Squared Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Squared: Split Bills, Expenses (“Squared”, package dev.zeroglabs.squared) is made by ZeroGLabs (“we”). This policy explains what information the app handles and what this website collects. Questions: zeroglabs.dev@gmail.com.

2. What we collect through the app

Nothing, unless you send us a problem report yourself (see “Diagnostic log and problem reports”). Squared has no account, no analytics and no server of ours. We do not receive your groups, expenses, photos, settings or any information about how you use the app. The app uses the internet only for Google AdMob ads and Google’s consent form, and for Fill in rate when you tap it, described below.

3. What the app stores on your phone

To work, Squared keeps the following in its private storage on your device, which other apps cannot read:

• Your groups: their names and the names of the people in them.
• Expenses: title, amount and currency, date, category, note, who paid and who splits, exchange rates and the payments you mark as made.
• Photos you attach to expenses, copied into the app’s storage.
• Your settings: your name, default currency, language and theme.
• When you watched ads for the 24-hour unlock, and when it ends.
• A diagnostic log (see “Diagnostic log and problem reports” below).

You can edit or delete any expense or group in the app. Uninstalling Squared deletes everything it stored on the phone.

4. Android backup

Android’s backup copies only one small internal record of the app, not your groups, expenses, photos or settings. Those stay on this phone. To move a group to another phone, send it as a .squared file and import it there.

5. Exchange rates (Frankfurter)

Squared does not look up exchange rates on its own. Only when you tap Fill in rate does the app send a request to Frankfurter (api.frankfurter.dev), a free service that publishes reference exchange rates. The request contains the currency codes and the date; like any internet request it also carries your IP address. Amounts, names, titles and notes are never sent, and we do not receive these requests.

6. Sharing and group files

When you share a result as text or a CSV file, or send a group as a .squared file, Squared hands it to the app you pick in the share sheet (for example your messages or email app). We do not receive it. A .squared file holds the group’s people, expenses and photos, so share it only with people you trust with them. Importing reads only the file you pick in Android’s file picker.

7. Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free version of Squared shows a banner ad at the bottom of the screen and optional rewarded ads through Google AdMob. Ads are served by Google LLC. To show and measure ads and to prevent fraud, the AdMob SDK sends the following from your device to Google:

• Your advertising ID (Android advertising ID) and app-scoped identifiers
• Your IP address and an approximate location derived from it
• Ad interactions, such as ad views and taps
• Device and app information, such as device type, operating system, language and app version
• Diagnostics about errors and performance of the ad SDK

We do not receive or store this information ourselves. Google’s use of it is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and How Google uses cookies in advertising.

Your group and people’s names, expenses, notes and photos are never passed to the ad SDK, and ads are not chosen based on them.

8. Rewarded ads

Rewarded ads play only when you tap to watch one. Each ad watched to the end opens the app’s locked features, such as Fill in rate and spending charts, for 24 hours; you can watch up to 2 a day. Banner ads still show during the unlock.

9. Ad consent and opting out of personalized ads

In regions that require consent, such as the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google’s consent form (User Messaging Platform) appears on first launch, and ads are personalized or non-personalized depending on your choice. You can change your choice at any time in Settings › Privacy choices (shown only where it is required).

• Anywhere: delete or reset your advertising ID in Android Settings > Privacy (or Google) > Ads to stop receiving personalized ads.
• Information is transferred to and processed by Google LLC in the United States to provide ads, and kept according to Google’s policies.

10. Purchases

Squared currently sells nothing in the app and handles no payment information.

11. Diagnostic log and problem reports

To help fix problems, the app keeps a diagnostic log in its private storage on your device. It keeps at most about 1 MB and deletes the oldest entries first.

• What it records: app version, Android version, device maker and model, language, app events (screen changes, setting changes, counts of expenses, people and photos, settle-up, sharing and import results, rate look-up and ad result codes, error types) and the cause of a crash (a stack trace with file paths removed).
• What it leaves out: names, amounts, titles, notes and photos, identifiers such as your advertising ID, and your location.

The app never sends this log by itself. If you tap Settings › Report a problem, the share sheet opens so you can pick your email app, which opens a message with the log file attached. It reaches us at zeroglabs.dev@gmail.com only if you send that email yourself. After a crash, the next time you open the app it asks you once whether you want to report it. We use reports only to answer you and fix problems, and delete them when they are no longer needed.

12. Permissions

• Internet and network state: to load ads and the consent form, and for Fill in rate when you tap it.
• Advertising ID (and Android’s ad services): used by Google AdMob for ads.
• Wake lock and foreground service: added by the Google Mobile Ads SDK’s background-work library; Squared itself does not run a foreground service.

Squared asks for no camera, storage, contacts or location permission. Photos come through Android’s photo picker or your camera app.

13. Children

Squared is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

14. This website

This website (zeroglabs.dev) is separate from the app. It uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how many people visit and which pages they read. Google Analytics uses cookies and collects information such as the pages you view, the site that referred you, your approximate location (derived from your IP address), your device and browser type, and your language. Google states that Google Analytics 4 does not store IP addresses.

• Ad personalization and Google signals are turned off for this site.
• For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, analytics cookies are off by default. Google may still receive cookieless measurement requests.
• Analytics data is kept for up to 14 months.
• You can opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser.
• Learn more: How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which processes technical request data such as IP addresses to deliver pages and protect the service. The website does not show ads.

15. Your choices

Everything the app stores is on your phone and under your control: edit or delete expenses and groups in the app, or uninstall it (this also deletes the diagnostic log). You can change your ad consent in the app, and reset or delete your advertising ID in Android settings. Apart from problem reports you choose to email us, we hold no app data about you; to have a report deleted, contact us. For questions about this website’s analytics, contact us.

16. Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.

17. Contact

ZeroGLabs — zeroglabs.dev@gmail.com