FernBudget Privacy Policy

TL;DR. Spendlytics keeps your ledger on your own device. There is no Spendlytics account and no Spendlytics server — we do not receive, store, or sync your records. The only time data leaves your device is when you use the optional, bring-your-own-key AI receipt recognition, which sends the receipt image (or on-device OCR text) directly to the third-party AI provider you configured. No analytics, no ads, no tracking.

Overview

Spendlytics is a personal expense-tracking app. It is built to keep your financial data on your own device. There is no Spendlytics account, no sign-up, and no Spendlytics server — we do not operate a backend that receives, stores, or syncs your records. The descriptions below match how the app actually works in its current released version.

Data stored on your device

All of your ledger data — transactions, amounts, merchants, notes, categories, accounts, and recurring rules — is stored locally on your device only, using Apple's on-device SwiftData/Core Data storage.

• We do not upload this data to any server we control.
• The app ships with cloud sync (iCloud/CloudKit) disabled; your ledger is not synced off the device by the app.
• We have no ability to read, access, or recover your ledger data. It lives on your device (and in your own device/iCloud backups, which are governed by Apple's policies, not ours).

Camera and photo library

The app may request access to your camera and photo library. These are used only when you choose to scan or import a receipt for the optional premium AI recognition feature. The in-app permission prompts state:

• Camera: "Premium feature: capture a receipt to auto-detect amount and merchant."
• Photo Library: "Premium feature: pick a receipt from your photo library to auto-detect amount and merchant."

Images are used to extract bill fields (amount, merchant, date, category, note). If you do not use the receipt-scan feature, the app does not need or use these permissions.

Premium AI receipt recognition (third-party processing)

The premium "AI recognition" feature is bring-your-own-key (BYOK): it works only after you configure an AI provider and enter your own API key. The app does not include a built-in cloud AI service of ours.

When you use this feature, the app sends data directly from your device to the third-party AI provider endpoint that you configured — not to us. Depending on the app's recognition mode:

• Image mode (default): the receipt or screenshot image you selected is sent to your configured provider.
• OCR text mode (fallback): text extracted from the image on your device using Apple's Vision framework is sent instead of the image.

In both cases the only purpose is to extract structured bill fields (amount, merchant, date, suggested category, an optional note, and a source-type hint). The extracted fields are returned to your device and saved to your local ledger.

• The destination is whichever provider you select. Built-in provider presets include OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Moonshot, and Together, plus a Custom option where you supply your own endpoint URL. Your chosen provider's own privacy policy and terms govern how they handle the data you send them.
• All AI requests are sent over HTTPS; the app refuses to send to a non-HTTPS endpoint.
• Your API key is stored in the device's Keychain and is sent only to the provider endpoint you configured, in the request's authorization header. The key is not configured for iCloud Keychain sync by the app.
• We (the developer) do not receive, proxy, store, or log the images, OCR text, API key, or extracted fields on any server.

If you never enable or use this feature, no receipt data, image, or text leaves your device through it.

No tracking, no analytics, no ads

Spendlytics contains no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting SDKs (for example: no Firebase, Google Analytics, Sentry, Crashlytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel, AppsFlyer, Segment, or similar). The app does not track you across other apps or websites, does not build an advertising profile, and shows no ads. We do not collect a device identifier for tracking.

In-app diagnostic logs

For troubleshooting the receipt-import flow, the app may write diagnostic log lines on your device (for example, the detected receipt source type, such as "receipt" or "alipay"). These logs stay on your device and are not transmitted to us automatically.

Purchases

The premium tier is sold via Apple's In-App Purchase. Purchase and subscription processing is handled by Apple (StoreKit) under Apple's privacy policy. We do not receive your payment details.

Data retention and deletion

Because your ledger data is stored only on your device:

• It is retained for as long as you keep the app installed (or until you delete individual records inside the app).
• You can delete it at any time by deleting records in the app or by deleting the app, which removes its locally stored data from the device.
• Data you sent to a third-party AI provider is retained and deleted according to that provider's policies, not ours.

Children's privacy (rated 4+)

Spendlytics is rated 4+ and contains no objectionable content. The app does not knowingly collect personal information from children, and it does not include advertising or cross-app tracking. Note that the optional premium AI feature requires an adult to provide a third-party API key and sends data to a third-party service; it is not intended to be set up by children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the "Last updated" date above and publish the revised version at the same location.

Contact

For privacy questions, contact hi@julineshang.win. Spendlytics is operated as an individual project by the developer reachable at that address.