BudgetSmart Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 12, 2026  |  Version: 2.2

BudgetSmart ("we", "our", or "us"), provided by Optima Geeks, is a personal finance app for tracking expenses, budgets, bills and loans. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and how you can delete it.

1. Information We Collect

• Account information: your name, email address, password hash and optional profile picture. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we also store your account ID from that provider.
• Financial records: expenses, categories, notes, budget limits, recurring bills, loan entries and income that you enter.
• Receipt photos: if you choose to attach one to an expense, paid bill, loan or income. The app shrinks each photo and removes its location and camera details before uploading it. Only you can view your receipts, except a receipt on a group event, which the members of that group can view.
• Groups: the groups you create or join, the email addresses you invite, the events in them, who paid and each person's share, and whether it has been paid.
• Preferences: your currency, time zone and notification settings.
• Device details: your device model, operating system and app version, stored with your sign-in sessions for account security.
• Device push token: an identifier from Firebase Cloud Messaging, with your platform, so we can send your bill and loan reminders and announcements. It is removed when you log out.
• Usage events: which features you use and when, such as opening the app or exporting data, and which ads were shown to you and where. They never include amounts or notes.

We do not collect your location, contacts, or bank or card details.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to provide BudgetSmart: calculating budgets and totals, sending bill and loan reminders, sending announcements from the BudgetSmart team about the app and your account, understanding which features are used so we can improve them, emailing verification codes and monthly statements you request, showing ads, and protecting your account. We do not use your financial entries for advertising.

3. Device Permissions

• Camera and photos: only when you choose to attach a receipt photo.
• Notifications: only if you allow them, for reminders, alerts and announcements. You can turn them off in your device settings or in the app.
• Fingerprint and face unlock: handled by your device. Biometric data stays on your device, and we never receive or store it.

4. Advertising

BudgetSmart shows native ads provided by Google AdMob, marked as ads, between content on overview and list screens.

• Ads are not shown on expense entry, bill or loan forms, budget setup or sign-in screens.
• Emailing your monthly statement, and unlocking the Savage tone in Money Wrapped for a month, start with a short rewarded ad that you choose to watch. Nothing about your spending is shared with the advertiser.
• A full-screen ad may show after you create a group, when you save a new group event, and sometimes when you open Money Wrapped.
• Google AdMob may collect device identifiers, such as your advertising ID and IP address, to show, measure and personalise ads. See https://policies.google.com/privacy.
• Where the law requires it, including in the EEA, UK and Switzerland, we ask for your consent first. In some US states, showing personalised ads can count as "selling" or "sharing" personal information, and you can opt out. Where these choices apply, you can review or change them at any time under Settings, Privacy & Account, Ad Privacy Choices.

5. Who We Share Data With

We do not sell your financial data, and we do not share your financial entries with advertisers or use them for ad targeting.

Members of a group can see each other's name and email address, and the events and shares in that group. When you invite someone by email, we send them an invitation on your behalf, naming you and the group. Other users never learn whether an email address has an account.

We use these service providers to run the app. Each receives only what it needs for its task:

• Google Firebase Cloud Messaging: your device push token and the text of reminders and announcements, including the name of a bill or loan. Reminder text never includes amounts.
• Google AdMob: the device identifiers described under Advertising.
• Google Sign-In and Sign in with Apple: what is needed to confirm who you are, if you choose to sign in with them.
• Our email delivery provider: your email address and the content of the emails we send you, such as codes, invitations and statements.
• Our hosting provider: stores the data described in this policy on servers we control.

These providers process data only to provide their service to us and are required to protect it at least as well as this policy does. We may also disclose information if the law requires it.

Announcements are written by the BudgetSmart team and may go to all users or to you alone. We keep the text and delivery counts of each announcement, and who it was addressed to, as a record of what was sent. You can turn off all notifications, including announcements, under Settings, Notification Preferences. This does not affect bill and loan reminders.

6. Data Security

Your data is encrypted in transit using TLS (HTTPS). Passwords are stored as salted hashes, sign-in sessions expire, and access to our databases is restricted.

7. How Long We Keep Your Data

• Your account and everything in it: until you delete it, or delete a single record yourself.
• Sign-in sessions: they expire 30 days after their last use.
• Usage events: 30 days, after which only daily and weekly totals that are not linked to anyone remain.
• Delivered reminders and notifications: 90 days.
• Backups of our database: overwritten within 30 days, so deleted data leaves them within that time.
• After you delete your account, a note of your email address and the deletion date: 12 months, so we can confirm the deletion if you ask.

8. Your Rights and Account Deletion

You can see and correct your data in the app, export your records as CSV files under Settings, Export data, and withdraw any consent you gave, such as for notifications or personalised ads, at any time. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to restrict or object to how we use your data, and to complain to your data protection authority.

To delete your account and its data:

• In the app: go to Settings, Privacy & Account, Delete Account.
• On the web: follow the steps on the Delete Account page linked on this website.
• By email: contact [email protected] from your registered address.

Deleting your account permanently removes your account, expenses, budgets, bills, loans, income, receipt photos, usage events, device push tokens and sessions from our databases straight away. An announcement sent to you stays in our records with its text and delivery counts, no longer linked to you. In groups, your name and email are removed, and your past shares stay in the group history as "Former member", so totals stay correct for everyone else. Groups you own are archived.

We answer requests sent to [email protected] within 30 days.

9. Children's Privacy

BudgetSmart is not directed to children under 13, or under 16 in the European Union. We do not knowingly collect their personal information, and we delete it if we learn we have.

10. Changes to This Policy

When we change this policy, we update the version and effective date above. If a change affects how we use your data in an important way, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.

11. Contact Us

For questions about this policy or your data, email [email protected].