Privacy Policy
Personal Financial Officer ("PFO", "we", "us") is an Australian, information-only money app and a set of free calculators. Privacy isn't a setting here — it's how the product is built. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. It's written to sit alongside the Terms of Use.
The short version
- The free calculators on this website run in your browser — we don't receive the figures you type in.
- If you join the waitlist, we collect your email address and the page you signed up from — nothing else.
- In the app, the AI coach never learns who you are: your identity is stripped and names are replaced with anonymous tokens before anything reaches the model.
- We never sell your data, and your financial information is never used to train AI models.
Information we collect
On this website. The calculators are client-side, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. If you submit the waitlist form we collect your email address and the page path you submitted from, so we can email you at launch. If we enable privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics, it records aggregate page views and referrers with no personal identifiers and no cross-site tracking.
In the PFO app. To show you your money, the app stores the financial data you add or connect — accounts, transactions, budgets, goals, holdings, super, property and receipts — under your account. You choose what to add. Bank feeds, where used, are provided by a licensed data-service partner under your authorisation.
How the AI coach protects your identity
Privacy here isn't a promise bolted on afterwards — it's the path every question travels. Five steps stand between you and the model:
Your identity is stripped
Merchant, account, goal and holding names are replaced with anonymous tokens (for example, "Merchant 1 · food delivery") before the question is assembled.
The reverse-map never leaves us
The lookup that could turn those tokens back into real names stays on our servers and is never sent to the AI provider.
Onshore, enterprise AI
The coach runs on enterprise Google Vertex AI hosted in Australia (australia-southeast1), not a consumer chatbot — your data stays onshore.
Never used for training
Your financial data is not used to train any model — ours or the provider's — and receipts are kept entirely out of the AI path.
Grounded answers only
The coach answers from your real numbers. If a figure isn't in your accounts, it won't invent one.
How we use information
- To provide the app and calculators, and to show you your own numbers.
- To email you about early access and launch if you joined the waitlist.
- To operate, secure and improve the service, and to meet legal obligations.
We do not use your financial data for advertising, and we don't sell or rent personal information to anyone.
Storage, security and retention
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and receipts are encrypted at rest. We keep your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the service and meet legal requirements. You can export everything, or delete your account and all its data, at any time from the app.
Your rights
Under the Australian Privacy Act you can request access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Waitlist subscribers can unsubscribe from any email or ask us to remove their address. To make a request, contact us through the app or our published support channel.
Third parties
We use a small number of processors to run the service — cloud hosting, the AI provider (enterprise Vertex AI, Australia), and, if you connect a bank, a licensed feed provider. Each handles data only to deliver the service to you, under contract, and none receive data to build their own products or train models.
Children
PFO isn't directed at people under 18 and we don't knowingly collect their information.
Changes
We'll update this page when our practices change and revise the "last updated" date above. Material changes will be communicated in the app or by email where appropriate.
This policy is provided for transparency and is not legal advice.