Privacy Policy

Effective date: 26 October 2026

This policy explains what information the Pie app for iPhone (“Pie”, “we”, “us”) handles, why it does so, where the information goes and the choices you have. It describes how the app works today. If that changes, we will update this page and the date above.

Who we are

Pie is an independent app. For questions or requests about your privacy, email pie@paymentswani.com. Our Support page has more ways to get help.

Information Pie handles

If you use Pie without an account

Everything you record is stored in Pie’s database on your iPhone. That includes amounts, currencies, dates, categories, notes, payment types, credits, refunds, subscriptions and EMIs, profiles, budgets, savings goals and your preferences. We don’t receive any of it. It leaves your iPhone only if you export it, save a backup file, or your iPhone’s own backups include it. Those backups are handled by Apple under your device settings.

If you sign in

You can sign in with Google, a phone number (verified by SMS code) or an email link. Google’s Firebase Authentication processes:

• a user ID for your account;
• depending on the method you choose, your email address, your phone number, or your Google account’s name, email address and profile photo address;
• when you signed in and which method you used.

To verify sign-ins and prevent abuse, Firebase may also process technical information such as your IP address and device details. Phone sign-in may use reCAPTCHA or Apple push verification.

If you sign in without Pie Pro cloud sync, your entries are not uploaded. We store one item in your account: how many entries you have imported with Import from Note. It is a count only, used to apply the free allowance.

If you use Pie Pro cloud sync

To sync, Pie stores your Pie data in Google Cloud Firestore under your account:

• entries: amount, currency, date and time zone, category, note, whether it is an expense, credit or refund, payment type, profile, any link to a subscription or EMI, and any exchange rate you entered;
• your custom categories, profiles, subscriptions and EMIs, savings goals and contributions;
• your budgets (each budget’s period, limit and currency) and preferences such as main currency, week start, monthly cycle start, income and alert settings.

When you delete a synced item, a small record stays behind so your other devices know to delete it too. It holds the item’s ID, type and timestamps, with no amount, note or name. Firestore security rules let each signed-in account read and write only its own data.

Purchases

Apple processes all payments. We never receive your card or bank details. To give you Pie Pro on your devices, Pie’s server receives Apple’s signed record of your purchase. It stores the product, the purchase and expiry dates, the original transaction ID, whether the purchase was made in Apple’s test environment, and whether it was refunded or revoked. These records are linked to your account. To stop one purchase being used by several accounts, we also store which account each App Store purchase belongs to.

Import from Note

When you import expenses from a photo of a note, Pie reads the photo on your iPhone using Apple’s Vision text recognition. The photo is held in memory while it is read and Pie doesn’t save it. To warn you about importing the same note twice, Pie keeps a one-way fingerprint (a hash) of each imported note’s text on your iPhone. It keeps neither the photo nor the text.

Cloud reading (Pie Pro, only with your permission). If your iPhone can’t read a note reliably and you have allowed cloud reading, Pie sends a smaller copy of that one photo (at most 1,600 pixels on its longest side) over an encrypted connection to Pie’s server on Google Cloud Functions. The server asks Google’s Gemini API to read the transactions on it and returns them to your iPhone for you to check. Pie asks for permission the first time, and you can turn cloud reading off on the Import from Note screen. Nothing else is sent with the photo: no other entries, balances or profile details. A photo can include anything written on the note, such as names, amounts and what a payment was for.

Pie’s server holds the photo only in memory while answering. It doesn’t store or log the photo, the text that was read or the amounts. While a photo is being read, the server briefly keeps a one-way fingerprint (SHA-256) of it so the same photo isn’t processed twice at once, then removes it. Only the entries you confirm are saved. Google processes the request under the Gemini API terms that apply to Pie’s Google Cloud project.

AI budget report

When you ask for an AI budget report (Pie Pro), your iPhone works out a set of figures and sends them to Pie’s server, which uses Google’s Gemini API to write the report. The figures include amounts, shares, counts, days, the currency and the period. They also include fixed labels, such as a category type (“food”), a profile’s role, a goal’s status, or that the period includes a festival.

