Privacy Policy

Last updated: 9 October 2026

At TipIns, your privacy is important to us. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information you give us directly: your name, username, email address, phone number if you add one, occupation and bio, your profile photo, and the country and currency you receive tips in. We collect transaction records needed to deliver tips to you, the groups you belong to, your shifts, messages you send in a group chat, and messages you exchange with our support team. If you enable notifications, we store a device token, and the language your app is set to, so we can send them in that language.

When you tip someone. If you tip from our web page without an account, we receive the amount, the name you choose to give (or none, if you tip anonymously), any note you write, and your email address only if you enter it to get a receipt. We use that address to send the receipt and, if the person you tipped chooses to, one thank-you message; every such email has a link to stop them.

From your device. When you use the app or the tip page we receive your IP address, the type of device, its operating system version and the app version, and the language and time zone it is set to. We keep a record of when your account was last active and on which days it was used. If something goes wrong in the app or on the tip page, it sends us a diagnostic report: the error, the screen it happened on, and the device, browser and app version, so that we can fix it. These reports never include card details.

Approximate location. We work out the nearest city from your IP address, to show you the right currency, to see in which places TipIns is being used, and to help detect fraud. This is a city-level estimate, not a precise location. For that purpose the IP address is used at the moment of the request and is not stored with your profile. We do keep the IP address a payment was made from with the record of that payment, for fraud prevention (section 3).

If you allow it, we also receive your device's advertising identifier, which is used only to measure whether our own ads bring people to TipIns. Section 11 explains this and how to turn it off.

We do not collect or store your card number, bank account details or identity documents. Those go directly to Stripe. About a card used for a tip, Stripe tells us only its brand, its last four digits, the country it was issued in, whether the payment succeeded, and a reference code that lets us recognise the same card again without knowing its number. About your payout account, we hold the bank's name, the last four digits and a similar reference code.

2. Camera, Photos and Location

TipIns asks for a small number of device permissions, and only uses them for the purpose you granted them:

Camera. We use it to scan a QR code when you tip someone, and to take a profile or group photo if you choose to. The camera is only active while the scanner or camera is open on screen. Scanning happens entirely on your device; we do not record video, take photographs in the background, or upload anything from the camera unless you deliberately take a photo to use as an image.

Photos. We use this to let you pick an existing image from your library as your profile picture or a group's picture. We only receive the single image you select. We do not read, scan or upload the rest of your photo library, and we do not use your images for anything other than displaying them in the app.

When you share a tip card to social media, the image is created on your device and shared through your phone's own share sheet. It is not uploaded to us. The same is true of the signs and cards the app prepares for printing: they are made on your device.

Location. Only if you use Tap to Pay. Stripe requires your phone's location while you take an in-person card payment, to confirm where the payment is accepted. TipIns asks for location only when you set up or use Tap to Pay; it is read by Stripe's payment software on your phone at that time, we do not track your location in the background, and we do not keep a history of where you have been. If you do not use Tap to Pay, the app never asks for your location.

Home screen widgets. If you add a TipIns widget, the figures it shows (such as today's tips and your next payout) are kept on your phone so the widget can display them. You can choose to hide amounts on widgets in Profile → Notifications.

Face ID, fingerprint and passcode. If you turn on the app lock, the check is carried out by your phone. TipIns is told only whether it passed. We never receive, see or store your face, your fingerprint or your passcode.

You can withdraw any permission at any time in your device settings. The feature that needs it will stop working, but the rest of the app continues to function.

3. How We Use Information

We use your information to provide the service: to route tips to the right person, to split group tips, to run payouts, to show your activity and earnings, to send notifications you have asked for, to work out your badges, and to support you when you contact us. We use information about how the app is used, and the diagnostic reports it sends, to keep the service running, to find and fix faults, and to understand which features are used.

Fraud prevention. We use account details, payment records, device information and IP addresses to detect fraud and misuse, for example a person tipping themselves, the use of stolen cards, or one person operating several accounts. To do this we compare signals between accounts, such as the same card, payout bank account, device, IP address, name, date of birth or address appearing on more than one, and we look at patterns in payments, such as declined or blocked cards, disputes, refunds and warnings we receive from Stripe. Cards and bank accounts are compared using the reference codes described in section 1, not their numbers. These checks are automated and produce a score that our team reviews; a person, not the software, decides whether an account is paused, restricted or closed, and you can contact us at admin@tipins.net to ask for a decision to be looked at again. The only steps taken without a person are temporary: payments are refused from a sender whose cards are repeatedly blocked, and a tip page stops taking payments for a period after a run of declined cards. We also use this information to meet our legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information, and we show no advertising in the app. We do measure how well our own ads work, which is covered in section 11.

4. Sharing with Stripe and Other Providers

To pay you, we have to share information with our payment partner, Stripe. Stripe is a payment processor and, for identity checks and payouts, acts as its own data controller under its own privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy.

What we share with Stripe: your name, email address, country, the account we create for you, and the amount and currency of each tip and payout. What you provide to Stripe directly, and we never see: your card number, your bank account details, and any identity document you upload for verification. We receive back only your verification status, your payout account's last four digits, and your balance.

We also use a small number of other providers strictly to operate the service: cloud hosting for our servers and database, an email provider for account and receipt emails, and Expo's push notification service together with Google Firebase, where the device token for notifications is kept, for alerts. The city-level location in section 1 is worked out on our own servers from a database we hold; your IP address is not sent to anyone for that purpose.

