Privacy Policy
Effective: to be filled: effective date · Last updated: October 30, 2026
to be filled: legal entity name (“we”, “us”) makes Lumocent, a budgeting app for tracking your own money and sharing costs with the people you choose: roommates, partners, families and trip groups. This policy explains what we collect, why, how it’s handled, and the choices and rights you have. It covers the mobile app, our website at localhost:3000, and the service behind them.
The app describes money you tell it about. We are not a financial institution, a money transmitter or a payment processor. We never connect to your financial accounts, and we never see or store card numbers or account passwords. You enter amounts yourself, by typing, speaking or scanning a receipt.
1. The short version
- We collect only what the app needs: how you sign in, your profile, the entries you create, and the shared spaces you join.
- We don’t sell your personal information, and we don’t use it for advertising.
- Your entries are stored in Canada (Montreal).
- Receipt pictures, and the AI that reads them, stay on your phone.
- In a shared space, the people in it see that space’s expenses, balances and comments. That’s the point of a shared space, so choose who you add.
- You can export your data at any time and delete your account from the app.
2. What we collect
What you give us
- How you sign in. An email address (if you sign in with a code), or an identifier from Apple or Google. We never receive your Apple or Google password. If you start without signing in, we create an anonymous account with no name, email or other identity attached, and your entries are stored and synced on our servers under it. Signing in later adds your sign-in method to that same account. An anonymous account can’t be reached from another phone, so if you remove the app before signing in you can’t get back to that data (you can delete it from the app first, in Settings).
- Profile. A display name, and a profile photo if you add one.
- Your entries. What you record: expenses and income (amounts, currencies, dates, categories, notes), who paid and how a cost is split, bills and subscriptions, income sources, goals, budgets, payments you record between people, and comments on shared expenses.
- Shared spaces. The spaces you create or join, the people in them (including people you add by name who don’t have an account yet), and the invites you send.
- School email, only if you ask for student pricing. If you confirm a university or college email to get the Student price, we keep that address with your account, and we send it a one-time code to check it’s yours. It doesn’t change how you sign in.
- Messages to us. What you send when you contact us or give feedback.
- Waitlist. If you join the waitlist on our website, your email address, so we can tell you when the app is available.
What’s collected automatically
- App and device details. App version, phone model and operating-system version, language, and an identifier for this installation, used to sync your data and send notifications.
- Notification tokens. If you allow notifications, a token from your phone’s notification service so we can send the alerts you turned on.
- Crash reports. When the app crashes or hits an error: the technical details (the error, app and phone versions, and the screens that led to it) and your account’s random user id, so we can match a problem you report to the right report. We don’t record your taps or the app’s log messages, which could contain your entries.
- Usage data. Counts of what happens in the app, such as finishing setup, adding an expense, creating a space or accepting an invite, and which screen is open, so we can see what works during the beta. These are tied to a random identifier for this installation of the app, not to your account, name or email. They never include the amounts, notes, categories or names you enter, and we don’t use your IP address to work out where you are. You can turn this off in Settings, under “Share usage data”.
Handled on your phone, not sent to us
- Pictures. With “Add several” you can pick a picture or take a photo of a receipt or screenshot. Camera and photo access are asked for only when you use this. The text in the picture is read on your phone; the picture isn’t uploaded or kept.
- Suggested expenses. Turning that text into suggested expenses uses your phone’s built-in model (Apple Intelligence on iPhone, Gemini Nano on supported Android phones), on the device. It isn’t sent to us or to any cloud AI service.
- Voice. You can say your expenses instead of typing them. Microphone and speech access are asked for only when you use this. Your phone’s speech service turns speech into text; where your phone can’t do that on the device, Apple or Google may process the audio under their own privacy terms. We never receive the audio.
Only the entries you review and choose to save reach our servers.
What we don’t collect
- Card, payment or other financial-account credentials.
- Your contacts. We don’t read your address book.
- Your location.
3. How we use it
- To run the app: sync your entries across your phones, work out balances and who owes whom, and keep every shared space the same for everyone in it.
- To send the notifications and reminders you turn on.
- To provide subscriptions (Pro, Pro Duo, Student) through the app stores.
- To offer student pricing: we check whether your sign-in email, or a school email you confirm, belongs to a university or college, and we keep one confirmed school email per account so the Student price can’t be shared across accounts. We don’t use your school email for anything else: no marketing, no newsletters, and it isn’t shared with your school.
