KakeiBuddy Privacy Policy
Effective date: August 13, 2026
Last updated: September 3, 2026
KakeiBuddy (“KakeiBuddy,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a mobile budgeting application operated by the KakeiBuddy development and research team. This Privacy Policy explains what information KakeiBuddy processes, why it is processed, where it is stored, and the choices available to users.
KakeiBuddy is designed to work without asking for a real name, email address, bank login, or payment-card information. The app is not a bank, payment service, lender, investment service, or financial adviser. Budget Coach content is educational and should not be treated as professional financial advice.
Information processed by KakeiBuddy
Information stored on the device
KakeiBuddy stores detailed budgeting information in a local database on the user’s device. Depending on the features used, this can include:
- Income and expense entries, amounts, dates, categories, notes, and recurrence settings
- Wallet names, wallet types, and balances
- Budget goals, income range, country, currency, pay schedule, and coaching preferences
- Weekly and monthly summaries, challenge progress, points, badges, reflections, and notification preferences
- Privacy mode, tutorial progress, research preferences, and other app settings
Raw transaction rows and transaction notes are designed to remain on the device. Users should not enter bank account numbers, payment-card numbers, passwords, government identifiers, or other unnecessary sensitive information in transaction notes or reflections.
Information sent to KakeiBuddy’s backend service
The app creates a random identifier and a corresponding anonymous handle or participant code. These identifiers help the service associate feature data with the same installation without requiring the user’s real name.
Depending on the selected data mode and features used, KakeiBuddy’s backend may receive:
- The app-generated identifier, anonymous handle, participant code, and timestamps
- Country and currency settings, income-range category, budgeting goal, coaching style, and other profile metadata
- Monthly category totals and logging-day counts when Sync Mode is enabled
- Challenge selections, progress, completion status, points, badges, and reward activity
- Budget Coach input summaries, generated recommendations, and actions such as viewing, accepting, or dismissing a recommendation
- Technical request information that may be present in ordinary server logs, such as IP address, request time, and response status
Budget Coach uses summary or normalized budgeting signals rather than the user’s complete transaction list or transaction notes. In Private Mode, monthly backup is disabled and the app limits the financial metrics sent to the backend. Some backend communication is still necessary for features such as challenges and Budget Coach.
Optional research information
Research Mode is optional and requires consent in the app. If a user joins Research Mode, KakeiBuddy may collect:
- Consent status, age-eligibility confirmation, study group and version, data-mode choice, and research-export choice
- Survey and budgeting-knowledge-check responses and scores
- Reflection text, confidence ratings, intended actions, and generated reflection feedback
- App engagement events and timestamps
- Summarized challenge, coaching, learning, progress, streak, points, badge, and mission metrics
The research dataset is designed to exclude raw transaction rows, transaction notes, bank or card information, and directly identifying profile information. Research records remain pseudonymous because they are associated with an app-generated participant identifier.
Information provided through support forms
If a user chooses Settings > Report an Issue, the app opens an external Google Form. Google processes information submitted through that form under Google’s own terms and privacy policy. Users should provide only the information needed to investigate the request and should remove or obscure sensitive financial details from screenshots. Contact details are collected only if the form requests them and the user chooses to provide them.
How information is used
KakeiBuddy processes information to:
- Provide budgeting, wallet, summary, challenge, reward, reflection, and notification features
- Generate and improve Budget Coach recommendations
- Maintain app continuity and synchronize supported information when Sync Mode is enabled
- Diagnose errors, protect the service, and respond to support or privacy requests
- Conduct the optional study, measure outcomes, and prepare pseudonymous or aggregated research results when the participant permits research export
- Comply with applicable legal, safety, and policy obligations
KakeiBuddy does not sell personal information and does not use user information for targeted advertising. The app does not contain an advertising SDK as of the effective date of this policy.
When information may be disclosed
Information may be disclosed only as needed to:
- Authorized members of the KakeiBuddy development and research team
- Infrastructure and service providers that host or support the application, documentation site, database, or support form, subject to their applicable terms
- Academic supervisors, reviewers, or research collaborators when permitted by the participant’s consent and the applicable research protocol
- Authorities or other parties when disclosure is required by law, necessary to protect users or the service, or needed to investigate abuse or security incidents
Research findings may be presented or published in aggregated or de-identified form. KakeiBuddy does not include raw transaction rows or transaction notes in research exports.
Data security
KakeiBuddy uses reasonable technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the nature of the service. These include HTTPS for production network communication, access controls for administrative and research-export functions, and separation of detailed on-device transactions from backend research records.
No storage or transmission system is completely secure. Users are responsible for maintaining control of their device, screen lock, exported CSV files, screenshots, and any information they voluntarily share through support channels.
Retention and deletion
On-device information remains until the user deletes individual records, uses Settings > Data Management > Reset Local App, clears the app’s storage, or uninstalls the app. A personal CSV export remains wherever the user chooses to save or share it.
Backend information is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary to operate KakeiBuddy, complete the applicable research and verification activities, maintain security and integrity, resolve disputes, and meet legal or institutional obligations. Pseudonymous or aggregated research results that can no longer reasonably be linked to a participant may be retained as part of the research record.
Resetting or uninstalling the app deletes information stored on that device but does not automatically delete information already sent to the backend. To request deletion of the anonymous account and associated backend information, use Settings > About My Account > Request Account & Data Deletion or open KakeiBuddy’s privacy and support form. Include the anonymous username or participant code shown under Settings > About My Account so the correct record can be located. Do not include transaction details in the request.
Research participants can stop future research collection and export directly through Settings > Research Study > Leave Research Mode. A participant may also use the privacy and support form to request withdrawal or deletion of eligible historical records.
A request may be declined or limited when retention is required by law, institutional research rules, security needs, or when the supplied identifier is insufficient to locate the record. Removing identifiable or pseudonymous records may not remove information that has already been irreversibly aggregated or de-identified.
User choices
Users can:
- Choose Sync Mode or Private Mode and change the selection in Settings
- Decide whether to join Research Mode and whether pseudonymous study data may be included in a research export
- Edit or delete supported records and reflections in the app
- Export personal transaction information to a CSV file
- Reset information stored locally on the device
- Leave Research Mode directly in the app
- Request access, correction, deletion, or research withdrawal through the in-app privacy request link or privacy and support form
These choices may be subject to applicable law and technical or institutional limitations described above.
Children’s privacy
KakeiBuddy and its research activities are intended for adults and are not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If a parent or guardian believes that a child has provided information through KakeiBuddy, they should contact us so that the matter can be reviewed.
International processing
The backend and service providers may process information in countries other than the user’s country. Those locations may have different data-protection laws. KakeiBuddy uses the information only for the purposes described in this policy and applies reasonable safeguards appropriate to the service.
Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated when KakeiBuddy’s features, research activities, service providers, or legal obligations change. The updated page will show a revised “Last updated” date. Material changes will be communicated through the app or another appropriate channel when required.
Contact
For privacy questions, data requests, or research-withdrawal requests, use KakeiBuddy’s privacy and support form. Users of the Android app can open the same contact channel from Settings > Report an Issue.
When contacting us about backend information, include the anonymous username or participant code from Settings > About My Account. Do not send raw transaction records, bank details, payment-card details, passwords, or government identifiers.