Privacy Policy

Obolos is a personal finance app. This policy describes what data the app collects, why, and what happens to it. The short version: since version 2.0 your financial records live on your iPhone, with a copy in your own iCloud. We do not sell data, we do not show ads, and we do not share your data with third parties for marketing.

Where your records live

Accounts, transactions, transfers, categories, savings goals, trips and planned payments are stored on your iPhone. If iCloud is on, a copy is kept in your own private iCloud database (CloudKit), which Apple hosts for you and which we cannot read. It is what brings your records back on a new phone or after you reinstall. Payment reminders are scheduled on the phone itself.

Before version 2.0 the app stored records on our servers. Records written there before your account moved to the phone stay on the server until you delete your account; nothing written after the move is sent to us.

What we collect

• Account data. When you sign in with Apple we receive your name (if you share it), email address and an Apple identifier. We use them to create and identify your account.
• Subscription. Whether you have Premium, from the App Store transactions the app sends us, and how much Smart mode you have used this month.
• Device and session data. A device identifier and name for managing your signed-in sessions, and standard server logs (IP address, request timestamps) kept briefly for security and abuse prevention.
• Record count. Once a day the app reports how many operations it holds — a single number, so we can tell that the move to the phone worked. No amounts, names or other content.
• Crash and error reports. If the app crashes or a sync step fails, a technical report (device model, OS version, stack trace, the name of the failing step, your account identifier — no financial records) is sent to our error-monitoring provider (Sentry, EU-hosted) so we can fix it.
• First-run milestones. To learn where new users get stuck, the app records a few moments between installing it and writing a first expense — that it was launched, that you signed in, that a first expense was written and by which method (typed, spoken, scanned, imported or from a card tap), and whether the app was opened again after one, three or seven days. Each is recorded once, under a random identifier the app generates for itself; that identifier is not your account, is never joined to it, and is replaced if you reinstall the app. No amounts, names, categories or any other content are included.

We do not collect your bank credentials, contact lists, location, or advertising identifiers, and the app contains no third-party analytics SDKs that profile you. Obolos never connects to your bank.

Smart mode: text, voice, receipts and statements

Receipt scanning works on your device — the photo never leaves the phone. Dictation uses Apple's speech recognition: on-device when the model is installed, otherwise the audio may be processed by Apple under Apple's privacy policy.

Some reading happens on our server. A sentence you type or dictate into the text bar, a receipt your phone could not read (if you choose to send it), and a bank statement you upload to reconcile (PDF, CSV or XLSX) are sent to our server and passed to an AI service provider (Anthropic) for one-time parsing. They are used only to extract amounts, dates, descriptions and categories, are not used to train models, and the original text, photo or file is not stored by us; the provider retains API inputs briefly (up to 30 days) solely for abuse prevention. The lines extracted from a statement are kept on our server for up to 2 days, so re-uploading the same file does not require parsing it again. What you then save is stored on your phone, as above.

Expenses from notifications (iOS 27, optional): if you set up the Shortcuts automation that passes another app's notifications to Obolos, their text is read on your phone by Apple's on-device model when it is available. Otherwise the text is sent to our server and passed to the same AI provider for one-time parsing, on the same terms as above, and is not stored by us. Only the notifications of the apps you chose in the automation are passed.

How data is used

Solely to provide the service: signing you in, knowing whether you have Premium, reading what you send to Smart mode, keeping your account secure, and understanding whether the app works and is being used. Exchange rates come from a public rates provider; only currency codes — never your amounts or identity — are sent to it. We do not use your data for advertising or sell it to anyone.

Where server data lives

What we do keep is stored in a managed PostgreSQL database hosted by our infrastructure providers (Vercel and Neon) on servers in the European Union, with encryption in transit and at rest.

Data retention and deletion

Your data is kept while your account exists. You can delete your account at any time in the app (Settings → Delete account) or by emailing us. Deleting in the app removes everything, at once and for good: the records on the phone, their copy in your iCloud, and your account, sessions, subscription state and any records still on our server. Residual copies in our encrypted backups expire within 30 days. Signing out without deleting erases the records from the phone; the iCloud copy stays so they can come back when you sign in again.

Your rights

You can export your data from the app (Settings → Export), correct it by editing records, and delete it as described above. If you are in a jurisdiction with additional data-protection rights (such as the GDPR), you may exercise them by contacting us.

Children

Obolos is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If this policy changes materially we will update this page and note it in the app. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions or requests: evless56@gmail.com