Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 1, 2026 · Applies to all Expense Tracker users worldwide

In short: We only collect what's needed to run your account (name, email, password) and the financial data you choose to enter (expenses, income, budgets, categories). We do not sell your data, and we do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies. You can export your data as a CSV or permanently delete your account at any time from your Profile page — no matter which country you're in. If you still have questions, visit our Contact page.

1. Who we are

Expense Tracker ("we", "us", "our") is a personal finance web application that lets you record expenses and income, organize spending into categories, and set budgets. This Privacy Policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we protect it, and the choices and rights you have — regardless of where in the world you use the service.

For any privacy question or request, please use our Contact page.

2. Scope of this policy

Expense Tracker is offered worldwide — anyone, anywhere can create an account and use the service, and a user is not required to be physically located in any particular country to sign up or continue using it. Because of that, this policy is written to meet the requirements of major privacy laws around the world at the same time, including (without limitation) the EU/EEA and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR/UK GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA, other U.S. state privacy laws (e.g. Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah), Canada's PIPEDA, Brazil's LGPD, and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act). Where a specific law grants you a right that goes beyond what is described here, that law still applies to you and we will honor it.

3. Information we collect

a) Account information you provide

Name — shown in the app (e.g. in the navigation bar and emails).
Email address — used to log in, verify your account with a one-time code (OTP), send security alerts, and reset your password.
Password — we never store your actual password. It is one-way hashed (using PHP's password_hash, bcrypt) before it touches our database, and we cannot see or recover it.

b) Financial data you choose to enter

Expense records: amount, date, category, and any note you add.
Income records: amount, date, and any note you add.
Custom categories you create (up to a reasonable limit per account).
Budgets you set, per category or overall, per month or as a default.

This data is entered by you and is only ever shown to you inside your own account.

c) Contact form submissions

If you use our Contact form, we collect the name, email address, category, subject and message you submit, plus your IP address (used only to prevent spam/abuse) and, if you are logged in, a link to your account.

This is only used to respond to your message and to protect the form from abuse.

d) Information collected automatically

Session cookie (ET_SESSION) — keeps you logged in; it is essential to the service and is not used for advertising or tracking. See Cookies.
Basic technical/log data — such as IP address, browser type, and request timestamps, captured in standard server logs for security and troubleshooting.

e) What we do not collect

We do not collect payment card details — the service is free and has no billing feature.
We do not knowingly collect sensitive categories of data (e.g. health, biometric, precise geolocation, racial/ethnic origin).
We do not use advertising trackers, third-party analytics pixels, or sell data to data brokers.

4. How we use your information

To create and operate your account and let you use the app's features (dashboard, expenses, income, categories, budgets).
To verify your email address with a one-time code, and to let you log in securely.
To send transactional emails: email verification (OTP), password-change alerts, email-change confirmations and alerts, and account-deletion confirmations.
To respond to messages you send us through the Contact form, including an automatic acknowledgement of receipt.
To protect your account and our service: rate-limiting login/registration attempts, CSRF protection on every form, and fraud/abuse prevention.
To maintain, secure, debug and improve the service.
To comply with legal obligations, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles.

5. Legal basis for processing (GDPR/UK GDPR)

If you are in the EEA, UK, or another region with similar requirements, we rely on the following legal bases:

Legal basis	Used for
Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b))	Creating your account and providing the core features you sign up for.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f))	Keeping the service secure — rate limiting, CSRF protection, fraud prevention, server logs.
Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c))	Responding to valid legal or regulatory requests.
Consent (Art. 6(1)(a))	Only where we ask for it specifically; we do not currently send marketing emails.

6. Cookies & similar technologies

We use exactly one cookie: ET_SESSION, an essential session cookie that keeps you logged in. It is set with HttpOnly (not readable by JavaScript), Secure (only sent over HTTPS) and SameSite=Lax flags, and it expires automatically when you close your browser or log out.

