Privacy policy

Effective 18 October 2026

Summary

Amount Tracker runs on your phone. It has no server of its own and no account system, shows no advertisements, and contains no analytics or tracking code. The developer does not receive, store or see the transactions, balances, messages, cards or accounts the app handles. Apart from what you choose to connect (Gmail, a Google Drive backup, Google Play for a plan), the only thing the app fetches from the internet is one small public settings file, described below. This policy explains what the app handles on your phone, why, how it is protected, and the rights you have under Indian law.

Who is responsible

Amount Tracker is made by an individual developer (see Contact and grievance). Because the app's data stays on your phone and is not sent to the developer, the developer does not hold it, and you are in control of it. The small amount of data the developer does receive, from Google Play when someone buys a plan (see Plans and purchases), is handled by the developer as the data fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. This policy is written to meet the notice and disclosure duties of Indian law in any case.

Indian laws this policy follows

The Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules, 2011 (the "SPDI Rules"), the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the rules made under it (which are being brought into force in stages), the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 with the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, and the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023. Financial information such as bank account, card and payment instrument details is sensitive personal data under the SPDI Rules, so the app handles it with extra care.

What the app handles, and why

Only to give you the features you use: bank, card, UPI, loan and bill messages and payment notifications (to build your transaction list, balances, card bills and budgets); optionally bank e-mails from Gmail; bank statements you choose to import; card and bank account details you choose to save; camera images you scan; words you speak when you tap Add by voice; and anything you type in yourself. The app does not use this data for advertising, profiling or sale, and does not use it for any purpose other than the feature you asked for. It asks for no more than a feature needs.

Your consent

When you first open the app it tells you, in plain words, what it reads and where the data stays, and asks you to confirm that you are 18 or older and agree to this policy and the Terms. Then a short screen explains the two permissions the app wants at the start, SMS and notifications, and asks for each (you can skip either). Every other permission is asked for only when you use the feature that needs it (camera, microphone, NFC, Gmail, notification access, fingerprint or PIN). Granting a permission, signing in or connecting is your consent for that purpose only. You can withdraw consent at any time, as easily as you gave it: turn off the permission or Notification access in your phone's settings, tap Disconnect for Gmail or Google Drive, switch the feature off, or use Settings > Delete all my data. Withdrawing may switch that feature off.

App notifications

Only if you turn on Notification access, the app reads payment notifications from a fixed list of UPI and bank apps (for example PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, Paytm and bank apps). Notifications from every other app are ignored and never read or stored. For a payment it stores the amount, time, payee and the notification text on this phone only.

SMS messages

With your permission, the app reads the SMS inbox once and then each new SMS as it arrives. It looks for bank, card, UPI, loan and bill messages. For a message that describes a transaction, balance or card bill, it stores the amount, date, account or card digits, merchant, balance and the message text. Other messages, including OTPs and personal conversations, are skipped and not stored.

Gmail (optional)

Only if you connect Gmail (up to three addresses), the app reads your bank e-mails read-only: bank alerts (the last 200 days the first time, then recent ones), statement e-mails with their PDF, CSV or spreadsheet files (up to 13 months) and loan documents (up to 5 years). Once, the app also looks back up to 5 years in statements and loan papers for your cards, loans and EMIs only, and adds no transactions from that look. It connects with a Gmail app password that you create and enter yourself. An app password is kept encrypted on your phone, is used only to read mail over IMAP from Gmail, and is deleted when you tap Disconnect. The app downloads only e-mails that look like bank, card or loan mail from a bank or lender, and cannot send, change, mark or delete e-mail. You can also delete the app password on your Google account page, which ends the app's access at once.

Important mail and the AI summary (optional)

With Gmail connected, the app also lists mail that matters but is not a payment: insurance premiums and renewals, tax documents, notices from your bank, investment statements, receipts and warranties. It finds them from the subject, reads the amount and the date, and keeps the title, the sender's address domain, the amount, the date and the first 1,500 characters of the text on your phone, so you can read it again. It never adds them to your money records and never opens a link. On a phone that has Google's on-device AI (Gemini Nano, through the AICore service) you can tap Summarise: the text is worked on by the model on the phone and is not sent anywhere. The first time, Google downloads that model to the phone. A summary can be wrong, so check the mail itself.