Apple Pay and Google Pay. If you pay a tip with Apple Pay or Google Pay, the payment is handled by Apple or Google and by Stripe under their own terms. We receive the same limited details as for any other card payment, never the card number.

Tap to Pay and saved cards. If you use Tap to Pay, the payment is taken by Stripe's software on your phone using technology provided by Apple or Google, and the customer's card details go from the card to Stripe; neither you nor we see or store the card number. If you choose to save a card for sending tips, it is stored by Stripe against a customer record that carries your name and email address, and we keep only a reference to that record, never the card number. Each receives only what it needs for that task, and none of them may use your information for their own purposes.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to protect our rights or the safety of others.

5. Information Visible to Others

Your name, username and profile photo are visible to people who tip you and to members of any group you join. When you receive a group tip, other members of that group can see the distribution for that tip, including your share. This is what makes the split auditable. Senders can choose to tip anonymously, in which case you will not see who they are.

On a card statement. When someone tips you by card, the line on their statement reads "TIPINS" followed by your first name, or by the group's name for a group tip, so that they and their bank can recognise the payment. Your surname and username are not shown there.

A note written with a tip is shown to the person who receives it. If that person uses a counter display, the tipper's name, the amount and, only if the recipient has switched it on, the note may be shown on that screen to people nearby; a tipper who wants none of this can tip anonymously and leave no note. A thank-you message is sent only to the person who gave the tip. Messages in a group chat are visible to the members of that group.

Your public tip page can show a line such as "Tipped by 50+ people" once enough different people have tipped you. It is a rounded count with no names or amounts, and you can switch it off in Profile → Badges. Your badges themselves are shown only to you.

6. Data Retention

We keep your data while your account is active. If you delete your account, your personal data is permanently removed, except records we are legally required to keep, principally transaction and payout records, which financial and tax law requires us and Stripe to retain for up to seven years. Diagnostic reports and service logs are kept for a limited period and then deleted. Backups of our database are made every night and each is deleted after about two weeks, so deleted data can remain in a backup for that long.

Where an account has been closed for fraud or serious misuse, we keep the minimum needed to stop the same person opening another, such as the email address, phone number, payment account reference and IP address involved, for as long as that risk remains. An email address given only to receive a receipt is kept with the record of that tip.

7. Your Choices and Rights

You can access, update or delete your personal information at any time from the Profile section of the app, and control which notifications and emails you receive from Profile → Notifications. You can choose the app's language in Profile → Language, switch off the line on your tip page in Profile → Badges, hide amounts on widgets, and remove a saved card. If you gave an email address for a receipt, every email we send to it has a link to stop further messages. Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to a copy of your data, to correct it, to object to certain processing, or to complain to your local data protection authority. Contact us at admin@tipins.net and we will help.

8. International Transfers

TipIns is operated from Australia, and our providers, including Stripe, process data in other countries. Where your information is transferred outside your own country, we take reasonable steps to make sure it remains protected to a comparable standard.

9. Security

We use industry-standard encryption in transit and at rest. Payment card details never touch our servers. They are handled directly by Stripe. Within TipIns, access to user information is limited to the staff who need it to support users, prevent fraud and run the service, through an internal administration system that requires sign-in, and the actions staff take there are recorded. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong, unique password and tell us immediately if you suspect a problem with your account.

10. Children

TipIns is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with information, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Advertising and Analytics

Our website (tipins.net) uses Google Ads conversion tracking to measure how well our advertising works. This sets cookies in your browser and shares limited, non-identifying data with Google. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, these are disabled until you consent.

We also count visits to our website ourselves, so we can see which pages and which sources bring people to TipIns. This measurement stays with us: it records the page, the site or campaign that referred you, your device type and browser, and whether an app-store button was clicked. It sets no cookie and no advertising identifier, and it stores no IP addresses. Visitors are counted using a hash that is discarded and regenerated every day, so it cannot be traced back to you or joined up across days.

The free tools on our website, such as the sign maker, the QR tip jar maker and the tip split calculator, work in your browser. What you type into them is not sent to us.

In the app. TipIns shows no advertising, and nothing you see in the app is chosen or paid for by an advertiser. We do advertise TipIns elsewhere, and to know whether those ads are worth running we include Meta's measurement SDK in the app. It reports two things to Meta: that the app was opened, and that an account was created. It does not report your name, your email address, your tips, your balance or your payouts.

To connect an ad you saw to an app install, Meta uses your device's advertising identifier, a resettable number your phone provides for this purpose, not your name or your email address. Meta handles what it receives as an independent controller under its own policy at facebook.com/privacy/policy.

On iOS, we ask first. The first time you open TipIns you will see Apple's "Allow TipIns to track your activity" prompt. If you choose "Ask App Not to Track", no advertising identifier is used and measurement falls back to Apple's own anonymous system. You can change your mind at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

On Android, you can reset the advertising identifier, or delete it entirely, in Settings → Privacy → Ads.

None of this is required to use TipIns. Opting out changes nothing about the app.

12. Changes to this Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes through the app or by email, and the date at the top of this page always shows when it was last revised.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about your privacy, or want to exercise any of the rights above, contact us at admin@tipins.net.