Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Settlecircle ("we", "us") handles information in the Settlecircle mobile app for iPhone and Android (the "App") and on this website, settlecircle.app (the "Website"). We've written it in plain language. If anything is unclear, please get in touch.

1. Who we are

Settlecircle is provided by Settlecircle, which is responsible (the "controller") for the personal information described in this policy. For any privacy question or request, email support@settlecircle.app.

2. Using the App as a guest

You can use Settlecircle without signing up. As a guest, the App stores what you type in:

• the name you'd like the App to call you;
• friends' names, and optionally an email address or phone number you choose to add;
• circles (for example "Goa Trip"), with their names, icons, colours, currency, members and notes;
• expenses: titles, amounts, currencies, dates, categories, who paid, who's included, how it's split, bill items and notes;
• payments you record between people, with optional notes;
• your categories and settings: default currency, light or dark theme, and whether haptics are on.

As a guest, this information is saved only in the App's private storage on your phone and isn't uploaded. We can't see or recover it.

So that you can sign in later without losing anything, the App quietly creates an anonymous guest account on our server when your phone is online. It holds no name, email or expenses: only a random account ID and a random ID the App uses for you. Like any internet service, our server provider also processes your IP address and basic technical information when the App connects (see section 10). Guest accounts that haven't been used for 90 days are deleted automatically.

3. Signing in with an account

If you choose Sign in or create account, you give us your email address. We send a 6-digit code to it so you can sign in without a password. We use your email only to sign you in and, rarely, to tell you about important changes to your account or this policy. We don't send marketing emails.

Once you're signed in, everything listed in section 2 is stored in your account on our servers, so it's kept safe if you lose your phone and stays in sync across every phone you sign in on. We also record technical details needed to sync, such as when each item was created or changed, and which account added or last edited it.

We also keep a record of your friendships (including who added whom, so the other person can be told "You and Ana are now friends"), the invites and circle links you create, and anyone you block.

When someone adds, changes or deletes an expense or payment that includes you, pays you, becomes your friend, joins or deletes a circle you're in, or sends you a reminder, we write a notification for you (for example “Riya added ‘Dinner’ — you owe ₹300”). It holds who did it, their name, what it was about (such as the expense title, amounts, currency and circle name) and when you read it. You see these under the bell on Home. Nobody is told about something they did themselves, and nothing is written between people where one has blocked the other.

We use this data only to run Settlecircle for you: to store and sync it, to show it to the people you share it with, to keep the service secure and to fix problems. Our legal basis is that this is necessary to provide the service you asked for (our contract with you).

Your sign-in session is kept in your phone's secure storage (the iOS Keychain or Android's encrypted storage). When you sign out, the App uploads anything still waiting and then removes your data from that phone; it stays in your account until you sign in again or delete the account.

4. Friends, invites and shared circles

Adding friends and sharing needs an account.

• Friend codes. Your account has a friend code, shown as a QR code and a link (settlecircle.app/add/…). Anyone who scans your code or opens your link becomes your friend, and you'll each see the other's name. You can get a new code at any time, which stops the old one working.
• What friends see. Friends see your name, and the phone number or contact email if you add them to your profile (your sign-in email isn't shown). People in a circle with you see that circle, its members, and all its expenses and payments. People included in an expense or payment outside a circle see that expense or payment. They see the same details you do, including notes and bill items, and who added or last edited each one.
• Invites. If you add someone who isn't on Settlecircle yet and tap Send invite, the App creates a private invite link (settlecircle.app/invite/…) and opens your phone's share sheet. You choose who to send it to and how; we don't send it for you. Anyone with the link can see your name and the name you gave them, and can accept it within 30 days. When they accept, they become your friend and take the place of the person you added, so they see the expenses and payments you'd included them in.
• Circle links. Anyone in a circle can share a link to it (settlecircle.app/join/…). Anyone with the link can see the circle's name, who shared it, how many people and expenses it has, and the names of its members who haven't joined yet, and can join it within 30 days. Joining makes you friends with whoever shared the link. If you join as someone already listed, the expenses and payments with them become yours. Making a new link stops the old one working.
• Invite previews. Someone who opens an invite link can see the names of the circles you added them to, and how many expenses and payments include them, before they sign in.
• Blocking. You can block a friend. You stop being friends, and they can't add you again with your code, your invites or your circle links. They aren't told. Things you already share stay, so balances still add up.
• Nudge. Tapping Nudge on a friend who has an account sends them a reminder notification with your name and what you say they owe you, at most once a day. For anyone else, it copies a short reminder (their first name and the amount) to your clipboard so you can paste it into a chat app; the App doesn't send that.

