Privacy Policy
Last updated: 8 November 2026
Chi Li is a personal-finance app for iPhone. It is built so that your money data stays on your phone. This policy explains what the app handles, what (if anything) leaves your phone, and the choices you have.
1. Who we are
Chi Li is developed and operated by Tran Tien Quang, an individual developer in Vietnam ("we", "us"). Contact: kalen1o@outlook.com.
2. The short version
- No account. No sign-up, no email, no phone number.
- Your transactions, wallets, budgets, debts, goals and events are stored on your phone.
- No analytics, no advertising, no tracking, no ad identifiers. We do not sell or rent data.
- Data leaves your phone only for features you choose: iCloud sync, and AI features for Premium subscribers who turn them on.
3. What the app handles
a. Transactions you add
Everything you type, say, scan or import becomes records stored in the app's database on your phone (and in your own iCloud if you turn on sync, see section 5).
b. Receipts and VietQR codes
The camera picture or photo you pick is read on your phone with Apple's on-device text and barcode recognition. Photos are never uploaded. If you are a Premium subscriber and have turned on AI features, the text read from a receipt (not the photo) is sent to our AI service to check the merchant, total, date and category (section 4). Receipt text can include the shop's address, items bought and, if printed, part of a card number.
c. Bank statements
Excel and CSV statement files are read entirely on your phone and are never sent anywhere.
d. Voice and Quick add
When you tap the microphone, speech is turned into text by Apple's speech recognition. When your iPhone supports it for your language, this happens on the phone; otherwise Apple processes the audio under Apple's privacy policy. We never receive the audio. If you are a Premium subscriber with AI features on, the resulting text is sent to our AI service to split it into entries (section 4).
e. Apple Pay and Shortcuts
If you set up the Shortcuts automation, the store name and amount of an Apple Pay payment are passed to Chi Li on your phone. For Premium subscribers with AI features on, the store name, amount and currency may be sent to our AI service to suggest a category.
f. Exchange rates
The app downloads a public table of daily exchange rates from ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com), or from jsDelivr if that is unavailable. Nothing about you is sent; like any website, these services can see your IP address when the table is downloaded.
g. Notifications, widgets and Siri
Reminders, budget alerts, unusual-spending alerts and the weekly summary are worked out and scheduled on your phone. Widgets read a small summary that the app saves in storage shared only with its own widgets. Siri and Shortcuts actions run on your phone.
h. Subscriptions
Payments are handled by Apple; we never see your card details or Apple Account. To check that you are a Premium subscriber, the app sends Apple's signed proof of purchase to our AI service, which verifies it with Apple.
i. Permissions
Camera (scanning), Photos (picking a receipt picture, optional), Microphone and Speech Recognition (voice entry, optional), Notifications (optional). You can change each one in iPhone Settings.
4. How the app uses AI
AI features are part of Chi Li Premium and are off until you agree to an explanation screen. You can turn them off any time in Settings → Privacy → AI features; when off, nothing is sent.
When on, the app sends only what a feature needs:
- Ask AI and spending analysis: your question and the transactions involved (date, merchant, amount, currency, category).
- Receipt check: the text read from the receipt.
- Voice and Quick add check: the text you said or typed.
- Category suggestions: a payment's store name, amount and currency.
Requests go to our relay service on Cloudflare, which forwards them to Anthropic's Claude models and returns the answer. The relay does not store the content of requests or answers. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, this data is not used to train its models. AI answers can be wrong; please check them.
5. Where your data is stored
- On your phone, in the app's private storage. It is included in your iPhone backups.
- In your iCloud, only if you turn on iCloud sync. Data is kept in your private iCloud database (Apple CloudKit), which we cannot access.
- Our relay keeps only a monthly count of AI requests per subscription, keyed to an anonymous subscription identifier, so it can apply the monthly limit. Counts are deleted automatically after about 40 days. Cloudflare may keep short-lived technical logs (such as IP addresses) to run and protect the service.
6. Third-party services
| Service | What it receives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | Payments, iCloud data (if sync is on), speech audio (only when on-device recognition isn't available) | Subscriptions, sync, voice entry |
| Anthropic | The AI request content in section 4 | AI features (Premium, opt-in) |
| Cloudflare | AI requests in transit, proof of purchase, technical logs | Runs our relay |
| ExchangeRate-API, jsDelivr | A download request (IP address) | Exchange rates |
7. Security
We keep data on your phone wherever possible, send only what a feature needs, use encrypted HTTPS connections, and check subscriptions with Apple before any AI request is processed. No method is completely secure, so please protect your phone with a passcode.
8. Keeping and deleting your data
- Edit or delete any transaction, wallet, budget, debt, goal or event in the app.
- Deleting the app removes its data from your phone.
- To remove synced data, turn off sync and delete Chi Li's data in iPhone Settings → [your name] → iCloud.
- Because we hold no account or copy of your data, we cannot recover it for you.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live, including under Vietnam's personal data protection law and the EU/UK GDPR, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or object to the processing of your personal data, and to withdraw consent. Most of these you can exercise directly in the app. For anything else, email us; we will reply within 30 days.
10. Children
Chi Li is meant for adults and is not directed at children under 16.
11. Changes
We may update this policy. We will change the "Last updated" date and, for important changes, tell you in the app.
12. Contact
Tran Tien Quang — kalen1o@outlook.com