Privacy Policy — SERA

SERA (“the App”, “we”, “our”) is a personal finance management application developed by Saksham Tale for Android devices. SERA is designed to help individuals record daily expenses, track income, balance accounts, calculate net worth, establish budgets, monitor savings goals, manage recurring subscriptions, and analyze monthly cash flows.

SERA is engineered from the ground up as an offline-first, privacy-respecting tool. We believe your financial data belongs exclusively to you. All core functionality operates locally on your physical device. The App does not require user account registration, cloud sign-in, or internet connectivity to manage your financial records.

This Privacy Policy explains what data SERA handles, how that data is stored and processed on your device, what permissions the App requests, and how you retain total control over your records.

Depending on which features you use, SERA stores and organizes the following user-entered data locally on your device:

• Financial Transactions: Amounts, currency codes (₹, $, €, £), transaction types (expense, income, inter-account transfer), category tags, merchant or payee names, transaction dates, timestamps, and optional user notes.
• Financial Accounts & Net Worth: Account labels, account types (Bank, Cash, Credit Card, Wallet, Savings, Investment), opening and current balances, financial institution names, and optional last-4-digit account masks (e.g., ••4821).
• Budgets & Spending Limits: Monthly spending targets, per-category budget limits, alert threshold indicators, and safe daily spend velocity calculations.
• Savings Goals: Target savings amounts, accumulated savings balances, target achievement dates, planned monthly contributions, and deposit contribution history.
• Recurring Subscriptions: Subscription names, billing amounts, recurrence frequencies (monthly or yearly), next renewal dates, and payment history.
• Receipt Attachments: Physical receipt photos captured via the device camera or selected from the device photo gallery.
• User Preferences & Security Configurations: Display name, profile avatar photo (stored locally), dark/light theme preference, active currency preference, 4-digit security PIN, biometric unlock preference, Privacy Mode state, and scheduled daily reminder times.

All of the above information is entered directly by you or generated locally through your use of the application.

SERA operates under a strict offline architecture:

• No Remote Servers: The developer does not operate, host, or communicate with any cloud server or database to store, transmit, or process your financial records.
• No Account Registration: You do not need an email address, telephone number, password, or third-party login (e.g., Google or Facebook) to use SERA.
• No Third-Party Analytics: SERA contains zero telemetry trackers, analytics SDKs (such as Firebase Analytics, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or Adjust), and zero crash-reporting frameworks that upload device identifiers or logs to remote servers.
• No Advertisements: SERA does not include advertising SDKs, ad networks, or tracking pixels. We do not profile your financial behavior or monetize your personal data.

SERA includes a Smart Text Parser (Smart Expense Auto-Fill) to streamline manual expense entry:

• On-Demand Manual Input: The Smart Text Parser only processes text that you explicitly paste or type into the input modal (such as copying a bank SMS notification, an email confirmation, or typing quick snippets like "Dinner 420" or "Groceries 1250 paid by UPI").
• No Background SMS Access: SERA does not read your SMS inbox, does not intercept incoming text messages, and does not declare or request the READ_SMS or RECEIVE_SMS permissions.
• 100% Local Pattern Matching: All text parsing is executed entirely on your device using deterministic, local regular expression patterns. Your pasted text is processed in memory and is never transmitted over any network.

SERA requests only the minimum Android system permissions necessary to provide its local utility features. You can review or revoke these permissions at any time via Android Settings:

SERA provides 5 native Android home screen widgets:

1. Quick Action Widget: Instant 1-tap shortcuts to open the expense or income logging screen.
2. Budget Progress Widget: Real-time progress bar showing monthly spend and remaining budget.
3. Net Worth Widget: Glanceable consolidated liquid balance across all your accounts.
4. Savings Goal Widget: Target progress meter for your primary active savings goal.
5. Dashboard Widget: Multi-metric overview showing net worth, daily spend, active goal, and recent transactions.

How Widget Data is Handled: To render summary metrics on your home screen, the App writes minimal cached data into Android's native SharedPreferences strictly on your device. This data never leaves your device. Because home screen widgets may be visible to anyone viewing your device screen, you are responsible for configuring widget placement and lock-screen visibility settings according to your privacy preference.

SERA also supports Android App Launcher Shortcuts and deep links (sera://) for fast navigation.

SERA does not share your data with third parties:

• Zero Sale of Data: The developer does not sell, rent, monetize, or trade your personal or financial information to data brokers, advertisers, or third parties under any circumstances.
• Zero Third-Party SDK Data Transmission: The App does not integrate third-party SDKs that collect or broadcast device identifiers, advertising IDs, or financial metrics.
• User-Initiated Sharing: When you intentionally choose to share a backup file, receipt photo, or export through Android's system share sheet (e.g., saving to Google Drive or emailing to yourself), that data is handled directly by the destination application you selected according to their respective privacy terms.

SERA provides full data portability through its built-in Backup & Restore tool:

• JSON Backup Export: You can export your entire financial ledger—including all accounts, categories, transactions, budgets, goals, subscriptions, and app preferences—into a structured, human-readable JSON backup file.
• JSON Backup Import: You can restore a previously exported JSON backup file on any compatible device running SERA.
• Storage Security: Exported files are written to the local storage location or application you specify. Once exported, you are responsible for keeping these backup files secure.

SERA incorporates multiple layers of local security:

• Biometric Authentication: Hardware-backed fingerprint and facial recognition via Android BiometricPrompt.
• 4-Digit Numeric PIN Lock: Built-in passcode lock screen that blocks access to all views until authenticated.
• Automatic Background Lock: Enforces the lock screen immediately whenever the app transitions away from the active foreground and is reopened.
• Privacy Mode (Balance Masking): A dedicated 1-tap global privacy toggle that obscures all account balances, ledger amounts, and financial metrics with •••••• across all screens, allowing safe usage in public spaces.

Security Notice: While SERA implements local access controls, overall security depends on your device's operating-system security, device passcode, and how you manage exported backup files.

You have complete control over your data retention and deletion:

• Retention Period: All financial records, receipts, and settings remain stored on your physical device until you choose to delete them.
• In-App Application Reset: SERA includes a "Reset Application / Clear All Data" option in Settings. Tapping this option flushes all local database tables and returns the app to its fresh initial seed state immediately.
• Device-Level Deletion: You can permanently delete all records at any time by selecting "Clear Storage / Clear Data" for SERA in Android System Settings or by uninstalling the application.
• No Remote Copies: Because the developer maintains no cloud servers or remote databases, we cannot access, view, or remotely restore or delete your data once cleared from your device.

SERA is a general-purpose personal financial utility and is not directed at or designed for children under the age of 13 (or under the applicable legal age in your jurisdiction). SERA does not knowingly collect or solicit personal data from children.

SERA may be published as open-source software. Public availability of the source code ensures technical transparency and allows anyone to verify that the application operates strictly offline without hidden background telemetry or remote tracking.

This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect new features, improvements, or regulatory compliance requirements. Any revisions will be published with an updated Effective Date at this URL.

We encourage users to review this policy periodically to stay informed about our data handling practices.

If you have any questions, concerns, or inquiries regarding this Privacy Policy or SERA's privacy practices, please contact the developer directly: