Spendwise
1. Summary
Spendwise has no user accounts, no cloud sync, no advertising, and no usage analytics. Your transactions, budgets, notes, and the people you track money with are stored in a private database inside the app on your device.
| Data | Where it lives | Leaves your device? |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions, amounts, notes, dates | Local database on your device | No |
| Categories, budgets, recurring rules | Local database on your device | No |
| People, balances, and splits | Local database on your device | No |
| App preferences (currency, reminder, App Lock) | Local storage on your device | No |
| Biometric unlock | Your device's operating system | No |
| Crash & performance diagnostics | Expo (EAS Observe) | Yes — anonymous, and you can switch it off |
| Backup files you export | Wherever you choose to save them | Only if you share them |
2. What you enter stays on your device
Everything you record in Spendwise — income and expenses, categories, monthly budgets, recurring bill rules, notes, the people you lend to or borrow from, and their balances — is written to a private database file inside the app's own storage area.
Spendwise operates no backend service. There is no Spendwise server that receives your ledger, and no employee or contractor of Spendwise can read it. The app works fully with no internet connection.
Before certain destructive actions, such as deleting a transaction or restoring from a backup, the app writes a safety snapshot into that same local database. These snapshots never leave your device and are removed when you uninstall the app.
3. The diagnostics that do leave
Spendwise uses EAS Observe, a service provided by Expo, Inc., to find and fix crashes and performance problems. This is the only situation in which any information leaves your device.
What is sent
- Error messages and stack traces when the app crashes or hits an unhandled error.
- The React component stack for rendering errors.
- Native crash records, reported on the next launch of the app.
- Performance timing for app startup, screen rendering, and interaction readiness.
- Standard app and device metadata supplied by the library, such as app version, operating system version, and device model.
- An anonymous identifier for the app installation.
What is never sent
Diagnostic reports never contain transaction amounts, descriptions, notes, category or person names, balances, budgets, or the contents of your database. Route parameters that could carry an identifier — such as a transaction or category ID — are filtered out before the report is sent, so only the screen name is recorded.
These reports are tied to an app installation, not to you personally: Spendwise has no account system, so there is no name, email address, or user profile attached to them. We do not use them to build a profile of you, and we do not use them for advertising.
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in keeping the app stable, secure, and free of crashes. Reports may be transferred to and stored on servers outside your country.
Open Settings → Privacy and switch off Share diagnostics. Nothing further is sent from that moment on — crashes, render errors, and performance timings are all covered by the same switch. The setting is stored on your device and applies from your next launch onwards.
Diagnostics are on by default, which is why this app declares them in its Google Play Data Safety information. Turning them off does not affect any other feature: Spendwise works exactly the same with them disabled.
4. Permissions the app requests
| Permission | Why Spendwise asks for it |
|---|---|
| Notifications | To show the optional daily logging reminder and recurring-bill nudges you configure. These are generated locally on your device. |
| Biometric / fingerprint | Only if you switch on App Lock. Your fingerprint or face data is handled entirely by your device's operating system; the app receives only a success or failure result and never has access to the biometric data itself. |
| Vibration | To vibrate when a reminder notification is delivered. |
| Internet | To send the anonymous crash and performance diagnostics described above. |
| Files & storage (Android 12 and below) | To read and write the backup file when you choose to export or restore your data. Not requested on Android 13 and above. |
Spendwise does not request access to your location, camera, microphone, contacts, calendar, SMS, call logs, or health data. It never reads your bank accounts or connects to a financial institution.
5. What we never do
- We do not require or offer user accounts, sign-in, or cloud sync.
- We do not show advertising, and the app contains no advertising SDK.
- We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone.
- We do not include third-party usage analytics, attribution, or social media trackers.
- We do not build behavioural or advertising profiles of you.
- We do not share your financial data with third parties, because we never have it.
6. Backup files you create
When you create a backup, Spendwise writes a plain, readable data file containing your categories, transactions, budgets, people, and balances. Anyone who obtains that file can read it. Store it somewhere you trust, and avoid sending it over channels you would not use for a bank statement.
You choose where a backup goes — a cloud drive, your computer, or removable storage. Once you save or share that file, it is outside the app's control and is governed by the privacy practices of wherever you put it. Restoring a backup replaces the app's current data; the app takes a safety copy of your existing data first.
7. How long data is kept
- On your device: until you delete the individual records, or uninstall the app. Uninstalling removes the local database and all preferences.
- Diagnostics: retained by Expo according to their own retention policy. See the Expo privacy policy.
- Backup files: retained by you, wherever you saved them. Spendwise keeps no copy.
8. Children
Spendwise is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Because the app has no accounts and keeps your data on your device, there is no child profile for us to hold. If you believe a child has provided us with information, contact us and we will address it.
9. Your choices and rights
Because your data lives on your device, you control it directly and immediately — there is no request form to wait on:
- Access and portability: open Settings → Backup & Restore and create a backup file to obtain a complete copy of everything the app holds.
- Correction: edit or delete any transaction, category, or person directly in the app.
- Deletion: delete individual transactions, archive categories and people, or uninstall the app to erase everything at once. Since we hold no copy, there is nothing left for us to delete afterwards.
- Diagnostics: turn them off yourself under Settings → Privacy. If you would also like reports already sent from your installation addressed, email us.
If you are in the EEA or the UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
10. Security
Your data is protected by your device's own app sandbox, operating system encryption, and any screen lock you have configured. You can add a second layer by enabling App Lock, which requires your biometrics or device passcode each time Spendwise opens.
Spendwise does not add its own encryption layer on top of the database. This means that anyone who can unlock your device and reach the app's storage could read your data. Keep your device locked and up to date.
11. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and publish the revised version here. Material changes will also be noted in the app's release notes on Google Play.
12. Contact us
Questions about this policy, or about how Spendwise handles your data, are welcome at any time.
Talk to us
We read every message, and privacy questions get a straight answer.
support@spendwise.download