Data Stored on Your Device

All financial data you enter into Halò — including accounts, transactions, expenses, investments, liabilities, and bills — is stored locally on your device using Apple’s SwiftData framework. Unless you explicitly use the Circles feature described below, this data never leaves your device and is never transmitted to YLabs or any third-party server.

Halò also keeps automatic daily backup files and any backups you create in the app’s own storage on your device. They leave your device only if you export or share one yourself.

Circles & iCloud

Halò lets you optionally share selected records with people you choose — a circle for your partner, family, or friends. Within a circle you can share accounts and their entries, individual expenses, bills and their payments, and expense splits, and the circle can keep one shared savings goal (a name, a target amount, and a date). Sharing is entirely opt-in and off by default: nothing is shared unless you create a circle or open someone’s invitation link, and then choose which records to share into it.

When you share a record:

• The record’s details — its name, currency, amounts, dates, notes, category name, and the display name of whoever added each entry — are synced through your personal iCloud account using Apple’s CloudKit service, and become visible to the members you approve. A shared expense carries its title, amount, date, category, and note, but never which card or account paid for it, and never its receipt photo. For expense splits, this may include names you enter for participants, who need not be Halò users.
• This data is stored under your own Apple Account on Apple’s servers. YLabs has no access to it — we cannot read, retrieve, or share your data, because CloudKit stores it privately under your Apple Account, not ours. iCloud storage and transmission are governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy.
• Members you approve can see the shared record’s full history. Members see the profile name you set in Halò next to entries you add — Halò asks you for that name before you create or join a circle. Someone who opens an invitation link sees nothing until you approve them.
• Your private data stays private: your other accounts, expense categories, budgets, receipt photos, income, bank notifications, and your net-worth share settings are never shared with other members. Only the records you explicitly share are synced.
• No sign-up, password, or account with YLabs is ever created. Membership is based on your Apple Account, managed by Apple.
• You can leave a circle at any time, and the owner can end it for everyone. Invitation links can be revoked by ending the circle. Removing the app or leaving a circle removes your access; data you contributed remains visible to the remaining members as part of the shared history.

Invitation Links

To invite someone, Halò creates a link that opens a small page on our website (join.halobudgetapp.com). That page contains no tracking and runs entirely in your browser: its only job is to hand the invitation to the Halò app on your device. The invitation itself is an Apple iCloud sharing link; opening our page does not send it to YLabs. Our website is hosted by Cloudflare, which, like any web host, may process standard technical information about the request (such as IP address and browser type) to deliver the page and protect against abuse, under Cloudflare’s Privacy Policy. YLabs does not collect, store, or analyze this information.

Data We Do Not Collect

Halò does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information on YLabs servers. Specifically:

• No account or sign-in with YLabs is required or created
• No personal details (name, email, phone number) are collected by YLabs
• No financial data is ever uploaded to YLabs or any third-party server — circle data goes only to your own iCloud account, where YLabs cannot access it
• No analytics or usage tracking is employed
• No advertising identifiers are used

Siri & Shortcuts (Quick Log)

Halò supports Apple Siri and the Shortcuts app through the Quick Log feature, which lets you log expenses without opening the app. When you use this feature:

• Voice input spoken to Siri is processed by Apple on-device and, depending on your device and iOS settings, may be processed on Apple’s servers. This is governed by Apple’s Privacy Policy — not by YLabs.
• To power the shortcut picker, Halò shares your expense category names, account names, and credit card names (not card numbers, balances, or transaction history) with the iOS Shortcuts system. This data is stored locally on your device and is never transmitted to YLabs.
• Any expense logged through Siri or Shortcuts is saved directly to your device using the same local storage as the rest of the app.

You can disable Siri & Shortcuts access for Halò at any time in Settings → Siri & Search → Halò.

Apple Pay Auto-Log

If you set up the optional Apple Pay automation in the Shortcuts app, iOS passes Halò the details of each contactless Apple Pay payment you make — the amount, the merchant name, and the name of the card or pass used (never a card number). Halò uses them to log the expense on your device and to remember which of your accounts each card maps to and which category you chose for a merchant. This information is stored only on your device and is never transmitted to YLabs or anyone else.

Auto-Log from Bank Notifications

Halò can optionally log deposits and withdrawals from the notifications your bank or e-wallet app sends you. Halò never connects to your bank and has no access to your notifications on its own: this works only through an automation you build in the Shortcuts app, which passes the text of the notifications you choose to share. When you use this feature:

• The notification text is read on your device to find the amount, direction, and counterparty, and the matching entry is saved to the account you picked.
• Halò keeps the most recent notification texts (up to 50, for up to 30 days) on your device so you can review what was logged, and it may keep a copy of a notification you taught it as a pattern for recognising similar ones. These texts stay on your device, are hidden when you turn on Hide Amounts, and are never included in diagnostic reports, backups, or shared circles.
• Nothing is sent to YLabs, your bank, or any third party. Turning the feature off in Settings, or removing the automation in Shortcuts, stops it entirely.

Receipt Photos & Screenshot Imports

When you choose to attach a receipt photo to an expense, or to import rides, orders, or investment holdings from screenshots you select, the images are processed on-device using Apple’s Vision framework to read the details, and you review everything before it is saved. Receipt photos are stored locally on your device only; screenshots used for import are not kept. None of these images are ever transmitted to YLabs, any third-party server, or other circle members. Halò accesses your photo library only when you explicitly choose a photo.

Third-Party Services

Halò fetches publicly available market data from Yahoo Finance to display live stock prices and currency exchange rates. These requests do not include any personal information or identifiable data — only the ticker symbols or currency codes needed to retrieve market prices.

You can review Yahoo Finance’s privacy practices at legal.yahoo.com.

Widgets

If you add a Halò home screen widget, a small snapshot of the information it shows — your net worth and today’s change, upcoming bills and dues, budget progress, or your quick-expense templates — is written to your device’s shared app storage (App Group). This data stays on your device and is only used to display your widgets. It is never transmitted externally.

Diagnostic Reports

Halò keeps a small technical log on your device (app events such as launches, sync status, and the performance and crash reports iOS provides to the app — never account names, amounts, notification texts, or personal details). This log never leaves your device unless you explicitly choose Send Diagnostic Report in Settings and select a destination yourself.

Data Security

Your local data is protected by your device’s built-in security — including Face ID, Touch ID, and device encryption. Circle data is protected in transit and at rest by Apple’s iCloud security. We recommend keeping your device passcode enabled and sharing invitation links only with people you trust.

Children’s Privacy

Halò is not directed at children under the age of 13 and does not knowingly collect any information from children.

Changes to This Policy

If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of the app after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at support@halobudgetapp.com.