Privacy Policy

Who we are

SyncBook ("we", "us") is a personal-finance app that helps teenagers balance their checkbook. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect when you use sync-book.app, how we use it, and the choices you have. If any of this isn't clear, email us and we'll answer.

What we collect

• Account info — your name, email, and password (stored hashed, never in plain text). Optional: phone number if you enable SMS logging.
• Financial data — the transactions, bank balances, budgets, savings goals, and recurring bills/paychecks you enter yourself or import from CSVs. We do not connect to your bank.
• Receipt images — photos you snap for OCR. Stored on our servers linked to that transaction and never used for anything else. You can delete them from the transaction detail screen.
• Usage & device — basic web-server logs (IP address, browser version, timestamps) kept 30 days for security and debugging.
• Payment info (if you subscribe to a paid tier) — handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your card number; we only store your Stripe customer ID and subscription status.

SMS logging (opt-in)

If you enable SMS in Profile → SMS, you consent to us sending transactional replies to your phone via Twilio when you text logging shorthands (e.g. -4.50 coffee).

• Message frequency varies by your usage — typically 1–5 msgs/day.
• Standard message & data rates from your carrier may apply. SyncBook does not charge you for SMS.
• Reply STOP at any time to unsubscribe, or unlink your phone from Profile → SMS.
• Reply HELP to see supported commands. Or visit /help/sms in-app.
• Your phone number is never sold, rented, or shared with third parties, affiliates, or marketing partners for marketing, promotional, or lead-generation purposes. It is shared only with Twilio (our SMS carrier) to deliver your reply, and is stored solely to match inbound texts to your account.
• SMS content is limited to transaction confirmations, balance summaries, and STOP/HELP replies. We never send promotional, marketing, or third-party content over SMS.
• SMS opt-in is not a condition of using SyncBook or purchasing any subscription. Every SyncBook feature (transactions, budgets, reconcile, forecasting, imports, receipts) is available without providing a phone number.

How we use your data

• To operate the core features you interact with (register, forecast, reconcile, etc.).
• To send transactional SMS you explicitly opted into.
• To detect abuse (rate limits, brute-force login attempts) and keep your account secure.
• To send occasional service emails — password resets, subscription receipts, weekly Money Health digest (opt-in).

Who we share with

We do not sell your data. We share only what's strictly needed to operate the app, with these sub-processors:

• Twilio — SMS delivery. Sees your phone number and the text content.
• Stripe — payment processing for Pro / Family subscriptions. Sees your email and payment method.
• SendGrid — transactional email (password resets, receipts). Sees your email.
• OpenAI (via Emergent LLM Key) — receipt-image OCR and CSV payee cleanup. Sees receipt images and short bank-line descriptions. Content is not used for model training.
• MongoDB Atlas — encrypted database hosting.

Each of these has its own privacy policy and data-processing agreement in place. We share no data with anyone else.

Your rights

• Access — view all your data in-app under Profile & Register.
• Correction — edit any transaction, budget, or account at any time.
• Deletion — delete your account from Profile → Delete Account. This removes all your transactions, receipts, budgets, and personal info within 30 days. Server logs are purged on their normal 30-day rotation.
• Portability — export your transactions to CSV from the Register page (feature launching soon).
• SMS opt-out — text STOP to +1 417 962 8253 or unlink your phone in Profile → SMS.

Users under 13

SyncBook is designed for users 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please email us and we will delete it.

Data retention

We keep your data as long as your account is active. After account deletion, we retain minimal records (e.g. Stripe receipts) only as long as legally required, then permanently delete them.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we'll notify signed-in users in-app before the change takes effect. Small clarifications will only bump the "Last updated" date at the top.

Contact

Privacy questions, data requests, or SMS complaints: support@sync-book.app.