Last updated 3 October 2026
BudPing is a budgeting app that shows where your money goes, in one currency or several. It does not hold, move or access your money; it keeps track of the figures you enter. This page explains what stays on your phone, what reaches us, and what we do with it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
BudPing is made by an independent developer. For anything about this policy or your data, write to echostrides@gmail.com.
Your accounts, transactions, budgets, goals and debts are stored in an encrypted database on your device. We do not run a server that holds them and we do not receive a copy of them.
Backups are made on your device and encrypted there with a password that only you hold. If you lose that password we cannot recover the backup, because we never had the key.
An app that can be configured, fixed and improved has to send something. This is the complete list, and why each one exists.
| What | Why | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| A random install ID | So the app can be sent its settings, and so a setting can be changed without us shipping an update. It is generated on your phone and is not derived from you or from your hardware. | While the app is installed, then 12 months |
| App version and platform | So the settings we send match the build you are running. | As above |
| Your IP address | Unavoidable in any internet request. We use it to work out an approximate country for regional defaults, and in short-lived server logs for security and abuse. We do not store the address against your install ID. | Logs, up to 30 days |
| A scrambled device identifier | Sent only on a launch where the app finds nothing stored, so that reinstalling does not lose your settings. We store a one way hash of it and never the identifier itself, so the stored value cannot be turned back into anything about your phone. | While the app is installed, then 12 months |
| An exchange rate request | When the app refreshes rates it asks a public rates service (open.er-api.com) for the day's rates. The request carries your IP address like any request, and nothing else: no identifier, no account, no amount. The provider's own privacy terms apply to what they log. If the provider changes, this row changes first. | Not stored by us |
| Purchase status | If you buy a subscription, the lifetime option or the no-ads option, the app store confirms the purchase so the app can unlock it, and may confirm it again on another device signed into the same store account. We store a one way hash of the store's receipt and whether it is active, refunded or expired. Your payment details stay with the store; we never see them. | While the purchase exists, then 24 months |
| Crash and usage diagnostics | Screen names, build details and device model, so we can find and fix faults. These go through a strict allowlist, which means a field nobody has explicitly permitted is dropped before it is sent rather than filtered afterwards. No amount, balance or description is on that list. | 90 days |
| Your email address | Only if you type it into the waitlist on this website. We write to you once when the app opens, and we do not use it for anything else or give it to anyone. | Until you ask us to remove it, or 24 months |
We do not collect your balances, your transactions, your account numbers, your name, your phone number, your contacts, your location beyond an approximate country, or your advertising identifier.
The app does not show advertising today and contains no advertising software. If a free version with advertising is introduced, the networks involved and what they receive will be listed here before the first ad appears, and the option to remove ads will be available at the same time.
We treat it as though it is. It is random and says nothing about you on its own, but anything that can single out one device, standing next to an IP address, is personal data under the GDPR and similar laws. Saying otherwise would be a convenient reading rather than an honest one.
Under the GDPR, where it applies: sending your app its settings and keeping the service working and secure rests on our legitimate interests, and the interest is narrow because the data is narrow. Writing to you about the launch rests on the consent you give by entering your address, and you can take that back at any time by replying to the email.
We use a small number of suppliers to run the service, and they only ever process data on our instructions:
We do not sell data, we do not share it for advertising, and nobody buys access to it. Some of these suppliers operate outside your country, and where that is the case the transfer relies on the standard contractual clauses.
You can ask for a copy of what we hold about your install, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. The quickest route is to send your User ID, which is on the Settings screen of the app, to echostrides@gmail.com. We answer within 30 days.
You can also delete most of it yourself: removing the app removes the database and, once the retention period above has passed, the install record with it. If you believe we have handled your data badly you can complain to your local data protection authority.
BudPing is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect anything from them. If you think a child has sent us something, write to us and we will remove it.
If we start collecting something that is not on the list above, we will update this page and change the date at the top before that collection begins, not after. Where the change is significant we will say so inside the app.