Privacy Policy for ShopsTally

Last updated: 10 October 2026

ShopsTally ("the app") is a bookkeeping app for small home-based businesses. It records what you bought, what you sold, and whether you are making a profit.

This policy explains what happens to the information you enter. The short version: your business records stay on your phone. We never receive them.

1. We do not collect your business records

ShopsTally has no user accounts, no sign-in, and no server. The developer has no database of users and no way to see what you enter.

Permissions the app uses

• 
  Camera — used only when you tap the barcode-scan button, or choose "Camera" to take a photo of an item, a bill or a checklist entry. Android asks you first, and you can say no; you can still type names and pick photos from your gallery. Photos and scanned barcodes are saved only on your phone. The camera is never used in the background.

• 
  Internet and network state — not used by ShopsTally's own code. They are added by Google's ML Kit (see below), which needs them to send Google the technical information described there.

The app does not ask for your contacts, microphone, location, call logs, or access to your photo library. When you pick a photo from your gallery, Android's own photo picker hands over only the photo you chose.

Google ML Kit

To scan barcodes, ShopsTally uses Google's ML Kit. The scanning itself happens entirely on your phone — your photos, barcodes and business records are not sent anywhere.

ML Kit itself does send Google a limited amount of technical information, to help Google diagnose and improve ML Kit:

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  your device's manufacturer, model, Android version and build;

• 
  the app's package name and version;

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  performance measurements and settings for the reading feature;

• 
  an identifier for this installation of the app, which Google says is designed not to identify you or your device.

Google says this information is encrypted in transit and is not passed to third parties. It never includes your business records, names, photos or barcodes. Google's own description is at https://developers.google.com/ml-kit/android-data-disclosure.

No advertising or tracking

ShopsTally contains no advertising, and the developer has added no analytics, crash-reporting or tracking tools. The developer receives nothing from the app — including the ML Kit information above, which goes only to Google.

2. What the app stores, and where

Everything you enter is written to a private database on your own device and stays there. This includes:

• 
  Your name, if you choose to enter it (used only to greet you).

• 
  Your business name and phone number, if you choose to enter them.

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  Your business records — items, purchases, sales, quantities, prices, dates, running costs, invoices, notes, and any extra fields you add.

• 
  Photos you attach to purchases, checklist items or catalog items, and barcodes you scan or type for your items.

• 
  Checklists and catalogs you create.

• 
  Your settings — theme, colours, language, and similar preferences.

None of this is required to use the app, and none of it is sent anywhere. You can leave your name, business name, and phone number blank.

3. Backups

There are three ways your records can be copied, and you control all three:

a) Android's own backup. ShopsTally allows Android to include its database in the standard device backup, so that your records survive a lost, broken, or replaced phone. This backup is performed by Android, not by ShopsTally; it goes to your own Google account, and Google encrypts it. The developer has no access to it. You can switch this off for all apps in your device settings under Settings → Google → Backup.

We enable this deliberately. ShopsTally keeps your books on one device with no online copy, and losing a phone should not mean losing your records.

b) "Backup". This saves a copy of your records — with your photos, if you choose — as a file in your phone's public Downloads/ShopsTally folder, so you can find it in any file manager and restore it on this or another phone. The app also offers to save one of these copies before you delete a range of records or a whole business.

Please be aware: these files are not encrypted or password-protected. They are readable by any other app on your phone that you have granted file access to, and by anyone using your phone. This is a deliberate trade-off — a file you cannot find is a backup you cannot use — but if your records are sensitive, delete these files once you have copied them somewhere safe.

c) "Export Data". This creates a spreadsheet of your purchases and sales and opens your phone's normal share menu so you can send it to yourself or someone else over WhatsApp, email, or any other app. Nothing is sent unless you choose a recipient and send it. Once you send a file to someone, this policy no longer governs it — the app you sent it through, and the person who receives it, have their own terms.

4. We never share or sell your information

The developer does not receive your information, so there is nothing to share, sell, rent, or disclose — to advertisers, data brokers, lenders, or anyone else. There is no circumstance in which your business records are transmitted to us.

5. Deleting your data

• 
  Delete individual items, purchases, or sales inside the app at any time.

• 
  Uninstalling ShopsTally removes its database and erases everything it stored, including the photos attached inside the app.

• 
  Backup files you saved are ordinary files and are not removed by uninstalling. Delete them yourself from the Downloads/ShopsTally folder using any file manager.

• 
  If you have Android backup switched on, also clear the app's backup from your Google account at drive.google.com → Storage → Backups.

Because we hold none of your data, there is no request you need to send us to have it deleted — it is entirely in your hands. The technical information ML Kit sends is held by Google under Google's own policies.

6. Children

ShopsTally is a business bookkeeping tool intended for adults running a business. It is not directed at children.

7. Security

Your records are stored in the app's private storage area, which Android prevents other apps from reading. ShopsTally has no server and sends your records nowhere, so there is no transmission of them to intercept and no online account to breach.

The exceptions you should understand are the backup and export files described in section 3(b) and 3(c), which are deliberately placed outside that protected area so you can find and share them. Treat them as you would a paper ledger — anyone holding the file can read it.

8. Changes to this policy

If the app changes in a way that affects this policy — for example if optional online sync is added in a future version — this page will be updated, and the "last updated" date above will change. Any feature that sends your records off the device will be something you opt into, never something switched on for you.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy or about how ShopsTally handles your information:

Ujjawal Rathore

ujjawaldevelopers@gmail.com

This policy describes the behaviour of the app as published. It is written in plain language for the people who use ShopsTally and is not a substitute for legal advice.