TINCAN

This Privacy Policy explains how the TINCAN mobile application (“TINCAN”, “the app”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, stores, and protects your information. By using TINCAN you agree to the practices described below. If you do not agree, please do not use the app.

TINCAN is a personal savings and budgeting app that also supports shared (group) savings between members. The app is developed and maintained by an independent developer. For any privacy questions, contact us at customercare@tincan.anonaddy.com.

You can use TINCAN without signing in. In guest mode, the savings, transactions, budgets, and recurring payments you create are stored only on your device and are not transmitted to us or any third party. If you uninstall the app or clear its data, this information is permanently deleted.

One exception: if you see ads (the free tier, including guest mode), Google’s AdMob SDK still processes your device’s resettable Advertising ID to show ads, as described in the Advertising section. That is separate from your savings data, which stays on your device. Premium subscribers see no ads.

We collect the following only when you choose to use the relevant features:

• Account information. If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, Google account identifier, and (if available) your profile photo, via Google’s sign-in service.
• Financial information you enter. The savings goals, transactions, amounts, budgets, recurring payments, and notes you create in the app — and, if you use the Savings Planner, the deposits and plans you set up (such as a fixed or recurring deposit, SIP or emergency fund) with their amount, rate, term and maturity date; and, if you record loans in Loans & EMIs for the AI Coach’s debt payoff plan, those loans (name, balance, interest rate, monthly payment and EMI due date), which are kept on your device and in your own encrypted Google Drive backup only.
• Statement files you import. If you use Import statement, you choose a file (for example a CSV your bank or wallet app lets you download) and TINCAN reads it on your device only. The file is never uploaded to us or to anyone else, and TINCAN does not keep a copy of it. Only the transaction details are taken from it — date, amount, description, and the category worked out from that description — and account and card numbers are stripped out before anything is saved, exactly as they are for detected notifications. Nothing is added to your records until you review the list and confirm; entries that look like ones you already have are flagged and left unticked. Imported entries then behave like any other transaction (see Where your data is stored).
• Profile picture. If you set one, it is uploaded and stored so it can appear on your profile and to other members of groups you join.
• Shared / group data. If you create or join a group, your display name, profile photo, and the shared transactions, balances, and transfers within that group are visible to other members of the same group.
• Friends and finding people. If you sign in, TINCAN saves a small directory entry holding your email address, display name, and account identifier. This is what lets someone confirm an email belongs to a real TINCAN account before inviting you as a friend or to a group. Another signed-in user must already know your exact email address to look you up — the directory cannot be browsed, searched, or listed in bulk. If you use Friends, TINCAN also keeps a small profile (your display name, profile photo, and current/longest streak) that people you have accepted can see, plus your friend list and pending invitations. Friends never see any financial data — no balances, transactions, budgets, goals or investments. Removing a friend or deleting your account removes this.
• Notifications. With your permission, we send reminders and updates (for example, recurring-payment reminders). You can disable these at any time in your device settings.
• Payment reminders. When you create a payment reminder, the title, notes, time, and repeat settings you enter are saved only on your device and are used to schedule a local notification. This reminder content is never uploaded to us or any third party, and it stays on the device even if you are signed in.
• Advertising data (non-Premium users, including guests). To show ads, Google AdMob collects your device’s resettable Advertising ID, IP address, and ad/device-interaction data. See the Advertising section for details and your choices. Premium subscribers see no ads.

We do not collect your contacts, precise/GPS location, photos library, SMS, or call logs. The app never requests SMS permissions; the optional Auto-track feature works from notifications, entirely on your device. We use the information described above only to run the app for you. Your display currency is taken from your device’s region/language settings (or the currency you pick manually in Settings) — we do not use GPS or location to determine it, and the choice stays on your device / in your account settings. (For ads, Google may infer a coarse, approximate location from your IP address — see the Advertising section.)

Device permissions for reminders. Payment reminders use your device’s notification and vibration features, and the chosen alert tone, to nudge you at the time you set. The alert (sound, vibration, or silent) follows your phone’s ringer profile unless you choose otherwise in the app’s reminder settings. To arrive at the exact minute, reminders use Android’s “Alarms & reminders” access, and to appear over your lock screen they use full-screen notifications — each only if you allow it in your phone’s settings. Without them, reminders use battery-friendly scheduling and may arrive a few minutes around the time you chose. Either way they respect your phone’s Do Not Disturb and silent modes.

