Effective date: September 30, 2026
MerryWise (“we”, “us”) is a Christmas gift planner and holiday budget app made by Next App Factory LLC. This policy explains what we store, why, and your choices. We never sell your data, and we never share your lists with advertisers.
To plan your Christmas, you add information to the app. It is stored in your MerryWise account on Google Cloud (Firebase, United States) so it is backed up and available on a new phone: the people you buy for (names, and anything you add — group, relationship, age range, sizes, likes, notes, photo); gifts (titles, prices, stores, links, order and tracking numbers, where a gift is hidden, notes, photos, kept/returned); your budget (season total, budgets per person and category, expenses); receipts and return-by dates (Holiday Pass); and contacts, only if you tap "Import from Contacts" and only the names and photos of the people you pick — we never read or upload the rest of your address book. Secret Santa draws happen on your phone and are not uploaded.
Some of what you add is about other people, often children. Please add only what you need to plan gifts. Nobody but you can see it unless you share a household.
When you share a household, the people you invite (up to 6 in total) see the shared lists, the budget and a short activity feed ("Maria bought a gift for Leo"), plus each member's first name. Gifts you mark with Surprise Shield — and their photos and receipts — are visible only to you, even inside a household; the others see only an anonymous "Reserved" amount. If you leave a household, your Surprise Shield gifts come with you.
MerryWise creates an anonymous account when you first open it; no email or sign-up is needed. If you Sign in with Apple or Google, we receive a user ID, your first name and, if you allow it, your email address, so you can restore your lists on another device and so household members see your name.
If you turn on Settings › Help improve gift suggestions, we may use de-identified information about gifts to build better gift ideas in a future version: relationship, age range, interests, gift category, price range, country, and whether a gift was kept or returned. We remove names, notes, photos, links, order numbers and anything that identifies a person before using it, and we keep a record of when you gave or withdrew consent. You can turn it off anytime; your de-identified data is then deleted from that dataset.
Google Firebase / Google Cloud stores your account and lists and runs our server functions (in the United States). Apple and Google Play process purchases of the Holiday Pass — we check your purchase and keep only the product, whether it is active and when it renews or expires (so one Holiday Pass can cover your household), never your payment details. Google AdMob shows ads to free users and may collect device identifiers and usage data to show and measure ads, per Google's policies; in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland you are asked for consent first, and on iPhone you choose whether apps may track you. Ads never receive your lists, names or gifts. The Holiday Pass removes all ads. Crash and usage diagnostics (app version, device type, language, screens used, error reports) help us fix problems and never include names, gift titles, notes, links or prices.
Reminders (deliveries, return windows, "nothing bought yet") are spoiler-safe by default: they never show a gift name on your lock screen unless you turn on "Show gift details in notifications".
Export: Settings › Your data › Export CSV / Export all data. Delete: Settings › Your data › Delete account & data permanently deletes your account, lists, history and receipt photos — deleted items are fully purged within 30 days. Ads: remove them with the Holiday Pass, and change tracking permission in iOS Settings or your ad consent in the app. Notifications and app lock can be managed in Settings and in your device settings.
We keep your data while your account exists, so your past Christmases stay available. Deleted items are purged after 30 days.
MerryWise is for adults planning gifts. It is not directed at children under 13, and children do not have accounts. Information about children is entered by their parent or relative, who controls and can delete it.
Depending on where you live (for example the EU/UK under GDPR, or California under CCPA), you may have rights to access, correct, export or delete your data and to withdraw consent. Most of this can be done in the app; for anything else, contact us.
We will update this page and its date when this policy changes.
Next App Factory LLC · contact@nextappfactory.com