5. Notifications

Push notifications are optional and need an account. The App asks the first time you share an expense with someone who has an account, or when you turn them on in Profile → Notifications; you can also turn them off in your phone's settings at any time.

• What we keep. If you allow them, your phone gives the App a notification token (an address for sending to that copy of the App). We store it with your account and the kind of phone (iPhone or Android), so we know where to send. The Firebase software in the App also creates a random installation ID that comes with the token.
• What we send. When a notification is written for you (see section 3), we send its text, such as “Riya added ‘Dinner’ — you owe ₹300”, to your phones through Google Firebase Cloud Messaging, which hands it to Apple's push notification service on iPhone. They process it only to deliver it.
• Your choices. You can choose which kinds you get (expenses, payments, reminders, friends and circles) and mute single circles. We store these choices in your account. Everything still shows under the bell in the App. While the App is open, new notifications appear as a banner inside it, following the same choices.
• Stopping. Signing out removes that phone's token, so it stops getting your notifications. Tokens Apple or Google say are no longer valid (for example after you delete the App) are deleted.

6. How the App is used (analytics)

To understand which features people use and where they get stuck, the App sends usage events to PostHog, our product analytics provider.

• What's recorded. The screens you open and what you do, for example opening the App, signing in, adding an expense or a friend, settling up, sending a reminder or opening a notification. Events carry counts and choices (such as how an expense was split, how many people it's between, its currency, or whether a search found anything), plus the App version, your phone's model, system version and language, and a random ID PostHog creates for that copy of the App.
• What isn't. Never what you type: no expense titles, notes, bill items, names, phone numbers, amounts or search words, and no session recordings.
• Linked to you. Events are linked to your account ID from the moment the App creates your guest account, and to your email address once you sign in, so we can follow how the App is used over time and help when you contact us. Signing out, or signing in to another account, starts a new link.
• Not for advertising. We don't use analytics for ads, don't share it with advertisers or data brokers, and don't combine it with other companies' data. PostHog processes it only for us.
• Where. PostHog stores the events on servers in the United States. We've set it not to keep your IP address, so it isn't used to estimate your location.

Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in understanding and improving Settlecircle. You can object, or ask us to delete your analytics data, at any time by emailing support@settlecircle.app.

7. Information about other people

When you add a friend, you're storing information about them. Only a name is needed. Email and phone are optional, are never used by the App to contact anyone, and if you're signed in they're stored in your account and visible to anyone who shares a circle, expense or payment with that person. Please only add details the people involved would expect you to keep, and remove them if they ask.

Once someone joins Settlecircle and becomes your friend, they control their own name. If someone asks us to remove information another user added about them, contact us and we'll help.

8. What we don't collect

• No advertising identifiers, ad tracking or third-party advertising code. Apart from our database, the App only talks to PostHog, for the usage events in section 6, and Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, just to deliver notifications (see section 5). We don't use Firebase Analytics.
• No access to your contacts, photos, microphone or location. The camera is used only while you scan a QR code (see section 9).
• No passwords: you sign in with a code sent to your email.
• No money or bank details. Settlecircle doesn't send or receive money or connect to your bank; it only keeps track of amounts you enter.

9. Permissions

• Camera, only if you choose to scan a friend's QR code. The image is read on your phone to find the code and isn't saved or uploaded. You can say no and paste a friend's link instead.
• Notifications, only if you turn them on (see section 5).
• Internet, to create your guest account and, once you sign in, to sync.
• Haptics (vibration feedback), which you can turn off in Profile → Haptics, and the clipboard only when you tap Nudge.

10. Service providers

We use a small number of providers to run Settlecircle. They process data only on our behalf, under contracts that require them to protect it, and may not use it for their own purposes.