- To keep the service secure, prevent abuse and limit excessive use.
- To find and fix problems (crash reports) and to learn what helps (usage data).
- To reply when you contact us.
- To meet legal obligations.
Where the law asks for a basis: providing the service you asked for, your consent (notifications, usage data), and our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and working.
4. Shared spaces
A shared space exists so a group sees the same money. When you join or are added to a space, its other members can see the expenses, payments, splits, balances, comments and member names in it, and the changes you make. People outside the space can’t. You’re responsible for choosing whom you add, and for having permission to enter someone else’s information (such as adding them by name).
If you leave a space or delete your account, shared expenses you took part in stay for the other members so their history and balances stay correct, with your name and photo removed (see section 8).
5. Who helps us run it
We share personal information only with providers who help us run the app, under agreements that limit them to our instructions. We don’t sell it and we don’t share it for advertising.
| Provider | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, sign-in, storage | Canada (Montreal) |
| Google Cloud | Runs our server and background jobs | Canada (Montreal) |
| Expo | Delivers notifications and app updates | United States |
| RevenueCat | Keeps track of subscriptions (not payment details) | United States |
| Resend | Sends the code that confirms a school email (only if you ask for student pricing) | United States |
| Apple and Google | Sign-in, and all payments through their app stores | United States |
| Sentry | Crash reports | to be filled: crash-report data region |
| PostHog | Usage data | to be filled: analytics data region |
| Cloudflare | Hosts our website | Global network |
Exchange rates in the app come from published reference rates (the Bank of Canada, with the European Central Bank as a fallback). We only download the published rates; no personal information is sent to get them.
Some providers are outside Canada, so some information is processed in other countries, where it’s protected by our agreements with those providers but may be accessible to authorities there.
6. Payments
Subscriptions and purchases are paid through the Apple App Store or Google Play. We never receive your card or payment-account details: the store handles payment and tells us, through RevenueCat, only whether you have an active plan. Manage or cancel a subscription in your app store account settings.
7. Where it’s stored, how it’s protected, and how long it’s kept
Your entries are stored in Canada (Montreal). They’re protected with encryption in transit (HTTPS), encryption at rest by our database provider, verified sign-in, and database rules that limit each person to the spaces and data they belong to.
We keep your data while your account exists. A confirmed school email is kept with your account for as long as you have it, so the same address can’t be used by another account; a code you asked for but didn’t use is deleted, with the address it was sent to, within a day after it expires. The app keeps history on purpose: edits and removals are kept as history, and people who leave a space are marked as gone rather than erased, so money records stay correct for everyone in it. When you delete your account, see section 8. Deleted data may remain in encrypted database backups for up to to be filled: backup retention in days days before the backups roll over.
8. Your choices and rights
- See and export. Export your entries from the app (Settings, “Export to a spreadsheet”) at any time.
- Correct. Edit your entries and profile in the app.
- Delete your account. In the app, go to Settings and tap “Delete account and data”. It takes effect straight away. We delete your sign-in account, your profile and photo, your own entries, goals, budgets and bills, your notification tokens, your subscription record, your confirmed school email, the invite links you created, any waitlist entry, and the copy on that phone. Shared expenses you took part in stay for the other members, shown as “Former member” with your name and photo removed, so their balances stay correct. A shared space with no account holders left is deleted. Can’t open the app? See how to delete your account.
- Notifications. Turn each kind on or off in the app or in your phone’s settings.
- Usage data. Turn it off at any time in Settings, under “Share usage data”. Crash reports stay on while you use the app because they’re how we find problems that could lose your entries.
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct or delete your personal information, to get a copy you can take elsewhere, to withdraw consent, and to complain to a regulator. These include your rights under Canada’s PIPEDA and Quebec’s Law 25, and for some people laws such as the GDPR or California’s CCPA. To make a request, email to be filled: contact email. We won’t treat you differently for using these rights.
The person in charge of protecting personal information is to be filled: privacy contact (name or title), reachable at to be filled: contact email.
9. Children
The app isn’t meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their information. If you’re between 13 and the age of majority where you live, use the app only with a parent’s or guardian’s permission.
10. Changes
We may update this policy. If a change is important, we’ll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and change the date at the top.
11. Contact
to be filled: legal entity name to be filled: mailing address to be filled: contact email
If we can’t resolve a concern, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or the Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec if you live in Quebec.