1. About this policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Khalsen (“Khalsen”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when you use the Khalsen mobile app, the khalsen.com website, and any page we show for links shared from the app (together, the “Service”).
It applies to everyone who uses the Service, including people who are added to a group as a guest without creating an account. Please read it together with our Terms of Service. If you don’t agree with this policy, please don’t use the Service.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Information you give us
- Account information. Your name, email address and password when you sign up with email. If you choose to sign in with a third-party account such as Google, we receive the name, email address and profile photo that account shares with us. We never receive your password for that account.
- Profile information. Details you choose to add, such as a display name, username, phone number, city, profile photo, preferred currency and your InstaPay payment link.
- Groups and bills. The groups you create or join, and the bills you add: title, amount, currency, date, category, notes, who paid, how the bill is split, and the items on a receipt.
- Payments you record. When you mark a payment between you and a friend, the amount, date, method (for example InstaPay or cash), and any proof you choose to attach.
- Receipt photos. Photos of receipts you take or upload in the app.
- People you add. When you add a friend as a guest, the name you type for them. Guests don’t need an account.
- Messages and feedback. What you send us through the website’s contact form or by email, in-app feedback, and reports about a receipt that wasn’t read correctly, including your email address so we can reply.
2.2 Information collected automatically
- Notification token. If you allow notifications, a token issued by your phone’s operating system that lets us deliver them to your device.
- Technical information. When the app or website talks to our servers, those servers record basic technical details such as your IP address, the date and time of the request, and the type of device and app version. We use this to keep the Service working and secure.
2.3 Information we don’t collect
We don’t access your precise location, your phone’s contacts, your photo library (beyond photos you choose to attach), or your bank or InstaPay account. We don’t use advertising identifiers, and we don’t track you across other apps or websites.
3. How we use your information
We use personal information only to:
- Provide the Service: create your account, work out balances from bills and payments, show bills to the people in the same group, and keep your devices in sync.
- Read receipts: turn a receipt photo into a list of items, quantities, service, VAT and discounts when you scan a bill.
- Suggest categories: guess a bill’s category, such as Food or Transport, from its name.
- Send notifications you’ve allowed, for example when someone adds a bill you’re part of, records a payment with you, or adds you to a group.
- Support you: reply to your messages, and help with problems.
- Improve the Service: understand and fix problems, such as receipts that weren’t read correctly. We use receipt reports you send us for this.
- Keep the Service safe: prevent fraud, abuse and unauthorised access, and enforce our Terms.
- Meet legal obligations that apply to us.
We don’t use your information for advertising, and we don’t make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
4. Why we’re allowed to use it
We process personal information only when we have a valid reason to:
- To provide the Service you asked for, such as storing your bills and showing them to your group.
- With your consent, for example for notifications or receipt scanning. You can withdraw consent at any time in the app or your phone’s settings.
- For our legitimate interests in running a safe and reliable service, where those interests aren’t outweighed by your rights.
- To comply with the law.
5. Receipt scanning
When you scan a receipt, the photo is uploaded securely and passed to a text-recognition service that reads the printed text and returns it to us. That service processes the photo only to read it for us. The photo is then stored with the bill in private storage, where only members of the bill’s group can see it. If you delete the bill, its receipt photos are deleted too.
Receipt reading is automatic and can make mistakes. Always check the items and amounts before saving a bill.
6. Who can see your information
- People in your groups can see your name and profile photo, and the bills, items and payments in groups you share with them.
- Your friends on Khalsen can see your balance with them and your InstaPay link, so they can pay you back.
- People you send a link to. When you share an invite link, anyone with it can see the invitation. When you share a link to a bill, anyone with it can see that bill’s title, total, date, items, how it was split, its receipt photos, the display names and profile photos of the people in it, and who has paid back. They can’t see your email, phone number or other bills. Only share links with people you trust.
- Service providers who work on our behalf (see section 7). They may use your information only to provide their service to us.
- Authorities, when we must by law, or when it’s necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of our users or others.
- A new owner, if Khalsen is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets. We’d tell you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
We never sell or rent your personal information.
7. Service providers
We use a small number of trusted providers to run the Service:
- Cloud hosting and database: stores your account, groups, bills and receipt photos, and handles sign-in.
- Account sign-in: if you choose to sign in with a third-party account.
- Text recognition: reads the text on receipt photos you scan.
- Place lookup: receives only a bill’s name, such as a restaurant’s name, to suggest a category. It doesn’t receive who you are.
- Notification delivery: delivers notifications to your phone through its operating system.
- Website services: deliver the messages you send through the website’s forms, and serve the website’s fonts.
Each provider is bound by its own security and confidentiality commitments, and may only use your information to provide its service to us.
8. Where your information is stored
Our service providers may store and process information on servers located outside Egypt. When this happens, we take reasonable steps to make sure your information stays protected in line with this policy and applicable law.
9. How long we keep it
- Your account: for as long as your account is open, and for 90 days after you delete it (see below).
- Shared bills: bills in a shared group stay visible to the other members, because their balances depend on them. When your account is permanently deleted, we remove your personal details and your name from shared bills (they show as “Deleted account”), keeping only what the other members need for their balances.
- Deleted bills and receipt photos: removed when you or another member deletes the bill.
- Messages to us: for as long as needed to handle your request, and then for a reasonable period in case you contact us again about it.
- Technical records: for a limited period, to keep the Service secure.
You can delete your account yourself at any time in the app, from Profile → Delete account. It takes effect straight away: you’re signed out on every device, you can’t sign back in to the account, you’re removed from your groups and friends, and nobody can find, add or notify you any more. We then keep your information for 90 days, to resolve disputes about shared bills, prevent fraud and abuse, and meet legal obligations. After 90 days it’s permanently deleted, automatically: your account, profile, photo, receipt scans, support messages, and groups and bills no one else is in. Information we must keep by law may be kept longer. Copies may remain in secure backups for a short time before they’re overwritten.
10. How we protect it
We use industry-standard safeguards, including encryption of information in transit, access rules that let only a group’s members read its bills, private storage for receipt photos, and restricted internal access. No system is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information and act quickly if something goes wrong. If a breach affects your personal information, we’ll notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.
11. Your rights and choices
Depending on the law that applies to you, including Egypt’s Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 151 of 2020), you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you and get a copy of it.
- Correct information that’s inaccurate or incomplete. You can edit most of it yourself in the app.
- Delete your account and personal information, yourself, in the app (Profile → Delete account).
- Object to or restrict certain uses of your information.
- Withdraw consent, for example by turning notifications off.
- Complain to the data protection authority if you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information.
To use any of the other rights, contact us from the email address on your account so we can confirm it’s you. We’ll reply within 30 days.
12. Guests and people without an account
If a friend added you to a group as a guest, Khalsen stores only the name they typed and the bills you’re part of. If you’d like your name removed or changed, ask the friend who added you, or contact us.
13. Information on your device
To work offline, the app keeps a copy of your groups, bills and settings on your phone, along with changes waiting to sync. This copy is removed when you sign out or uninstall the app.
14. Children
The Service isn’t meant for children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
15. This website
khalsen.com doesn’t use advertising cookies. It uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies to count visits and see which pages people use; it doesn’t tell us who you are. The site also saves your language choice in your browser so it remembers it. When you open a shared bill link, the page loads that bill to show it to you; we don’t record who viewed it.
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top of the page. If the changes are significant, we’ll also let you know in the app before they take effect.
17. Contact us
If you have questions about this policy or how we handle your information, email support@khalsen.com or use the contact page. We read every message.