Privacy Policy
Effective date: July 28, 2026
Sumstead (“Sumstead,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how information is collected, used, stored, and protected when you:
- Visit sumstead.com or related webpages operated by Sumstead, collectively referred to as the “Website”; or
- Use the Sumstead application for iPhone, iPad, or Mac, referred to as the “App.”
1 Information Collected Through the Website
Information You Provide
When you join the launch waitlist, use the Website’s contact form, or otherwise communicate with us, you may provide information such as:
- Your name
- Your email address
- Your request to receive Sumstead’s one-time launch notice
- The subject of your inquiry
- The contents of your message
- Optional screenshots attached to a bug report
- Any other information you voluntarily include
Please do not submit passwords, payment-card information, bank-account details, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive personal or financial information through the contact form.
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit the Website, limited technical information may be processed automatically by our hosting, security, and infrastructure providers. This information may include:
- Internet Protocol address
- Browser and device type
- Operating system
- Approximate country or region
- Pages requested
- Referring webpage
- Date and time of the request
- Security, performance, and diagnostic information
This information is generally used to deliver the Website, prevent abuse, protect against security threats, and diagnose technical problems.
2 Information Stored in the App
The App is designed to operate primarily or entirely on your device.
Depending on the features you use, information stored locally within the App may include:
- Financial account names and balances
- Income and expense transactions
- Budgets and spending limits
- Categories and tags
- Assets and liabilities
- Net-worth information
- Transaction notes
- Receipt images
- Text recognized from receipts using on-device optical character recognition
- App settings and preferences
- Appearance settings
- App-lock preferences
This information is stored locally on your device. It is not transmitted to a Sumstead-owned financial-data server.
If you explicitly enable optional iCloud Sync, eligible records and receipt assets are also transferred to your private iCloud database as described below. Sumstead cannot retrieve or recover data that exists only in your local App storage.
3 App Accounts and Cloud Storage
The App does not require you to create a Sumstead account.
The App’s local database remains available without a network connection. Sumstead does not operate an account system or a Sumstead-owned cloud database containing your financial records.
Optional iCloud Sync
Eligible Premium users may choose to enable iCloud Sync. It is off by default and is never required to use the App.
When enabled, eligible financial records are stored using encrypted CloudKit record fields and protected receipt assets in your private iCloud database. Minimum routing and synchronization metadata—such as record identifiers, schema versions, revision information, and timestamps—may be stored outside encrypted record fields when CloudKit requires it.
Apple processes synchronized data under its own terms and privacy practices. Synced data counts against your iCloud storage and depends on your Apple Account, iCloud availability, and device settings.
Sumstead does not upload this information to a Sumstead-owned server or use it for advertising, profiling, or analytics. You can turn iCloud Sync off without deleting local records, and the App provides a separate control to request deletion of its private iCloud copy.
Backups and Exports
The App is designed to exclude its live local database and receipt directory from automatic device backups. Files you deliberately export or backups you create may be stored, copied, or synchronized by the location and service you choose. Those copies are controlled by you and the applicable provider.
4 App Lock and Biometric Authentication
The App may allow you to protect access using device authentication features such as:
- Face ID
- Touch ID
- Your device passcode
Biometric information is processed by Apple and your device’s operating system. Sumstead does not receive or store your facial data, fingerprint data, or device passcode.
The App only receives confirmation from the operating system indicating whether authentication was successful.
5 Receipt Images and On-Device Recognition
If you choose to attach receipt images, those images are stored in protected local App storage.
The App uses Apple-provided frameworks to recognize text contained in receipt images on your device. Receipt images and recognized text are not sent to Sumstead for recognition.
If you enable optional iCloud Sync, confirmed receipt fields and protected receipt assets may be synchronized through your private iCloud database. On-device text recognition remains local even while sync is enabled.
You are responsible for avoiding the storage of unnecessary sensitive information in receipt images, notes, or transaction descriptions.
6 Purchases and Subscriptions
The App may offer subscriptions, lifetime purchases, or other in-app purchases through Apple’s App Store and StoreKit services.
Apple processes the purchase and payment information associated with those transactions. Sumstead does not receive or store your full payment-card number or banking information.
The App may receive limited purchase-related information from Apple, such as:
- The product purchased
- Subscription or entitlement status
- Purchase, renewal, or expiration status
- Transaction identifiers
- Information needed to restore purchases
This information is used only to provide, verify, restore, and manage access to purchased App features.
Apple handles App Store purchases according to Apple’s own terms and privacy practices.
7 Analytics, Advertising, and Tracking
Sumstead does not use the App to:
- Sell personal information
- Display third-party behavioral advertisements
- Track you across apps or websites owned by other companies
- Build advertising profiles
- Collect your financial information for analytics
- Share your financial records with data brokers or advertisers
The App is not designed to include third-party advertising software development kits.
The App’s optional iCloud Sync uses Apple’s CloudKit as described in this Policy. If analytics, crash-reporting services, or other data-collecting features are added in the future, this Privacy Policy and the App Store privacy disclosures will be updated before or when those features are introduced.
8 Notifications
The App may use local notifications to provide reminders or alerts that you choose to enable.
Local notifications are scheduled and processed on your device.
If you enable optional iCloud Sync, Apple’s CloudKit may use silent remote notifications to tell the App that changes are available in your private iCloud database. The App then asks CloudKit for eligible changes so compatible devices can remain synchronized. These background notifications are not used for advertising or marketing messages.
