This Privacy Policy describes how NIXE Labs (“NIXE Labs”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) handles information in connection with Pico, a personal finance application for iPhone (the “App”).
It is a short policy, because Pico is built so that there is very little to describe. Questions go to nixe.cxt@gmail.com.
The short version
- No account to create. Pico never asks for an email address, phone number or password.
- No servers of ours. We do not receive, store or process your financial data at any point.
- No analytics, no advertising, no tracking. No third-party SDKs are linked into the App.
- Nothing about you or your ledger is ever transmitted. The one automatic request downloads a public rate table and uploads nothing.
- Three optional permissions, each asked only when you use the feature: Face ID or Touch ID for App Lock, notifications for reminders and captured spends, and the camera to scan a receipt.
- Spends logged by Siri, Apple Pay, a bank text or a receipt are read on your iPhone. Only the spend is kept, never the message. Pico cannot read your messages or your Wallet on its own.
- Your data is exportable to a single file, at any time, without asking us.
Who we are (Data Controller)
For the purposes of the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act), NIXE Labs is the party responsible for this App.
In practice our role is unusually limited. Because the App transmits nothing to us, we do not hold, and cannot produce, any personal data generated by your use of it. Where this policy describes rights of access, correction or deletion, those are exercised by you on your own device rather than by a request to us.
- CONTACTnixe.cxt@gmail.com
- BUNDLE IDnixelabs.Pico
- PLATFORMiOS 26 · iPhone
What Pico stores, and where
Everything you enter into Pico is stored in a local database on your device. It is written by the App and read by the App. The categories of information involved are listed below not because we receive them, but so you know exactly what lives in the file you own.
| What | Examples | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Ledgers and accounts | Book names, account names and types, opening balances, credit limits, the last four digits you choose to record, issuer and card-network labels | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Transactions | Amount, currency, date, category, account, notes, transfers, refunds, links between entries | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Plans | Budgets, recurring rules and subscriptions, savings goals, loan and EMI schedules | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Investments | Holdings, quantities, average cost, and any prices you type in yourself | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| People | Names or labels you add for money lent and borrowed, and which entries relate to them | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Trips and events | A name, an emoji, optional dates and budget, and, if you pick one, a destination: its name, country and map coordinate. You choose the destination from a list or a search; the App never reads your location | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Places | The shop, app or service an entry was paid to, chosen from a catalogue built into the App or simply typed by you | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Exchange rates | Rates you type in yourself, and, if daily rates are on, the European Central Bank rates for your book's currencies with the date the bank published them | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Images you add | An optional picture for an account card, downsized before it is saved | On device; mirrored to your iCloud if enabled |
| Widget figures | A small summary the widgets read: net worth, the month's in and out, what is owed, this week's allowance and daily spending totals | On device, in the App's shared storage. See section 07 |
| Spends waiting for review | Spends caught from Apple Pay, a bank text or Siri that you chose to check first: amount, payee, date, the last digits of the account, and where it came from. Never the message itself | On device only, in the App's shared storage. Not synced. Removed after 30 days. See section 09 |
| Recent Siri requests | The last 15 things you asked Pico through Siri or Shortcuts, and what Pico did with each, so you can see that a spend was logged | On device only. Not synced |
| Quick Capture settings | Which sources save straight away or wait for review, the book captures go into, which card name belongs to which account, and when each automation last reached Pico | On device (system preference storage) |
| Preferences | Base currency, selected book, App Lock on/off, daily rates on/off, reminder time, whether you have seen the welcome screens | On device (system preference storage) |
What we collect (nothing)
We collect no personal data through the App. This is not a policy commitment layered on top of a data pipeline; there is no pipeline. There is no NIXE Labs server for Pico to talk to, and the App has no code that would send your ledger anywhere. The requests it does make are described in section 05, and all of them only ever download.
| Common in other apps | In Pico |
|---|---|
| User accounts, email, password | Not present. There is nothing to sign up for. |
| Analytics / product telemetry | None. No analytics SDK is linked into the App. |
| Crash and performance reporting | None collected by us. |
| Advertising identifiers, ad networks | None. Pico shows no advertising. |
| Cross-app or cross-site tracking | None. The privacy manifest declares zero tracking domains. |
| Cookies or web beacons | None. The rates request is made with cookies switched off and no credentials, so it cannot carry an identity. |
| Uploading your financial data | Never. No request the App makes has a body. Your entries are read from your device and written back to it. |
| Location, contacts, microphone | Never requested. The App declares no such permissions, and it cannot read where you are. Siri hears you, not Pico: the App receives only the words. |
| Camera | Only if you scan a receipt, and iOS asks you first. The picture is read on your iPhone and not saved. |
| Your messages and your Wallet | Not readable by any app. Pico sees a bank text or an Apple Pay payment only if you build a Shortcuts automation that passes it in. See section 09. |
| Push notifications | None from us. We cannot send you anything. Every Pico notification is scheduled by iOS on your own device. iCloud sync does receive Apple's silent signals that something changed on your other devices; these carry no message and nothing from us. |
Apple requires every App Store app to publish a privacy manifest. Pico’s declares tracking as false, an empty list of tracking domains, and an empty list of collected data types. The only declared API use is the system preference store, for the App’s own settings, and reading file dates, which the App uses to know how old its own files are.
