Privacy Policy

IponBuddy ("we", "our", or "us") is a personal finance management app designed to help users track income, expenses, budgets, and savings goals. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use our mobile application.

By using IponBuddy, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

Information You Provide

• Name and email address (for account registration)
• Financial data you enter — transactions, budgets, savings goals, wallet balances
• Loan records — amounts, counterparty names, due dates, and payment history
• Paluwagan data — group name, contribution amounts, member count, and turn position
• Bill information — bill names, estimated amounts, and due dates
• Salary information entered for SSS/PhilHealth/Pag-IBIG and 13th month calculations (processed locally only, not transmitted to our servers)
• Profile information and app preferences

Security Data Stored Locally

• PIN hash (SHA-256, stored only on your device via AsyncStorage — never transmitted to our servers)
• Biometric authentication is handled entirely by your device's operating system (Face ID / Fingerprint). IponBuddy never accesses or stores biometric data.

Information Collected Automatically

• Device information (device type, operating system version)
• App usage data (features used, session duration)
• Error logs for debugging and performance improvement

• To provide and maintain the app's core features (transactions, budgets, goals, loans, bills, paluwagan)
• To sync your financial data across sessions and devices
• To send budget alerts, savings goal notifications, bill due date reminders, loan due date alerts, and paluwagan turn notifications
• To compute SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and 13th month pay calculations locally on your device
• To improve app performance and fix bugs
• To respond to your support requests
• To analyze usage patterns and improve user experience

• Your financial data is stored securely on our servers
• Data is also cached locally on your device for offline access
• We use industry-standard encryption (HTTPS/TLS) to protect data in transit
• We do not sell your personal information to third parties

With your permission, IponBuddy sends local push notifications for:

• Budget warning alerts (when approaching or exceeding spending limits)
• Savings goal milestone celebrations (25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, 100%)
• Savings goal deadline reminders (30 days, 7 days, overdue)
• Bill due date reminders (upcoming and overdue bills)
• Loan due date alerts (upcoming and overdue loan payments)
• Paluwagan turn notifications (when it's your turn to receive)

Notifications are sent at most once per day per alert type. You can disable notifications at any time in your device Settings → Notifications → IponBuddy.

We do not share your personal or financial data with third parties except in the following circumstances:

• When required by law or legal process
• To protect the rights and safety of our users
• With service providers who assist in operating our app (under strict confidentiality agreements)

• Your data is retained as long as your account is active
• You may request deletion of your account and all associated data by contacting us
• Local cached data can be cleared by uninstalling the app
• We may retain anonymized, aggregated data for analytics purposes

IponBuddy is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us immediately so we can delete it.

You have the right to:

• Access your personal data we hold about you
• Correct any inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your account and associated data
• Export your financial data
• Opt out of non-essential communications

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the details below.

IponBuddy uses the following third-party services:

• Google Sign-In — for secure authentication via Google accounts
• Expo Notifications — for local push notifications (budget, bill, loan, paluwagan, goal alerts)
• Expo SQLite — for local offline data storage on your device
• Expo LocalAuthentication — for biometric authentication (Face ID / Fingerprint). Biometric data is processed entirely by your device OS and is never accessed or stored by IponBuddy.
• Expo SecureStore / AsyncStorage — for storing app preferences and your PIN hash (hashed with SHA-256, stored locally on device only)

Each of these services has their own privacy policy governing their data practices. IponBuddy does not share your financial data with any of these third-party services.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any significant changes by updating the date at the top of this policy and, where appropriate, through an in-app notification.

Continued use of IponBuddy after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.