The report never sends the names of your categories, profiles or goals, your notes, merchants or individual entries. Your iPhone puts the names back in after the report arrives. The figures sent and the written report are kept in your account, one report a day, so reopening a report doesn’t create a new request. They are kept until you delete your account.

Usage counts

To apply plan limits, Pie keeps counts in your account: cloud readings today and this month, and AI report attempts today. These counts include no photo, text or amounts. We also keep a monthly total and an estimated cost of all AI requests across Pie. That total isn’t linked to any user.

Information that stays on your iPhone

• Your theme, language and app lock settings, your cloud reading choice, and Import from Note counters and fingerprints.
• The widget’s appearance settings (language and theme only). The widget shows no amounts or categories.
• App lock uses Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode through Apple. Pie never receives biometric data.
• Reminders for subscriptions and EMIs are scheduled on your iPhone.
• Exports and backup files are created only when you ask. Temporary files are deleted after sharing.

What Pie doesn’t do

• No advertising, and no advertising or attribution SDKs.
• No analytics or crash-reporting SDKs. Firebase Analytics collection is turned off.
• No tracking across other companies’ apps or websites.
• We don’t sell your information or share it for advertising.

How we use information

• To provide sign-in, cloud sync and restore.
• To check purchases and apply Pie Pro features and limits.
• To provide the AI features you ask for.
• To protect Pie against abuse and fraud.
• To answer you when you contact us.
• To meet legal obligations.

Service providers

• Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions) for sign-in, storage and sync, purchase checks and running Pie’s AI requests.
• Google (Gemini API) for writing AI budget reports and reading note photos sent for cloud reading.
• Apple for App Store payments, subscriptions and refunds. Text recognition (Vision) and Face ID or Touch ID run on your iPhone.
• Hostinger hosts this website.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it.

Where information is stored

Cloud Firestore data is stored in the United States (Google’s multi-region nam5). Pie’s server functions run in Mumbai, India (asia-south1). Google determines where Gemini API requests are processed. Your information may therefore be processed outside the country where you live.

How long we keep it

• On your iPhone: until you delete it, use “Delete all data on this iPhone”, or remove the app. Signing out removes your account’s copy from that iPhone; your cloud data stays.
• In the cloud: until you delete it or delete your account. Ending Pie Pro stops syncing but doesn’t delete your data. There is currently no automatic deletion period for cloud data.
• AI budget reports: until you delete your account.
• Note photos sent for cloud reading: not stored by Pie.
• Purchase records held by Apple: under Apple’s own policies.

Deleting your account

In Pie, go to Profile, then Delete account. You may need to sign in again first. The app deletes your synced data and your sign-in account, then removes the local copy from your iPhone.

Some records can only be removed by Pie’s server: purchase records, usage counts, saved AI reports and the link between your App Store purchase and your account. A separate server clean-up removes them once your account is deleted. If you no longer have the app, or want to confirm that everything has been removed, email pie@paymentswani.com from the email address or phone number linked to your account.

Your choices and rights

• Use Pie without an account, and choose whether to use cloud sync.
• Turn cloud reading off, and request AI reports only when you want them.
• Export your data from Profile at any time.
• Correct or delete individual entries in the app.
• Delete your account as described above.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or move your personal data, or to complain to a data protection authority. To make a request, email pie@paymentswani.com. We may need to confirm that you hold the account.

Children

Pie is designed for adults managing their own money and isn’t directed at children. If you believe a child has created a Pie account, contact us and we will help delete it.

Security

Pie talks to Google’s services over encrypted connections. Firestore security rules limit each account to its own data, and you can lock the app with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. The app’s own logs record error codes and counts, not your entries. Pie’s AI functions log counts, sizes, timing and outcomes, not your photos, text or amounts. No system is perfectly secure, and we can’t guarantee absolute security.

This website

This website runs on WordPress and is hosted by Hostinger. It has no contact form, analytics or advertising. To deliver and secure the site, the host may process technical information such as your IP address, browser details and the pages requested.

Changes to this policy

We will post any changes on this page and update the effective date.

Contact

Email pie@paymentswani.com, or visit our Support page.