When Pico uses the network
An earlier version of this policy said the App made no network requests at all. That stopped being true, so this section replaces it. Pico now reaches the network in four places, and none of them is a server of ours. None of them carries your ledger, an identifier we could use, or anything else about your finances.
| Connection | When | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| Daily exchange rates, from the European Central Bank (www.ecb.europa.eu) | Automatic. When you open the App, and at most once for each day the bank publishes. On by default; switch it off under Daily rates in Settings | Nothing but the request itself. It is a plain download of one public file, made with cookies disabled and no account, key or credential of any kind |
| A destination search, through Apple Maps | Only when you tap “Search Apple Maps” in the destination picker, after typing a place name | The words you typed, and nothing else. It is not run as you type, and no ledger data goes with it |
| Pico Plus, through the App Store | Only when you open the Pico Plus screen or buy, restore or manage a subscription | Handled by Apple. Payment and your Apple Account never reach the App or us; Pico learns only whether you have Plus |
| The two links on the About screen | Only when you tap one | Nothing from the App. The link is handed to Safari, which loads the page itself. See section 12 |
Why the rates request exists at all
The European Central Bank publishes a reference rate for each currency once per business day, for public use. Pico reads that file so a book kept in more than one currency can convert without you typing every rate by hand. It is a published table that is identical for everybody who reads it, so downloading it says nothing about who downloaded it.
Pico contacts exactly one address for this and it is written into the App as a fixed value, so no future edit can quietly point it elsewhere. The connection uses a session that keeps nothing between launches, refuses cookies and sends no credentials. If the request fails, or you are offline, the App carries on with the rates it already has and does not tell you about it.
What still does not happen
- No market data feed. Prices for shares, funds and metals are still typed by you and stamped with the date you typed them. There is no price provider in the App, and every figure derived from a price carries its date so nothing pretends to be live.
- No server of ours. NIXE Labs runs no service for this App. There is no address in the binary that points at us.
- No upload, ever. Every connection above is a download. Your transactions, balances, people, trips and notes are read from your device and written back to it.
- No background traffic of ours. Pico registers no background refresh task. While the App is closed the only traffic is iCloud sync itself, run by Apple when your other devices change something. A Shortcuts automation or Siri can wake Pico to log a spend; that work happens on the phone and sends nothing.
- Nothing sent to read your spending. Bank texts, Apple Pay details, receipts and what you say to Siri are understood on your iPhone, by Pico's own rules and, on iPhones with Apple Intelligence, Apple's on-device model. None of it goes to Apple's servers or to us.
Both the European Central Bank and Apple will see an ordinary internet request arrive, which necessarily includes the IP address your phone is using at that moment. That is true of every request any app on your phone makes, we have no part in it, and neither request carries anything that would tie the address to you or to your finances. Their handling of it is covered by their own policies, not this one.
iCloud sync
If you are signed into iCloud on your device, Pico mirrors your books to a private CloudKit database inside your own Apple Account. This is what lets your data appear on a second device and survive a new phone.
What this means for us
A private CloudKit database belongs to the Apple Account holder. NIXE Labs cannot read it, list it, or recover it. We do not receive a copy, a key, or a notification that it exists. If you contact us about a lost book, we will not be able to retrieve it for you, because it was never ours to hold.
What this means for Apple
Apple operates the storage and transport, under the Apple Account terms and Apple’s own privacy policy, the same arrangement that already covers your iCloud Photos or Notes. Turning off iCloud for Pico in iOS Settings stops the mirroring; the App continues to work entirely on device.
Home-screen widgets
Pico ships three widgets, part of Pico Plus: net worth, what is left to spend this week, and a square for each day’s spending. There is also an Add Expense button for Control Center and the Lock Screen, which shows no figures and only opens the App. A widget runs as a separate small program from the App itself, and iOS does not let it read the App’s database directly. So when Pico goes into the background it writes a short summary into a storage area the two share: net worth, the month’s income and expenses, the totals lent and borrowed, this week’s allowance and each day’s spending total. Totals only, never your individual entries.
That summary stays on your device, inside the App’s own sandbox, and it is not mirrored to iCloud and not sent anywhere. It is written whether or not you have added a widget, because the App cannot know when one appears.
Reminders and notifications
You can ask Pico for a daily nudge to log what you spent. iOS asks your permission the first time Pico wants to notify you, and you can withdraw it at any point in iOS Settings. If you never turn on a feature that notifies, the permission is never requested.
These are local notifications: your own phone schedules them and your own phone shows them. They do not travel over the network and we cannot send you one. The daily reminder says only that it is time to log today’s spending, with no amounts, balances or account names.
Two notifications from Quick Capture can carry an amount: one telling you a captured spend is waiting to be checked, and a weekly summary on Sunday evening. Unless App Lock is on, these can show an amount and a shop on your Lock Screen. With App Lock on they show no figures. Confirming a spend from the notification needs your phone to be unlocked. You can turn the weekly summary off in Settings › Quick Capture, and any of them off in iOS Settings.
