Nivasa – Privacy Policy
What stays on your phone
Everything you enter is stored only in the app's private storage on your device:
- Money entries (money in and out), categories, budgets, notes and the accounts you add, including credit card limits, balances and due dates.
- Grocery and household items, stock, prices, shops and shopping lists.
- Family members' names, if you add them to tag who an expense was for.
- Bills, subscriptions, EMIs, daily deliveries and household-help records.
- Your settings (app lock, reminders, voice language, usual account).
Insights such as spending forecasts, unusual-spending alerts, automatic categories and "kitchen inflation" are worked out on the phone from this data. Nothing is sent to us to produce them.
Features that use your phone's services
- Scanning a bill: the picture you take or pick is read on the phone by Google's ML Kit text recognition to find the total, date and shop. The picture is not uploaded or kept by Nivasa.
- Voice entry: when you tap the microphone, your phone's speech recognition service (for example Google's) turns your words into text and gives only that text back to Nivasa. That service is run by its provider under its own privacy policy.
- App lock: fingerprint, face or PIN checks are done by Android. Nivasa never sees or stores your fingerprint, face data or PIN.
- Reminders: bill, subscription, grocery and card-due reminders are scheduled on the phone and need no internet. They are shown as notifications and are set again after the phone restarts.
Sharing
You can share your shopping list. It is shared only when you tap share, and it goes to the app you choose (for example a chat app). From then on that app and its provider handle it under their own privacy policy.
Backups
- Android backup: if backup is turned on in your phone's settings, Android may copy Nivasa's data to your own Google account, as it does for other apps. Google manages and encrypts that backup; we cannot access it.
- Backup files: "Save backup" creates a file wherever you choose (for example Google Drive, Downloads or a chat with yourself). We never receive it.
- Automatic backup: if you turn it on, Nivasa saves a backup file daily, weekly or monthly into a folder on your phone that you pick, and can keep only the latest two. Nivasa can access only that folder.
- Backup password: if you set one, backup files are encrypted (AES-256) and can be opened only with that password. The password is kept on your phone, sealed by the Android Keystore, and is never sent anywhere or included in Android backup. We cannot recover a forgotten password. Without a password, backup files are readable, so keep them somewhere private.
Advertising (Google AdMob)
Nivasa is free and shows ads through Google AdMob. To show and measure ads and to prevent fraud, the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects and shares with Google:
- Device identifiers, including the Android advertising ID
- Approximate location (from the IP address)
- App interactions, such as ads viewed and tapped
- Diagnostics and crash information related to ads
This data is sent encrypted. Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA and UK), Nivasa asks for your consent through Google's consent message before personalised ads are shown, and you can change your choice at any time in Nivasa → More → Backup & settings → Privacy choices. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Google → Ads. Learn how Google uses this data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Watching an optional rewarded video unlocks all insights and removes ads for 24 hours; this is recorded only on your phone. Nothing about your money is passed to the ad.
Permissions the app asks for
- Internet and network state: for ads only. Nothing else in Nivasa goes online.
- Notifications: to show the reminders described above.
- Run at start-up: to set your reminders again after the phone restarts.
- Fingerprint / biometrics: only if you turn on App lock.
- Advertising ID and Android ad services, keep the phone awake, run a foreground service: added by Google's advertising and background-work libraries.
Nivasa does not ask for camera, microphone, contacts, location, SMS, calendar, storage or exact-alarm permissions. To scan a bill it uses your phone's camera or photo picker, and voice entry uses your phone's speech service.
Links to other apps
The "More from Genesis Forge" section and the Rate and Share buttons open the Google Play Store or your chosen sharing app. Nivasa checks only whether our other apps are installed, to show "Open" or "Get".
Children
Nivasa is made for adults who manage a household and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
Deleting your data
- Delete any entry inside the app at any time.
- Uninstalling Nivasa, or clearing its storage in Android settings, deletes all of its data from the phone.
- Delete any backup files you saved, and your Android backup from your Google account settings if you wish.
- Because we hold no account or copy of your data, there is nothing for us to delete on our side. AdMob data is managed by Google (see above).
Security
Your data lives in storage that only Nivasa can read, protected by your phone's own encryption. For extra protection, turn on App lock in Nivasa's settings.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new date. Important changes will also be mentioned in the app's update notes.
Contact
Questions or requests: genesisforge.dev@gmail.com