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Privacy Policy

Smara Account is a local-first household ledger. This page describes what the app actually does with information — not a generic template. It is the same document linked from the app's Settings screen and from App Store / Play Store listings.

Last updated: 29 August 2026.

There is no Smara Account server or account

The app does not create an online account, does not sign you in, and does not store your books on a Smara server. By default, nothing you enter leaves your device.

This website (smara-ai.ch) is a static project site. It does not set analytics cookies and does not run an advertising or tracking SDK.

What stays on your device

Signing key. When you set the app up, it generates a signing key used only to sign and later check your ledger history. That key is stored in the operating system's secure storage (Keychain on Apple platforms, Keystore on Android) through the device's own secure-storage APIs. Smara Account never sends the key anywhere.

Ledger database. Your accounts, categories, and entries live in a local database file in the app's private application-support folder on the device. The app uses that file to show balances and history. It is not uploaded.

Settings. Preferences such as language, whether optional lookups are on, and app-lock choices are stored on the device (shared preferences and, for the PIN hash, the same secure storage as the signing key).

Optional network lookups (off unless you turn them on)

The app can make two kinds of network request. Both are labeled in Settings, send as little as possible, and never include your balances, payees, or how many of an investment you hold.

  1. Reference exchange rates — off by default. When you turn this on, a cross-currency transfer can show a comparison rate from a predefined public provider (currently Frankfurter / ECB rates, or ExchangeRate-API). The request is a currency pair (for example EUR and USD). Nothing else about your books is sent.
  2. Investment market quotes — a Settings toggle. When on, holdings that have a ticker or ISIN can look up a last price from a predefined public quote source (currently Stooq or Yahoo Finance). The request is that ticker or ISIN only — never quantity, never what you paid.

If a lookup fails, the app keeps working with what it already has. These lookups never post or change a ledger entry.

Opening a holding in your favourite research tool (for example ChatGPT) uses your device browser to open that site with a prompt you can edit. Smara Account does not send that prompt to a Smara server; the third-party site's own privacy policy applies once the browser is open.

Face ID, Touch ID, and other biometrics

Optional app lock can use the device's Face ID, Touch ID, or equivalent. The app never receives or stores fingerprint, face, or other biometric templates. The operating system returns only pass or fail. You can also unlock with the PIN you set in the app; that PIN is stored as a hash in secure storage, not as the PIN itself.

Backups and CSV exports

Save backup writes an encrypted, passphrase-protected copy of the local ledger database to a file you choose. That file is books, not your signing key. Restoring it replaces local books; it does not transplant a key from another identity.

Export CSV writes transaction rows you choose (including whether each row still verifies) to a file you choose. It does not include the signing key, recovery phrase, or keystore file.

Files you save live wherever you put them. Treat them like financial records.

Cryptography (export compliance)

The app uses standard cryptography to sign and verify ledger entries and to hash the app-lock PIN. It does not use cryptography to scramble network traffic, does not ship a proprietary algorithm, and is not a cryptography product. That is the same story declared in the iOS export-compliance flag (ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption = false).

What we do not do

The app does not sell data, does not show ads, does not use a crash or analytics SDK, and does not share ledger contents with a third party as part of recording or displaying your books.

Contact

Privacy questions and corrections to this page: open an issue on the Smara Account repository. That is the same contact path as other project contributions.