Expense Tracker Privacy Policy

Publisher: KL Global Technologies Private Limited
App: Expense Tracker (Google Play package in.expensetracker.klglobaltech)
Applies from: version 1.0.0 and later
Effective date: 7 October 2026
Contact: info@klglobaltech.in

This page is the privacy policy for Expense Tracker. It also describes, in detail, what data the app handles and every feature it has, so you can see exactly how your information is used.

Privacy at a glance

Question	Answer
Does the app connect to the internet?	No. It does not have Android's internet permission, so it cannot send or receive anything over a network.
Do I need an account?	No. There is no sign-up or login.
Where is my data stored?	Only in the app's private storage on your phone.
What data do you collect?	None. We never receive your expenses, income, messages or anything else you enter.
Is my data sold or shared?	No.
Are there ads, analytics, tracking or crash reporting?	None in the app.
Why does the app ask for SMS access?	It's optional. With it, the app finds bank and payment transactions in your SMS so you don't have to type them. Messages are read on your phone and never sent anywhere.
How do I delete my data?	Delete entries in the app, clear the app's storage, or uninstall it. See section 8.

Part 1: Privacy policy

This policy explains how KL Global Technologies Private Limited ("we", "us", "our") handles information in the Expense Tracker app for Android ("the app"). "Personal data" means any information about you.

1. Who we are

Expense Tracker is published on Google Play by KL Global Technologies Private Limited (klglobaltech.in). For any question about this policy or your data, email info@klglobaltech.in.

2. The short version

Expense Tracker is an offline app. Everything you enter, and everything it reads from your SMS messages, stays in the app's private storage on your phone. The app has no internet access, so it cannot send your data to us or to anyone else, and we never receive it. There is no account, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking.

3. Information we collect

We do not collect any personal data through the app. We do not run servers for the app, and the app contains no analytics, advertising, crash-reporting or tracking code.

We can receive information in only two ways, and neither comes from the app:

When you contact us. If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to reply to you, we delete it once we no longer need it to help you, and we never add you to a mailing list.
Google Play statistics. Google Play gives every developer aggregated statistics such as install counts and ratings. It also provides crash reports that Android collects from people who chose to share usage and diagnostics data with Google. These reports contain technical details such as the error, the device model and the Android version. They do not contain your transactions or messages. Google handles this data under the Google Privacy Policy.

4. Information the app processes on your phone

To work, the app stores and processes information on your phone. None of it is sent to us. It includes:

Financial records you enter or confirm: expenses, income, budgets, savings goals, accounts, transfers, recurring bills and income, and the notes and tags you add.
Names of other people, if you use the Lent & borrowed feature to record money you lent to or borrowed from someone.
SMS messages, if you allow SMS access. The app reads message text on your phone to find bank and payment transactions. Messages that aren't transactions are ignored and never stored. For a detected transaction, the app keeps the amount, date, merchant or payer, sender and message text until you review it. See How SMS messages are handled.
Photos of bills, if you use Scan a bill. Text is read from the photo on your phone. A photo taken with the camera for scanning is deleted right afterwards. A photo you pick from your gallery is read but not copied.
App settings, including a protected (hashed) form of your app lock PIN.

Part 2 lists exactly what is stored, where, and for how long.

5. How the information is used

The app uses this information on your phone only, to provide its features. It shows and organises your records, detects transactions from SMS, and calculates budgets, forecasts and insights. It also sends you budget alerts and bill reminders, creates backups and exports when you ask, and protects the app with your PIN.

The app does not use your information for advertising, profiling or credit scoring, and it makes no automated decisions about you.

We do not share, sell, rent or trade personal data. We can't: the app never sends it to us.

Your data leaves the app only in these ways, all of them under your control:

Backups and exports that you save or send somewhere. Once a file leaves the app, whoever stores it (for example your cloud drive or email provider) handles it under their own terms. Password-protected backups are encrypted.
Notifications and widgets that you enable can show amounts on your lock screen and home screen. See Notifications, widgets and your lock screen.
Moving to a new phone. Google Drive backup is turned off for this app. If you use Android's device-to-device transfer when you set up a new phone, Android can copy the app's data directly to the new phone. This happens between your own devices, at your request, and never passes through us.

