Privacy Policy

Effective November 8, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Bearden Business Solutions ("we," "us" or "our"), the owner and operator of Aureus (the "Service"), collects, uses and protects your information. We built Aureus to help people get ahead, and keeping your financial information private is part of that.

1. Information we collect

• Account information: your name, email address and password. We store your password only in scrambled (hashed) form.
• Budget information you add: income, bills, debts, goals, purchases you log, settings, and your answers to check-ins (for example, whether a bill was paid).
• Bank information (Upgraded, only if you connect a bank): through Plaid, we receive account names and the last digits of account numbers, balances, transactions, and, where your bank supports it, loan and credit card details such as balances, interest rates, minimum payments and due dates. We don't receive your bank username or password.
• Linked accounts: the names and website addresses you save for paying your bills. We don't ask for or store your logins to those sites.
• Notification settings: if you turn on push notifications, your browser gives us a notification address for your device, and we keep your time zone so reminders arrive at reasonable hours.
• Consent records: when you agree to these terms, we record the date, the version and your IP address.
• Files you import: transactions from bank CSV files you choose to upload.
• Payment information (Upgraded): Stripe processes payments. We receive limited details from Stripe, such as your subscription status, plan, billing dates and the card brand and last 4 digits. We never receive your full card number.
• Technical information: your IP address and basic request details, which our server uses for security (for example, to block repeated failed logins), and a session cookie that keeps you logged in.
• Messages you send us, such as support emails.

2. How we use your information

• To provide the Service: building your budget and plans, checking bills and paychecks against your bank activity, sending reminders, forecasting, and tracking goals and rewards.
• To process subscriptions, free trials and payments.
• To keep accounts and the Service secure, and to prevent fraud and abuse.
• To send reminders you've turned on, such as bill and payday push notifications (you can turn them off anytime).
• To provide support and send important messages about your account, billing or changes to our policies.
• To fix problems and improve Aureus.
• To comply with the law.

3. How we share information

We don't sell your personal information or share it for targeted advertising. We share information only:

• With service providers that help us run Aureus, under their own privacy and security obligations: Render (hosting and data storage), Stripe (payments), Plaid (bank connections), your browser's push notification service such as Apple, Google or Mozilla (to deliver reminders, encrypted so they can't read them) and Google Fonts (website fonts, which receives your IP address when pages load).
• When required by law, or to protect the rights, safety and security of our users, the public or Bearden Business Solutions.
• If the business changes hands, for example in a merger or sale. Your information would stay subject to this policy, and we'd tell you before it falls under a different one.
• With your permission.

Plaid's handling of your information is described in Plaid's End User Privacy Policy, which you can review when you connect a bank.

4. Cookies

We use one essential cookie to keep you logged in. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Some settings, such as display preferences, may be saved in your browser.

5. How long we keep information

We keep your information while your account is open. When you delete your account in Plan & billing, we delete your budget data and bank connections from our live systems right away and cancel any subscription. Leftover copies in backups are removed within 30 days. We may keep limited records, such as payment records, when the law requires it or to resolve disputes.

6. Security

We protect your information with measures such as encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, secure session cookies, login rate limiting, and keeping bank access tokens on our server only. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong password that you don't use anywhere else.

7. Your choices and rights

• See and change your information in the app at any time.
• Disconnect a bank on the Bank page.
• Delete your account in Plan & billing, or email us.
• Request a copy of your information, or ask questions, by emailing cody.bearden1986@gmail.com.

Depending on where you live (for example, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas and other states with privacy laws), you may have additional rights, such as the right to know, access, correct, delete or get a copy of your personal information, and to opt out of the sale of personal information or targeted advertising. We don't sell personal information or engage in targeted advertising. To make a request, email cody.bearden1986@gmail.com. We'll respond as required by law, may need to verify your identity, and won't treat you differently for using your rights.

8. Children

Aureus is for adults 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 18. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we'll delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. If we make a material change, we'll let you know in the app or by email before it takes effect. The effective date at the top shows when it last changed.

10. Contact us

Bearden Business Solutions
Email: cody.bearden1986@gmail.com