Privacy Policy

Third Culture LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company doing business as "Upgrade Pro" ("Upgrade Pro," "we," "us," or "our"), helps frequent flyers estimate the odds of clearing a flight upgrade. Third Culture LLC is the business responsible for the personal information described in this policy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to our website and related services (the "Service"). By using the Service, you agree to the practices described here.

1. Information we collect

We collect only what we need to run the Service:

• Account information. When you sign in with Google or a one-time email "magic link," we receive your name, email address, and (for Google sign-in) your profile picture. We do not receive or store your Google password.
• Profile preferences. Details you choose to add — your elite status with each airline, your home airports, and your display name — to personalize predictions.
• Search and simulator inputs. The routes, dates, fare classes, and status you enter to run a search or estimate your odds.
• Subscription information. If you subscribe, our payment processor (Stripe) handles your card details. We store only non-sensitive identifiers (such as a Stripe customer or subscription ID) and your plan status. We never see or store your full card number.
• Limited technical data. Basic logs (such as request times and error information) needed to operate, secure, and debug the Service.

2. How we use information

• To authenticate you and keep your account secure.
• To generate upgrade predictions and personalize them to your status and routes.
• To send flight alerts and account or subscription emails you've requested.
• To operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the Service.
• To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.

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

3. Service providers we share with

We share information only with vendors that help us run the Service, and only as needed:

• Google — sign-in (authentication).
• Stripe — payment processing for subscriptions.
• Resend — delivery of alert and account emails.
• PostHog (US) — product analytics and session replay, so we can see where the Service is confusing or broken and fix it.
• HeyCatch — product analytics, for the same purpose.
• Cloudflare — privacy-friendly website traffic analytics.

These providers process data under their own terms and privacy policies. We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect the rights, safety, and security of Third Culture LLC and its users.

4. Flight data and sources

Upgrade Pro's predictions draw on flight information obtained from third-party data providers. This information is used to estimate upgrade likelihood and is provided for informational purposes only. It may be incomplete, delayed, or inaccurate, and it is not a substitute for official information from the operating airline.

5. Cookies, local storage, and analytics

We use your browser's local storage to keep you signed in (a session token) and to remember preferences such as your theme. Signing in with Google and loading our fonts involves Google's services. We do not use advertising or behavioral tracking cookies, and we do not sell your data or share it with advertisers.

To understand how the Service is actually used — which pages people visit, where a flow breaks, which features go unused — we use PostHog and HeyCatch, two product-analytics services. Each stores an identifier in your browser and records the pages and in-app actions of your visit. These services can also capture session replays: a reconstruction of your visit (pages, clicks, scrolling, and cursor movement) that we watch to diagnose problems. Replays do not capture your keystrokes in form fields, and we do not use any of this for advertising. If you are signed in, this activity is associated with your account — we pass them your account identifier, email address, name, and current plan so that we can tell one person's journey from another's; if you are not signed in, it is associated only with a randomly generated identifier.

You can opt out of analytics and session replay entirely by enabling your browser's "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control setting, or by emailing us at we.are.upgradepro@gmail.com. When either setting is on, we do not start PostHog or HeyCatch at all, so neither one receives anything about your visit. We also use Cloudflare Web Analytics for aggregate traffic counts, which is cookieless and does not fingerprint your device.

6. Data retention

We keep personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. You may ask us to delete your account at any time (see Section 10).

7. Security

Concretely, rather than vaguely:

• All traffic to and from the Service is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS), and our database encrypts data at rest.
• Your session token is stored in an httpOnly, Secure cookie that scripts on the page cannot read, and we keep only a SHA-256 hash of it — so our database never holds a token that could be replayed against your account.
• Email sign-in links and codes are single-use and expire after 15 minutes.
• We never see or store your card details. Payments happen on Stripe's own hosted checkout; we retain only Stripe's customer and subscription identifiers.
• We don't use passwords at all, so there are no passwords to leak.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach ever affects your personal information, we will notify affected users and any regulator we are required to notify, without undue delay.

8. Where your data is processed

Third Culture LLC operates from the United States, and the Service is hosted in the United States (our application and database run in US regions, and our analytics provider stores data on its US cloud). If you use the Service from outside the US — including the UK, the EU, or the EEA — the information described in this policy is transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws differ from those in your country.

Where that transfer is subject to UK or EU data protection law, we and our providers rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) as the safeguard for the transfer. Our providers publish their own transfer terms in their privacy policies, linked from their sites.

9. Automated predictions

Upgrade Pro's core feature is an automated one: a machine-learning model scores each flight and produces the upgrade probability you see. That score is calculated from flight and route information (cabin size, observed or modeled seat availability, route and timing, historical patterns) together with the elite status and upgrade instruments you tell us you hold. It does not use, and is not influenced by, anything you type into search boxes beyond the route and date.

These predictions are advisory information to help you choose a flight. They do not decide anything about you, they are not used to grant or deny you any service, product, or price, and they produce no legal or similarly significant effect. Every prediction is shown with an honest range, and we publish how often our predictions turn out to be right on our How it works page.

10. Your rights and choices

• Access and correction. You can view and update much of your profile information directly in the app.
• Deletion. You can request deletion of your account and associated personal data by contacting us.
• Email preferences. You can unsubscribe from alert emails at any time.
• A copy of your data (portability). You can ask us for a machine-readable export of the personal information tied to your account, and we'll send it to your registered email address.
• Withdrawing consent. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time — turn off analytics and session replay with your browser's Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control setting, unsubscribe from emails using the link in any of them, or email us to opt out. Withdrawing consent doesn't affect anything we did before you withdrew it, and it won't stop you using the Service.
• UK/EU residents. Subject to the UK GDPR and GDPR, you may also have rights to object to or restrict processing, and to complain to your local supervisory authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office).
• California residents. Subject to the CCPA/CPRA, you may have rights to know, access, delete, and not be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law.

To exercise any of these rights, email we.are.upgradepro@gmail.com.

11. Children's privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we'll revise the "Last updated" date above. Significant changes may be communicated through the Service or by email.

13. Contact us

The Service is operated by Third Culture LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company doing business as "Upgrade Pro." Questions about this policy or your data? Email we.are.upgradepro@gmail.com.