If we are ever legally required to disclose information, the only information we could hold is email you have sent us.

7. How long data is kept

On your phone: your records stay until you delete them, clear the app's storage or uninstall the app.
SMS message text is kept only while a detection waits for your review. It is deleted when you add or discard the detection. An added transaction keeps a numeric fingerprint of the message, never its text, so the same message isn't detected twice. A discarded detection leaves only that fingerprint.
Camera photos taken for bill scanning are deleted as soon as their text has been read.
Emails you send us are deleted once we no longer need them to help you.

8. Your choices and deleting your data

All of your data is on your phone, so you are in full control of it:

To do this	Do this
Delete a transaction	Tap it, tap the delete icon, then Delete. You can undo this for a few seconds.
Delete several transactions	Long-press one, tap the others to select them, then delete.
Discard SMS detections	Tap the "detected from SMS" banner, then Discard all, or review them one by one and discard the ones you don't want.
Stop SMS reading	Android Settings › Apps › Expense Tracker › Permissions › SMS › Don't allow. Records you already added stay until you delete them.
Turn off notifications	Android Settings › Apps › Expense Tracker › Notifications.
Delete everything	Android Settings › Apps › Expense Tracker › Storage & cache › Clear storage, or uninstall the app. This permanently deletes all records, settings and your PIN. Export a backup first if you want to keep your data. (Menu names vary slightly between phone makers.)
Delete exported files	Delete them wherever you saved them.
Take your data elsewhere	In the app, open Backup and restore and export a backup (JSON) or a spreadsheet (CSV).

Because we never receive your data, we cannot view, correct or delete it for you. We're happy to help you do it on your phone.

9. Security

We protect your data mainly by keeping it off networks entirely. On your phone:

It is kept in app-private storage that other apps can't read and that Android encrypts.
Google Drive backup is turned off for the app.
The optional App lock protects the app with a PIN or your fingerprint or face. It stores only a hash of the PIN, slows down repeated wrong guesses, and blocks screenshots and Recents previews while it's on.
Password-protected backups are encrypted with AES-256.

Security measures gives the technical details. No storage method is perfectly secure, so protect your phone with a screen lock and keep exported files somewhere safe.

10. Children

Expense Tracker is meant for adults (18 and over) and is not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone, including children.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, data protection laws give you rights over your personal data. Examples include India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the California Consumer Privacy Act. These rights can include accessing, correcting, deleting and porting your data, and withdrawing consent.

Because Expense Tracker keeps your data only on your phone, you can use these rights directly in the app:

Access and portability: see everything in the app, and export it as JSON, CSV or a PDF statement.
Correction: edit any entry.
Deletion: see section 8.
Withdrawing consent: turn off SMS or notification access at any time. The rest of the app keeps working.

We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are used in California law. If you have a concern, contact us using the details in section 14. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live. In India, that is the Data Protection Board of India.

12. International transfers

The app does not transfer your data anywhere, inside or outside your country.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update this page and the effective date at the top. If a future version of the app ever needed to send data off your phone, we would update this policy before releasing that version, and ask for your permission in the app where the law requires it.

14. Contact and grievances

KL Global Technologies Private Limited
Email: info@klglobaltech.in
Website: klglobaltech.in

For any question, request or complaint about privacy, email us with "Privacy" in the subject line. We usually reply within a week, and always within the time the law requires.

Part 2: How the app handles data

Permissions

The app requests exactly four Android permissions.

