Your data & privacy
Where your ledger actually lives, what leaves the device, and what you can do about all of it.
Short version: your book is stored encrypted on your own device, and nothing about it leaves unless you sign in.
On the device
The ledger sits in an encrypted database — on Android and on Windows alike. The encryption key is held in the operating system's own secure storage (the Android Keystore, or Windows DPAPI), not in a file next to the data.
That encryption protects the file. It does not stop someone who is holding your unlocked phone from opening the app and reading the screen. For that, switch on App Lock.
Your book is also excluded from your phone's automatic system backup, so it never travels through Google's backup transport. The only copies that leave your device are the ones you ask for — see Backup & restore.
One small thing does travel that way, and only if you are signed in: a sign-in token for your own account, so a new phone can sign you back in without you typing anything. It holds your account email and nothing else about your business. Your book is not in it. Sign out, or delete your data, and the token is cleared — see Signing in.
If you never sign in
Then nothing from your book leaves at all. No account, no cloud, no copy anywhere but your device and its local backup. (The anonymous install count and error reports below still go, because they are not your book.)
If you do sign in
Your ledger syncs to your own account so it can reach your other devices. It is your data in your account — not a shared space, and not visible to other users of the app.
The app does not ask for access to your Google Drive, and stores nothing there.
What else the app sends
Being straight about the things that are not your ledger:
| What and why | |
|---|---|
| Anonymous install count | So we know roughly how many devices run the app. Not tied to you or your data. |
| Error reports | When the ad banner or the ad-consent screen fails (Android), or when signing in fails (Android and Windows), a short technical report — the error code, app and OS version, and the anonymous device id — so we can fix it. A sign-in report holds codes only: never the error message or the address you typed. If it cannot be sent at the time, it is sent the next time the app starts. Never your book, your email or your account. |
| Totals | Counts across all accounts, such as how many use installments or which kinds of business people make, so we know what to improve. No names, amounts or anything you typed. |
| Ads (Android only) | The banner is served by Google AdMob. It never receives your ledger. See Ads. |
| Feature suggestions | Only what you type, when you choose to send it, with your email so we can reply. |
| Update check | Asks the server what the latest version is. |
If you buy Businessly Pro, the purchase token and product id Google Play gives you are stored on your account. That is what lets the same purchase be restored on your other devices when you sign in — it is not shared with anyone else, and it does not carry any of your ledger.
Contacts
Import from contacts opens your phone's own contact picker. Businessly receives only the contact you pick there. It does not upload your contact list.
Contacts are not used on a PC at all — Windows has no access to your phone's contacts.
Reminders and WhatsApp
Phone reminders are local notifications — generated on the device, no internet, no SMS charges, nothing sent anywhere.
WhatsApp reminders are not sent by Businessly either. The app opens WhatsApp with the message written for you; you press send.
What you control
- Turn cloud backup off, or never sign in at all
- Sign out at any time — the data stays on the device
- Export everything as a file that is yours
- Delete everything, from this device or from everywhere
See Backup & restore for the delete options, which are genuinely different from each other.
Full policy
The complete privacy policy, including who processes what, is at the privacy page.