You can manage notification permissions through your device’s Settings application.
9 How We Use Information
Information submitted through the Website may be used to:
- Send the one-time Sumstead launch notice you requested
- Respond to questions, feedback, and support requests
- Communicate with you about your inquiry
- Operate, maintain, and improve the Website
- Detect spam, fraud, abuse, or security threats
- Troubleshoot technical problems
- Comply with legal obligations
- Protect the rights, safety, and property of Sumstead and others
Joining the waitlist means you agree to receive one launch email. We do not use waitlist or contact-form information for newsletters or other marketing messages unless you separately request or agree to receive them.
App information is used on your device to provide the features you request, such as calculating balances, displaying transactions, tracking budgets, recognizing receipts, generating insights, and showing net-worth information.
If you enable optional iCloud Sync, eligible App information is processed through your private iCloud database to synchronize it across compatible devices. Sumstead does not use local or iCloud-synced financial information for advertising, profiling, marketing, or analytics.
11 Cookies and Website Technologies
Sumstead does not intentionally use third-party advertising cookies or cross-site advertising trackers on the Website.
Our hosting or security providers may use cookies, local storage, or similar technologies when technically necessary to:
- Deliver Website functionality
- Maintain security
- Prevent automated abuse
- Remember security-verification results
- Improve performance
If website analytics are added in the future, this Privacy Policy will be updated to explain the provider and information involved.
12 Sale, Sharing, and Targeted Advertising
Sumstead does not sell personal information.
Sumstead does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or use information collected through the Website or App to build advertising profiles.
13 Data Retention and Deletion
Website Information
Waitlist email addresses are retained until the launch notice is sent or you ask us to remove your address. Contact-form submissions and related correspondence are retained only for as long as reasonably necessary to:
- Respond to and resolve the inquiry
- Maintain appropriate support or business records
- Prevent abuse
- Comply with legal obligations
- Resolve disputes
Information may be deleted or anonymized when it is no longer reasonably needed for these purposes.
Hosting, email, security, and contact-form providers may retain limited information according to their own retention schedules and legal obligations.
App Information
Local App information remains on your device until you delete it. If you enable iCloud Sync, synchronized information may also remain in your private iCloud database until you use the App’s cloud-copy deletion control, delete it through an Apple-provided control, or Apple removes it under its policies.
Depending on the App’s available features, you may remove information by:
- Deleting individual accounts, transactions, budgets, receipts, or other records within the App
- Using an available reset or delete-data option
- Deleting the App from your device
Deleting the App generally removes its locally stored data from that device. It does not necessarily delete data previously synchronized to your private iCloud database or files you exported elsewhere.
Because Sumstead does not possess your local App data in a Sumstead-owned account, we cannot remotely recover, export, or restore it for you. When available, cloud-copy deletion is initiated from the App and performed through Apple’s CloudKit services.
Deleting the App does not automatically cancel an active App Store subscription. Subscriptions must be managed through your Apple ID subscription settings.
14 Your Privacy Choices and Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to request that we:
- Confirm whether we hold personal information about you
- Provide access to information associated with you
- Correct inaccurate information
- Delete information
- Restrict or object to certain uses
- Explain the categories of information collected and disclosed
These requests apply only to information that Sumstead actually possesses, such as correspondence submitted through the Website.
To make a privacy request, contact us through the contact form on the Website. Please provide enough information for us to identify the relevant message or correspondence.
We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests. We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right.
For information stored locally or in your private iCloud database, you can exercise control through the App, your device, or available Apple controls because Sumstead does not hold that information in a Sumstead-owned user account.
15 Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Some browsers provide Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals.
Because Sumstead does not sell personal information or use cross-site behavioral advertising trackers, these signals do not materially change how the Website or App operates.
We will continue to evaluate recognized privacy signals as technology and applicable legal requirements develop.
16 Data Security
We use reasonable administrative and technical measures intended to protect information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.
The App’s local-first design and optional use of private CloudKit storage limit the amount of personal financial information transmitted to or possessed by Sumstead.
However, no device, application, website, email system, backup system, or electronic transmission method can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
You are responsible for:
- Protecting access to your device
- Using a secure device passcode
- Keeping your operating system updated
- Protecting any backups containing App data
- Avoiding the submission of sensitive information through the Website contact form
17 Children’s Privacy
The Website and App are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children under 13 years old.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
Because App financial information remains on the user’s device or, when enabled, in the user’s private iCloud database, Sumstead does not ordinarily receive information entered into the App by a child or any other user.
If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information to Sumstead through the Website, please contact us so that we can review and delete it as appropriate.
18 Third-Party Websites and Services
The Website or App may contain links to websites or services operated by other parties.
Sumstead is not responsible for the privacy, security, or content practices of third-party websites or services.
You should review the applicable privacy policy before providing information to a third party.
19 International Visitors
The Website and its service providers may process limited information in the United States or other countries.
Privacy and data-protection laws in those countries may differ from the laws where you live.
Where required by applicable law, appropriate measures will be used for international processing or transfers of personal information held by Sumstead.
App information that remains local is processed where your device is located. If you enable iCloud Sync or export information to another service, Apple or the provider you choose may process that information in other countries under its own terms and privacy practices.
20 Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy when the Website, App, our service providers, or applicable requirements change.
The revised policy will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.
Material changes may also be communicated through the Website, the App, an App Store update description, or another appropriate notice.
21 Contact Us
For questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please use the contact form available on sumstead.com.