Privacy Policy

Tally is a free iPhone app from Buzzed Technologies LLC, a New York limited liability company ("Buzzed Technologies," "we," "us"). Tally helps groups keep track of shared expenses. This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It covers the Tally app and the pages at tally.buzzedtech.com. We decide how the information described here is used, so we are the "controller" under European and UK law and the "business" under California law.

The short version

We collect the account details you give us, the groups and expenses you create, and a notification token for your phone.
We use them to run Tally: to show your groups, work out who owes whom, and send you notifications.
We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. Tally has no ads and no cross-app tracking, and the app includes no analytics SDK.
Tally never moves money, and we never collect your bank or card details.
You can delete your account whenever you like.

Information we collect

Account information

You sign in with your phone number, a one-time code sent by SMS, and a password. Our authentication provider, Clerk, runs sign-in for us. We receive and store:

your phone number
your first name (required) and last name (optional)
a profile photo (optional)
an email address (optional)

Clerk handles your password. We never see it and never store it.

Groups and expenses

When you use Tally you create content, which we store so the app can work:

group names and invite codes
member names, including friends you add by name who don't have an account yet
expense titles, amounts, currencies, dates, categories, optional notes, who paid, and how each expense was split
payments you record between members

Everyone in a group who has an account can see and edit the group's expenses. Other members see your name and, if you have one, your profile photo. They do not see your phone number or email address.

People who don't have an account

If someone adds you to a group by name, we store that name and the expenses linked to it, even though you have never used Tally. We learn this only from the person who added you, and we use it only to keep that group's ledger accurate. You can contact us about it at any time (see "Your rights and choices").

Device and technical information

A push notification token from Apple for each phone you use with Tally, so we can send notifications.
Standard technical logs from our servers and hosting provider, such as IP address, request time, app version, and error messages. We use these to keep Tally secure and working.

AI features

Tally has two features that use AI models:

Category suggestions. While you type an expense title, the title (and your note, if you've written one) is sent to an AI model, which suggests a category.
Receipt scanning. The photo is read on your device using Apple's Vision text recognition, and the photo itself is not sent to us. Only the recognized text, the group's currency, and your local date go to our server and on to an AI model, which extracts a title, total, date, and category. Receipts can contain other printed details, such as a store name or partial card number, and that text is included.

These requests go through Vercel AI Gateway to model providers, currently TypeSafe AI and OpenAI. We do not use your data to train AI models. The providers process it to return a result, and they handle it under their own terms.

AI assistants you connect

If you connect an AI assistant, such as Claude, to Tally using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), you sign in with OAuth and the assistant can read your groups and expenses and add, edit, or delete expenses for you. What the assistant's provider does with that information is governed by its own terms and privacy policy, not this one.

Exchange rates

Our servers look up currency conversion rates from Frankfurter (European Central Bank reference rates) and open.er-api.com. We send only currency codes and dates. No personal information is sent.

What we don't collect

We don't collect your bank, card, or other payment details. We don't access your contacts, your location, or your advertising identifier. Our website pages don't use advertising or analytics cookies.

How we use your information

To provide Tally: create your account, show your groups, calculate balances, and sync changes between members
To send notifications when someone adds, edits, or deletes an expense or joins a group (notification text includes names, titles, and amounts)
To power the AI features and the assistant connection, if you choose to use them
To send you SMS verification codes for sign-in
To keep Tally secure, prevent abuse, fix bugs, and respond to support requests
To comply with the law and enforce our Terms of Service

We don't use your information for advertising, we don't sell it, and we don't use it to train AI models.

Legal bases (EU and UK users)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on:

Contract, to provide the account, groups, expenses, notifications, and AI features you ask for
Legitimate interests, to secure and troubleshoot Tally and to keep a shared ledger accurate for everyone in it, including people who were added by name. You can object (see below).
Consent, for push notifications, which you control in iOS Settings, and wherever else we ask
Legal obligation, where the law requires us to keep or disclose information

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only as described here.

Other group members see the content of the groups you belong to, as described above.
Service providers process information for us under contracts or terms that limit their use of it: Clerk (authentication, SMS codes, and account profiles); MongoDB Atlas (our database for groups and expenses); Vercel (hosting and AI Gateway); TypeSafe AI and OpenAI, through Vercel AI Gateway (AI models); and Apple (push notifications and the App Store).
AI assistants you choose to connect, as described above.
Authorities and others, when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or that it is needed to protect people's safety or our rights.
A buyer or successor, if Buzzed Technologies is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. We will tell you first if your information would become subject to a materially different policy.

Retention and deletion

We keep your account information while your account is open, and your content while its group exists.

You can delete your account in the app: Account → Manage account → Security → Delete account. This deletes your Clerk account, removes your push tokens, and unlinks you from your groups. What happens to a group depends on who else is in it:

If you were the last person with an account in a group, the group is deleted along with all of its expenses.
If other people still use the group, your name and past expenses stay, because the shared ledger has to keep adding up for them. They are no longer linked to your account, and your phone number, email, and profile photo are not part of them. If you'd like the name on those entries changed too, contact us and we will replace it where we reasonably can.

Group owners can also delete a whole group at any time, which removes the group and all its expenses for everyone. Deleted expenses and groups can't be restored. Signing out of Tally removes that phone's push token.

Technical logs and backups held by our providers are kept for limited periods and then expire in the ordinary course, so deleted data may linger briefly there. We may keep information longer where the law requires it or to resolve disputes. Information held by AI providers, and by AI assistants you connected, is subject to those companies' own retention practices.

Your rights and choices

Everyone can:

edit your name, photo, and email in the app under Account → Manage account
turn notifications off in iOS Settings
delete your account (see above)
ask us for a copy of your information, or ask us to correct it

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict use of your information, to receive it in a portable format, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent at any time. If you are in the EU or UK, you can complain to your local data protection authority.

In California, you have the right to know what we collect, to delete and correct your information, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We don't sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of.

To make a request, email legal@buzzedtech.com. We may need to verify your identity, for example by asking you to confirm details from your account. If you don't use Tally and were added to a group by name, tell us which group and who added you. We respond within the time the law requires, generally within 30 days (45 days for California requests). In California you can use an authorized agent, and we may ask for proof of their authority.

Tally doesn't make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. AI suggestions are only suggestions, and you can change them.

California notice at collection

In the past 12 months we collected identifiers (name, phone number, email, IP address, notification token), an optional profile photo, and the content you create (groups, expenses, notes). Our sources are you, other group members, and your device. We use this information for the purposes described above and disclose it for business purposes to the service providers listed above. We do not sell or share personal information, including that of anyone under 16. The only sensitive personal information involved is your account login, which Clerk handles to sign you in.

International transfers

Tally is run from the United States, and your information is stored in the United States. If you use Tally from the EU, the UK, or elsewhere, your information is transferred to and processed in the US, where data protection laws may differ from yours. Where required, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum) or a provider's certification under the Data Privacy Framework.

Security

We protect information with measures such as encryption in transit, access controls, and providers that encrypt stored data. No online service is perfectly secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you and regulators as the law requires.

Children

Tally isn't directed to children. You must be at least 13 (or the minimum age to use online services in your country, if higher), and if you're under 18 you need a parent or guardian's permission. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We'll post the new version at tally.buzzedtech.com/privacy with a new effective date and, for material changes, tell you in the app before they take effect where practical.

Contact

Buzzed Technologies LLC
Privacy and legal requests: legal@buzzedtech.com
General questions and support: hi@buzzedtech.com