Fern is tax-aware budgeting for the self-employed — a mobile app and this website (together, the Service). Fern helps freelancers, 1099 contractors, and other self-employed people set aside taxes the moment they confirm a deposit and see what is safe to spend. The Service is operated by JPDigital Software Solutions LLC ( "Fern," "we," "us," or "our").
This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. By using the Service you agree to the practices described here.
Information we collect
We collect only what we need to run the Service. That includes the following.
Account and identity
To sign you in, we use a one-time passcode sent to your email address and/or phone number —Fern does not use passwords. We store the email address and/or phone number you sign in with.
Tax profile you provide
Information you enter to personalize your estimates, such as your filing status, your state tax rate, the percentage of income you want to reserve for taxes, and — only if you choose to authorize bank transfers — your legal name for that authorization.
Financial data via Plaid (only if you connect a bank)
Connecting a financial account is optional. If you do, our data provider Plaid lets us access, on your behalf:
- Account details: account names, types, masks (the last few digits), and balances.
- Transactions: amount, date, merchant, and category.
- Investment holdings, where applicable.
Bank access tokens used to retrieve this data are stored encrypted at rest in a dedicated vault. You can disconnect a connected account at any time.
Tax and budgeting activity
Records of how you use Fern, including:
- Deposits you confirm as income.
- Amounts you set aside for taxes.
- Deductions you confirm or dismiss.
- Savings goals you create.
- Records of transfers you initiate between your own accounts.
Subscriptions
If you subscribe to Fern Pro, payment is handled by a payment processor (Apple or Stripe). Fern stores your subscription status and the identifiers needed to manage it — we never receive or store your card numbers.
AI assistant ("Ask Fern")
When you use the in-app assistant, the question you type and a read-only summary of your financial aggregates are sent to our AI provider to generate a response. We do not send your raw transaction lists to the AI provider.
Waitlist (this website)
If you join the waitlist on this website, we collect your email, your name, your description of what you do, and basic referral/source and browser information.
Usage analytics
We use privacy-friendly, cookieless analytics on this website. These produce aggregate statistics only and are not used to track you across other sites.
How we use your information
- Provide, operate, and secure the Service and your account.
- Calculate your tax set-aside, safe-to-spend, deduction, and savings estimates from the data and settings you provide.
- Carry out transfers between your own accounts that you initiate.
- Respond to your questions through the AI assistant and support.
- Process subscriptions and prevent fraud and abuse.
- Improve the Service using aggregate, privacy-friendly analytics.
- Send service-related messages and comply with legal obligations.
We do not sell your data
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We share information only with the service providers below, and only as needed to run the Service or as required by law.
Service providers and subprocessors
We rely on a small set of trusted providers that process data on our behalf, each limited to its role:
- Supabase — database, authentication, and hosting of your account data.
- Plaid — secure connections to your financial institutions. We encourage you to review Plaid's end-user privacy policy to understand how Plaid handles your data.
- Stripe and/or Apple — payment processing for Fern Pro.
- Anthropic — generating responses for the AI assistant.
- Resend — sending transactional and account emails.
- Vercel — website hosting and cookieless, aggregate analytics.
Each provider is permitted to use your information only to perform services for Fern.
Security
We take reasonable, industry-standard measures to protect your information, including:
- Encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest.
- Bank access tokens held in a dedicated encrypted vault.
- Per-user row-level security that isolates your data from other users.
- Least-privilege access controls for our systems.
No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please keep access to your devices and sign-in methods protected.
Data retention and deletion
We keep your information for as long as your account is active. You can permanently delete your account and associated data at any time from within the app (Profile → Delete account). Waitlist emails are kept until launch or until you ask us to remove you. We may retain limited information where required to comply with legal, tax, or accounting obligations.
Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal information.
- California (CCPA/CPRA): you may request access to or deletion of your personal information and are entitled to non-discrimination for exercising these rights. As noted above, we do not sell your personal information.
- EEA and UK (GDPR): where applicable, you have rights to access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection regarding your personal data.
To exercise any of these rights, email hello@fern.app. You can also delete your account directly in the app.
Children's privacy
The Service is not directed to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.
International users
Fern is operated from, and your information is processed in, the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand your information will be processed there.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. Your continued use of the Service after an update means you accept the revised policy.
Contact us
Questions about this policy or your information? Email hello@fern.app, or write to Fern, JPDigital Software Solutions LLC. You can read more about the Service at https://www.getfernapp.com.