Permission	What Android shows	When it's requested	What it's used for	If you don't allow it
`RECEIVE_SMS`	SMS	On first launch, after the app explains why	Notice a transaction SMS as it arrives	Add transactions by hand. Everything else works.
`READ_SMS`	SMS (same prompt)	Same as above	Check the messages already in your inbox, at setup and when you tap Refresh SMS detection	Same as above
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`	Notifications	The first time you open the Dashboard	Budget alerts and bill reminders	No system notifications. The in-app notifications (bell icon) still work.
`USE_BIOMETRIC`	Not shown; Android grants it automatically	Never asked	Optional fingerprint or face unlock for App lock	Not applicable

Before Android shows its SMS permission prompt, the app explains the feature with this message:

Import your expenses automatically
Allow access to read your SMS messages so the app can detect bank transactions and load all your existing expenses automatically. Nothing ever leaves your device.

You can choose Not now, and you can change your choice later in Android Settings.

Permissions the app does not have: internet or network access, contacts, location, camera, photos and media or storage, phone or call logs, sending SMS, microphone, accounts, or the advertising ID.

For bill photos, your phone's own camera app takes the picture, or Android's photo picker gives the app only the one photo you choose.
For backups and exports, Android's file picker gives the app access only to the file you choose.

Data stored on your phone

Everything is kept in the app's private storage, in a database and a settings file. Other apps cannot read them.

Data	What is stored	When it's created	How long it's kept
Expenses	Amount, date, category, note, tags, account and split group. For SMS-detected entries, a numeric fingerprint of the message (never its text).	When you add or confirm an expense	Until you delete it
Income	Amount, date, source, note and account, plus the message fingerprint for SMS-detected income	When you add or confirm income	Until you delete it
SMS review queue	Amount, date, merchant or payer, sender (for example `VM-HDFCBK`), message text, suggested category, and whether it's an expense or income	When a transaction SMS is detected	Until you add or discard it
Discarded detections	The message fingerprint only	When you discard a detection	Until you clear the app's storage, so discarded messages don't come back
Recurring transactions	Name, amount, note, schedule, and whether it's an expense or income	When you create a rule	Until you delete it
Accounts and transfers	Account name, type, colour and opening balance. Transfer amount, date, note and the two accounts.	When you create them	Until you delete them
Lent & borrowed	The other person's name, the amount, direction, dates, note and whether it's settled	When you add a record	Until you delete it
Budgets and savings goals	Monthly and category budgets, the rollover setting, savings targets	When you set them	Until you change them or clear the app's storage
Categories	Your custom and hidden categories, and the category you chose for each merchant	When you add, hide or change categories	Until you change them or clear the app's storage
App lock	Whether it's on, a salted hash of your PIN (never the PIN itself), the biometric setting, and the wrong-attempt count and cooldown time	When you set up App lock	The PIN hash is kept until you clear the app's storage, so App lock can be turned back on. The attempt count resets when you unlock.
Settings	Theme, accent colour, language, currency, the bill reminder setting, which in-app notifications you've read or dismissed, which alerts were already sent, and first-run choices	As you use the app	Until you clear the app's storage
Bill photo (temporary)	A photo taken with the camera for Scan a bill	When you take it	Deleted as soon as its text is read

How SMS messages are handled

A message arrives. If you allowed SMS access, Android passes each new SMS to the app. The app checks the text, on your phone, to see whether it reports a completed transaction.
Not a transaction? It's ignored and nothing is stored. This includes personal messages, promotions and offers, one-time passwords, debits that are only scheduled or requested, and failed or declined payments.
A transaction? The app reads the amount, the date, whether money left or arrived, and the merchant or payer. It suggests a category and puts the transaction in your review queue. Nothing is added to your records yet.
You review it. You add it, changing details if you like, or you discard it. Either way, the message text is deleted from the app. An added transaction keeps a numeric fingerprint of the message, and a discarded one leaves only that fingerprint, so the same message is never shown to you again.
Inbox checks. When you first allow SMS access, and whenever you tap Refresh SMS detection, the app checks the messages already in your inbox the same way. Messages you have already added or discarded are skipped.

The app has to read messages from every sender, because it can't tell which ones come from your bank without reading them. That check happens entirely on your phone.

The app never sends SMS, never deletes or changes your messages, does not read MMS, and is not your default SMS app. SMS content is never uploaded, shared, sold, or used for advertising or analytics.