TINCAN offers an optional, off-by-default feature that detects income and expenses from your incoming notifications — for example bank SMS alerts (as shown by your messaging app) and payment-app notifications — so entries can be added without typing. If you enable it, you will first see an in-app explanation and must then grant TINCAN notification access in Android’s system settings.

• Entirely on your device. Notification text is analysed locally, in memory. It is never stored, never logged, and never sent to us or to any third party.
• Only from apps you choose. TINCAN reads notifications only from the apps you select (your SMS app and finance apps by default); everything else is ignored.
• Only the essentials are kept. When a transaction is detected, the app keeps just the amount, merchant name, suggested category, and date. Account numbers, card numbers, and payment handles are removed before anything is saved. One-time passwords (OTPs), promotions, and spam are discarded.
• You review before it counts. Detected entries wait in a review list for your approval, unless you explicitly turn on automatic adding (which is undoable).
• We note what we could not read — never what it said. When an alert is not recognised as a transaction, TINCAN keeps a small tally of which app it came from, the reason it was skipped (for example “looked like a one-time password”), and — only where the sender is a bank’s short code such as AX‑HDFCBK, never a personal phone number — that code. This is what tells us which banks the app still needs to learn to read. No part of the message is kept, the tally stays on your device, it is not included in your Google Drive backup, it ages out by itself, and it is deleted with the app’s data.
• It learns only from you, only as numbers. To make future suggestions smarter, the app keeps irreversible numeric features of detected messages (each word is reduced to one of 4,096 numbers, and anything containing digits — amounts, account fragments, codes — is discarded before that step; the original text cannot be reconstructed) together with your review decisions and which app the alert came from (so TINCAN can tell which senders it has read reliably for you). This small learned model never contains message text, is stored only on your device, leaves it only inside your own encrypted Google Drive backup (if you enable backup), and is deleted with the app’s data. You can see everything it has learned, and turn the learning off, in Settings → Auto-track Transactions.
• Same rules as manual entries. Approved entries become ordinary transactions: they stay on your device in guest/offline use and sync to your account only if you are signed in with cloud sync enabled (see Where your data is stored).
• Turn it off anytime. Disable it in TINCAN’s Settings → Auto-track Transactions, or revoke notification access in Android’s system settings. The app requests no SMS permissions for this feature.

My Diary is an optional private journal inside TINCAN, available when you are signed in and using personal (Me) mode.

• Stored only on your device. The date, title and text of each entry are saved on your phone. Diary entries are never uploaded to our servers (Firebase) on any plan, including Premium, and we cannot read them.
• Your own Google Drive, only if you turn it on. Under Backup & Restore you can choose to back up your diary to the private app-data area of your own Google Drive. It is encrypted and kept in its own file, separate from your financial backup. It is off by default.
• Your own inbox, only if you send it. “Email a copy” creates a PDF and a restore file on your device and opens your email app so you can send them to yourself. We do not see or receive them.
• Deleting. Deleting an entry removes it from your device. Deleting your account, clearing the app’s data or uninstalling removes every diary entry from the device. A copy you backed up to your own Drive or emailed yourself stays under your control until you delete it.

• To provide core app functionality — tracking your savings, budgets, and transactions.
• To sync your data across your devices when you are signed in.
• To enable shared savings features within groups you choose to join.
• To authenticate you and keep your account secure.
• To send notifications you have opted into.

We do not sell your personal information.

When you are signed in, your data is stored using Google Firebase services (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, and Cloud Storage), which act as our data processor. Data transmitted to Firebase is encrypted in transit. Firebase is operated by Google; their handling of data is governed by the Firebase Privacy and Security policy and the Google Privacy Policy.

If you enable Google Drive backup, an encrypted copy of your data is also written to the private app-data area of your own Google Drive, which only your Google account can reach.

My Diary entries are the exception: they are never stored with Firebase and stay on your device unless you back them up to your own Drive (see My Diary).

