Privacy Policy
The short version: your plan — debts, balances, income, spending — lives on your device, and no server of ours holds it. There is no account to tie it to. The one thing that leaves the phone is what you hand to Circled AI: a receipt you scan or a question you ask, read once and not kept by us (§2).
1. Where your financial data lives
Everything you enter in the app — debts, balances, paycheck details, expenses, income records, checkpoint confirmations — is stored on your device, in the app's local database. Circled has no user accounts, and no server of ours receives or stores this database. The only exception is what you choose to send to Circled AI, described in §2. If we add optional sync in the future, it will use your own iCloud storage under your own Apple Account, and this policy will describe it before it ships.
2. What the app sends, and to whom
This is the register of every service that receives anything from the app, other than your own exports. Each entry says what the service receives, why, where it runs, how long it keeps it, whether it may use it for training or advertising, and where its own policy is. An entry is added here before the feature that uses it ships; your plan as a whole — the database of debts, balances, income and spending — is never on this list.
- Apple — StoreKit (Apple Inc., United States)
- Used for: purchases, the free trial, subscription status.
- Receives: your subscription purchase, under your Apple Account; we never see your payment details (§3).
- Where and how long: Apple's systems, under Apple's policies.
- Training or ads: no.
- Their policy: apple.com/legal/privacy
- Circled's server (a Cloudflare Worker; Cloudflare, Inc., United States, running in data centres near you) — Circled AI plan only
- Used for: relaying Circled AI requests, holding our AI key, enforcing the plan's fair-use limit.
- Receives: the receipt photo, or the question and the spending summary described below; a device token (no account, no name); your IP address, as any server does.
- Where and how long: relayed and not stored — our server keeps no photo, question, summary or answer. Cloudflare's standard connection logs apply.
- Training or ads: no.
- Their policy: cloudflare.com/privacypolicy
- Google — Gemini API (Google LLC, United States) — Circled AI plan only, when you use it
- Used for: reading receipts you scan; answering Ask Circled AI questions.
- Receives: receipt scan — the photo you take. Ask Circled AI — the question you type, a summary of your logged spending (category totals and recent entries), and plan facts such as your circled date and fixed payment when the question needs them. Your debt list and balances are not sent unless the question is about them.
- Where and how long: processed in the United States under Google's paid API terms; Google keeps logs for a limited period solely to detect abuse, and no human reviews them. Transfers rely on Google's standard contractual clauses.
- Training or ads: not used to improve Google's models, not used for advertising.
- Their policy: ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms · policies.google.com/privacy
Circled AI does nothing until you use it: you are asked to turn it on the first time, and you can stop at any time; the Circled plan has no AI features. A receipt reading is shown for you to confirm or correct before it is logged. Readings and answers come from an automated model and can be wrong — treat answers as a description of your own numbers, not advice.
We may add tools that measure how the app is found and used — for example, whether an advertisement led to an install or a subscription. Any such tool gets an entry above, in the same form, before it ships, and where the law requires consent, you are asked first.
3. Subscriptions
Purchases, the free trial, and subscription status are handled by Apple on your device through your Apple Account (StoreKit). We never see your payment details. If subscription events (such as a trial starting) are ever shared with a measurement or subscription service, §2 lists it first. If a third-party subscription service is ever introduced for some regions, it will be named here first.
4. Notifications
Daily log reminders are local notifications, scheduled and delivered on your device.
5. Apple Pay capture
If you set up the optional Shortcuts automation, transaction details (amount, merchant, card name) pass from the Shortcuts app directly into Circled's local database on your device. They are not transmitted anywhere.
6. Backups
The Export function creates a JSON file of your data that you control entirely — where you store or share it is up to you. Standard iOS device backups (iCloud/computer) may include the app's local data under your own Apple Account, governed by Apple's privacy policy.
7. This website
circled.money is a set of static pages. The services behind it, in the same form as §2:
- Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., United States) — hosting, Web Analytics, Turnstile
- Used for: serving the pages and filtering abuse; aggregate page statistics; checking that a waitlist signup comes from a person.
- Receives: standard connection data (IP address, browser type), which pages are viewed from which country on what kind of device, and the Turnstile check on the form.
- Where and how long: Cloudflare's network, under Cloudflare's policies; analytics are aggregate, not per-person profiles.
- Training or ads: no.
- Their policy: cloudflare.com/privacypolicy
- Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France) — launch waitlist
- Used for: sending the launch announcement and news about Circled to people who asked for it.
- Receives: the email address you type, the language of the page you signed up on, and the time you confirmed. Signup is double opt-in: you join the list only after confirming from your inbox. Never connected to anything you do in the app.
- Where and how long: EU data centres; kept until you unsubscribe (every email has a link) or ask us at support@circled.money.
- Training or ads: no.
- Their policy: brevo.com/legal/privacypolicy
- Your browser — if you choose a language, the choice is remembered in your browser's local storage. It is not sent to us.
We may add cookies or similar tools to measure traffic and advertising. When we do, they get an entry above in the same form, and wherever the law requires consent, you are asked before they run.
8. Your rights (EU/UK and elsewhere)
Because your plan never reaches us and Circled AI content is not stored by us, requests about them have a simple answer: there is nothing we hold to access, correct, or delete — your device's controls and the in-app Export/Start-over features give you those rights directly. For the personal data we do hold — whatever §2 and §7 list — write to support@circled.money to access, correct, or delete it. We do not sell personal information. If we share data for advertising measurement in the sense of the California CCPA/CPRA, §2 or §7 will say so and provide an opt-out. EU/UK users retain the right to complain to their supervisory authority.
9. Retention
Your data stays on your device until you delete it (via Start over or by removing the App). Circled AI content is not retained by us; Google keeps request logs for a limited period for abuse detection under its API terms. Apple retains purchase records under its own policies. Waitlist addresses are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them.
10. Children
Circled is not directed at children under 13 (or the applicable minimum age in your region) and does not knowingly process children's data.
11. Changes
If we change how data is handled — adding optional cloud sync, say, or a measurement tool — this policy is updated first, with the change explained in plain language, and wherever consent is required it is asked for before anything is sent.
12. Contact
support@circled.money