Privacy Policy

Effective 6 August 2026 · Applies to the Businessly app on Android (com.zak.businessly) and on Windows.

Businessly is a digital khata for small shopkeepers. This policy explains what data the app handles, why, who processes it, and how you can delete it. It is written to match what the app actually does.

1Who we are

Data controller: Zubair Ahmed Khan (individual developer). For privacy questions and data-deletion requests: appzubair@gmail.com.

2What we collect and why

Your ledger

Customers, suppliers, sales, purchases, payments, balances, cash, expenses, products, bills, rent, installments, loans, your Zakat worksheet, business names and settings — the records you create.

Stored in an encrypted database on your device. If you sign in, it is also synced to our server so your other devices can reach it, and — with a Google sign-in — backed up to your own Google Drive in a private app folder.

If you never sign in, none of it leaves your device.

Account details

When you sign in, we hold the email address you signed in with, and — for Google sign-ins — your display name and Google user ID, to authenticate you and tie your ledger to your account.

Contacts

Only on Android, and only when you tap Import from contacts. We read just the contact you pick, and it becomes part of your ledger entry. We never upload your contact list. On Windows, contacts are not accessed at all.

Anonymous device count

Once a day the app reports an anonymous device identifier, the platform, the app version and the OS version, so we can count how many devices use Businessly and tell a returning device from a new one.

The identifier is a one-way hash of a value your operating system already assigns to the device. The original value never leaves your device, the hash cannot be reversed, and it is not linked to you, your account or your ledger. It survives reinstalling the app — which is what lets us count devices rather than installs — and changes on a factory reset.

Advertising ID (Android only)

Used by Google AdMob when the app shows its banner advert. The banner appears in a band above the main screens, and on a few individual screens. It is deliberately not shown on a customer's statement. Ads may be switched off entirely, in which case no ad requests are made at all.

The Windows app contains no advertising code and shows no ads.

We do not collect location, photos, messages or crash telemetry, and your ledger is never used for advertising. The app contains no third-party analytics SDKs.

3Who processes your data

• Google — Google Sign-In (authentication) and Google Drive (your encrypted backup, in your own account's private app folder). Google's Privacy Policy.
• Supabase — our cloud backend, storing your synced ledger isolated per account. Hosting region: ap-southeast-1 (Singapore). Supabase's Privacy Policy.
• Google AdMob (Android only) — serves the banner advert and may use your advertising ID to show and measure ads. In the EEA and UK you are shown a consent choice first; without consent, ads are limited or non-personalised. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.
• Brevo — sends the sign-in code when you sign in by email, and the welcome email. It receives your email address for that purpose only.

4How your data is protected

• On your device: the database is encrypted at rest (SQLCipher), on both Android and Windows. The key is held in the operating system's secure storage — the Android Keystore, or Windows DPAPI.
• In transit: everything sent to Supabase and Google travels over HTTPS/TLS.
• On the server and in Drive: encrypted at rest by Supabase and Google respectively. Your Supabase data is access-controlled so only your account can read it; the Drive backup lives in your own account.

5How long we keep it

Your synced ledger stays on the server while your account exists. The app keeps the five most recent Google Drive backups and removes older ones automatically. When you delete your data, the server copy and the Drive backups are removed.

6Your choices and your right to delete

• Never sign in, and nothing ever leaves the device.
• Turn automatic Drive backup off at any time in Settings → Back up & restore.
• Sign out — your data stays on the device.
• Export your ledger as a file that is yours to keep.

Delete everything: in the app, Settings → Delete all my data. You are offered two options — remove from this device only (keeping your cloud backup), or delete everywhere, which permanently erases your local data, your server-side ledger and your Google Drive backups, and signs you out. Deleting everywhere cannot be undone.

If you have uninstalled the app and cannot use the in-app option, email the address above — see the account & data deletion page.

7Permissions the app requests

• Internet — for sign-in, sync, Drive backup, ads, and opening WhatsApp or links you choose to send.
• Contacts (Android) — only when you tap Import from contacts.
• Notifications (Android) — for the reminders you switch on yourself. These are generated on the device; nothing is sent anywhere.
• Advertising ID (Android, com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID) — used only by AdMob for the banner described above.

8Children

Businessly is a business tool intended for users 18 and over. It is not directed at children.

9Changes to this policy

We update this page and its effective date when the app's data practices change. Material changes are reflected here before the corresponding app version is released.

Note on the Pakistan Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB): once enacted, this policy will be reviewed for consent, data-subject rights and data-residency alignment.