We share data only as follows:

• With Google Firebase, as our infrastructure provider, solely to operate the app.
• With Google AdMob (for users who are not Premium subscribers, including guests), to display ads. This may include your Advertising ID and device/ad-interaction data — see the Advertising section.
• With Google Play Billing, only to process Premium subscription purchases — see Premium & payments.
• With other group members, but only the data within groups you choose to create or join.
• Where required by law, to comply with a valid legal obligation.

We do not sell or rent your personal data to data brokers for money. We use Google AdMob to show ads, which may use your Advertising ID for personalized ads; you can opt out of personalized ads at any time (see Advertising).

TINCAN is free to use and supported by ads. We use Google AdMob (a Google advertising service) to show ads to users who are not Premium subscribers, including guests. Premium subscribers never see ads.

To serve and measure ads, the Google Mobile Ads SDK and AdMob may collect and process:

• your device’s resettable Advertising ID;
• your IP address and general device information (model, OS version, language);
• ad-interaction data (which ads were shown, viewed, or tapped).

Google may use this data to serve, cap, and measure ads and, where permitted, to show personalized ads. AdMob may infer a coarse, approximate location from your IP address for ad relevance — TINCAN itself never accesses your device’s GPS or precise location.

Your choices:

• EEA, UK & Switzerland. Before serving personalized ads we show a Google-certified consent request (via Google’s User Messaging Platform). You can change your choice anytime through “Ad privacy options” in the app’s Settings.
• Reset or delete your Advertising ID. On your device, open Settings → Google → Ads to reset or delete it. Deleting it (or declining consent) means you’ll see non-personalized ads instead.
• Remove ads entirely. Subscribe to Premium, which disables all ads.

Rewarded ads. TINCAN offers optional “rewarded” ads you can choose to watch in exchange for in-app benefits (such as removing ads for a few hours or restoring a broken streak). Watching them is always optional.

Google’s handling of advertising data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services”.

TINCAN offers an optional Premium subscription (monthly or annual) that removes ads and unlocks extra features such as Family mode, the Family pool and real-time Live Sync, which keeps your data live in the cloud rather than in a daily encrypted backup.

Subscriptions are sold and processed by Google Play Billing. We do not receive or store your payment-card or bank details — Google handles the entire transaction. We receive only your subscription status (active or expired, the plan, and the platform), which we store with your account so we can unlock Premium features across your devices.

You can manage, change, or cancel your subscription anytime in the Google Play Store → Subscriptions. Billing, renewals, and refunds are handled under Google Play’s terms.

You can delete your data at any time. Deleting an item, transaction, or group removes it. Guest-mode data and My Diary entries are removed by clearing app data or uninstalling — they never reach our servers, so there is nothing for us to delete on our end.

If you signed in to TINCAN, you can permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time, whether or not you still have the app installed.

Option 1 — In the app (instant): open Profile → My Profile → Delete Account. This immediately and permanently deletes:

• Your profile, profile picture, and sign-in record
• All transactions, budgets, recurring payments, piggy banks, and custom categories
• Your Savings Planner deposits and plans, your payment reminders, and the loans you recorded for the debt payoff plan
• Everything Auto-track stored on your device — pending suggestions, the merchant categories it learned from you, and its on-device learning model
• Your streak history, medals, friends connections, and your entry in the email look-up directory used for invitations
• Your membership in any shared/family groups (other members’ data is unaffected)

What account deletion cannot reach: if you enabled Google Drive backup, that encrypted copy sits in your own Google Drive private app-data area, which we have no ability to read or delete. Deleting your account does not remove it. To delete it yourself, go to Google Drive → Settings → Manage apps → TINCAN → Delete hidden app data, or revoke TINCAN’s Drive access from your Google Account settings.

Option 2 — Without the app: email customercare@tincan.anonaddy.com from the address associated with your account and ask us to delete it. We will verify your identity and complete the deletion within 30 days, deleting the same data listed above.

We rely on Google Firebase’s security infrastructure, including encryption of data in transit and access controls restricting your data to your authenticated account and the groups you belong to. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect your information.

TINCAN is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your jurisdiction), and because it displays advertising it is intended for a general (13+) audience. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so we can delete it.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data. Most of these are available directly in the app; for anything else, contact us at the email below.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Continued use of the app after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, reach out anytime: