Privacy

What we collect

Always:

• Your email address (when you join the waitlist or sign up)
• Your IP address, briefly, for rate-limiting abuse on public endpoints
• A user ID we assign to you on sign-up

Once you start using the app:

• Transactions you record (amount, type, category, optional note, date)
• Accounts you set up (a label and an opening balance, e.g. "Everyday")
• Categories and monthly budgets you create or edit
• Recurring transactions you schedule (rent, salary, subscriptions and the like)
• The names of people you split costs with, if you use the flat-bills splitter: just a first name or label you choose, and nothing else about them
• Sign-in timestamps (handled by our auth provider, Clerk)

Only if you turn the feature on:

• Bank data, if you connect a bank: your account names, types and balances, and your transactions (date, amount, description, merchant, and the category Akahu assigns). See "Bank connections" below
• Billing details, if you subscribe: your Stripe customer id, your subscription status, and your renewal date. Card numbers never reach us
• A push subscription, if you turn on bill reminders: an endpoint and keys issued by your browser. They identify that browser, not you

What we don't collect

• Tracking cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking
• Demographic profiling
• Your bank login. Akahu runs the bank connection. You sign in at your bank or at Akahu, never at KeaBudget, so your username, password and one-time codes never pass through us
• Your card number. Payment happens on Stripe's own checkout pages. Card details never reach our servers

Bank connections

Connecting a bank is optional and off by default. CSV import and manual entry work without it, and always will.

If you do connect one, it runs through Akahu, New Zealand's open banking provider, under their enduring consent. Here is exactly what that means:

• It is read only. The connection can read your accounts and transactions. It cannot move money, make a payment, or change anything at your bank
• What we receive: account names, types and balances, and transaction date, amount, description, merchant and category. Nothing else
• How the access token is stored: Akahu issues a token that stays valid until it is revoked, so we encrypt it (AES-256-GCM) before it reaches the database. A stolen copy of the database does not hand anyone access to your bank
• Turning it off: Disconnect in the app revokes the token at Akahu first, which stops the sharing at source, then deletes our copy. You can also withdraw consent directly at your bank or with Akahu, and we stop receiving data straight away
• Disconnecting keeps your history. Transactions already imported stay, so switching banks does not wipe a year of categorising. "Delete imported data" removes them, and is a separate button

Akahu has its own privacy notice covering the part they handle: akahu.nz/privacy-notice.

If you use KeaBooks

KeaBooks is the contractor side of the app. Using it means we hold a little more, all of it entered by you and all of it deleted with your account:

• Your tax settings (GST registration and filing cycle, whether you have a tax agent, last year's residual income tax) and the business-use percentage you set on categories
• Your business details for invoices (trading name, GST number, address, how to pay you) and, for each invoice, your client's name, email address and postal address as you typed them, the lines, and the dates. When you send an invoice, the email goes to your client through Resend with the invoice link in it and your own address as the reply-to
• Receipt photos and PDFs you attach to a transaction. These are stored in a private Vercel Blob store in Sydney, Australia. They have no public address: they can only be opened by you, signed in, or by someone holding an accountant link you created, and only for receipts inside that link's tax year
• Accountant links you create: an unguessable URL that shows your business income, expenses, GST figures and receipts for one tax year, and nothing else. You can revoke it at any time, after which it shows nothing

Who has access

• You: full access via the app. Export your data or delete your account yourself, from Account in the app, at any time
• Clerk: handles sign-in and holds your email and authentication tokens. Privacy: clerk.com/legal/privacy
• Akahu: holds the connection to your bank and passes us your account and transaction data. Only if you connect a bank. Privacy: akahu.nz/privacy-notice
• Stripe: takes subscription payments and holds your card details. Only if you subscribe. Privacy: stripe.com/nz/privacy
• Neon: hosts the Postgres database that holds your transactions. Encrypted at rest and in transit. Privacy: neon.tech/privacy-policy
• Resend: delivers welcome and account emails, reminders and summaries you have switched on, and, if you use KeaBooks, the invoice emails you send to your clients. Privacy: resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
• Vercel Blob: holds receipt files you attach in KeaBooks, in a private store in Sydney, Australia. Only if you attach a receipt. Privacy: vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy
• Vercel: hosts the site and runs the serverless functions. Privacy: vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy
• Vercel Analytics: counts page views anonymously; no personal IDs are linked

We don't sell, lease, share, or barter your data with anyone else.

How long we keep it

Your data stays as long as your account exists.

When you delete your account, we revoke your bank connection at Akahu first, so the sharing stops at source, cancel any subscription at Stripe so nothing is charged again, remove any receipt files from storage, and then delete your transactions, accounts, categories, budgets, goals, invoices and your user record. If any of those outside steps fails, nothing is deleted and we retry, rather than leaving something running that you believe is gone. Backups roll over within 30 days.

Your rights under the NZ Privacy Act 2020

You can:

• Ask what we hold about you
• Correct anything that's wrong
• Ask us to delete it all

Email hello@keabudget.co.nz with the subject "Privacy request" and we'll handle it within 7 working days.

Changes

If we change how we handle your data, for example adding a new provider or a new kind of data, we'll update this page and email everyone with an account before the change takes effect.

Contact

KeaBudget is an independent project, built and run by an Auckland-based developer. Questions, feedback, or just want a chat? Email hello@keabudget.co.nz.