The fine print

Privacy Policy

Last updated September 27, 2026

Ahead (imahead.io and app.imahead.io) is made by RJ Media Studios Inc. (“we”, “us”). You’re trusting us with your money’s business, so here’s exactly what we collect, what we do with it, and who else touches it.

The short version

  • We collect what it takes to run your plan: your email, what you type in, and, if you connect a bank, what Plaid sends us.
  • We don’t sell your data, we don’t show ads, and there are no tracking or advertising cookies.
  • Bank connections are read-only. Ahead can look at your accounts; it can’t move a cent.
  • AI features only see your data while “Let AI help” is on, and only through AI providers that have agreed not to train on it or keep it.
  • You can erase your plan and bank data yourself, anytime, and email us to delete your account.

This is the gist. The full text below is what actually counts.

1.What we collect

Your account. Your email address and password. Sign-in is handled by Supabase, which stores your password as a one-way hash, so nobody (us included) can read it.

What you put in your plan. Bills, paychecks, amounts, dates, notes, rules, what-if scenarios, account nicknames, and starting balances.

Your bank data, if you connect a bank. Accounts connect through Plaid. We receive:

  • account names, types, the last four digits of account numbers, and balances;
  • up to a year of transactions (date, amount, description, merchant name, and category), plus new ones as they post;
  • charges Plaid spots as recurring;
  • for credit cards and loans: statement balances, minimum or regular payments, and due dates.

We never receive your bank username or password. You type those into Plaid, not into Ahead.

Billing. If you subscribe, you pay on Stripe’s checkout, and Stripe collects your card details. We get a customer ID, which plan you’re on, and whether your subscription is active. We never see your full card number.

Bill photos. If you have Ahead read a bill from a photo, the photo is sent to an AI model to read the amount and due date. It isn’t saved, by us or by the AI provider.

Abuse prevention. To limit repeated sign-in attempts and heavy use, we count requests by IP address and email. We store those as one-way hashes, not the addresses themselves, and clear them out within about two days.

Cookies. Only the ones Ahead needs to work: your sign-in session, and a few settings like light or dark mode and whether past months are hidden. No analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies.

Server logs. Like any website, our hosting provider (Vercel) keeps short-lived logs of requests, such as IP address, browser, and the page asked for, for security and fixing problems.

2.How we use it

  • To run your plan: forecast your balances, find your bills, and check them off as they’re paid.
  • To keep your connected accounts up to date.
  • To send the emails your account needs: confirming your address, resetting your password, and telling you when your password changes.
  • To bill you, if you subscribe.
  • To keep Ahead secure, stop abuse, and fix what breaks.
  • To answer you when you write to us.

We don’t sell your data or share it with anyone for their own marketing. We don’t use your financial data for advertising, and we don’t send marketing email.

3.AI features

Some features use AI models: Ask Ahead, what-if scenarios, writing rules from a sentence, reading bills from photos, and sorting charges and payments after your bank syncs. These run only while “Let AI help” is on in Plan settings, and only on plans that include AI or during your free trial. Switch it off and none of your data goes to an AI model.

When they run, we send only what the feature needs, for example:

  • a question you ask, and the plan figures needed to answer it (line names, amounts, balances, and dates);
  • merchant names, amounts, and dates of charges, to tell bills from one-off spending and match payments to lines;
  • a sentence you write for a new rule;
  • a bill photo you choose to upload.

These go through Vercel’s AI Gateway, which doesn’t keep them, to AI model providers that have agreed with Vercel not to train on what they’re sent and not to keep it once they’ve answered (known as zero data retention). Ahead only uses providers with that agreement: if none is available, the request fails rather than go anywhere else.

The AI suggests; Ahead’s own code does the math, and the AI can’t move money or reach your bank.

4.Who else handles your data

We use a few companies to run Ahead. Each one gets only what its job needs:

  • Plaid connects your bank accounts. By connecting, you acknowledge that Plaid’s handling of your data is governed by the Plaid End User Privacy Policy.
  • Stripe handles payments. See Stripe’s Privacy Policy.
  • Supabase runs sign-in and hosts our database, in the United States.
  • Vercel hosts Ahead and runs the AI Gateway, which doesn’t keep what passes through it.
  • AI model providers, reached through Vercel’s AI Gateway, for the features above. Only ones that have agreed not to train on your data or keep it after answering.

Beyond that, we’ll only share your data if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety or our legal rights, or as part of a merger or sale of Ahead, in which case this policy keeps applying to your data and we’ll tell you first. No ad networks, no data brokers.

5.How we protect it

  • Every connection, from your browser to our servers and from our servers to the database, Plaid, and Stripe, is encrypted in transit.
  • The access token that lets Ahead read your bank is encrypted again with AES‑256 before it’s saved.
  • Bank access is read-only. Ahead can’t make payments or transfers.
  • Your data is only ever shown to your own account.

No system is perfectly secure, so we can’t promise nothing will ever go wrong. If a breach affects your data, we’ll tell you as the law requires.

6.How long we keep it

We keep your data while you have an account. You can delete it yourself, anytime, even if your trial or subscription has ended:

  • Disconnect a bank on the Accounts page, and we tell Plaid to cut off our access.
  • Erase everything in Plan settings (under Start over), or on the Plan & billing page once your trial is over, disconnects every bank and deletes every account, transaction, rule, and line, right away.
  • Delete your account by emailing info@rjmediastudios.com. We’ll delete it within 30 days.

We may keep billing records as long as tax and accounting laws require, and deleted data can linger in backups for a short time until they roll over.

7.Your choices and rights

You can see and change almost everything we have about you right in the app. Depending on where you live (for example California, Virginia, Colorado, or Connecticut), you may also have the right to:

  • know what personal data we have about you, and get a copy;
  • correct it or delete it;
  • opt out of the sale or “sharing” of your data for advertising (we don’t do either);
  • not be treated differently for using these rights.

To use any of them, email info@rjmediastudios.com from the address on your account. We’ll confirm it’s you and answer within 45 days.

8.Children

Ahead is for adults 18 and older. We don’t knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you think a child has made an account, let us know and we’ll delete it.

9.Where your data lives

Ahead is built for people in the United States, and your data is stored in the United States. When AI features are on, the AI model providers that answer may process what they’re sent in other countries.

10.Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change matters, like collecting something new or using your data in a new way, we’ll email you or tell you in the app before it takes effect.

11.Contact us

Questions, requests, or worries: info@rjmediastudios.com. RJ Media Studios Inc. makes Ahead.