Privacy Policy

Costnip, Atlanta, Georgia, United States (“Costnip”, “we”) runs costnip.com. We decide how and why your personal information is used, so we’re the “controller” (or “business”) under privacy laws. Contact us at privacy@costnip.com.

This policy covers Costnip’s website, emails, embeddable cards and related services, including some older resource pages that still use a few outside services. It doesn’t cover businesses, delivery apps or other sites we link to. Our Cookie Policy gives more detail on cookies and browser storage, and our Terms of Service set the rules for using Costnip.

We haven’t appointed a data protection officer because the law doesn’t require one for Costnip; the privacy address above reaches the people responsible. People in the EU, UK and Switzerland should also read section 11 (Notice for people in the EU, UK and Switzerland), and US residents section 10 (Notice for US state residents).

We collect information in three ways: you give it to us, our systems record it while you use Costnip, and a few partners pass it on (Apple or Google when you sign in with them, and our network providers). We don’t buy information about you.

When you browse

• A place you choose. If you enter a ZIP or postal code, we use the center of that area to sort results by distance and remember it in a cookie. Our price-sharing pages don’t request device location. On older resource pages, Google Maps can request it only when you use the locate control.
• Approximate location from your network. Our host tells us your likely country and city from your connection, so we can suggest a starting place. We don’t store it or your IP address with your account. Older resource pages use a separate geolocation service through our server for the same purpose.
• Technical data. Like every website, our hosting providers process your IP address, browser type and the pages you request to deliver the site and keep it secure. These logs are short-lived.
• Security checks. Forms such as sign-in and sharing use Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from bots. Turnstile processes your IP address and browser signals for that purpose. We also keep scrambled, short-lived counters per network address to stop abuse.
• Your cookie choice. When you accept or reject optional analytics, your browser keeps the choice, and we record that a choice was made (which choice, when, the policy version, and whether a browser privacy signal applied) so we can show consent was given. The record has no IP address, account or cookie value, so it can’t be linked to you.
• Usage and performance measurements (optional). If you accept optional analytics, our price-sharing pages send simple events such as page-speed timings and “comparison viewed”, grouped into daily counts by page type and device, with no identifier, cookie or IP address stored. If your browser sends “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control, nothing is sent. Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager on older resource pages load only after you accept optional analytics.

When you create an account or sign in

• Your email address, or the identifier Apple or Google gives us if you sign in with them (and your email, if you let them share it).
• A public handle (username) and, if you add one, a display name.
• Your settings, saved items, saved searches, followed items, hospital price alerts and email preferences.
• If you share anonymously, a temporary anonymous account with no email. If you later sign in, a short-lived signed cookie lets us attach what you shared to your account.
• Sign-in session records, so we can sign you out everywhere when you ask.

When you share a price

• The report: item, size or options, price, currency, store or business and its branch, date, how you bought it, and any notes.
• Optional evidence: receipt photos, PDFs and screenshots, and links to the page where you saw a price. We remove location and camera details from every photo when it’s uploaded, and you can cover anything personal before anyone else sees it.
• Receipt emails you forward to your private Costnip address. We save the receipt (PDF or photo attachments and the email’s text as a PDF) as a private file on a draft for you to check. Like any receipt, it can show your name, address or order number, so check it before you share. We don’t keep the original email envelope. We keep a fingerprint of its message ID, or of its contents when there is no message ID, so retries don’t create duplicate drafts.

When you ask questions or suggest corrections

• The text of your post, the listing it’s about, when you posted it, its review state, and any Costnip response. Reviewers’ private notes about it.
• If you report someone else’s post, your reason and the fact that you reported it.

When you use automated features

• Receipts or screenshots you choose to have read, and questions you type into search. See section 4 (How the Costnip system reads receipts and questions).

Businesses, reviewers and people who contact us

• If you claim a business, your name, work email or phone, role and verification codes, and your public responses.
• Reviewers’ decisions and notes, kept in an audit log.
• Anything you send us by email or through the contact form (your email address, topic, message and the page it’s about), and records of privacy, copyright and removal requests, including how we handled them.

