1. Information We Collect

Mera Kharcha is a smart finance tracking app that requires access to transaction-related SMS messages on your device. This permission is essential for automatically detecting financial transactions such as bank debits, credits, card payments, UPI transfers, and wallet activity.

We do not read or use personal or promotional SMS. Only transactional messages from banks, financial institutions, and payment services are processed. This ensures accurate expense calculation without accessing unrelated content.

We never upload, store, or share your SMS content with servers or third parties. All SMS processing happens locally on your device.

Mera Kharcha uses Firebase Anonymous Sign-In to create a secure session so that only you can access your saved data. When you choose to log in with your Google account, your existing anonymous data is securely migrated to your Google-linked Mera Kharcha account, ensuring only you can access it.

• Analytical Data: We collect anonymized usage analytics (like feature usage, crashes, logs) to improve the app. These analytics never include SMS content or financial details.
• Advertising Data (free users only): If you use Mera Kharcha without a subscription after your free trial, the app shows ads through Google AdMob. AdMob collects device-level data such as your advertising ID to show and measure ads. See section 11 for details.

2. Why We Need SMS Permission

Mera Kharcha requests SMS permission solely for detecting financial transactions. Without this, the app cannot automatically track expenses or generate accurate summaries.

Your SMS data is never transmitted, shared, or sold.

3. Default SMS App Feature

Mera Kharcha now offers the option to set it as your default SMS app. This feature allows you to manage all your text messages directly within Mera Kharcha while continuing to track your financial transactions seamlessly.

Why We Need Default SMS App Permission:

• To provide a unified experience where you can read, send, and manage SMS messages alongside your expense tracking.
• To enable full SMS functionality including sending messages, receiving messages, and managing conversations.
• To allow you to use Mera Kharcha as your primary messaging app without needing to switch between multiple applications.

All SMS messages remain completely local on your device. We do not upload, store, sync, or share any of your SMS content with our servers or any third party. Your personal conversations stay private and secure on your device only.

4. Contacts Permission

When using Mera Kharcha as your default SMS app, we request access to your Contacts to enhance your messaging experience.

Why We Need Contacts Permission:

• To display contact names instead of phone numbers in your message threads.
• To help you easily select recipients when composing new messages.
• To provide a seamless messaging experience similar to your device's native SMS app.

Your contact information stays completely local on your device. We never upload, sync, or share your contacts with anyone. This permission is used solely to improve the messaging interface within the app.

5. What You Can Do with Default SMS App

When you set Mera Kharcha as your default SMS app, you can:

• Read all your SMS messages within the app.
• Send text messages to any contact or phone number.
• Receive and view incoming messages in real-time.
• Manage your message threads and conversations.
• Delete unwanted messages.
• Search through your message history.
• Continue automatic financial transaction tracking from SMS.

All messaging features work entirely offline and locally. Your privacy remains fully protected.

6. How We Use Your Information

We use your information only to provide and improve the Mera Kharcha experience:

• Maintaining app performance and security.
• Improving features and usability.
• Providing customer support when needed.
• Showing ads to free users after the free trial, so the app can stay free (see section 11).

7. Data Storage and Security

All SMS and financial data is processed locally on your device. Nothing is uploaded unless you enable cloud sync via Google login. Strong security and encryption practices ensure your data remains protected.

8. Data Sharing

We do not sell, trade, or share your personal or financial data. Your SMS and transaction data are never uploaded or shared. We only disclose non-sensitive information when:

• You request or authorize it.
• Required by law.
• Necessary to protect user safety or public rights.

We never share your SMS, transactions, amounts, merchants, contacts, name, or email with anyone, including advertisers. The only third party that receives any data is our advertising partner, Google AdMob, and only for free users. It gets device-level ad data, never your financial data (see section 11).

9. AI Assistant & Data Usage

Mera Kharcha includes a built-in AI Assistant that lets you ask questions about your finances and receive instant insights in natural language — such as spending summaries, UPI breakdowns, bill analysis, and budgeting tips.

To generate your financial summary and answer your queries, the AI Assistant uses only anonymized, non-personal transaction data — specifically: merchant name, transaction amount, payment type, and date.

What is NOT shared with the AI:

• Your name, phone number, email, or any personal identifier.
• Your bank account number, card number or other bank related information.
• Raw SMS content or any message text.
• Your contacts or address book.
• Your device ID or location.

What IS shared to process your query:

• Merchant name (e.g., "Zomato", "Amazon")
• Transaction amount (e.g., ₹450)
• Payment type (e.g., UPI, card, bank transfer)
• Transaction date

This minimal, anonymized data is used solely to generate your personalized finance summary and answer your questions. No personal or sensitive financial details are ever transmitted to the AI model.

10. Use of Alarm & Background Services

Mera Kharcha uses AlarmManager and WorkManager to send reminders such as upcoming bills, payment reminders, and split-payment alerts. These run locally on your device and do not collect or share data.

11. Advertising (Free Users)

Mera Kharcha is free to use. To keep it that way, we show a small number of ads to people who use the app without a subscription after their free trial ends. If you are on the free trial or have an active Premium subscription, you see no ads at all, and the ads system is not even started on your device.

Who shows the ads: Ads are served by Google AdMob, a service of Google LLC. To show ads, measure them, and prevent fraud, AdMob may collect:

• Your device's advertising ID.
• Your IP address, and an approximate location worked out from it.
• Device information such as model, operating system, and language.
• App information, and how you interact with ads (views and taps).

What advertisers never get:

• Your SMS messages, or any part of them.
• Your transactions, amounts, merchants, banks, or account details.
• Your contacts, name, email, or phone number.
• Anything you ask the AI Assistant.

Your financial data is never used to choose which ads you see. We don't build an advertising profile from your spending.

Watching an ad to unlock a feature: On some Premium features, free users can choose to watch a short ad to unlock that one feature until midnight (your local time). This is always optional. A record of which features you unlocked today is kept only on your device.

Your choices:

• If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK, or Switzerland, the app asks for your consent before showing personalised ads, and you can change your choice later.
• You can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of personalised ads, in your phone's settings (Settings → Google → Ads, or Settings → Privacy → Ads on some phones).
• A Premium subscription removes all ads.

To learn how Google uses data from apps that show its ads, read How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

12. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access your financial data stored in the app.
• Update or correct your information.
• Export your financial summaries and reports.
• Delete all your data anytime from within the app.

You can delete your entire account and all associated data directly from the app itself. This permanently removes your data from your device and from your Google-linked account if used.

13. Data Retention

Your data stays only on your device (or your Google account if synced). Removing the app or deleting your account erases all data permanently, as we do not store it on any external server.

14. Children's Privacy

Mera Kharcha is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

15. Changes to Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as features evolve. Significant changes will be communicated within the app.

16. Contact Us

For questions regarding this Privacy Policy or how Mera Kharcha handles data, contact us at merakharcha.support@gmail.com.

Last Updated :

Sunday, 11 October 2026