Photos and files

Taking a photo: Scan a bill › Take a photo opens your phone's camera app. The photo is saved temporarily in the app's private cache. Its text is read on your phone by Google ML Kit's on-device text recognition, and then the photo is deleted.
Choosing a photo: Android's photo picker gives the app only the photo you pick. Its text is read the same way, and the photo is not copied.
Nothing from a bill is saved until you confirm the details on the review screen.
Backups and exports use Android's file picker. You choose where each file goes, and the app can access only that file. Import reads only the file you pick.

Backups and exports

You create these only when you ask, from Backup and restore in the app.

Export	What's in it	Protection
Backup (JSON file)	Expenses, income, recurring transactions, accounts, transfers, lent & borrowed records and budgets	None. Anyone with the file can read it.
Password-protected backup	The same as a backup	Encrypted with AES-256-GCM, using a key made from your password with PBKDF2 (120,000 iterations, random salt). If you forget the password, nobody can recover the backup, including us.
Spreadsheet (CSV file)	The date, type, category, amount and note of every expense and income entry	None
PDF statement	A summary, monthly breakdown, spending by category and the transaction list for the period you choose	None

Backups don't include your App lock PIN, savings goals, custom or hidden categories, other settings, or anything waiting in the SMS review queue.

Restoring a backup adds its entries to the ones already in the app. A restore either completes fully or changes nothing. Entries already in the app aren't detected as duplicates, but Remove duplicate entries can clean them up afterwards.

Notifications, widgets and your lock screen

System notifications are created on your phone. The app uses no push-notification service.

Budget alert: sent when you add an expense and your spending has reached 80% or more of the month's budget. For example: "You've spent ₹4,216.50 of your ₹5,000.00 budget for October 2026".
Bill reminder: sent 2 days before a recurring bill is due, if you turned on "Remind me before bills are due". It shows the bill's name, amount and due date. The app checks for due bills once a day in the background. After your phone restarts, reminders resume once you next open the app.

Depending on your Android lock-screen settings, these notifications can show their contents on your lock screen. To hide them, change your phone's lock-screen notification settings to hide sensitive content, or turn off the app's notifications.

Widgets show information to anyone who can see your home screen:

While App lock is on, the Balance widget hides its amounts.
The Budget widget always shows this month's spending and budget. Remove it from your home screen if that's a concern.
The Category quick-add widget shows only category names.

In-app notifications (the bell icon on the Dashboard) are generated from your data on your phone.

Third-party components

The app is built with the following libraries. All of them run inside the app on your phone, and none of them can use the network, because the app has no internet permission.

Component	Provider	What it does in the app	Data sent anywhere
AndroidX (Core, AppCompat, Activity, Lifecycle, RecyclerView, ConstraintLayout)	Google, open source	Screens and app structure	None
Material Components	Google, open source	Buttons, sheets, dialogs and other interface parts	None
Room	Google, open source	The on-device database	None
WorkManager	Google, open source	The once-a-day check for bill reminders	None
AndroidX Biometric	Google, open source	Fingerprint and face unlock through Android	None. The app never receives biometric data.
ML Kit Text Recognition (bundled model)	Google	Reading the text on bill photos	None. ML Kit can normally send anonymous usage statistics to Google, but in this app it can't, because the app has no internet permission.
Java library desugaring	Google, open source	Date and time support	None

The app contains no advertising, analytics, attribution, crash-reporting or social-media software.