What we don’t collect

• Your home address, precise GPS location, payment card details or government ID. If a receipt shows them, please cover them before uploading.
• Advertising IDs, tracking pixels or cross-site tracking. We don’t run ads, and we don’t use your information for profiling with legal or similarly significant effects.

Anonymous reports show no handle. Search engines and other people may copy public content, and we can’t control copies made before you delete something.

Some features are automated. On the site we call them “the Costnip system”. Here’s exactly what they do and who helps.

• Reading receipts and screenshots (OpenAI). Only if you choose it. You first see the exact image that will be read, with the parts you covered blacked out and photo details removed, and tick to agree. That image goes to OpenAI, which suggests items and prices. You check them before anything is shared, and reading a receipt doesn’t confirm what you paid.
• Plain-words search (OpenAI). Common searches, such as a hospital service or a delivery app, are handled by Costnip itself. Other questions are sent to OpenAI to choose the right page. We don’t keep the text of these questions. Please leave out personal or medical details.
• Reviewer suggestions (OpenAI). Item names a reviewer has checked are sent to suggest matches. No contributor details, images or prices are sent.
• Explanations, share captions and weekly digests (DeepSeek). Only public facts about published prices are sent, to put them in order. No names, emails or account details. The numbers and wording come from Costnip.

We send OpenAI requests with storage turned off. Under OpenAI’s API terms, the data isn’t used to train its models, and OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse. DeepSeek is based in China and may store data there, which is why it only ever receives public price facts.

None of these features make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects. A person always confirms what’s shared, and our reviewers make moderation decisions. If we ever change that, we’ll update this policy first and, where the law requires, ask for your consent.

Privacy laws in the EU, UK and elsewhere require a legal basis for each use. Ours are:

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we’ve weighed them against your rights and interests, and you can object (see section 9 (Your choices and rights)). We use information only for the purposes above and for closely related ones you’d reasonably expect. We don’t sell your personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it for targeted ads.

We share personal information only with service providers who process it for us under contract, when the law requires it, or as described below. Our providers may use it only to provide their service to us.

Providers on our price-sharing pages

Providers on older resource pages only

Each provider’s own privacy policy (linked above) explains how it handles information once it receives it. If we add or change a provider that handles personal information, we update this list.

We may also share information:

• Publicly, as described in the section on what other people can see, including through link previews and embedded cards that show combined figures only.
• With businesses, only what’s public. A business that disputes a report or replies to a post sees the public content, never your email or evidence, unless you agree.
• For legal reasons, when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety, our rights or our users. We require valid legal process, push back on overbroad requests and tell affected users when we lawfully can.
• In a business transfer, such as a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, under this policy’s protections. We’ll tell you before your information falls under a different policy.
• With your direction, when you ask us to share something with someone.

Costnip is based in the United States and our main providers store data there. If you use Costnip from elsewhere, your information is transferred to the US, and some providers process limited data in Europe or, for public price facts only, in China. For transfers from the EU, UK and Switzerland we rely on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses (with the UK addendum or International Data Transfer Agreement, and Swiss adaptations) or other lawful safeguards, and we assess each provider’s protections. Contact us for a copy of the clauses we use.

We keep information only as long as needed for the purpose we collected it, and then delete or anonymize it. Typical periods:

Deleting your account signs you out everywhere, withdraws your reports, posts and collections from public view, deletes your files and then deletes your account details, usually within minutes. We keep a minimal record that the deletion happened, anonymous statistics that no longer identify you, and anything we must keep by law.

Wherever you live, you can:

• See and correct your account details, and withdraw your reports and posts, in your account.
• Get a copy of your information in a usable format by emailing privacy@costnip.com.
• Change your email address, sign out of every device, or delete your account, from your account page.
• Turn emails off in your account or with the link in any email.
• Type prices yourself instead of having a receipt read, and choose how long we keep your receipt files.
• Change your cookie choice in “Cookie settings” in the footer.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your information, to object to or restrict some uses, to withdraw consent at any time (this doesn’t affect earlier use), and not to be treated differently for using your rights. Email privacy@costnip.com with “Privacy request” in the subject. We may need to confirm your identity, usually by sending a code to the email on your account. We’ll respond within the time the law requires, usually within 30 days in the EU and UK and 45 days in US states, and we’ll tell you if we need longer. If we refuse a request, we’ll explain why and how to challenge the decision. Details for specific places are in section 10 (Notice for US state residents) and section 11 (Notice for people in the EU, UK and Switzerland).

