Privacy Policy

The short version

• We collect what the product needs to work — nothing more.
• Your data is stored in Google Firebase, in the Mumbai (asia-south1) region.
• No money moves through Split Wisely, and we never see bank credentials.
• Statements you upload for AI import are processed, then the raw files are automatically deleted.
• We don't sell your data. Ever.
• You can delete your account — and everything personal with it — from inside the app.

1. Who we are

Split Wisely (“we”, “us”) is an expense-splitting app operated by CognitiveSquad, reachable at info.walkingbuddies@gmail.com. This policy covers the Split Wisely mobile apps and this website.

2. What we collect

Account information

Name, photo (if you set one), email address and/or phone number, and the sign-in providers you link (Google, Apple, email, phone). Phone numbers and emails are also stored as one-way hashes so friends can find you by contact — you can turn this off in Settings (“Allow friend suggestions”).

Expense data

The expenses, payments, groups, comments and balances you create, including descriptions, amounts, categories, dates and any receipt photos you attach. This is the product — people you share an expense or group with can see the parts they're involved in. Nobody else can.

Contacts (optional)

If you grant contact access to find friends, contact emails/phone numbers are hashed on your device and matched against hashed values on our servers. We do not upload or store your address book.

Financial statements (Pro, optional)

If you use AI statement import, the statement files you choose (PDF/Excel/CSV) are uploaded for processing. See section 5 — they are deleted automatically after extraction.

Device & diagnostics

Push-notification tokens, crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics) and basic analytics events that tell us which features are used. This website uses privacy-conscious analytics with IP anonymisation where enabled.

3. What we do with it

• Run the product: compute balances, sync devices, deliver notifications you've opted into.
• Verify subscription purchases with Google Play / the App Store (we receive purchase tokens, never card numbers).
• Prevent abuse and enforce limits (e.g. the free plan's daily counter).
• Improve the product from aggregate, de-identified usage.

We do not sell personal data or share it with advertisers.

4. Where it lives

Data is stored in Google Firebase (Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions) in the asia-south1 (Mumbai) region, protected by per-user security rules: every read is checked server-side against who's actually in the expense or group. Sensitive server logic (balances, entitlements, limits) runs in Cloud Functions where clients cannot tamper with it.

5. AI statement processing (Pro)

When you import a statement into the AI Expense Planner:

• The raw file uploads to private storage only you (and our processing function) can access.
• A server-side function extracts transaction text and sends the text to OpenAI's API to structure it into transactions. OpenAI processes it as a data processor and, per their API terms, does not use API data to train models.
• You review the extracted transactions before anything is saved to your tracker.
• The raw uploaded file is automatically deleted after processing completes (successfully or not).
• If a PDF is password-protected, the password you enter travels only inside that one processing request and is never stored on our servers or logs. With your device's secure storage (Keychain/Keystore) it can be remembered on your device only, so next month's statement opens without retyping; signing out wipes it.
• To catch duplicates (for example a card payment that also appears in a UPI-app statement), the processing request includes a minimal list of your recent tracked entries — date, amount and payee only, never your name or identifiers.
• Bank credentials are never requested, seen or stored — only the statement files you explicitly choose.

6. Payments

Pro subscriptions are billed by Google Play or Apple's App Store. We receive a signed purchase receipt to activate your plan — never your card or bank details. Settling balances over UPI happens directly in your UPI app; we only record that you marked a balance as settled.

7. Deleting your data

Account → Settings → Close account permanently deletes your profile, contact-lookup hashes, avatar, device tokens and personal data, and detaches your identity from shared records. Shared expenses you participated in remain visible to the other participants (their ledger is their data too) without your personal profile attached. Receipts you uploaded are removed. Deletion requires recent re-authentication and is blocked while you have outstanding balances — settle up first.

8. Your choices

• Every notification type has separate push/email toggles in Settings.
• Contact matching and friend suggestions can be disabled.
• Blocking a user hides you from each other and prevents new shared expenses.
• You can export or request a copy of your data by emailing us.

9. Children

Split Wisely is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.

10. Changes & contact

We'll update this page (and the date above) when the policy changes materially. Questions or requests: info.walkingbuddies@gmail.com. See also our Terms of Service.