Security measures

No network access. The app does not have the internet permission, so Android blocks any network connection from it. There is no server copy of your data to breach.
Private storage. The database and settings live in storage that other apps can't read. Android 13 and later encrypt each app's storage, and that protection is strongest when your phone has a screen lock.
No cloud backup. Android's Google Drive backup is turned off for the app (android:allowBackup="false").
App lock.
- Your PIN of 4 to 6 digits is stored only as a PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 hash, with 60,000 iterations and a random 16-byte salt, and checked in constant time.
- After 5 wrong attempts, entry is blocked for 30 seconds, then 1 minute, then 5 minutes, then 15 minutes for each further wrong attempt. Restarting the app doesn't reset this.
- Changing your PIN or turning App lock off requires the current PIN.
- The app locks again after 30 seconds in the background and whenever it restarts.
- Fingerprint or face unlock is optional and uses Android's BiometricPrompt, so your biometric data never reaches the app.
Screen privacy. While App lock is on, screenshots and screen recordings of the app are blocked, and its preview in Recents is blank. The PIN screen is always protected this way.
Encrypted backups. Password-protected backups use AES-256-GCM, with the key made from your password using PBKDF2 (120,000 iterations, random salt).
No logs. The app does not write your data to Android's system log.
Permission checks. Each release is checked to confirm it requests only the four permissions listed above.

Part 3: About Expense Tracker

Expense Tracker is a personal expense and budget app for Android. It records your spending and income, turns bank and UPI SMS alerts into transactions for you to confirm, and shows where your money goes, all without an internet connection. It's designed for India, with ₹ formatting in lakhs and crores and support for Indian bank, card and UPI messages, and it works with other currencies too.

Platform	Android 13 or later
Languages	English and Hindi
Currencies	₹ INR (lakh and crore grouping), $ USD, € EUR, £ GBP, ¥ JPY, AED
Internet	Not needed. The app works fully offline.
Price	Free, with no ads and no in-app purchases

Dashboard

The home screen shows one month at a time. Swipe left or right, or tap the month name, to change month. Its cards are:

Total balance: this month's income minus expenses, with the change from last month. Balance, income, savings and net worth stay hidden until you tap the eye icon.
Top insight: the most important item from your in-app notifications, shown when there is one, such as a budget warning or a category whose spending jumped from last month.
Total income, total expenses, total savings and the number of transactions this month.
Monthly budget overview: a progress bar, the percentage used and a month-end forecast.
Top merchants: where you spent the most this month.
Spending calendar: a heatmap of spending by day.
Accounts: the balance of each account.
Net worth: your accounts plus money owed to you, minus money you owe, with a 12-month trend.
Lent & borrowed: what's owed to you and what you owe.
Savings goal: progress towards this month's target.
Daily average: this month compared with last month.
Category breakdown: a chart of spending by category, with category budgets.
Income vs expenses and weekly spending charts.
Quick actions: Add income, Add expense, Set budget and View all.
Recent transactions and a last 6 months trend.

Expenses

Add an expense with its amount, category, account, date, a note of up to 200 characters, and tags. You can also make it repeat monthly.
Split one payment across several categories.
Tap an entry to edit or delete it. Deleting can be undone for a few seconds.
Long-press to select several entries, then change their category or delete them together.
Category chips show each category's total for the month. Tap one to filter the list.
Tap a tag to see every entry with that tag.
Search by text, with an optional date range, and see the total of the results.
Remove duplicate entries finds exact repeats (same amount, date, category and note) in expenses and income, and removes the copies after you confirm.

Income

Record income with a source (Salary, Freelance / Business, Investment Returns, Interest, Gifts, Refunds or Other), an account, a date and a note. You can make it repeat monthly.
Add income from Quick actions, or from the income list that opens when you tap the Total income card. Tap an entry to edit or delete it.

Automatic detection from bank SMS (optional)

With your permission, the app recognises debit and credit alerts from banks, cards, UPI and wallets, including ATM withdrawals. It reads the amount, date, merchant or payer, and whether money left or arrived.
It suggests a category from the merchant, such as Swiggy → Food & Dining or Uber → Transport.
Nothing is added until you review it. You can choose Review one by one, Add all with detected categories, or Discard all.
Refresh SMS detection checks your inbox again for anything missed. Messages you already added or discarded never come back.
It works with dual-SIM phones.
How SMS messages are handled explains exactly what is read and kept.

Scan a bill

Take a photo of a bill or choose one from your gallery. On-device text recognition reads the total, merchant and date, and you confirm the details before anything is saved.
It reads text in Latin script, such as English.

