Privacy Policy — Fils

Last updated: 29 September 2026

In short: Fils reads your bank's SMS messages, on your phone, to show you your own spending. It has no internet permission, has no account or sign-in, shows no ads, and never sends your data anywhere — to us or to anyone else.

Who this policy covers

This policy applies to the Android and iPhone apps called Fils - Cards & Spend Tracker, developed by an independent developer based in the United Arab Emirates. If you have questions about this policy or the app, contact rmjtdevelopers@gmail.com.

What Fils reads

On Android, with your permission, Fils reads incoming and existing SMS messages so it can find messages from your bank. Specifically:

Fils only looks at messages from senders it recognises as banks, or senders you have explicitly added as a bank sender.
Messages from personal contacts, and messages from senders that are not banks, are never opened or processed.
One-time passcodes (OTPs) and verification codes are detected and discarded immediately — they are never stored, displayed in a list, or kept in any database.
On iPhone, where apps cannot read SMS, you can instead paste a message, share it from Messages, take a screenshot, open a statement PDF, or use a Shortcuts automation you set up yourself. The same rules apply: only content you provide is processed, and OTPs are discarded the same way.

What Fils does with what it reads

Fils extracts the transaction details it needs to build your spending picture: the amount, the type (spend, refund, transfer or payment), the merchant name where present, the date, and the last 4 digits of the card or account number (used only to tell your cards apart — never the full card or account number).

This information, along with anything you enter yourself (cards you add by hand, categories you assign, budgets, savings goals, cash spends you type in), is stored in a database on your device only.

What Fils never does

No internet access. The Android app does not request the internet permission at all, so no data can be transmitted off the device, even if the app wanted to.
No account or sign-in. Fils does not ask for your name, email, phone number, or any other identifying information.
No advertising or analytics SDKs. Fils contains no third-party trackers, ad networks, or analytics services.
No sharing or selling of data. Nothing Fils reads or stores is shared with, sold to, or processed by any third party, including the developer.
No access to banking apps, banking credentials, or full card numbers. Fils only reads the text of SMS messages (or content you explicitly share with it); it never connects to your bank, requests your banking login, or has access to any banking app on your device.

Where your data is stored

All data lives in a local database inside the app's private storage on your phone. If you use the app's backup feature, the backup file is created locally and is only moved off the device if you choose to move it yourself (for example, by saving it to a cloud drive you control, or transferring it to another device). Fils itself never uploads a backup anywhere.

The same applies to everything else that can leave the app: PDF and Excel reports you export, and the "share" buttons (for example, sharing a statement's extracted text, or a bank message the app couldn't read). These only happen when you tap them, and the content goes only to the app you pick in your phone's share menu.

App lock

Fils offers an optional app lock using your device's fingerprint or face unlock, provided by your phone's operating system. Fils never receives or stores your biometric data — that is handled entirely by Android's or iOS's own secure hardware.

Permissions Fils requests, and why

Permission	Why
`READ_SMS`, `RECEIVE_SMS`	To read bank SMS and turn them into transactions. Fils is an SMS-based money-management tool: this is its core function, and only bank-sender messages are processed.
`POST_NOTIFICATIONS`	To show due-date reminders and spending alerts you turn on.
`USE_BIOMETRIC` (`USE_FINGERPRINT` on older Android versions)	To let you lock the app with your fingerprint or face.
`RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED`, `WAKE_LOCK`, `FOREGROUND_SERVICE`, `ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE`	Added automatically by Android's standard background-task library (WorkManager) so scheduled work such as due-date reminders keeps running, including after the phone restarts. `ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE` only lets the system check whether the phone is online — it does not let Fils use the internet.

Deleting your data

Because everything is stored only on your device, uninstalling Fils permanently deletes all of its data. There is no server-side copy to separately request deletion of.

Children's privacy

Fils is a personal-finance tool intended for general audiences and is not directed at children. It does not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this same address with a new "last updated" date.