1. Information we process
Your financial data is processed on your phone. Some information does leave the phone, even without Cloud Sync; it is listed here, together with what we do with it.
2. SMS permission
Money Timeline asks for permission to read SMS so that it can recognise bank and card alerts and turn them into transactions. SMS messages are read and parsed on your device. The app looks only for messages that look like financial alerts; personal messages are not stored or transmitted. The text of an SMS is never uploaded, including when Cloud Sync is on. If you use Cloud Sync, only the transaction fields the app derived from it (such as amount, date, merchant and account tail) are synced.
You can decline this permission and add transactions manually. Revoking it later stops new parsing; transactions already created stay in your timeline.
3. Gmail (optional)
If you choose to connect Gmail, the app asks Google for read-only access (the gmail.readonly scope) so it can find bank and card emails and turn them into transactions. Emails are downloaded to your phone and parsed there. We do not send the content of your emails to our servers, and we cannot send email, change, or delete anything in your mailbox. The only thing that can leave your phone is the Gmail message ID of an email that produced a transaction, and only if you use Cloud Sync, so the same email is not imported twice on another device.
Money Timeline’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use Gmail data only to show you your transactions in the app. We do not use it for advertising, we do not sell it, we do not use it to train AI models, and no person at Money Timeline reads it.
You can disconnect Gmail at any time by turning off email detection in the app, or by removing Money Timeline from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/permissions. Transactions already created stay on your phone.
4. What we never do
5. Cloud Sync and backups
Cloud Sync is a Money Timeline Plus feature. It is off until you sign in and turn it on. When it is on, your transactions, accounts (with masked account numbers), categories, budgets, bills, subscriptions, splits, receipt photos and preferences are encrypted on your phone before upload, sent over an encrypted connection (TLS), and stored encrypted on our servers so another device of yours can restore them.
Cloud Sync is not end-to-end encrypted. To let you restore on a new phone without a separate recovery code, our servers help manage the encryption keys, which means Money Timeline could technically decrypt synced data. That access is restricted by technical and organisational access controls, and we do not access your synced data except to operate the service or where the law requires it.
Turning Cloud Sync off stops further uploads. Deleting your account deletes the synced copy immediately (see section 9).
6. Payments and Plus
Money Timeline Plus is sold through Google Play. Payment is handled by Google; we never see your card details. We receive a purchase token and subscription status so the app can unlock Plus features, and we keep a minimal record of the purchase for as long as tax and refund handling require.
7. Usage statistics and crash reports
With your consent, the app sends usage statistics (for example, which screens are opened and which features are used) and crash reports to Google Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics, which process them for us. These events carry no transaction amounts, merchant names or message text. They are linked to a pseudonymous ID: a random app-instance ID and, if you are signed in, your Money Timeline account ID. They are not anonymous or aggregated at collection.
In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland this is off until you opt in. Elsewhere it is on by default and you can turn it off at any time in Settings; the app keeps working with it off. We do not collect the Android advertising ID and do not use this data for advertising.
8. Your choices
9. Deleting your account, and retention
You can delete your account in the app (Settings, then Danger zone, then Delete Cloud Account) or on the web at moneytimeline.app/delete-account, which emails you a one-time confirmation link. Deletion is immediate. It deletes your account details, profile photo, all synced data and encryption keys, receipt photos, split links and invites, registered devices and push tokens, sign-in sessions, and feedback you sent.
What is kept: a minimal record of Google Play purchases (product, dates and status, with no name or email) for tax and refund handling. Deleted data can remain in our encrypted database backups for up to 30 days until those backups are overwritten; backups are used only for disaster recovery. Usage statistics and crash reports are kept by Firebase under its retention settings and are linked only to the pseudonymous ID. Deleting your account does not cancel a Google Play subscription; cancel it in Google Play.
Data on your phone stays until you delete it in the app, clear the app’s data, or uninstall the app. On the free plan the timeline shows the most recent 90 days; older entries remain on the device.
10. Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly process their data. If you believe a child has used the app with your bank alerts, contact us and we will remove the account.
11. Changes and contact
If this policy changes materially we will show a notice in the app before the change takes effect. Questions, requests and complaints go to [email protected], and we reply within five working days.