Privacy policy

What Refundlo does

Refundlo finds purchase receipts in your email, tracks return deadlines, and helps you complete returns. This policy explains exactly what data we access, what we do with it, and what we never do.

Who runs Refundlo

Refundlo is run by Alexandra Colonna Walewski, sole trader trading as Refundlo, 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA, United Kingdom. She is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy: she decides how it is used and is responsible for protecting it. Contact: refundloteam@gmail.com.

How you may use Refundlo is set out in our Terms of service and Billing terms.

Google user data (Gmail)

When you connect Gmail, Refundlo requests read-only access ("gmail.readonly"). We use it solely to find and read purchase-related emails, order confirmations, receipts, shipping and refund notices, so we can detect purchases and their return windows.

For reselling, Refundlo also checks whether emails from resale marketplaces (eBay, Vinted, Depop) exist in your inbox, looking only at the sender and recipient, so it can show which marketplaces you already have an account with and which address that account uses. It doesn't read those emails' contents.

Sign-in codes. When Refundlo's browser helper is signing in to a shop for you (to start a return, cancel a subscription, request a refund or list an item) and that shop emails you a one-time sign-in code, Refundlo looks for that shop's code email, only among emails that arrived after the code was requested, takes the code from it, and enters it on the shop's sign-in page. Only the code is used. The rest of that email is not stored, kept or shown to anyone. This happens only while a task you started is running.

Signing in to shops for you. When a shop needs you signed in during a task you started, Refundlo's browser helper can sign in for you with your Google, Facebook or Apple account, using the shop's own "Sign in with" button in the helper's own window. Your browser's existing sign-in completes it. Refundlo never sees, types or stores your password, and never approves new permissions or consent screens for you. If anything needs you (a password, a code or a new permission), the helper shows you that page.

Sending email for you (optional). Refundlo can send email from your own Gmail only after you give Google's separate permission to send email ("gmail.send"). We ask for it only at the moment you press a button that needs it ("Send from my Gmail" or "Allow sending"), and you can say no and send everything yourself instead. This permission can only send; it can't read, change or delete your email. Refundlo uses it in two ways:

One message you press Send for: a return, refund or cancellation request to a shop or service that only accepts email. You read it (and can change it) first, and exactly that one message goes, to that one address.

"Refundlo is handling": when you say yes to "Let Refundlo handle it" for one order, you ask Refundlo to email that one shop about that one order until it's settled. It writes from your Gmail, in the same email thread, signed with your name, and follows up if the shop doesn't answer (a little firmer each time, at most 12 emails). To follow the conversation it reads that shop's replies in that thread. It never accepts less than a full refund for you: it asks you first. Every email it sends is shown in the case in Refundlo, and you can press Stop at any time, after which nothing more is sent. When the case ends, Refundlo sends you one email to your own address saying how it ended.

Refundlo never sends email to anyone else, and never sends newsletters, marketing or anything unrelated to the order or subscription you asked about. Apart from this, we never send email from your account, never modify or delete your email, and never access emails unrelated to purchases beyond the automated scan needed to identify them, apart from a shop's sign-in code email during a task you started and a shop's replies to a case you started, as described above. You can take the sending permission back at any time in your Google Account (Security, then Third party apps and services, then Refundlo).

Limited Use disclosure: Refundlo's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In plain terms: we use Gmail data only to provide the Refundlo features you see in the app (finding purchases, return deadlines, sign-in codes, and sending the emails you asked for, as described above). We never sell it, never use it for advertising, never use it to train AI models, and never let people read it, except with your permission, for security, or where the law requires it.

AI processing

To decide whether an email is a real, returnable purchase and to extract details (item, retailer, price, dates, order number), excerpts of candidate emails are processed by Anthropic's Claude API, acting as our data processor. This data is not used to train AI models. Only purchase-relevant emails identified by our filters are sent for processing; newsletters and unrelated mail are discarded before this step. When an order email shows product photos but no item names, those product photos (only the shop's pictures in that email) are also sent to Claude to name the items.

When you ask Refundlo to write a return or refund message, your order details (shop, item, order number, dates and reason) are sent to Claude to write the draft. You see and can change the draft before anything is sent.

What we store

On your device: your purchase list, return progress, settings, and your Gmail access tokens (stored locally; our servers process tokens transiently to perform scans you request and do not keep them).

In your Refundlo account (optional): if you create an account, your purchase list, return progress, and settings are stored in our database (hosted by Supabase) so you can sync across devices. Data is protected by row-level security: only your authenticated account can access your rows.

What we never store: your email password (we never see it), your mailbox itself, or full copies of your email.

Your phone number

Giving your phone number is optional. We keep it with your settings so the agent can fill it in when a shop or courier asks for one (for example to book a pickup). To check the number is yours, we may text it a 6 digit code through Twilio, who send the text and check the code. Twilio gets only the number, never your name or anything from your inbox. Our logs only ever show part of the number.

The return agent

When you ask Refundlo to prepare a return, the agent navigates the retailer's public return pages using the order details from your receipt. It never enters passwords or payment details, never solves security challenges, and always stops for your explicit approval before anything is submitted to a retailer.

Notifications

If you enable return reminders, we store a push subscription for your browser and send deadline alerts. You can turn this off anytime in Settings, which deletes the subscription.

Usage counters

Refundlo keeps simple, first-party usage counters (for example: how many people are using the app and how many returns were started). These use a random anonymous identifier, never your email, name, or any content from your inbox, and are never shared or sold. No third-party analytics or advertising trackers are used.

Location

Refundlo only uses your location when you tap a button that needs it, and your device asks your permission first. Declining changes nothing; you can type an address or search yourself instead.

Finding stores near you ("Find stores near me", "find my nearest store"): your approximate location, rounded to about 1 km, is sent from your device to OpenStreetMap's public map service (Overpass) to list that shop's nearby stores.

Filling in your pickup address ("Use my location" when booking a courier pickup): your location is sent from your device to OpenStreetMap's address lookup (Nominatim) to turn it into a street address, which you can check and change.

In both cases your location goes straight from your device to OpenStreetMap, never to Refundlo's servers, and Refundlo never stores it. OpenStreetMap's own privacy policy applies to what it receives (osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy).

Sharing

We do not sell your data. Ever. We share data only with the service providers needed to run Refundlo: Anthropic (AI parsing), Supabase (database), Railway (hosting), Stripe (payments, only if you choose a paid plan; Stripe holds your card details, we never see them) and Plaid (only if you connect a bank card to check that a refund arrived; you sign in to your bank inside Plaid, never with us) and Twilio (only to text a code that checks your phone number). Each is bound to process it only for providing our service.

Deletion and your rights

Settings → Delete Account removes your data from the app, and disconnecting Gmail revokes our access. You can also revoke Refundlo's Gmail access anytime at myaccount.google.com/permissions. To request full deletion of any account data, email us and we'll complete it within 30 days. You may also request a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or object to how we use it. If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Security

All traffic is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Database access is enforced per-user with row-level security. OAuth tokens are never stored as plaintext on our servers.

Contact

Alexandra Colonna Walewski, sole trader trading as Refundlo, 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA, United Kingdom · refundloteam@gmail.com

If we change this policy, we'll update this page and the date at the top.