Privacy Policy
The short version
Kuma is a personal expense-logging app operated by Ching Yu Dai, an independent developer. We collect the information needed to record your expenses and show them back to you. We do not sell your data, show ads, or use your data to build an advertising profile. One thing is worth knowing before the details: to understand what you type, we send your message to an AI provider that processes it outside the United States. That is explained below.
What we collect
Account. You sign in with Apple or Google, and we never see or handle a password. Our authentication provider holds your email address — which may be an Apple private-relay address — and gives Kuma an account identifier. Kuma’s own database stores that identifier, a display name if you set one, and when the account was created. If you use Sign in with Apple, we store an encrypted credential from Apple solely so we can request revocation of your Apple authorization when you delete your account.
What you tell Kuma. We store the messages you send, Kuma’s replies, and the entries produced from them: amount, merchant, category, direction (money out or money in), note, and timestamps. We also store the corrections you make and a record of how a merchant has been categorized, which a future version of Kuma will use to learn your preferences.
Using the app. We record which action each message triggered, monthly entry counts used to apply usage limits, and, if you ask for your limit to be raised, the reason you write. When you accept the Terms of Service we record which version you accepted and when.
Feedback. If you use Send feedback, the form sends what you write, the feedback type, app version and build, the screen you sent it from, and the device platform. It does not attach ledger entries, chat messages, account details, or screenshots.
Technical. We process limited technical and diagnostic information — app version, device and operating-system details, the method, path, status and timing of requests, and crash or error reports — to keep the service secure and reliable. Requests are rate-limited using your IP address, which Kuma stores only as a one-way digest, never in readable form; our hosting provider’s own request logs may record the address itself. We do not access your device’s location services, contacts, photo library, HealthKit data, or advertising identifier.
How we use your data
We use your information to sign you in, turn what you type into a structured entry, provide your ledger, summaries, and conversation history, respond to support and privacy requests, apply usage limits, prevent abuse, and diagnose and fix problems. We do not use your information for advertising and do not sell it to data brokers.
AI processing
Kuma uses DeepSeek to interpret messages and prepare replies. DeepSeek receives the message you send. To interpret and respond to many messages — including determining whether a message is bookkeeping or conversation — it may also receive limited recent conversation context, and the structured information needed to provide the requested response, such as an amount, merchant, category, direction, or a figure calculated from your ledger. We do not send your account identifier, email address, display name, sign-in credentials, or your complete ledger. Your messages are your own words, though, so anything identifying or sensitive that you choose to type is part of what is sent.
Information sent to DeepSeek may be processed and stored outside the United States, including in China. DeepSeek’s published terms permit it to use submitted content to develop and improve its models, and we do not control how long it retains that content. Deleting information from Kuma does not retract information already submitted to DeepSeek.
Who we share it with
We disclose information to service providers that help operate Kuma, including providers for account authentication, cloud hosting and data storage, AI message processing, crash diagnostics and support, and hosting and security for our public website. Each provider receives only the information needed to perform its function, and each processes it under its own terms and privacy policy. Apple or Google processes your sign-in information when you choose its sign-in option. DeepSeek processes message content and limited recent conversation context as described under “AI processing.” Our diagnostics and support provider receives crash and error reports, limited authentication and usage-limit events, and any feedback you choose to send; those events do not include message text, ledger contents, account identity, screenshots, or sign-in credentials. We do not sell or rent personal information.
Tracking
Kuma does not track your activity over time across third-party websites or services for advertising, and we do not knowingly allow others to do so through Kuma. Because we do not engage in this tracking, browser Do Not Track signals do not change our practices.
Keeping and deleting your data
We keep your data — your ledger, your messages, Kuma’s replies, and your corrections — for as long as your account is active. We do not delete your messages on a schedule: remembering what you said is part of what Kuma is for.
Deleting an entry removes it from your visible ledger, but the entry remains stored and marked as deleted while your account is active. Deleting your account removes these deleted entries from Kuma’s active database.
You can delete your account at any time from the Account screen, under “Delete account.” Account deletion removes your active Kuma profile, ledger, conversations, corrections, merchant records, activity records, the record of your accepting the Terms, and your authentication identity. If you used Sign in with Apple and the required credential is available, we also request revocation of your Apple authorization. If you used Google, deleting your Kuma account does not by itself remove Kuma from the connected-apps list in your Google account; you can remove it there. Limited deletion markers and retry records may remain temporarily to prevent account resurrection and to complete provider revocation. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
Two limits we want to be plain about. Deleting your account removes the data described above from Kuma’s own systems, but it does not retract message text already sent to our AI processing provider, and we do not control how long that provider retains it. And backup copies and security logs may persist according to provider retention schedules and are deleted or overwritten through those providers’ ordinary processes.
Your choices
You can edit an entry, or remove it from your ledger, in the app, and you can delete your account from the Account screen. To ask for access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, or to ask a privacy question, email us at [email protected]. We may need to verify that a request is associated with your account before acting on it.
Security
Sign-in is handled by Apple or Google, so Kuma never handles a password. Access controls are designed to keep one person’s ledger separate from another’s, and our database provider encrypts database storage and backups at rest. That protects your data from outside access; it does not put it beyond our own reach. Authorized service systems can read the information needed to operate Kuma, and our AI processing provider receives your messages as described above. No method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure, but we work to protect the information we hold.
Who can use Kuma
Kuma is offered in the United States and is for people aged 13 and older; if you are under the age of majority where you live, you need a parent or guardian’s permission to use it. Kuma is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update the effective date above and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.
Contact
Questions about your privacy? Reach us at [email protected]. Kuma’s Terms of Service are available from the Account screen and alongside this policy on our website.