This section is for residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon and other US states with privacy laws, and is also our California notice at collection.

What we collected in the last 12 months

Retention periods are in section 8 (How long we keep it). We don’t sell personal information, “share” it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it for targeted advertising or profiling, and we haven’t done so in the last 12 months. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone under 16, and we don’t offer financial incentives in exchange for personal information.

Sensitive information. We use sensitive personal information only to provide what you asked for, keep the service secure and meet legal duties, which are purposes that don’t require a right to limit. We don’t use it to infer characteristics about you.

Your rights and how to use them

• You can ask to know what we have about you, correct it, delete it, or get a portable copy, by emailing privacy@costnip.com or using your account. We verify requests by confirming control of the email on your account; we won’t ask for more than we need.
• You can use an authorized agent. We’ll ask for proof that you authorized them, and may confirm with you directly.
• We won’t treat you differently for using your rights.
• We honor Global Privacy Control and similar browser signals as an opt-out of sale and sharing, although there is nothing to opt out of, and they also keep optional analytics off.
• If we refuse a request, you can appeal within 60 days by replying to our answer or emailing privacy@costnip.com with “Appeal” in the subject. We’ll answer within 45 days. If you’re unhappy with the result, you can contact your state attorney general or, in California, the California Privacy Protection Agency.

California “Shine the Light”. We don’t disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing, so there is nothing to report under Civil Code section 1798.83.

The GDPR, UK GDPR and Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection give you the rights listed in section 9 (Your choices and rights). Our legal bases for each purpose are in section 5 (How we use information, and our legal bases), and transfer safeguards in section 7 (International transfers).

• Health-related information is special-category data. We don’t ask for it. If you choose to save a hospital service or share a hospital receipt, we process that on the basis of your explicit consent, which you can withdraw by deleting the item, file or your account.
• Objecting to legitimate interests. You can object to any processing based on legitimate interests. We’ll stop unless we have compelling grounds that override your interests, or need it for legal claims.
• Automated decisions. We don’t make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
• Representative. We’re based in the United States and don’t currently direct Costnip at people in the EU or UK, so we haven’t appointed a local representative. You can still write to us at privacy@costnip.com.
• Complaints. You can complain to your local data protection authority, in the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office, or in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner. We’d appreciate the chance to fix it first.

Costnip shows hospital prices that hospitals publish. Your searches or saved services may reveal health-related interests. We don’t ask for diagnoses or medical records, we aren’t a healthcare provider or insurer, and we aren’t a “covered entity” under HIPAA, so HIPAA doesn’t apply to information you give us. This policy does. We don’t link hospital pages you view to your account, and we don’t keep the text of questions you type. If you save a hospital service, turn on hospital price updates, or share what you paid for care, that’s stored like any other saved item or report, and you can delete it at any time. We never sell or share it for advertising, and we never use it to infer anything about your health.

For questions about health-related information you have saved or shared, or to request access or deletion, contact us at privacy@costnip.com.

We encrypt data in transit, keep receipts and other files in private storage, limit who can see them and log why they were opened, use row-level access rules in our database, remove photo location details on upload, rate-limit and bot-check forms, and test that backups can be restored. No system is completely secure. If we learn of a breach affecting your information, we’ll tell you and the authorities as the law requires, and we’ll tell you what you can do about it. Good-faith security research is welcome; see the Terms.

Costnip isn’t for children under 16, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has given us information, email privacy@costnip.com and we’ll delete it. If you’re under 18, you can also ask us to remove content you posted.

We’ll update the dates at the top and describe each change in the version history below. For significant changes, we’ll give advance notice by email or on the site. We won’t use information you’ve already given us in a materially different way without your consent where the law requires it.

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@costnip.com. Other legal questions: legal@costnip.com. Costnip, Atlanta, Georgia, United States.