Balance checks

Check balance opens your phone's dialer or SMS app with your bank's official balance-enquiry number filled in. You place the call or send the SMS yourself; the app never calls anyone. It reads the bank's reply to update the balance.

Bank statements and photos

If you import a statement or scan a document, you pick the file or take the photo yourself. It is read on your phone using on-device PDF and text recognition, or, with Gmail connected, a statement attached to a bank e-mail is read the same way. If you save details such as your name, date of birth, PAN or mobile number in Settings > Statement unlock details, they are kept encrypted on this phone and used only to open locked statement PDFs; passwords that opened a file are remembered the same way. You can delete all of them there at any time. Only the details found are stored. The file is not copied, kept or uploaded. A PDF password you type is used once and not saved. Photos taken for scanning are deleted right after reading; photos you pick from your gallery are only read, never changed or copied.

Camera and NFC

The card scanner asks for camera access only when you open it, shows a live preview and reads the card on the phone. Tap Card (NFC) reads a contactless card only while the Tap screen is open and only for the details the card itself shares (number, expiry, sometimes a name). It never makes a payment, and nothing from the card is logged or sent anywhere.

Microphone (Add by voice and Ask by voice)

The microphone is asked for only when you tap Add by voice or Speak on Ask about your money, and only on a phone that can recognise speech on the phone itself. The words are worked out by the speech recogniser built into the phone, the sound is not recorded or kept by the app, and only the words you see on screen are used: to fill the add form for you to check and save, or as your question. If you switch on Read answers aloud, the phone's own voice reads the app's answer; it is off until you switch it on, never used while Hide amounts is on, and uses only a voice that works on the phone. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Saved card details and bank account details

Card number, expiry, CVV and, if you choose to keep them, card photos, and the bank account details you save (account number, IFSC, branch, holder name) are stored only if you add them. Card numbers and account numbers are encrypted with a key held in your phone's secure hardware, which works only for 30 seconds after you confirm with your fingerprint or phone PIN. They are never included in backups. When you share them (for example on WhatsApp) you choose what to include and who receives it, and the app cannot control what the receiver does with it.

Notifications the app sends you

Payment alerts (money received or spent), card bill and due-date reminders, EMI and subscription reminders, a summary of your day (every evening) and of your week (Sunday evening), and, once plans are on and only while you have no plan, a few offers of a plan (at most three a week, at midday). Each kind has its own switch in Settings and security, and offers and summaries can be switched off completely; bill and payment alerts are for your benefit and are never used to sell anything. On the lock screen they show only that something new arrived, not amounts or names. They are made on your phone from your own records; nothing is sent to produce them.

Plans and purchases (Google Play)

A plan is an optional paid subscription sold only through Google Play. Google takes the payment and keeps your payment details; the app never sees or stores a card, UPI or bank detail for a purchase. The app asks Google Play on your phone whether a plan is active and remembers only the date it last was, so that a plan keeps working for a few days without internet. Google gives the developer records of purchases (such as the order number, the plan, the amount, the country and the dates) to run the subscription, and these are used only for that: to confirm and support a purchase, give a refund, and meet tax and accounting duties. They are kept for as long as those duties require. The developer does not link them to the data in the app, which the developer cannot see.

The settings file (internet)

The app downloads one small public settings file from GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com), at most every six hours, once the app opens. It says which features are part of a plan and how strong the blur on those pages is, and holds no code and no personal data. No personal data is sent with the request, but, as with any website, GitHub and the network you use can see your phone's internet address and the time of the request. The file can never lock the export of your own data, Settings, My details or this About page. If it cannot be reached, the last copy is used.

