Privacy Policy

The short version

POPEX is a 100% offline expense tracker. It has no servers, no accounts, no ads, no analytics, and no internet access - the app does not even request the internet permission. Everything the app knows lives in its private storage on your phone. The developer receives nothing: no data of yours is ever transmitted to us or to anyone else.

What data the app handles (all of it on your device only)

• Transactions - amount, merchant/party, category, date, and the message text they were detected from. Created when POPEX detects a payment in a notification or bank SMS, when you share a message into the app, or when you type one in manually.
• Your settings - categories, budgets, goals, display name (optional, you can leave it blank or clear it anytime in Settings → Personal), and the list of payment apps you choose to monitor.
• Notification content - POPEX reads notifications ONLY from the payment apps you select, only to detect transactions. Notifications from every other app are ignored.
• SMS content - POPEX reads incoming SMS only to detect bank transaction messages (in-app UPI payments often produce no notification, so a bank SMS is the only record of them). Messages that don't parse as financial are ignored. POPEX never reads, stores, or forwards personal conversations, and it never sees your messages leave the device - nothing can, there is no network access.

All of this is stored in the app's private, sandboxed storage. It is not synced, not backed up to any cloud by the app (device cloud-backup of app data is explicitly disabled), and not accessible to other apps.

What the app does NOT do

• No data collection or transmission - to the developer or any third party.
• No third-party SDKs, no ads, no analytics, no crash reporting.
• No accounts, no sign-in, no cloud sync.
• No access to your contacts, location, camera, files, or photos.
• No money movement - POPEX cannot make, receive, or initiate payments. It only records them.

Permissions, explained

That is the complete list. POPEX has no internet permission, so nothing it reads can leave your phone.

Exports (the only time data leaves the app - always by your hand)

When you tap Back up or generate a report, POPEX writes files to your phone's shared Downloads/POPEX folder:

• a CSV backup of your transactions and a JSON settings file;
• a monthly PDF report (also generated automatically once a month, saved to the same folder on your device).

These files exist so your data survives losing the phone or uninstalling the app - POPEX has no server copy, so the backup is the safety net. They contain your financial data (amounts, merchants, categories). The raw notification/SMS message text is never included in exports. The files are yours: they sit in your Downloads folder under your control, other apps you grant file access can read them, and they remain after you uninstall POPEX until you delete them. POPEX never transmits them anywhere.

Deleting your data

• In the app: delete any transaction (it moves to an Ignored bin you can empty), or clear your name and settings in Settings.
• Completely: uninstall POPEX - the app's entire private store is removed by Android.
• Exports: delete the files in Downloads/POPEX yourself; uninstalling does not remove them (that persistence is their purpose).

There is no account to delete and no server copy to request - the developer holds nothing.

Retention

Data stays on your device until you delete it or uninstall the app. Nothing expires server-side because nothing exists server-side. Unparsed message logs kept for improving detection are automatically deleted after 7 days, on-device.

Children

POPEX is a general-audience finance utility rated for teens and up (13+). It is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone, of any age.

Grievances (India - DPDP Act 2023)

POPEX transmits and collects no personal data, so the developer holds none of yours. If you still have a privacy question or grievance, contact amit.gautam@popex.in - you will receive a response within 30 days.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of POPEX ever changes what data it handles (for example, adding an optional cloud backup), this policy will be updated before that version ships, the effective date above will change, and the app's store listing and Data Safety form will be updated to match.