keeps your sign-in session the same way.

Who processes data for us

• Google Firebase (accounts and the account database)
• Razorpay (payments)
• Groq and OpenAI (Scout answers)
• Google Gmail (the emails we send you: receipts, Pro keys, replies)
• Buttondown (the newsletter, only if you subscribe)
• flagcdn.com and DuckDuckGo’s icon service (country flags and program logos; your browser requests these images directly, so they see your IP address)

How long we keep it

Account data stays until you ask us to delete your account. Payment records are kept as long as tax and accounting rules require. Scout usage counters reset monthly. Server logs that may contain IP addresses are kept for a short time to fix problems and stop abuse.

Your choices

You can ask for a copy of your data, a correction, or deletion of your account and its data at any time through the contact page. Use the same email as your account so we can confirm it is you. Unsubscribe from the newsletter with the link in any issue.

Children

CreditBase is not meant for children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we update the date above and, for big changes, tell account holders by email.