Privacy

Last updated: 19 August 2026

Ask Maria is a free, open beta. This notice is written in plain English and describes what Maria actually does today — not a wider set of things she might do later. If anything here is unclear, or you want your data removed, email hello@askmaria.app and you'll get a real answer.

Who is responsible for your data

Maria is run by AskMaria.app, based in London, United Kingdom. For any question about your data, or to exercise any right below, email hello@askmaria.app.

What is collected, and why

On this website

Your email address — to send you a copy of your Telegram link, and, only if you tick the box, occasional updates. Lawful basis: your consent. It is stored with our email provider when you submit the form, and nowhere else.
Where you're dreaming of flying (optional) — so the first fare Maria checks for you is a trip you'd actually take.
Anonymous visit counts — cookieless analytics (page views, referrer, country, device type). No cookies are set, no advertising identifiers are used, and nothing links a visit to you as a person. Lawful basis: legitimate interest in knowing whether the site works.
Google Analytics — it can only remember you if you agree. It records which pages you visit, roughly where you are, and what device you use, so we can see which parts of the site people actually read. Lawful basis: your consent. The tag loads on every page, but until you press Allow it runs in a restricted mode: no cookies are set, no identifier is kept, and nothing can be tied to you from one visit to the next. Press Allow and the cookies described below start; press No thanks and they never do. Change your mind whenever you like — withdrawing stops the storage straight away.

Those are the only two, and this site runs no advertising trackers. The Google Analytics tag is loaded directly by our own script. A Google Tag Manager container is also loaded on every page; it is currently empty, and Tag Manager sets no cookies of its own. The Google Analytics cookies are the only cookies set here — you choose whether they are, and you can change your mind at any time with the link in the footer of any page. We also store one small item on your own device to remember that choice; it never leaves your browser.

In the Telegram bot

Your Telegram chat ID, first name and messages to Maria — needed to reply to you and to remember your conversation so follow-up questions make sense. The first name is the one Telegram shows on your account; Maria uses it to greet you. Conversation memory is capped: older messages roll off automatically (roughly the last 60 exchanges).
How you arrived — the link that opens Maria carries a short tag saying whether it came from this website, from an email, or from a link someone shared, plus the destination you typed on the form, if any. Stored against your chat as the route you signed up with and the way you joined, so we can tell which way in actually works. Not shared with anyone.
The flight routes you ask Maria to watch, and the prices found for them.
Basic usage counts — when you joined, how many alerts and messages you've exchanged, and when your first useful alert arrived. Used only to understand whether Maria is worth it and to run fair per-user limits; never sold or shared.

When you tap a booking link

Some booking buttons (currently Aviasales) are affiliate links. Tapping one takes you to the seller's site, which sets its own cookie containing our partner number so that a booking can be credited to Ask Maria — the industry- standard attribution window is around 30 days. The link also carries a tag saying which kind of alert you tapped (for example "price drop" or "trip combo") so we can see which alerts are useful. The tag never contains anything that identifies you — not your chat ID, name, or routes. Google Flights and Skyscanner links carry no tracking from us at all.

No payment details are ever collected by Ask Maria.

Who it is shared with

Your data is not sold or shared for marketing. Delivering the service necessarily involves: Telegram (which carries the messages), Anthropic (whose Claude models generate Maria's replies — your messages are processed to produce an answer), our email provider (which holds addresses from the signup form), and our cookieless analytics provider (which sees anonymous visit counts only), and Google (this site loads its web fonts and a couple of small brand icons from Google's servers, which means Google sees your IP address when a page loads; and, if you agreed to it, Google Analytics receives your visit data. Google is based in the United States, so that data may be processed outside the UK under the safeguards Google publishes). Flight prices come from public sources such as Google Flights; your identity is not sent to them. Affiliate attribution is handled by the seller you choose to visit, as described above.

How long it is kept

Conversation history is capped and older messages roll off automatically. Watch lists and price history are kept while your account is active.

To have everything deleted, send Maria /delete on Telegram — it erases your watch list, your conversation and your usage counts straight away, and she confirms. You can also email the address below and ask, and it will be done by hand.

One honest detail about “straight away”. Maria’s records live in a private repository at our code host, and deleting them removes them from the live system — the copy Maria actually reads — but not always from that repository’s version history, where an earlier copy can remain until the history is rewritten. Nothing reads those copies and they are not used for anything, but they are not removed by a routine clean-up either. If you want them erased as well, ask and we will do it and confirm when it is done.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask for a copy of your data, have it corrected or deleted, withdraw consent at any time, and object to how it is used. Every marketing email has a one-click unsubscribe. If you are unhappy with the response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

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