Privacy Policy

Romeo ("we", "us") is an AI travel companion. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and disclose your personal information when you use our website, mobile app, and chat experience (the "Service"). It applies to everyone who uses Romeo, regardless of where you live.

We've tried to write this in plain English. If anything's unclear, email privacy@withromeo.com and we'll explain.

1. Who we are

Romeo is operated by With Romeo, an Australian-based business. Our primary place of business is Brisbane, Queensland. For the purposes of the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), we treat ourselves as the entity responsible for your personal information. We comply with the Australian Privacy Principles ("APPs"). We also recognise the rights of users in the European Union and United Kingdom under the GDPR and UK GDPR, and California users under the CCPA.

2. What we collect

Information you give us directly

• Account information: name, email address, password (hashed), profile photo if you upload one.
• Trip preferences: destinations you ask about, budgets, travel dates, dietary restrictions, accessibility needs, names of travel companions if you mention them, and other preferences you share with Romeo in chat.
• Photos, videos and links you share: when you share a photo, a video link or another link so Romeo can work out the place in it. Section 4 explains what happens to them.
• Payment information: processed by our payment provider. We never see or store your full card number. We receive a token, your billing email, the last 4 digits and your billing country.
• Communications: when you email us, fill out a form, or contact support, we keep a copy of your message.

Information we collect automatically

• Usage data: pages visited, features used, time spent, error logs.
• Device data: browser type, operating system, screen size, IP address.
• Cookies and similar: see our Cookie Policy.

3. How we use your information

• To run the Service: respond to your chats, plan your trips, save your itineraries, remember your preferences.
• To improve the Service: we may use anonymised and aggregated data (data that cannot be linked back to you) to study usage patterns and improve Romeo's responses. We do not use your personal data to train AI models.
• To provide customer support and respond to your questions.
• To detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, abuse, or security incidents.
• To comply with our legal obligations, including under Australian law.
• With your consent, to send you product updates and marketing communications. You can unsubscribe at any time.

4. Service providers and sub-processors

Romeo's responses are written by AI models run by third-party AI service providers. When you chat with Romeo, your messages and any photo you share are sent to these providers so they can write a response. We use settings that ask our AI service providers not to keep logs of your content and not to use it to train their models. A provider may still keep content for a limited time under its own terms, for example to check for misuse.

Our service providers fall into these categories:

• AI service providers: write Romeo's responses and read photos and videos you share
• Search and travel data providers: search for flights, stays, places and events, and check that a place exists
• Image recognition services: help confirm the place in some photos (see below)
• Link preview services: read the preview picture and caption of a link you share, and for some posts the spoken words and location tag
• Database and authentication: stores your account, chat history and trip plans
• Payment processing: handles your subscription
• Image and map services: provide photos and maps for trips
• Travel booking partners: only when you click through to make a booking

Photos, videos and links you share

When you share a photo, Romeo works out where it was taken:

• Your device makes a smaller copy of the photo and removes its location and camera details before it is sent. Our server removes any that remain.
• An AI service provider reads the photo and suggests the place. We check that place by searching for its name, not your photo, with a search and travel data provider.
• If you are signed in and the photo shows a landmark or a scene, we may also send the smaller copy to an image recognition service to confirm the place. We check each photo first, and we do not send it when people stand out in it, when it shows a child, or when it shows a document or a screen. This check is automatic and can occasionally be wrong. The image recognition service may keep the photo under its own terms.

When you share a public video link and you are signed in, we may send the link, and nothing about you, to an AI service provider that watches the video to suggest where it was filmed. For other links, a link preview service reads the link's preview picture and caption, and for some posts the spoken words and location tag.

We do not store your photos on our servers. From these checks we keep only the place names found, and whether they were confirmed, so Romeo can use them in your next message. They are used for 24 hours at most and deleted once used. Anything left over is cleared within 15 days.

Each provider has its own privacy policy. We've selected providers that meet a high standard of security and data protection. We'll update this policy when this list materially changes.

5. Where your data is stored

Your data is stored on servers chosen for performance and reliability. Some of our service providers, including our AI service providers and search providers, process data outside Australia, including in the United States, and may use other countries too.

If you are in the European Union or United Kingdom, this transfer is necessary to provide the Service you've requested.

6. How long we keep your data

• Account data: for as long as your account is active.
• Chat history and trip plans: retained while your account is active so Romeo can remember you. You can delete individual trips at any time.
• Photos: not stored on our servers. Place names found from a photo or video: see section 4.
• What Romeo remembers: if you have an account, Romeo remembers lasting facts you tell him, such as your home city, diet, travel style and who you travel with, and uses them on later trips. You can see them on your Profile page under "What Romeo remembers", and forget any fact or clear a whole group. A forgotten fact is no longer used. We keep it in our records, marked as forgotten, until your account is deleted. Email privacy@withromeo.com if you want forgotten facts erased sooner.
• Inactive accounts: if you don't use Romeo for 24 consecutive months, we may anonymise or delete your account data after sending you a notice.
• Deleted accounts: When you delete your account, we delete your sign-in details, profile, chats and what Romeo remembers straight away. Some records, such as saved trips and usage records, are not yet removed automatically. Email privacy@withromeo.com and we will delete them within 30 days. Some data may be retained in backups for up to 90 days but will not be used.
• Logs and security data: typically retained for 90 days.
• Financial records: retained for 7 years to comply with Australian taxation requirements.

7. Your rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct information that is inaccurate or out of date
• Delete your account and your personal information
• Export a copy of your data in a portable format
• Object to certain uses of your data, including marketing
• Withdraw consent for processing that relies on consent
• Lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), or with your local data protection authority if you are in the EU/UK

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@withromeo.com. We aim to respond within 30 days.

8. Data breach notification

If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will notify you as soon as practicable, as the law requires, in line with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under the Australian Privacy Act 1988. We will also notify the OAIC where required.

9. Children

Romeo is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with information, email privacy@withromeo.com and we will delete it.

10. Security

We use industry-standard security measures including encryption in transit, storage with a provider that encrypts data at rest, and access controls. No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to protect your information.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Romeo evolves. When we do, we'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, for material changes, notify you by email or in the app.

12. Contact us

For privacy questions, requests, or complaints:

Email: privacy@withromeo.com
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

You can also lodge a complaint with the OAIC at oaic.gov.au.