Privacy Policy for SpendLane
Last updated: 23 August 2026
SpendLane is a personal budgeting and expense tracking app published by an independent developer based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. This policy explains what happens to your information when you use the app.
The short version
SpendLane keeps your financial data on your phone. There's no account to create, no server to sign in to, and no copy of your transactions, budgets, balances or receipts anywhere except your own device. I can't see your data, because it never reaches me.
Two things are able to leave your phone, and both stay switched off until you turn them on yourself:
- Crash reports, if you enable them in Settings, Security & Privacy.
- Currency exchange rates, if you enable automatic rate refresh in Settings, Exchange rates.
There is no analytics, no advertising, no tracking, and no third party that I sell or share your information with.
What the app stores, and where it lives
Everything you enter stays in a private database in the app's own storage on your device. That covers your transactions, accounts, budgets, goals, categories, tags, merchants, recurring rules, debts, assets, notes, receipt images, and your profile name and photo.
The app never uploads any of it. It does get included in your phone's own encrypted backups (iCloud or Google), and those are covered by Apple's and Google's privacy policies rather than this one.
If you switch on App Lock, your receipt image files also get encrypted on the device using AES-256-GCM, with the key kept in your phone's Keychain. That key never leaves your device and I never receive it.
Backups you make are yours. When you export a backup or a spreadsheet, the app writes a file and hands it to your phone's share sheet, and you decide where it goes. Automatic backups are written to the app's own folder on the device. The app doesn't upload a backup anywhere, ever.
The two things that can leave your phone
Crash reports, which are off by default
If you turn crash reporting on (Settings, Security & Privacy), diagnostic reports go to Firebase Crashlytics, a service run by Google.
It's off until you switch it on, and that's enforced in two separate places: the crash SDK's own automatic collection is disabled in the app's build configuration, and the app keeps its own consent flag on top of that. Turning it off again takes effect immediately.
What gets sent is the crash itself (a stack trace), plus your device model, OS version and app version. What doesn't get sent is your financial data. The app's internal error messages refer to records by internal identifier only, never by amount, merchant name, note or account detail.
Google handles this data as my processor, under their own privacy policy.
Exchange rates, which are also off by default
If you turn on automatic rate refresh (Settings, Exchange rates), the app asks a published exchange-rate service for European Central Bank reference rates.
With the setting off, the app makes no rate requests at all. When it's on, the only thing sent is
currency codes, for example USD or INR. No personal data, no device or user identifier, no
amounts, and nothing about your transactions. If you only ever hold one currency, no request is
made even with the setting on.
The app also makes a single rate request if you deliberately change your base currency, so the conversion can be applied. Again, currency codes only.
This is the only ordinary network request the app makes anywhere. That isn't just a promise: there's an automated test in the codebase that restricts outbound requests to a single source file, so the claim would break the build if it stopped being true.
Purchases
Premium is sold through the App Store and Google Play. Apple or Google handle the payment entirely, so the app never sees your card, billing address or payment details. It reads the store's own purchase record to know which plan you're on and when it expires, and keeps that locally.
Refunds, cancellations and billing are handled by Apple or Google under their terms.
The permissions the app asks for
The app only asks when you actually use the feature, and it works fine without any of them.
| Permission | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Photos | Attaching an existing photo as a receipt, or setting a profile picture |
| Camera | Scanning a paper receipt straight into a transaction |
| Save to Photos | Only when you tap Save on a receipt you want in your photo library |
| Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode | Unlocking the app when App Lock is on |
On that last one: your phone's operating system does the authenticating, so the app never receives your biometric data. It's only told whether the OS accepted you.
The app does not ask for contacts, location, microphone, calendar, health data or SMS access. It can't read your bank accounts or your messages. If you share a message into SpendLane yourself, the app reads that text to pre-fill a transaction form, and nothing is stored unless you save it.
Notifications
Reminders (bill due dates, daily nudges, budget alerts, goal deadlines) are scheduled locally on your phone. There are no push notifications, no push tokens and no server involved. That's also why every reminder starts switched off until you set it up.
Children
SpendLane isn't aimed at children under 13, and I don't knowingly collect information from them. Since the app collects nothing by default there's nothing for me to delete, but if you're concerned about a child's use of the app, please get in touch.
Your data, and what you can do with it
Take it with you. Settings, Data & Backup exports a full backup, or a CSV or Excel spreadsheet. This works on every plan including the free one, which is deliberate. Your data is never locked in.
Delete it. Deleting the app removes the database and all receipt files from your phone. Any backups you exported elsewhere are yours to delete.
Turn off what leaves. Crash reporting and rate refresh can both be switched off whenever you like.
Because I hold no copy of your data, there's nothing for me to look up, correct, export or erase on your behalf. A request under a law like the GDPR, the CCPA or India's DPDP Act would only concern the optional crash diagnostics described above. Write to me and I'll help.
Third parties
| Who | What for | When |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Firebase Crashlytics) | Crash diagnostics | Only if you switch it on |
| An exchange-rate service | Published currency reference rates | Only if you switch rate refresh on |
| Apple, Google | Processing your purchase | Only if you buy Premium |
There are no advertising networks, analytics providers or trackers of any kind. I don't sell or share your personal information.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a way that matters, I'll update the date at the top and mention it in the app's release notes.
Getting in touch
If you have questions about your privacy while using the app, or about any of the practices described in this policy, please email me:
I read every message myself and aim to reply within a few working days.
Reporting a problem. Please include the app version (shown at the bottom of the Settings screen), your device model, your OS version, and what you were doing when it happened. Crash reporting is off unless you switched it on, so in most cases there is no report on my side to look at. Your description is what I have to work from.
Requests about your data. Write to the same address. What I can and cannot do is set out under "Your data, and what you can do with it" above: because I hold no copy of your records, most requests are things you can do yourself in Settings, Data & Backup, faster than I could do them for you.
If my answer does not satisfy you. In the EU or the UK you can lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In India you can raise the matter with the Data Protection Board of India. You do not have to come to me first.