Tallypad — Loans Between Friends
Last updated: September 2026
Tallypad works entirely on your device. There is no account, no login, and no server. We do not collect, transmit, or sell your personal data, the names of your friends, or any of your financial figures.
Tallypad is an app for keeping track of informal loans between friends — what you lent, what you borrowed, what has been paid back, and the balance that remains with each person. Everything you enter is stored on your device. We never see it.
This policy covers both Tallypad for iPhone and Tallypad for Android. The two apps behave identically in every respect that matters here, with one exception that is called out in full below: the iPhone app offers optional iCloud sync, and the Android app has no sync at all.
The app opens straight into your ledger. There is no sign-up screen, no email address to provide, and no password to create. We have no user database, because we have no users to store — the app has never asked us for permission to do anything on your behalf, and it never will.
We do not collect, store, or transmit any of the following:
We have no servers, no accounts, and no backend. There is nowhere for your data to go except your own device.
On iPhone. People, entries, receipt photos and settings are stored using Apple’s SwiftData framework. Preferences — your primary currency, how the list is sorted, and whether sync is on — are stored in UserDefaults on your device. The app’s data is kept in a shared app group container so that the home screen widget, which runs as a separate process on your own device, can read your balances in order to display them. That container is part of your device’s storage and is not accessible to us or to any other app.
On Android. People and entries are stored in a private database on the device using Android’s Room library. Receipt photos are saved as files in the app’s own private storage, and the database holds only the location of each file. Preferences are stored using Jetpack DataStore. All of it lives in app-private storage, which other apps cannot read.
None of this is transmitted anywhere, on either platform. Deleting the app removes this data from your device. We cannot recover it for you, because we never had a copy.
You may optionally attach a photo to an entry. On both platforms the photo is chosen through the operating system’s own picker — Apple’s on iPhone, Android’s photo picker on Android — which runs outside the app and hands it only the single image you select. Because of this, Tallypad never requests access to your photo library as a whole, and neither system will show you a photo permission prompt.
Attached photos are resized on your device and stored alongside the entry. They are never uploaded, analysed, or shared with any third party.
On iPhone, sync is optional and off by default. If you turn it on, your data is synced through Apple’s CloudKit framework into your private iCloud database. That database belongs to your Apple Account — it is encrypted by Apple and accessible only to you. We have no access to it, and we receive no copy of it. You can manage or delete iCloud data at any time from the iOS Settings app under your Apple Account. Uninstalling the app does not automatically remove data already stored in your iCloud account.
On Android there is no sync of any kind. The Android app has no network access — it does not request the internet permission — so your ledger never leaves the device it was entered on. It is not backed up to us, to Google, or to anywhere else by the app.
Because the two platforms store data in different places, Tallypad on an iPhone and Tallypad on an Android phone keep entirely separate ledgers. Nothing moves between them. The app says so in its own Settings screen rather than leaving you to discover it.
The app can produce a summary of one person’s balance — as text, or as an image — and hand it to the system share sheet. Nothing is shared unless you explicitly choose to share it, and you choose where it goes.
Once you send a summary through another app, such as Messages or Mail, it leaves Tallypad and is governed by that app’s privacy policy and by the service behind it. We are not a party to that transfer and never receive a copy. Please note that a shared summary contains the person’s name, the balance, and the reason, date and amount of recent entries.
Tallypad contains no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, or crash-reporting SDKs. The only frameworks it uses are those shipped by the platform itself — on iPhone, Apple’s SwiftUI, SwiftData, PhotosUI, WidgetKit and, if you enable sync, CloudKit; on Android, Google’s Jetpack Compose, Room and DataStore — all of which keep your data on your device or within your own Apple Account.
The app makes no network requests of its own. It does not look up exchange rates: currencies are tracked side by side and never converted, so there is no rate service to contact.
Tallypad is free, with every feature unlocked and no in-app purchases. If paid features are introduced in a future version, all payment processing would be handled by the store you installed from — Apple’s App Store or Google Play — and we would never receive or store payment card information. Their privacy policies govern all transaction data.
Because we collect no data, there is nothing for us to retain or delete on our end. Your records persist on your device until you delete them in the app or uninstall it. On iPhone, if you have enabled iCloud sync, data also persists in your own iCloud account subject to Apple’s retention policies. On Android nothing persists anywhere but the device.
Tallypad records names that you type in yourself. It does not read your contacts, and it does not attempt to identify anyone. Any name you enter stays on your device — and, on iPhone with sync enabled, in your own iCloud account — exactly like the rest of your ledger, and is never transmitted to us.
Tallypad does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the applicable age in your jurisdiction). Because the app collects no personal data at all, it is safe for users of any age.
If you are located in the European Union, EEA, or California, you may have rights regarding your personal data under GDPR or CCPA. Because Tallypad does not collect or process any personal data on our servers, these rights have limited practical application — there is no data for us to provide, correct, or delete. We do not sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined under the CCPA.
For data held by Apple (iCloud, App Store) or by Google (Google Play), please refer to their own privacy controls and policies.
We may update this policy if the app’s functionality changes in a way that affects data handling. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page will reflect any revisions. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.
If you have any questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us at:
We aim to respond to all inquiries within 30 days.