• Supabase (database, sign-in and sync): stores accounts and the data described in sections 3 to 5, on cloud servers.
• Resend (email delivery): sends your sign-in codes, so it receives your email address and the code.
• PostHog (product analytics, United States): receives the usage events described in section 6, linked to your account ID and email address.
• Google Firebase Cloud Messaging and Apple Push Notification service: deliver notifications to your phones if you turn them on, so they receive your notification token and the notification's text (see section 5).
• Google Firebase Hosting: serves this Website (see section 12).
• Our email service provider: handles emails you send us.

When you share an invite or reminder, the app you share it through (for example WhatsApp or Messages) handles it under its own privacy policy.

11. Keeping and deleting your data

• Guests: data stays on your phone until you erase it (Profile → Erase all data) or delete the App. The anonymous guest account is deleted after 90 days without use, or straight away with Profile → Delete account.
• Accounts: we keep your data while you have an account. You can delete single items at any time; deleted items are removed from your account and from your friends' phones, leaving only an empty marker so every phone knows they're gone.
• Analytics events are kept only as long as they help us understand how the App is used. Ask us and we'll delete yours, for example when you delete your account.
• Notifications are kept for 90 days, then deleted automatically. Notification tokens are kept until you sign out on that phone, the token stops working, or you delete your account.
• Deleting your account (Profile → Delete account) deletes your account, your email address, and everything that only you could see, straight away. Circles, expenses and payments you share with someone else who has an account are kept, because their balances depend on them, but your name in them is replaced with "Deleted user".
• Backups: our database provider keeps short-term backups for disaster recovery, which are overwritten on a rolling basis. If your phone backs up to iCloud or Google, those backups may include the App's local data under Apple's or Google's policies.

Step-by-step instructions are on our Delete your data page.

12. This website

The Website is a simple information site.

• No cookies, analytics or trackers. We don't use cookies, tracking pixels, advertising networks or third-party analytics.
• No third-party resources. Fonts, images and scripts are served from our own domain, so your browser doesn't contact other companies when you visit.
• Theme preference. If you switch between light and dark mode, your choice is saved in your browser's local storage on your own device. It's never sent to us.
• Friend and invite links. If you open a friend or invite link in a browser, the page only shows how to open it in the App. The code is part of the web address, so it can appear in the hosting provider's server logs, but the page doesn't look it up or save it.
• Server logs. Our hosting provider automatically processes technical information needed to deliver pages and keep the service secure, such as your IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time. It's used only for operating and protecting the Website and is kept for a limited period.
• Contact form. The form on our Contact page doesn't submit anything to our servers. It opens your own email app with your message filled in.

13. When you contact us

If you email us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you write, including any attachments or device details you choose to share. We use this only to answer you, fix problems you report and improve Settlecircle. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in responding to you.

We keep support emails for as long as needed to help you and normally no longer than 24 months, and we delete them sooner if you ask. Please don't send card numbers or other sensitive information.

14. Sharing and selling

We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't use it for advertising. Apart from the people you choose to share with (section 4) and our service providers (section 10), we'd only disclose information if required by law, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a transfer of the Settlecircle business, in which case this policy would continue to apply.

15. Security

Data travels between the App and our servers over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and is encrypted at rest by our database provider. Access rules on the server mean each account can only read and change what it's been shared. Your sign-in session is kept in your phone's secure storage. On your phone, your data is also protected by your device's passcode and encryption, so we recommend keeping a passcode on and your system up to date. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affecting your data ever happens, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

16. Children

Settlecircle isn't directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and children under that age shouldn't create an account. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.

17. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU and UK, the CCPA in California, or India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the use of your personal information, to data portability, and to withdraw consent.

• In the App: you can view and edit everything you've entered at any time, and delete your account and its data in Profile → Delete account.
• Analytics: to object to analytics or have your analytics data deleted, email support@settlecircle.app.
• Anything else: email support@settlecircle.app from the address on your account to ask for a copy of your data, a correction or deletion. We'll respond within one month (or sooner if the law where you live requires it).

You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority. We'd appreciate the chance to help first, so please contact us.

18. International transfers

Our service providers may process your information in countries other than your own; PostHog, for example, stores analytics in the United States. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

19. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time, for example when we add features. We'll change the "Last updated" date above, and for significant changes we'll give notice on this Website or in the App before they take effect.

20. Contact

Questions about privacy or this policy? Email support@settlecircle.app or use our contact page.