We do not use advertising cookies, third-party analytics cookies, or cross-site tracking of any kind. Because this cookie is strictly necessary for the service to function, it is not subject to a cookie-consent banner under most privacy laws — but you can still block or delete cookies in your browser settings, though doing so will log you out and prevent you from staying signed in.

If you install Expense Tracker as a Progressive Web App (PWA) / add it to your home screen, your browser may cache a small number of static files (like stylesheets) locally on your device so the app loads faster and can show a basic offline message — this is a local performance feature, not a tracking mechanism, and no additional personal data leaves your device because of it.

8. International data transfers

Because the service is available worldwide, your data may be processed and stored on servers located in a country other than the one you live in, including countries whose data protection laws may differ from those where you reside. Where required (for example, transfers of personal data out of the EEA/UK), we take reasonable steps to ensure an adequate level of protection, such as relying on providers bound by appropriate safeguards (e.g. Standard Contractual Clauses) or transferring only what is necessary to operate the service.

9. Data retention

Unverified registrations: if you sign up but never verify your email, that account and its data are automatically and permanently deleted after 7 days.
Active accounts: your data is retained for as long as your account exists, so the app can show your history, trends and budgets.
Account deletion: when you delete your account (Profile → Danger Zone), your expenses, income, categories, budgets and login credentials are permanently and irreversibly removed, and we send a confirmation email. This cannot be undone and there is no recovery period.
Server/security logs: basic technical logs are retained only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting, then routinely cleared.

10. Data security

We apply industry-standard safeguards appropriate to the kind of data we hold:

All traffic is forced over HTTPS.
Passwords are hashed (bcrypt) — never stored or logged in plain text.
CSRF tokens protect every form submission.
Rate limiting on login, registration, password/email changes and account deletion to slow down abuse.
Security response headers (e.g. X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy).
Email alerts whenever your password or email address changes, so you notice anything you didn't do.
Session IDs are regenerated on login and after a password change to guard against session fixation.

No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your data using these measures and keep them up to date.

11. Your privacy rights

Wherever you are located, you can, at any time and largely by yourself from your Profile page:

Access & correct your name, email and password.
Export (data portability) your expense records to CSV at any time from the export feature.
Delete your account and all associated data permanently, in one action.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the following rights — we honor them for every user, regardless of location, on request via our Contact page:

EU / EEA / UK (GDPR, UK GDPR)

Right of access, rectification and erasure ("right to be forgotten").
Right to restrict or object to processing, and to data portability.
Right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the UK, the ICO).

California & other U.S. states (CCPA/CPRA, VCDPA, CPA, CTDPA, UCPA, etc.)

Right to know what personal information we collect and how it is used.
Right to delete and right to correct your personal information.
Right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information — note that we do not sell or share your data, so there is nothing to opt out of.
Right to non-discrimination for exercising any of these rights.

Canada (PIPEDA)

Right to access your personal information and challenge its accuracy.
Right to withdraw consent, subject to legal or contractual restrictions.

Brazil (LGPD)

Right to confirmation of processing, access, correction, anonymization, portability and deletion of personal data.

India (DPDP Act, 2023)

Right to access a summary of personal data processed and the processing activities.
Right to correction, completion, updating and erasure of personal data.
Right to grievance redressal — write to us first via our Contact page.

To exercise any right not already available as self-service in your Profile, reach us via our Contact page using your account's registered email address. We may ask you to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we aim to respond within the time limit set by applicable law (typically within 30 days).

12. Children's privacy

Expense Tracker is not directed at children and is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 16 (or the minimum age required by your local law, e.g. 13 in some jurisdictions). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has created an account or provided us with personal data, please contact us via our Contact page so we can delete it promptly.

13. Data breach notification

If a security incident occurs that affects your personal data, we will assess it promptly and, where required by applicable law, notify affected users and the relevant supervisory authority without undue delay.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as the service or the law changes. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page, and for material changes we will make reasonable efforts to notify you (e.g. by email or an in-app notice) before they take effect.

15. Contact us

If you have any question, concern, or request about this Privacy Policy or how your data is handled, please reach out:

Please use our Contact page to reach us.

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