Privacy policy

Last updated 10 June 2026

This policy explains what personal information BourbonBuddy collects, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We aim to collect as little as we can and to keep what’s yours private to you.

Who we are

BourbonBuddy is an independent service operated from Queensland, Australia. We are responsible for the personal information described in this policy. You can reach us any time through our contact form.

What we collect

• Account details — the email address you sign up with, and your login credentials.
• Your journal and taste profile — the bottles you log, ratings, notes, and the taste preferences you tell us, so Buddy can personalise recommendations.
• Your conversations with Buddy — the messages you exchange with the AI advisor.
• Basic technical data — the limited information needed to run the site securely and keep you logged in (for example, a session cookie and standard server logs).
• Messages you send us — if you use our contact form, the name and email you choose to provide and the message itself, so we can reply.

We don’t ask for payment details on the gated beta, and we don’t buy personal information about you from third parties.

How we use it

• to provide the service — your account, journal, and recommendations;
• to personalise what Buddy suggests, based on the taste you share with us;
• to improve Buddy’s accuracy and the quality of recommendations;
• to keep the service secure and working, and to respond when you contact us.

We do not use your personal information for advertising, and we do not sell it.

Your conversations with Buddy

Your chats with Buddy are private to your account. We keep our copy of them for up to 90 days, after which they are deleted from our active store. We may review a limited number of conversations, only to check and improve Buddy’s accuracy.

Who we share it with

We never sell your personal information. We share it only with the service providers we rely on to run BourbonBuddy, and only so far as that’s needed to provide the service:

• Our database and hosting provider stores your account and per-user data securely on our behalf.
• Anthropic provides the Claude AI that powers Buddy. Your messages to Buddy are sent to Anthropic so he can reply. Anthropic processes them under its own terms; under those terms, your messages are not used to train its models.

These providers may store or process your information outside Australia, including in the United States. We may also disclose information where the law requires it.

Cookies

We use a small number of essential cookies, mainly to keep you signed in and to keep the site secure. We don’t use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

We also set one first-party analytics cookie containing a random identifier (no name, email, or other personal detail) so we can count how many visitors arrive and how many go on to create an account. It stays on this site only — we never share it or use it to track you across other sites.

Keeping it secure

We take reasonable steps to protect your information, and we keep what we collect to the minimum the service needs. No online service can promise perfect security, but we work to limit what could go wrong and what’s exposed if it does. If a data breach occurs that is likely to cause you serious harm, we’ll notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) as required.

Access, correction, and your choices

You can ask us to show you the personal information we hold about you, correct it if it’s wrong, or delete your account and its data. Use our contact form and we’ll take care of it. Deleting your account removes your journal, taste profile, and saved data from our active store; any copies in routine backups are removed on our normal backup rotation.

Complaints

If you think we’ve mishandled your personal information, please contact us first so we can put it right. If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.

Children

BourbonBuddy is for adults of legal drinking age (18+). It is not intended for, and should not be used by, anyone under 18, and we don’t knowingly collect their information.

Changes

We may update this policy as BourbonBuddy develops. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about your privacy, or want to access or delete your data? Use our contact form.