KiseThe short version
- Your money records stay on your phone. Kise has no user accounts and no server that holds your entries, balances, messages or names.
- Bank and wallet SMS are read on your phone only, to turn them into entries you approve. Their content is never sent to us or anyone else.
- One anonymous signal leaves the app: a random install number, the app version, your access state, the platform and the days the app was opened. It carries no name, phone number, amount or message.
- No ads, no advertising or analytics kits, no selling of data.
- Backups go only where you put them, encrypted with a password only you know.
On this page
- 1. Who is responsible
- 2. Information that stays on your phone
- 3. SMS permission and how messages are handled
- 4. The one thing the app sends to us
- 5. Backups and exports you make
- 6. Who receives information
- 7. How information is protected
- 8. How long information is kept, and how to delete it
- 9. Android permissions Kise uses
- 10. This website
- 11. Children
- 12. Your choices and rights
- 13. Changes to this policy
- 14. Contact
1. Who is responsible
Kise (application ID com.kiselabs.kise) is a personal money tracker for Android, published by Biruk Getaneh, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ("we", "us"). This policy covers the Kise app and this website.
For any privacy question or request, write to kise.support@gmail.com.
2. Information that stays on your phone
Everything below is created or read by the app, stored in the app's private storage on your phone, and is not sent to us. We cannot see it, and we cannot recover it for you.
| Information | Why Kise uses it |
|---|---|
| What you record: accounts and their balances, income, expenses, transfers, savings pots and goals, regular bills and salary, loans and credits, budgets, prices you track, categories, notes, and the names of people and shops you type in | To keep your books and show you totals, history and insights |
| The name and form of address you give at set-up | To greet you and word the app correctly in your language |
| Bank and wallet SMS messages (see section 3) | To suggest entries and balances so you do not type each one |
| Your app lock: a PIN or password is kept only as a salted one-way hash (PBKDF2-SHA256), never as the PIN itself | To keep other people out of the app |
| Your settings: language, calendar, currency display, theme, how long to keep data | To make the app work the way you chose |
| Your access record: the days you recorded something during the free period, and for each payment the reference number, amount, channel and date | To know whether the free period or a paid period is running |
Fingerprint or face unlock. If you turn this on, the check is done by Android. Kise only learns whether it succeeded and never receives your fingerprint or face data.
Device identifier. Kise reads Android's app-specific device ID (ANDROID_ID) on the phone to lock a copy of your access record to that phone, so it survives a reinstall. The ID is used only on the device and is not sent anywhere.
3. SMS permission and how messages are handled
Kise asks for Android's permission to read and receive SMS (READ_SMS, RECEIVE_SMS). This is the core of the app: it turns the alerts your banks and mobile wallets send you into entries. Before the permission is requested, the app explains this and asks you to agree. You can refuse or withdraw the permission at any time in Android's settings; Kise then works with entries you type yourself.
What is read
- Messages from the bank and wallet senders switched on in the app (Settings › Bank and wallet SMS), for example telebirr and CBE. You can switch senders on and off and add your own.
- Payment confirmations for Kise itself. To confirm that you paid for access, the app looks for telebirr (127) and CBE (CBE, 889) messages that confirm a transfer to the payee shown in the app. After a reinstall it may look back up to 90 days for these.
- At first set-up, if you choose it, recent messages from those senders are read once to fill in your account balances.
What is kept
- For a message from a sender that is switched on: the sender name, the message text, and what Kise reads from it (amount, balance, the other party's name, reference number, date). It waits in the app for you to confirm or dismiss. Nothing is added to your books until you confirm it, except an ATM cash withdrawal, which is recorded as a move to cash and can be undone.
- For a message from any other sender: nothing is stored. When Android delivers a new message, Kise first checks who sent it. If the sender is not a bank or wallet you have switched on, the message is ignored there and then. The one exception is while Kise is open: a message from an unknown sender that mentions an amount in birr is checked once, in memory, to see whether it is an alert from a bank or wallet Kise recognises. If it is, that sender is added to your list (you can switch it off); if it is not, the message is discarded without being saved.
What never happens
- SMS content is not sent to us, to any server, or to any other party.
- Kise does not send, change or delete SMS on your phone.
- SMS content is not used for advertising, profiling or credit scoring.
4. The one thing the app sends to us
When the app is open and the phone is online, it sends a small anonymous "in use" signal to a counting service we run, at most once a day. The signal contains only:
- a random install number created by the app on your phone (not your phone number, not a device ID, not tied to your name);
- the app version;
- your access state (free period, paid, or expired);
- the platform (for example "android");
- the calendar days on which the app was opened since the last signal.
We use it to count how many copies of Kise are in use, which versions, and whether people keep using it. It contains no amounts, messages, names, phone numbers, account numbers or location. Because it carries nothing that identifies you, we cannot look up, correct or delete the record of a particular person.