Budgets

Set an overall monthly budget and budgets for individual categories.
Optionally roll unused budget over into the next month.
Month-end forecast: from the third day of the month, the app projects your month-end spending. It takes what you've spent so far, then adds a typical day's variable spending, scaled by how often you spend, for each day left in the month. Fixed monthly payments (rent, EMIs, insurance, investments and self transfers) count as spent but aren't projected forward.
A notification warns you when an expense takes you to 80% or more of your budget.

Recurring transactions and bill reminders

Mark an expense or income as repeating when you add it, then choose weekly, monthly or yearly in Recurring transactions. Due entries are added automatically the next time you open the app.
A monthly rule set for the 31st is added on the last day of shorter months.
Bill reminders (optional): a notification 2 days before a recurring bill is due.

Accounts, transfers and net worth

Create cash, bank and card accounts with an opening balance.
Assign transactions to accounts, and record transfers between your accounts.
Net worth combines your account balances with money you've lent and borrowed, and shows a 12-month trend.

Lent & borrowed

Record money you lent to or borrowed from someone, with their name, the amount, the date and a note. Mark it settled when it's repaid.
Unsettled amounts count towards your net worth.

Savings goal

Set a default monthly savings target, change it for a particular month if you like, and track your progress on the Dashboard.

Yearly view

See the year's total income, expenses and savings, a month-by-month chart, and a category breakdown whose percentages always add up to 100%.
Compare the year with the previous one. Swipe left or right to change year.

In-app notifications

The bell icon on the Dashboard lists:

budget warnings, and a reminder when no budget is set;
a warning when this month's spending is above your income;
categories whose spending jumped compared with last month;
a weekly spending summary.

You can mark items as read or dismiss them.

Backup, restore and export

Export a full backup as a JSON file, optionally protected with a password.
Restore a backup from a file.
Export a CSV spreadsheet.
Create a PDF statement for this month, last month, the last 3, 6 or 12 months, or a custom date range.
Backups and exports describes what each file contains.

App lock and screen privacy

Protect the app with a 4 to 6 digit PIN, and optionally your fingerprint or face.
It locks after 30 seconds in the background and whenever the app restarts.
Repeated wrong PINs trigger increasing waits.
There is no way to recover a forgotten PIN. If fingerprint or face unlock isn't turned on, the only way back in is to clear the app's storage, which deletes your data. Export a backup regularly if you use App lock.
While it's on, screenshots, screen recordings and Recents previews are blocked, and the Balance widget hides its amounts.

Widgets and shortcuts

Home-screen widgets:
- Balance (this month's balance, income and expenses);
- Budget (this month's spending against your budget);
- Category quick-add (tap a category to add an expense in it).
Launcher shortcuts: long-press the app icon for Add expense and Add income.

Personalisation

Theme: same as system, light or dark, with 7 accent colours.
Language: English or Hindi, set for this app alone.
Currency: ₹, $, €, £, ¥ or AED. Changing the currency changes only the symbol and number format, not your amounts.

Appendix A: Google Play Data safety answers

These are the answers given in the app's Google Play Data safety section. They are based on Google's definition of collection: data sent off your device by the app.

Question	Answer
Does the app collect any user data?	No
Does the app share any user data with third parties?	No
Is data encrypted in transit?	Not applicable. The app sends no data.
Can users delete their data?	Yes. All data is on the device and can be deleted in the app, by clearing the app's storage, or by uninstalling.

The app's target audience on Google Play is adults (18+).

Appendix B: Check these claims yourself

Permissions: open Android Settings › Apps › Expense Tracker › Permissions. You'll see only Notifications and SMS. The biometric permission isn't listed, because Android grants it automatically.
No internet permission: on the app's Google Play page, open About this app › App permissions. Internet access isn't listed.
Works offline: turn on airplane mode. Every feature keeps working, because none of them uses the network.
No data usage: open Android Settings › Apps › Expense Tracker › Mobile data & Wi-Fi. It shows no data used.

Appendix C: Document history

Date	Change
7 October 2026	First published, covering version 1.0.0 and later.