Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

AutoTally (“the app”, package com.autotally.app) is published by XypherLabs (“we”, “us”), the data controller for the limited processing described below.

Privacy questions, requests and complaints: xypherlabs.dev@gmail.com. We aim to respond within 30 days.

This policy explains what happens to information when you use the app. It applies to the AutoTally Android application only.

2. What stays on your device

AutoTally is local-first. The following is written to a private database inside the app’s own storage, which no other app can read, and is not transmitted to us or to anyone else:

• Transactions — amount, merchant, date, category, note, reference and the account they belong to
• Accounts, balances, credit cards and cash wallets you create
• Budgets, savings goals, recurring rules and detected AutoPay mandates
• The text of the bank and payment notifications the app parses
• Your display name, tagline, avatar colour and chosen currency
• Your app-lock PIN and rescue answer, stored as a one-way hash

Uninstalling the app, or clearing its storage from Android settings, permanently deletes all of it. Because it never leaves your device, we cannot recover it for you.

3. Notification access and auto-capture

AutoTally’s main feature reads the notifications your bank, card and payment apps already post to your phone, and turns them into transaction records. This is optional and off until you grant it.

What it reads

When you enable notification access, Android delivers notifications to the app. AutoTally only processes notifications posted by messaging apps and financial apps (banks, cards, wallets). Notifications from other apps are discarded without being stored.

What it does with them

The notification text is analysed entirely on your device, by pattern matching built into the app, to extract an amount, a direction (money in or out), a merchant and — where present — an account reference. No notification content is uploaded, transmitted, shared or used for advertising. There is no cloud parsing step.

What it does not do

• It cannot read messages or transactions from before you installed and enabled it
• It does not request the Android SMS or Call Log permissions
• It does not read your contacts, location, photos or files
• It does not connect to your bank, use open banking, or ask for banking credentials

Turning it off

You can revoke notification access at any time from Android Settings → Notifications → Device & app notifications (the exact path varies by manufacturer), or switch auto-capture off inside AutoTally’s own Settings. Capture stops immediately; records already created stay on your device until you delete them.

4. What is collected, and by whom

The app uses Google services for stability, measurement and advertising. Those services collect the data described below directly from your device, under Google’s own privacy policy. We see only aggregated reports.

5. Merchant logos (optional)

If “Merchant logos” is switched on in Settings, AutoTally tries to show a brand’s icon next to a transaction. It resolves that icon in this order:

• From your phone. If you already have the brand’s app installed, its launcher icon is read locally. Nothing leaves the device.
• From the cache. A logo fetched once is stored on your device and reused; the network is used at most once per brand.
• From Google’s public favicon service. The app requests google.com/s2/favicons for the brand’s public website domain (for example starbucks.com). Google receives that domain and, as with any web request, your IP address.

Never sent in that request: the amount, the date, your account, your balance, the notification text, or anything identifying you. Only a public brand domain.

Switching the setting off stops all lookups and deletes the logos already downloaded.

6. Things you choose to send

Back up to Drive

“Back up to Drive” creates a single backup file containing your entire ledger — transactions, accounts, budgets, goals and mandates — and hands it to the Google Drive app for upload to your own Google account. Your app-lock PIN is deliberately excluded.

Export and share

Exports (PDF statement, CSV, Excel) are written to your device and go only where you choose to send them. We receive nothing.

Restore

Restoring reads a backup file you select through Android’s document picker. The file is read locally.

Rate the app

“Rate AutoTally” opens the Google Play Store. Anything you do there is between you and Google.

7. What we never ask for

• No SMS or Call Log permission
• No contacts, no location, no storage, no camera, no microphone
• No bank login, card number, CVV, OTP or banking credential of any kind
• No account registration, email address or phone number
• No selling of personal information to third parties

The app declares exactly one runtime Android permission (posting notifications) alongside internet access and a restart receiver. Auto-capture runs on a special access you grant yourself in system settings.

8. Legal bases for processing (EEA and UK)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following bases:

• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) — for advertising and, where the consent form presented to you covers it, for personalised advertising and measurement. In the EEA and UK, Google’s consent form is shown before advertising is initialised, and you can reopen it at any time from Settings → “Ad privacy choices”.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) — for crash reporting and basic, non-personalised usage measurement, so the app can be kept stable and improved. You may object to this at any time using the contact details above.
• Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) — for the app functionality you request, including on-device parsing of alerts once you have enabled auto-capture.

9. Your rights

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, port and object to the processing of your personal data, and to withdraw consent at any time.

How these work in practice for an app of this design:

• Access, rectification, portability, erasure of your financial data — that data is on your device and under your sole control. You can view and edit everything inside the app, export it with the built-in export, and erase all of it by clearing the app’s storage or uninstalling. We hold no copy to send or delete.
• Advertising — reopen the consent form from Settings → “Ad privacy choices”, and reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.
• Analytics and crash data — these are tied to a random app-instance identifier, not to your identity. Uninstalling the app stops all collection and resets the identifier. To ask us about, or object to, this processing, write to xypherlabs.dev@gmail.com.
• Complaints — you may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. We would appreciate the chance to address it first.

10. United States privacy rights

We do not sell personal information for money. If you have enabled personalised advertising, the sharing of advertising identifiers with Google for cross-context behavioural advertising may be treated as a “sale” or “sharing” under the California Consumer Privacy Act and similar state laws.

To opt out, open Settings → “Ad privacy choices” inside the app where available, or use Android Settings → Privacy → Ads to opt out of ad personalisation and reset your advertising ID. California residents may also exercise rights of access and deletion by contacting us; note that the financial data the app holds is stored only on your own device and is not accessible to us.

We do not knowingly process sensitive personal information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about you.

11. Children

AutoTally is a personal finance tool intended for adults. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or under the applicable age of digital consent in your country, which is up to 16 in parts of the EEA). If you believe a child has provided information through the app, contact us and we will act on it.

12. Retention

• On-device data — kept until you delete it, clear the app’s storage, or uninstall the app.
• Analytics data — retained by Google according to the retention period configured for the project, after which it is deleted or aggregated.
• Crash reports — retained by Google Crashlytics for up to 90 days.
• Advertising data — retained by Google in line with its own policies.

13. Security

Your data sits in the app’s private storage area, which Android isolates from other apps. You can add an app lock with a PIN and, where your device supports it, biometric unlock; the PIN is stored as a one-way hash and never leaves the device.

No method of electronic storage is perfectly secure. In particular, a device that is rooted, shared or unlocked, or a backup you upload to a cloud account, sits outside the protections the app can offer.

14. International transfers

The Google services listed above process data on servers that may be located outside your country, including in the United States. Google relies on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and equivalent safeguards for those transfers. Your on-device financial data is not transferred anywhere.

15. Third-party services

The app integrates the following. Their handling of data is governed by their own policies:

• Google AdMob and Google Play services — Google Privacy Policy
• Google Firebase (Analytics, Crashlytics, Remote Config) — Firebase Privacy and Security
• Google Drive, if you choose to back up — Google Privacy Policy

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app changes. The “Last updated” date at the top will always reflect the current version, and material changes will be announced in the app or in the Play Store listing. Continuing to use AutoTally after an update means you accept the revised policy.

17. Contact

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy:

XypherLabs
xypherlabs.dev@gmail.com