Privacy Policy

Last updated 27 October 2026

The short version: Embers does not collect, store, sell or share any personal data. There is no Embers account and no Embers server. Your budget stays on your devices and, if you use iCloud, in your own private iCloud storage, which the developer cannot see.

What Embers stores, and where

Everything you enter — accounts, categories, transactions, payees, notes and settings — is stored on your device.

If iCloud is turned on for Embers, the same data is kept in your private iCloud database so your iPhone, iPad and Mac stay in step. It is stored and protected by Apple under your Apple Account and Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer has no access to it.

Backups you save are written to your iCloud Drive, in the Embers folder you can see in the Files app. They go nowhere else.

What Embers sends over the internet

One thing: to convert amounts between currencies, Embers downloads the day's exchange rates from a public rate provider, currently ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com). The request contains only your plan's currency code — for example "USD". It contains nothing about you, your accounts or your transactions. As with any web request, the provider can see your device's IP address; see its own privacy policy for how it treats that.

Rates are stored on your device and synced with the rest of your budget, so Embers asks at most about once a day.

What Embers does not do

No analytics, crash-reporting or advertising SDKs.
No tracking across apps or websites, and no advertising identifier.
No connection to your bank. You enter transactions yourself.
No sign-up, email address or password.

Notifications

Reminders are scheduled on your device from the budget it already holds. No server sends them and nothing about them leaves your device. You can turn each kind off in Embers' settings, or all of them in your device's Settings.

Importing a budget

When you import a YNAB export or restore a backup, the file is read on your device. It is not uploaded anywhere.

Deleting your data

Deleting the app removes its data from the device. To remove the synced copy, delete Embers' data from iCloud in your device's Settings (your name → iCloud → Manage Storage), and delete any backups from iCloud Drive in the Files app. Embers' own "Start Fresh" option erases the budget on every synced device.

Children

Embers is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone, of any age.

Changes to this policy

If Embers' handling of data ever changes, this page will be updated before the change ships, and the date above will change with it. Because the app is open source, you can also check exactly what it does in its source code.

Contact

Questions about privacy: [email protected].