Privacy Policy

The short version

Your SMS messages and contacts are read on your phone and are never uploaded. Your fingerprint and face data never leave your phone and are never accessible to us. When you are signed in, the app sends us only the transaction details needed to show your budgets and ledger, not the messages themselves. We do not sell your personal information, we do not show ads, and we do not use third-party analytics or advertising trackers.

Information you give us

Account details: your name, phone number, and email address. If you continue with Google, we receive the name and email address on your Google account so we can create and sign in to your UmunotaPay account. We never receive your Google password.

Transfer PIN: the PIN you set to approve transfers is stored on our servers only as a one-way hash. We cannot see or recover it.

Verification documents: if you register an institution or are asked to verify your identity, we collect the documents you submit (for example an RDB certificate or ID document) to meet legal and compliance obligations.

Support messages: anything you send us when you contact support.

Permissions the app asks for, and why

The app asks for each permission only when you use the feature that needs it, after explaining why. You can refuse or revoke any of them in your phone settings; the rest of the app keeps working.

SMS (Android only): to read the transaction messages sent by MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money, so the app can create your wallets and record your income and expenses automatically. Only messages from these mobile money providers are processed; all other messages are ignored. Messages are read and parsed on your phone. The text of your SMS messages is never uploaded to our servers or shared with anyone. On iPhone the app cannot read your messages; you can choose to copy or share mobile money messages into the app, and they are processed on your phone in the same way.

Contacts: so you can search your contacts and pick who to send money to, instead of typing phone numbers. Contacts are read on your phone only. They are never uploaded, stored on our servers, or shared.

Phone: to dial mobile money USSD codes (for example to send money with MTN Mobile Money) directly from the app. We do not record your calls or call history.

Camera and photos: to scan payment QR codes and to scan receipts. Receipt text is recognized on your phone with Google ML Kit's on-device text recognition; photos are not uploaded to us.

NFC: so you can tap two phones together to share payment details. Only the payment details (who is paying whom, and a payment link) are exchanged between the two phones. No money moves over NFC, and nothing is sent to us over NFC.

Biometrics (fingerprint or face): to unlock the app and confirm sensitive actions. Biometric checks are performed entirely by your phone's operating system. UmunotaPay only receives a yes or no result. Your fingerprint and face data never leave your phone and are never accessible to UmunotaPay.

Notifications: to alert you about payments, account activity, and security events.

What stays on your phone

The following is stored only in the app's private storage on your phone and is never sent to us: the text of your SMS messages, your contacts, your biometric data, your app lock PIN (stored only as a salted one-way hash in your phone's secure storage), receipt photos, and your app settings.

Transactions imported from SMS, your local wallets, and your local budgets are also stored on your phone. If you use the app without signing in, they never leave your phone.

What we receive from the app

When you are signed in, the app sends us:

Transaction summaries: for each transaction imported from SMS or added by you, the amount, currency, whether it is income or an expense, the date, the channel (mobile money, bank, cash), the other party's name, phone number or merchant code as shown in the message, a short description, and a reference used to avoid duplicates. We use these to show your ledger and budgets across your devices and to institutions you choose to share a budget with. You can delete a transaction in the app and its summary is removed from our servers.

Wallet and payment activity: transfers, payments, and requests you make through your UmunotaPay wallet.

Device push token: a Firebase Cloud Messaging token that lets us send notifications to your phone. It identifies the app installation, not you personally, and is removed when you sign out.

Security and technical logs: sign-in times, IP address, device type, and error logs needed to keep your account secure and the service working.

How we use information

To create and secure your account; to provide wallets, transfers, payments, budgets, and the ledger; to send one-time codes, receipts, and account notifications; to prevent fraud and abuse; to meet legal, regulatory, and anti-money-laundering obligations; and to provide support. We do not use your information for advertising and we do not sell it.

Services we rely on

Google Sign-In, to let you sign in with your Google account. Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google), to deliver push notifications. Google ML Kit, which runs on your phone to read receipt text; no images are sent to Google or to us for this. Licensed financial partners and mobile money operators (such as MTN and Airtel), only to process the payments and transfers you request. Hosting and email or SMS delivery providers, to run the service and send one-time codes and receipts.

Each provider may only use the information to provide its service to us.

Sharing

We share personal information only: with the financial partners and providers above, as needed to move money and operate the service; with an institution, school, or organization when you choose to link your account or share a budget with it; when required by law, a court order, or a regulator such as the National Bank of Rwanda; or to protect our users and the service from fraud. We never sell personal information.

Security

All data sent between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Passwords and PINs are stored only as one-way hashes. Access to the app can be protected with a PIN and biometrics, and the app locks itself after a period of inactivity. Access to personal data on our side is limited to staff who need it.

How long we keep information

We keep your account information while your account is open. When you delete your account, your login is disabled and your personal identifiers are released. Financial records (transactions, payments, and related verification records) are kept for as long as financial and anti-money-laundering laws in Rwanda require, and then deleted.

Data stored only on your phone is removed when you uninstall the app or clear its data.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app under Account > Delete account, or from the website at pay.umunotapay.com. Before deleting, any wallet balance must be withdrawn and pending transactions must finish. You can also ask us to delete your account by emailing contact@umunotapay.com.

Your rights

Under Rwanda's Law No 058/2021 relating to the protection of personal data and privacy, you may ask to access, correct, or delete your personal information, object to or restrict how we use it, and ask for a copy of it. To make a request, email contact@umunotapay.com. You may also contact the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA), Rwanda's data protection supervisory authority.

Children

UmunotaPay is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes. The date of the latest update is shown on this page. If the changes are significant, we will tell you in the app or by email before they take effect.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: contact@umunotapay.com