Privacy Policy: UMDollar Financial Wellness Application

Last Updated: April 10, 2026

The students at the University of Maryland are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle information when you use our financial literacy mobile application.

1. Information We Collect

We believe in collecting as little data as possible to provide a great learning experience. Specifically, we collect:

• Pseudonymous Identifiers: A "Username" or "Nickname" of your choice to save simulation progress and display rankings on our leaderboard. This does not need to be your real name.
• Demographic & Financial Traits: State of residence, number of children, career title, retirement age, and spending style. This data is used solely to calculate local tax brackets and project future net worth within the simulation. We do not store it in the database.
• Activity Data: Quiz answers, trophies earned, time-taken per question, and submission timestamps to calculate scores and enforce the "once-per-day" quiz limit.
• Server Logs: Like most web-hosted services, our backend server (hosted at umdfwc.rhsmith.umd.edu) automatically logs limited information when the app communicates with it. This includes your IP address and the date/time of the request for security monitoring and server maintenance.

2. Information We Do Not Collect

We do not collect, access, or store the following:

• Real names, email addresses, or phone numbers.
• Financial account numbers or actual credit scores.
• Device identifiers (UDID/IMEI), OS versions, or hardware models.
• Location data or contacts.

3. How We Use Information

The minimal data we collect is used strictly for:

• Displaying high scores and simulation rankings within the app.
• Powering the Monte Carlo simulation engine.
• Basic server maintenance and security monitoring (via Nginx logs).

4. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We do not sell, trade, or share any user data with third parties. All quiz and simulation data is stored on University-managed infrastructure.

5. Data Retention

Usernames, simulation parameters, and scores are stored in our database indefinitely to facilitate the ongoing global leaderboard. There is no automated "aging out" of this data. Server logs are automatically rotated and deleted according to standard University server protocols.

6. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this policy or our educational tool, please contact the project team at the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business via umdollar-appdev@umd.dev