Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

ExpenseGauge ("ExpenseGauge", "we", "our", or "us") is an expense and personal finance management application developed by Prathmesh Jain. This Privacy Policy explains what information ExpenseGauge collects, how we use and protect that information, when information may be processed by service providers, and the choices available to you.

ExpenseGauge is designed primarily to help users record, organize, synchronize, and analyze their own expenses and account balances. We do not sell your personal information and we do not use your expense information for advertising or for training artificial intelligence models.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account Information

• Email and password: When you create an ExpenseGauge account using email and password authentication, we collect your email address and a securely hashed version of your password. We do not store your password in plain text.
• Google Sign-In: If you choose to sign in using Google, we receive account information provided through Google authentication, such as your name and email address, as permitted by your Google account and authentication settings.
• Profile information: You may provide optional information such as your name.

2.2 Expense and Account Information

When you use ExpenseGauge, you may provide financial information needed to track your expenses and balances. This may include transaction amounts, categories, dates, descriptions, account names or identifiers, balances, and related bookkeeping information.

This information is used to provide the core functionality of ExpenseGauge, including expense tracking, account management, balance calculations, statistics, and reports.

2.3 Technical and Log Information

When you use the application, our backend infrastructure may process technical information necessary to operate, secure, troubleshoot, and maintain the service. Depending on the request and server configuration, this may include IP address, request information, access times, application version, platform information, and related server logs.

ExpenseGauge does not intentionally collect precise location, contacts, photos, microphone recordings, or camera data as part of its expense-tracking functionality.

2.4 Local Storage and Offline Data

ExpenseGauge stores certain information locally on your device to support offline use and improve reliability. This may include expense and account data, application settings, authentication information, and queued operations waiting to synchronize with our backend.

Sensitive authentication information is protected using platform-secure storage mechanisms such as Expo Secure Store. Expense data may also be stored locally so that you can continue using the application when an internet connection is unavailable.

2.5 Local Expense Category Prediction

ExpenseGauge includes a bundled category-prediction model that runs locally on your device to suggest expense categories. This prediction is performed on the device rather than by sending your expense descriptions to an external AI service for categorization.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use information collected through ExpenseGauge only for purposes related to operating, securing, and providing the application's functionality. These purposes include:

• Creating and maintaining your ExpenseGauge account
• Authenticating you and protecting your account
• Storing and synchronizing your expenses and account data
• Processing expense transactions and calculating account balances
• Providing monthly statistics, summaries, and financial reports
• Generating requested PDF reports
• Sending account-related emails, such as password recovery messages and requested reports
• Supporting offline functionality and synchronizing queued operations when connectivity is restored
• Detecting, preventing, and addressing security issues, abuse, errors, and technical problems
• Maintaining the availability and reliability of the service
• Responding to support requests and communications
• Complying with applicable legal obligations

We do not use your expense data to train artificial intelligence models, and we do not sell your personal or financial information.

4. Data Sharing and Third-Party Services

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal or financial information. We only disclose or allow access to information when necessary to operate ExpenseGauge, provide a service you requested, maintain security, or comply with legal requirements.

• Google: If you choose Google Sign-In, Google processes your authentication information in accordance with Google's own privacy policies. ExpenseGauge receives the information necessary to create and authenticate your ExpenseGauge account.
• Brevo: We use Brevo as an email delivery service for certain application emails, including password recovery and requested PDF reports. Information necessary to deliver those emails, such as your email address and the content required to send the requested message, may be processed by Brevo.
• Database and hosting providers: ExpenseGauge uses third-party infrastructure to host the backend and database. Information stored or processed by the application may therefore be handled by those infrastructure providers on our behalf.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information when required to do so by applicable law, regulation, legal process, or a valid request from a governmental authority.
• Protection of rights and security: We may disclose information when reasonably necessary to protect the security, rights, property, or safety of ExpenseGauge, our users, or others, or to investigate fraud, abuse, or security incidents.
• Business transfers: If ExpenseGauge or substantially all of its assets are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale, user information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to applicable law.

Third-party service providers are permitted to process information only as necessary to provide their services to ExpenseGauge or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

5. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

• HTTPS/TLS encryption for data transmitted between the application and backend
• Secure password hashing using bcrypt
• JWT-based authentication and refresh-token security mechanisms
• Secure device storage for sensitive authentication information
• Server-side authorization checks to restrict access to protected user data
• Database-level safeguards designed to prevent duplicate financial transactions during offline synchronization

No method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. Although we take reasonable measures to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Data Retention and Account Deletion

We retain account and expense information for as long as necessary to provide ExpenseGauge and its features, maintain account functionality, resolve disputes, prevent abuse, maintain security, or comply with legal obligations.

You may request deletion of your ExpenseGauge account and associated data through the account deletion functionality provided by ExpenseGauge or through our public account deletion webpage.

When an account deletion request is confirmed, we delete the account and associated data maintained by ExpenseGauge, including the user's expenses, accounts, and user record, subject to information that we are legally required or otherwise permitted to retain.

For administrator accounts, deletion may also remove users and financial data that are managed by that administrator where applicable to the account structure.

Some information may remain temporarily in backups, logs, or systems maintained by service providers until those systems expire or are securely overwritten, or where retention is required by law.

7. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live and applicable law, you may have rights concerning your personal information, including:

• Access: Request access to personal information we hold about you
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate information
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and personal information
• Portability: Request a copy of your information where required by applicable law
• Restriction or objection: Request restriction of or object to certain processing where applicable

To exercise applicable privacy rights or ask questions about our data practices, contact us using the information in the Contact Us section below.

8. Children's Privacy

ExpenseGauge is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without the legally required authorization, we will take reasonable steps to delete that information. Parents or guardians who believe that a child has provided personal information to ExpenseGauge may contact us using the contact information below.

9. International Data Processing

ExpenseGauge and its service providers may process or store information in countries other than the country where you live. Where applicable, we take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information receives appropriate protection consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable law.

10. Advertising and Data Sales

ExpenseGauge does not sell or rent your personal information. We do not use your expense information for targeted advertising, and we do not provide your financial information to advertisers.

ExpenseGauge also does not use your expense information to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models. The expense category prediction feature included in the application operates locally on the device.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to ExpenseGauge, our data practices, applicable laws, or our services. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date on this page and, where appropriate, provide additional notice.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, privacy requests, or requests relating to your personal information, please contact us at: