FairShare icon FairShare

Privacy Policy

We respect your data and explain how it's collected, used, and protected across FairShare.

Who we are

Last Updated: October 1, 2026

FairShare is operated by Debayan Samajpati, an individual based in India ("FairShare", "we", "us"). We are the data controller (in India, the "Data Fiduciary") for the personal data described in this policy.

This policy covers the FairShare Android and iOS apps, this website (fairshareapp.co.in), and the emails and notifications we send. It explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices you have.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Your account

  • Email address: to sign you in, recover your account, and send service emails.
  • Display name: how you appear to other members of your groups.
  • Profile photo (optional): if you sign in with Google, we use your Google profile photo unless you set your own.

1.2 Expense data

  • Groups: names, icons and membership of groups you create or join.
  • Bills: titles, amounts, currencies, dates, categories, splits and notes.
  • Receipt and payment-proof images (optional): photos you choose to upload or scan. Receipts can show personal details such as a card's last four digits or a loyalty number, so please avoid uploading ones you'd rather keep private.
  • Payments: settlements recorded between group members.
  • Comments you add to bills.
  • Imports: if you import a group from Splitwise, the file is read on your device. Only the data you review and confirm is uploaded, which can include other people's names and, if present, email addresses (they become guests; see Section 8).
  • Feedback: feature votes and ideas you submit, linked to your account.

1.3 Device, diagnostic and usage data

  • Crash reports and diagnostics (Firebase Crashlytics): device model, OS and app version, and the state of the app at the time of the crash. Crash reports are linked to your internal FairShare account ID (not your name or email) so we can fix problems affecting your account.
  • Performance data (Firebase Performance Monitoring): app start-up times and network request timings.
  • Usage analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase): which features are used and how often, linked to an app-instance identifier. On iOS, analytics are also linked to your internal account ID. On Android, the current version may also collect your device's advertising ID; we don't use it for advertising and are removing it in an upcoming update.
  • Push notification token: stored with your account so we can send you notifications.
  • App integrity checks: Google Play Integrity (Android) and Apple DeviceCheck (iOS) confirm that requests come from a genuine copy of the app.

We don't collect your contacts, location, or bank or card details.

2. How We Use It, and Our Legal Basis

  • Running the service (accounts, groups, bills, balances, sync, receipt storage, exports): to perform our contract with you.
  • Security and abuse prevention (integrity checks, rate limits, fraud detection): our legitimate interest in keeping FairShare safe.
  • Fixing crashes and performance problems: our legitimate interest in a working app.
  • Understanding feature usage (analytics): our legitimate interest in improving FairShare; in the EU and UK, your consent where the law requires it.
  • Service messages (verification, security, invites, bill and settlement alerts): to perform our contract with you.
  • Monthly summaries and product announcements: our legitimate interest, with an opt-out in every message and in Settings.
  • AI features: only when you use them; to perform the service you asked for.
  • Legal obligations: responding to lawful requests and keeping records the law requires.
  • Records of what you accepted (which version of our Terms and this policy, when, and confirming you're 18 or older): to meet our legal obligation to show what you agreed to, and our legitimate interest in handling disputes.

We don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

3. Who We Share It With

Other members of your groups see your display name, profile photo, and the bills, payments and comments you add to that group.

Service providers process data for us under contracts that restrict them to our instructions:

  • Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging, Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, Google Analytics for Firebase, App Check / Play Integrity, Firebase Hosting, and the Gemini API).
  • Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES), which delivers our emails.
  • Apple (Sign in with Apple, DeviceCheck), if you use iOS.
  • jsDelivr serves public exchange-rate data. The request contains only a currency code, never personal data.

We may also disclose data if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of users or others, or to a successor if FairShare is transferred to a new owner, in which case this policy continues to apply.

We do not sell your personal data, and we don't share app data with advertisers.

4. AI Features (Google Gemini)

Some optional features use Google's Gemini AI. Data is sent only when you use them:

  • Receipt scanning: the photo of your receipt.
  • Group icon suggestions: the group name you type.
  • Spending insights: totals and trends by category. It doesn't include your name, email or other members' identities.

We use Google's paid Gemini service. Google doesn't use this data to train its models and keeps it only briefly to prevent abuse. If you'd rather not use AI, you can enter bills manually.

5. Where Your Data Is Stored

  • Our main database (Cloud Firestore) is in Mumbai, India.
  • Uploaded images (Cloud Storage) and our server code (Cloud Functions) run in the United States.
  • Emails are sent through Amazon SES in Mumbai, India.
  • Analytics, crash and performance data are processed by Google in the United States and other countries.

When data about people in the EU or UK is transferred to countries without an adequacy decision, we rely on the Standard Contractual Clauses in Google's and Amazon's data processing terms.

6. Retention and Account Deletion

We keep your account data while your account exists. Other data is kept for:

  • Crash reports: up to 90 days.
  • Usage analytics: up to 14 months.
  • Records of your acceptance of our Terms and this policy: while your account exists, then 3 years after it's deleted, with your account ID replaced by a one-way code.
  • Other records we need to handle legal claims or comply with the law: as long as the law requires or allows.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app under Settings > Advanced Settings > Delete Account. If you can't access the app, email hello@fairshareapp.co.in from your account's email address and we'll process the request within 30 days.

