Privacy
Privacy Policy
The short version. Your budget data never leaves your device. There is no account, no login, and no server storing your money. We could not hand over your spending data if we wanted to, because we never receive it.
What RealTimeBudget stores, and where
Everything you enter into the app — your spending period, your expenses, merchants, categories, income, recurring charges, weekly history and your display name — is written to LocalStorage in your own browser. It stays on that device, in that browser. It is not transmitted to us, and we have no ability to read it.
Practical consequences you should understand:
- Your data does not sync between your phone and your computer. Each browser has its own copy.
- Clearing your browser data, using private browsing, or switching devices will lose it.
- Anyone with access to your unlocked device can open the app and see it.
- Use Settings → Download backup if the data matters to you. That file is created on your device and downloaded by your browser; it is not sent anywhere.
We never connect to your bank
RealTimeBudget does not ask for, receive or store bank credentials, card numbers, account numbers or any login for any financial institution. It does not connect to your accounts through Plaid or any other aggregator. It has no way to move money.
If you use the statement import feature, the CSV file you choose is read by JavaScript running inside your own browser and is never uploaded. Close the tab and it is gone.
Notifications
If you turn on device notifications you get two things: alerts while the app is open, and a once-a-day check-in that reaches you even when it is closed. They work differently, and the difference matters.
Alerts while the app is open are generated entirely on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The daily check-in uses your browser's push service (Google, Apple or Mozilla, depending on your device), which is the only way any website can reach a closed phone. So that this works, our server stores three things: the anonymous address your browser issues for receiving push messages, and your timezone offset and preferred hour, so the message arrives in your evening rather than ours. That address is not an email address, is not tied to a name or account, and cannot be used to identify you.
What we do not send is the message itself. The push we transmit contains no figures at all — just a signal that it is time. Your device then reads your own budget out of its own storage and writes the wording locally. We never learn your weekly number, your balance, what you spent, or whether you are over. We could not put those in a notification if we wanted to, because we do not have them.
Turning notifications off deletes that stored address from our server immediately. You can also revoke permission at any time in your browser or operating system settings, which stops it at the source.
Advertising
This site displays advertising served by third-party ad networks. Those networks, and their partners, may set cookies or use similar technologies to serve and measure ads, including ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.
These advertising partners can see standard technical information that any website you visit receives: IP address, browser type and version, device type, referring page, and the pages you view on this site. They cannot see anything you enter into the app, because that information never leaves your browser's storage and is never included in any request.
If Google is one of our advertising partners, Google's use of advertising cookies is described in Google's advertising policies. You can manage personalised advertising at Google My Ad Center, and opt out of interest-based advertising from many networks at the DAA opt-out page and the NAI opt-out page.
Affiliate links
Some links are paid partner links, labelled as such. When you click one, the partner or their affiliate network typically sets a cookie so they can attribute a resulting signup to us. From that point you are on the partner's site and their privacy policy governs, not ours. See our Advertiser Disclosure for the full explanation.
Analytics and server logs
Our web host keeps standard server access logs, which include IP addresses and requested URLs, for security and troubleshooting. If we add a website analytics tool, it will be one that reports traffic in aggregate; it will never have access to the contents of your budget.
Children
RealTimeBudget is a general-audience tool and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Because the app collects no personal information from anyone, there is nothing for us to delete — but a parent who wants a child's data removed can simply use Settings → Reset everything on that device.
Your choices and rights
- Erase everything: Settings → Reset everything. This deletes the app's data from that browser immediately and permanently.
- Export everything: Settings → Download backup, which produces a JSON file of everything the app holds.
- Advertising: use the opt-out links above, or your browser's cookie controls.
Privacy laws such as the GDPR and CCPA give people rights to access, correct, port and delete their personal data. Because we do not collect or hold your personal data, those rights are exercised directly through the export and reset controls in the app. If you believe we hold information about you and want it removed, contact us.
Changes to this policy
If we change how this site handles data, we will update this page and the date at the top. Material changes — for example, if we ever introduced accounts or server storage — would be announced in the app itself before taking effect.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent to support@realtimebudget.com.