Privacy Policy - Smarter Budget

Effective September 3, 2026

Smarter Budget is a personal budgeting application provided by Smarter Technologist for Android and iOS. It is offline-first, works without an account, and stores budget information locally on the user's device. The app does not connect to bank accounts, hold money, or provide payment or banking services.

Information stored on the device

Smarter Budget stores information entered or created by the user, including:

  • Budget entries, amounts, currencies, dates, types, notes, categories, and sources.
  • Savings goals and allocations.
  • Monthly category plans and recurring costs.
  • Frozen conversion details saved with foreign-currency entries.
  • Reporting-currency, number-format, appearance, app-lock, backup-reminder, and other app preferences.
  • Reference-rate currency pairs, rates, providers, and dates cached after a user-requested lookup.

This information is held in a local database in the app's private storage. The database is not separately encrypted by Smarter Budget, so users should protect their device with a screen lock.

Accounts, analytics, and advertising

Smarter Budget has no account system, Smarter Technologist backend, bank connection, advertising SDK, behavioral analytics SDK, crash-reporting SDK, or social feature. Smarter Technologist does not sell or rent budget information. There is no automatic cloud sync and no server copy from which Smarter Technologist can recover the user's budget.

Document reading

The user may scan, select, or share an image or PDF for entry review. On Android, the camera flow is provided by Google Play services and its scanner UI, models, and processing logic may be downloaded before first use; scanning and bundled ML Kit text recognition operate on the device. The app does not request camera permission because the user-controlled scanner uses Google Play services' camera access. On iOS, the app requests camera access when the user chooses to scan, and uses Apple's VisionKit document camera and Vision/PDFKit recognition. Document pixels and recognized text are not uploaded for basic recognition. Google's Android SDK may send encrypted operational diagnostics and API-usage metrics that do not contain the document image or recognized text.

Recognized details are suggestions. The app shows them for review in an editable entry and does not save them automatically. The original selected or shared file is not retained as part of the budget.

Optional Gemini review

A Smarter+ user may connect their own Gemini API key and choose Gemini for a document. The key is validated without budget content and protected using Android Keystore-backed storage or the iOS Keychain. It is not stored in the budget database or included in backups.

Before every Gemini request, Smarter Budget shows the information that would leave the device. The user may cover private areas on re-encoded, metadata-free page images and decide whether to include displayed category names, selected Source names, and selected recent entry hints. The request may also include the reporting currency and preferred entry type. The original file, filename, local OCR text, and the rest of the budget are not sent.

The reviewed page copies, approved context, extraction instructions, and API key authentication are sent directly to Google under the user's Gemini API account and are not end-to-end encrypted while Google processes them. Gemini results remain suggestions and are never saved automatically. Google's terms, privacy policy, API settings, retention, and charges apply to that use.

When a user confirms masks, the app may remember a lossy document-layout fingerprint and normalized mask rectangles so similar pages can be pre-masked later. This local, capped memory contains no page pixels, filename, recognized text, or hidden content; it is excluded from budget backups and can be erased in Smarter+ settings.

Smarter+ subscriptions

If Smarter+ is offered, purchases and restores are handled by Google Play or Apple's App Store. The store processes payment information and provides the app with product, purchase, and current-entitlement information needed to unlock features. Smarter Budget does not receive card details. Store account, billing, retention, and refund practices are governed by the selected store.

Optional reference-rate lookups

Smarter Budget does not fetch exchange rates automatically. Only after the user selects Get reference, the app sends the two selected ISO currency codes to the Frankfurter reference-rate service over HTTPS. Where a source-specific feed is available for the selected pair, the app may ask Frankfurter to prefer it and retry Frankfurter's broader reference blend if that source does not cover the pair.

A rate request never includes an amount, entry, note, category, source, plan, goal, or other budget record. Like any internet service, Frankfurter can receive ordinary network information such as the user's IP address. Manual rates remain available without a lookup. Rates cached by Smarter Budget contain currency and quote details, not budget amounts or records.

Backups and CSV exports

Smarter Budget creates an export only after the user requests it and chooses a destination through Android's or iOS's system document interface. A JSON backup contains the complete budget needed by Smarter Budget for restore. A CSV export contains the user's complete recorded-entry history, including amounts, currencies, notes, category and source labels, goal names, conversion details, recurring-cost references, and transfer sources, for inspection in spreadsheet software. CSV is not a restorable Smarter Budget backup.

JSON backups and CSV exports contain private financial information in readable, unencrypted files. After a file is saved, its storage, retention, security, sharing, and deletion are controlled by the user and the selected document provider. If the user chooses a cloud-backed location, that provider receives and stores the file under its own terms. Smarter Technologist has no backup or export server and cannot access or recover the file.

For restore, Smarter Budget reads only a file the user selects. The app validates its supported schema, content, and relationships, then shows a summary. The current budget is replaced transactionally only after the user confirms the restore.

App lock and device access

If the user enables App lock, Smarter Budget asks the operating system to authenticate the device owner before showing the budget when the app is locked. Authentication is handled by Android or iOS; Smarter Budget does not receive or store fingerprints, facial data, or the device passcode. App lock controls access to the app but does not encrypt the local database, JSON backups, or CSV exports.

The app does not connect to contacts, location, microphone, notifications, or financial accounts. Document reading, backup, restore, and CSV export use platform pickers, scanners, or sharing interfaces, which give the app access to the material the user chooses for that operation.

Automatic system backup

Smarter Budget disables Android cloud backup and device-to-device transfer for its private app data. On iOS, the budget database directory is excluded from device backup. User-created JSON backups and CSV exports are separate: the user decides where those files are stored.

Feedback and external apps

Send feedback opens an editable draft in the user's email app. The draft includes the Smarter Budget version and build number, platform, OS version, and formatting-locale tag. It does not automatically include budget records, amounts, labels, notes, filenames, or device identifiers. Nothing is sent until the user reviews and sends the email. If sent, Smarter Technologist and the email providers involved receive the message under their respective privacy terms.

Links to the public privacy policy, app-store listings, or other websites open outside Smarter Budget and are handled by the user's browser, store, and the destination service.

Retention and deletion

Budget information remains on the device until the user edits or deletes it, uses Clear budget data, clears the app's storage through the operating system, or uninstalls the app. Clear budget data removes the budget and returns the app to setup, but it does not remove cached reference rates, local app preferences, the protected Gemini key, learned mask layouts, or JSON and CSV files saved outside the app. The Gemini key and learned masks have their own removal controls. External files must be deleted from their chosen location by the user. Smarter Technologist has no server copy of the budget to retain or delete. A feedback email the user sends is retained according to the involved email providers and Smarter Technologist's support needs.

Children's privacy

Smarter Budget is not designed to collect personal information from children. Budget content stays on the device unless a user deliberately exports it or approves a Gemini document review. The reference-rate, subscription-store, Gemini, and user-sent feedback boundaries described above apply to every user.

Changes to this policy

If the app's data practices change, this policy and the in-app privacy text will be updated before the changed behavior is released.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy can be sent to smartertechnologist@gmail.com.