Unsettled balances: you need to settle any money you owe or are owed before deleting your account. Your balances are part of other members' records, and deleting an account with open balances would leave them with figures they can't settle. The same rule applies to requests by email.

When your account is deleted:

  • Your email address, profile photo and push token are removed, and you can no longer sign in.
  • Receipt images and payment-proof images you uploaded are deleted.
  • Groups you own are deleted in full, including other members' entries in them.
  • In groups you don't own, the bills and payments you took part in stay, so other members' balances remain correct, but your name is replaced with "Deleted User" followed by a short code.
  • Crash and analytics data linked to your account expire on the schedule above.

You can also delete individual bills, payments and comments at any time.

7. Emails and Notifications

  • Service emails (verification, security alerts): can't be turned off while you have an account.
  • Monthly summaries: you can turn these off in Settings or with the unsubscribe link in every email.
  • Push notifications: group activity (new bills, payments, invites, reminders from other members) and, up to three times a week, tips and feature announcements. You can turn push notifications off in the app's Settings or in your device settings.

8. Guests

A group member can add someone who doesn't use FairShare as a guest, typing their name and, optionally, their email address, or bringing them in through an import. We store this only so the group can record shared expenses, and so the guest's history moves to their own account if they later sign up with that email address.

We never send emails, summaries or marketing to guest email addresses. The member who adds a guest confirms they have that person's permission.

Guest details are deleted when the guest joins with their own account (their history moves to it), when the guest is removed, or when the group is deleted. If you've been added as a guest and want your details removed, email hello@fairshareapp.co.in with the group name or the member who added you.

9. Website Cookies

This website uses cookies from Google Analytics (to measure visits) and Google Ads (to measure whether our ads lead to app downloads). They are set only if you click Accept in the cookie banner. Until then, Google's Consent Mode keeps them off and no advertising identifiers are used. We don't use cookies for remarketing.

Your choice is saved in your browser. You can change it at any time: Cookie settings.

10. UPI Payments (Android only)

On Android, FairShare can open your UPI app to settle a balance. This feature isn't available on iOS.

  • No server storage: we never collect, store or transmit UPI IDs (VPAs) on our servers. A VPA is entered on the device and used there only to build the payment link.
  • We don't process payments: FairShare isn't a bank, payment aggregator or payment processor, and never holds money. Payments happen entirely in your UPI app (such as Google Pay, PhonePe or BHIM) under NPCI rules and that app's terms.

11. Sign in with Apple

If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple gives us either your email address or a private relay address (if you choose "Hide My Email"). We store only the address Apple provides. With a relay address, our emails reach you through Apple's relay, and we never learn your real address. Apple's handling of this data is covered by Apple's Privacy Policy.

12. Age Limit

FairShare is for people aged 18 and over. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

13. Your Rights

Wherever you live, you can:

  • Access your data: it's all visible in the app, and you can ask us for a copy.
  • Correct your profile in Settings, and edit your bills.
  • Delete individual entries or your whole account (Section 6).
  • Export a group's expenses as a CSV file: open the group, go to Group Settings and tap Export Group Data (Android and iOS). To get all your data at once, email us and we'll send it to you.
  • Object to processing based on our legitimate interests, or withdraw consent you've given, at any time. This doesn't affect processing before you withdrew.

To exercise a right the app doesn't cover, email hello@fairshareapp.co.in from your account's email address. We may ask you to confirm your identity, and we'll respond within 30 days.

14. EU and UK Residents

If you're in the EU, EEA or UK, the EU GDPR or UK GDPR applies. In addition to Section 13, you have the right to restrict processing and to data portability. Our legal bases are listed in Section 2 and our transfer safeguards in Section 5. You can complain to your local data protection authority or, in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), though we'd appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first.

15. India

We process personal data in line with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and its rules, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 as its provisions come into force. Under that Act you can also nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or become unable to do so, and you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India after first using our grievance process (Section 19).

16. United States Residents

We don't sell personal data, and we don't share app data for cross-context behavioural advertising. On our website, Google Ads measures whether our ads lead to app downloads, and only if you accept cookies (Section 9). You can ask to access, correct or delete your data as described in Section 13, and we won't discriminate against you for doing so.

17. Security

We use reasonable safeguards, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), database access rules that limit each group's data to its members, app integrity checks and rate limits. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal data, we'll notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

18. Changes to This Policy

We'll update the "Last Updated" date whenever this policy changes. For material changes, we'll tell you in the app or by email before they take effect. Earlier versions are kept at fairshareapp.co.in/legal/ and are available on request.

19. Contact and Grievance Officer

For questions, requests or complaints about your data or content on FairShare, contact our Grievance Officer:

Debayan Samajpati, Grievance Officer, FairShare
Email: hello@fairshareapp.co.in or fairshare.contact@gmail.com

We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and aim to resolve them within 15 days.