Security practices

The app uses these reasonable security practices: an encrypted database (SQLCipher, key protected by Android Keystore); encryption of card and account numbers behind fingerprint or PIN; optional app lock; screenshots, screen recording and the recent-apps preview blocked by default (you can allow them for ordinary screens in Settings, but never for card or bank details); encrypted backups (AES-256-GCM) whose key is kept by Google Block Store, with a recovery code you can save; no automatic cloud backup of app data by Android, only the optional encrypted backup you turn on yourself; only secure (HTTPS) connections, with plain-text traffic switched off; app passwords kept encrypted by the phone's key store and taken off the clipboard after you paste them; a fixed list of apps whose notifications are read; checksum-verified build libraries; and automatic checks that fail the build if a permission, an exposed component or a secret slips in. The developer has not obtained a formal security certification such as ISO/IEC 27001. No system is perfectly secure, so keep your phone locked and updated.

Where data is kept and what leaves the phone

All data stays in the encrypted database on your phone. Data leaves the phone only in these cases: requests to Google when you connect or sync Gmail or buy a plan; Google Play services downloading its text recognition model; the settings file request above; Google's on-device parts (text recognition and the AI summary) may send Google limited technical information such as errors and speed, but not your messages or mail; the encrypted automatic backup, only if you turn it on, saved to your own Google Drive (a hidden folder only this app can see), and the key that locks it, which Google Block Store keeps and, where your phone supports it, backs up to Google end to end encrypted so a new phone you restore from a Google backup can get it back; backup or export files and shares that you choose to save or send, to the location or app you pick. The developer does not send your data anywhere, inside India or outside it. Google may keep data you choose to put in Gmail, Google Drive or Google Play on its servers, which can be outside India; that is governed by Google's terms and privacy policy and your own Google account settings.

No sale or disclosure

Your data is not sold, rented or shared with anyone by the developer. It is disclosed only to a person or app you choose to send it to, or when the law requires it of the person holding it.

How long data is kept, and deleting it

Data is kept on your phone until you delete it. Settings > Delete all my data, uninstalling the app, or Settings > Apps > Amount Tracker > Storage > Clear storage, permanently erases everything the app stored on the phone. Individual saved cards and bank account details can be removed in the app, Gmail can be disconnected in More > Sync, and transactions or accounts can be deleted. Delete any backup or shared files you saved elsewhere yourself. Backups in Google Drive can be deleted in Google Drive > Settings > Manage apps > Amount Tracker > Delete hidden app data.

Your rights

Under Indian law you have the right to know what data is processed, to access it, to correct it, to have it erased, to withdraw consent, to have your grievance redressed, and to nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or cannot. Because the data is only on your phone, you exercise most of these directly in the app: see your transactions and details, edit or delete them, export everything (More > Export and backup), remove saved cards and accounts, disconnect Gmail, turn permissions off and delete all your data. For anything else, including the purchase records above, contact the developer.

Grievance redressal

If you have a concern about how your data is handled, write to the developer (see Contact and grievance). It will be acknowledged within seven days and answered within one month of receipt (the period in the SPDI Rules), and in any case within the time the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules allow. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India once it is functioning, as the law provides.

Children

The app is not intended for anyone under 18 years of age and does not knowingly process the data of children. It asks you to confirm that you are 18 or older when you first open it. If you are under 18, please do not use it without a parent or guardian.

Security incidents

The developer holds none of your transactions or messages, so there is little for the developer to lose. If a flaw that could affect your data is found in the app, a fixed version will be released and the issue will be noted in the changelog; where the law requires reporting an incident to CERT-In or the Data Protection Board of India, or telling the people affected, that will be done within the time it allows.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version ships inside the app update with a new effective date, and the change is noted in What's new. If the change needs your agreement again, the app asks you when you next open it.

Contact

To ask a question, use a right described here, or complain about how your data is handled, write to Poorna Chander Terala, the grievance officer, at amounttracker@gmail.com. Please write "Amount Tracker" in the subject. See also Contact and grievance.