As with any internet request, the network address (IP address) of your connection reaches the hosting provider when the signal is sent. Our counting service does not record it.
We keep these records for 13 months: a day of use is deleted once it is older than that, and the record of an install is deleted once it has not been seen for that long. Clearing the app's data or reinstalling the app creates a new random install number.
5. Backups and exports you make
- Kise backups. A backup file is encrypted on your phone with a key made from a password you choose (AES-256-GCM, key derived with PBKDF2-SHA256). We do not have the password and cannot open the file. You decide where the file is kept: in your phone's Documents folder, or a location you pick with Android's file picker, which can be a cloud storage app such as Google Drive. A file you place with another provider is held under that provider's terms and privacy policy.
- Exports. Reports you export (PDF, Excel, CSV) are not encrypted. They go only where you save or share them.
- Android's own backup. Kise allows Android's built-in app backup. If backup is turned on in your phone's settings, Android may include Kise's app data (a copy of your records, your settings and your access record) in the phone's backup to your Google account, and put it back when you reinstall Kise or set up a new phone. That backup is made, stored and protected by Android and Google under your Google account, not by us. We cannot see it. You can turn it off in your phone's settings (Google › Backup).
6. Who receives information
We do not sell, rent or trade information, and the app contains no advertising or third-party analytics software.
| Recipient | What they receive | When |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. (hosts our counting service) | The anonymous signal in section 4 and, as for any internet request, the connection's IP address | At most once a day when the app is open and online |
| A storage provider you choose, for example Google Drive | Your encrypted backup file | Only if you place your backup there |
| Google (Android backup) | Kise's app data, including a copy of your records, inside your phone's own backup | Only if Android backup is on in your phone's settings |
| YouTube | Nothing from Kise. The video guides in Help open in your browser or the YouTube app | Only if you tap a video guide |
Payments for access are made by you in your own telebirr or bank app. Kise does not process the payment and never sees your wallet or bank login, PIN or card details.
We may disclose information if the law requires it. In practice the only information we hold is the anonymous usage record described in section 4.
7. How information is protected
- Your records are kept in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read on a phone that has not been rooted.
- You can lock the app with a PIN, a password, or fingerprint or face unlock. Balances are hidden whenever you leave the app.
- Your access record is encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore.
- Backups are encrypted with your password before they leave the app.
- The anonymous signal and this website use HTTPS.
No method is perfect. Anyone who can unlock your phone and the app can see your records, so use a screen lock and the app lock, and keep your backup password private. If you forget the backup password, the backup cannot be opened by anyone, including us.
8. How long information is kept, and how to delete it
- Bank and wallet messages waiting to be checked are kept for the time you set (24 hours to 7 days) and then cleared. Messages you confirmed or dismissed are kept for up to 30 days so the same message is not picked up twice, and then removed, unless an entry in your history is linked to them.
- Entries, handled messages and price records older than the period you set (6 months to 5 years; 1 year unless you change it) are removed automatically. Account balances are not changed by this.
- Delete everything: Settings › Data › Erase data removes your entries, messages, bills, prices and limits from the phone. Uninstalling Kise removes the app's data from the phone.
- What uninstalling does not remove: backup files you saved outside the app (for example in Documents or a cloud drive) and reports you exported. Delete those yourself where you put them. A copy inside Android's own backup is managed in your Google account.
- The anonymous usage record is kept as stated in section 4 and deleted automatically after that.
9. Android permissions Kise uses
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Read and receive SMS | Bank and wallet alerts, and confirming your payment for access (section 3) |
| Notifications | Telling you a new bank message is waiting, and reminding you of bills, salary and loans that are due. These are created on the phone |
| Run at start-up | Setting your reminders again after the phone restarts |
| Internet | The anonymous signal in section 4, and opening the Help video links |
| Biometrics | Fingerprint or face unlock, if you turn it on |
| Storage (Android 10 and older only) | Saving your backup file in the Documents folder |
10. This website
This website only shows these documents. It sets no cookies, has no forms and uses no analytics or advertising. Like any website, the company that hosts it (Cloudflare, Inc.) receives your connection's IP address and basic request details when you load a page.
11. Children
Kise is a money-management tool made for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
12. Your choices and rights
- You can see, correct and delete everything Kise holds about you directly in the app, because it is all on your phone.
- You can refuse or withdraw the SMS permission, the notification permission and biometric unlock at any time in Android's settings.
- You can stop using Kise and remove your data at any time by erasing it in the app or uninstalling.
- Depending on where you live, data protection law may give you further rights, such as to ask what is held about you or to object to its use. You can write to us at kise.support@gmail.com about any of these, and you may also complain to the data protection authority where you live.
13. Changes to this policy
If the way Kise handles information changes, we will update this page, change the version and date at the top, and, where the change is significant, tell you in the app before it takes effect.
14. Contact
Biruk Getaneh
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
kise.support@gmail.com