Logging spends without typing
Quick Capture lets Pico log a spend from Siri, from Apple Pay, from your bank’s text messages, or from a photo of a receipt. All of it happens on your iPhone, and each source can be switched off in Settings › Quick Capture.
| Source | How it reaches Pico | What is kept |
|---|---|---|
| Siri and Shortcuts | You tell Siri, the Action Button or a shortcut what you spent or ask a question. iOS passes the words to Pico on your iPhone. Siri's own handling of your voice is covered by Apple's privacy policy | The entry it makes, and a line in Recent Siri requests so you can see what happened |
| Apple Pay | Only through an automation you build in Apple's Shortcuts app, which passes the payment's amount, shop and card name to Pico when you pay | The amount, the shop, the date and which of your accounts it was |
| Bank text messages | Only through an automation you build in Shortcuts, which passes the text of a bank message to Pico. No app can read your messages on its own, Pico included | The amount, who was paid, the date and the last digits of the account. The message itself, your balance and any reference number are not kept |
| Receipts | You scan one with the camera or choose a photo. The text is read on your iPhone | The total, the shop and the date, once you save the entry. The picture is not saved |
On-device intelligence
Pico first reads what it is given with its own fixed rules. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence, it may also ask Apple’s on-device model to fill in what the rules could not, such as the shop on a messy receipt. That model runs on your iPhone. Nothing is sent to Apple or to us, and an amount the rules found always wins over the model’s.
Waiting for review
Spends caught this way can either be saved straight away or wait in a list on your iPhone until you check them. That list is kept only on the phone that caught them, is not synced to iCloud, and anything you do not review is removed after 30 days. Entries you confirm are stored like any other entry: on your device, and in your own iCloud if sync is on.
Face ID, Touch ID and the App Lock
App Lock is optional and off until you switch it on. When it is on, Pico asks iOS to authenticate you on cold start and whenever the App returns from the background, and it redacts the App Switcher preview so balances are not visible in the multitasking view.
Biometric data is handled entirely by iOS and never reaches the App. Your face or fingerprint template stays in the Secure Enclave; Pico receives only a yes or no. We store no biometric information, and there is nowhere for us to store it. The other permissions the App can ask for are notifications and the camera, each only when you reach for the feature that needs it.
Images you attach
You can attach a picture to an account card. It is chosen through Apple’s system photo picker, which runs outside the App: Pico is handed the single image you selected and is not granted access to your photo library. The image is downsized and stored in your ledger alongside the account, and follows the same path as everything else: your device, and your iCloud if sync is on.
Links that leave the app
Pico carries two outbound links, and neither is loaded by the App. Tapping one opens a Safari view that runs as its own separate program: it does its own browsing, and Pico cannot read the page, the address bar, or anything you type into it. No part of your ledger goes with you.
| Link | Where it goes | What applies there |
|---|---|---|
| “Made with care by nixe.in” on the About screen | nixe.in, our own website | Our website's own terms. It is a static marketing site. |
| The feedback and feature-request board | nixe.canny.io, a public board hosted by Canny | Canny's privacy policy. Anything you post there is public and is governed by their terms, not this one. |
If you choose to file feedback, the App can prepare a short diagnostics line for you to paste in: the App version and build, your iOS version, and the hardware model string such as iPhone17,2. It deliberately does not include the device name (which is usually a person’s own name), any identifier, or anything from your ledger. Nothing is sent automatically; you copy it or you do not.
Exports and backups you create
Pico can write your entire library to a single JSON file: every ledger, account, transaction, budget, recurring rule, savings goal, holding and exchange rate. Where that file goes is entirely your choice: Files, iCloud Drive, AirDrop, email, another app.
Once it leaves the App it is an ordinary document with your financial history in it, unencrypted and readable by anything that can open a text file. Treat it the way you would treat a bank statement. Importing offers a choice of replacing your current data or merging into it; replacing takes a safety copy first.
Retention and deletion
We hold nothing, so we have no retention period to declare. Your data lasts exactly as long as you keep it.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Delete an entry in the App | It moves to the Recycle Bin and can be restored. |
| Empty the Recycle Bin | The record is permanently removed. This is the App's only irreversible delete. |
| Erase all data in Settings | Your books are cleared on the device, and the deletion propagates through iCloud if sync is on. Spends waiting for review, recent Siri requests and Pico's pending notifications are removed too. |
| A spend left unreviewed | Removed from the review list after 30 days, on the device that caught it. |
| Delete the App | The local database goes with it. Data already mirrored to your iCloud remains in your Apple Account until you remove it in iOS Settings › your name › iCloud. |
| Ask us to delete your data | There is nothing for us to delete. We never received any. |
Your rights
Under the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the CCPA/CPRA and the DPDP Act you have rights of access, correction, deletion, portability and objection, among others. Because your data never reaches us, these are satisfied directly and immediately inside the App rather than by a request to a company.
| Right | How it is met |
|---|---|
| Access | Every record is visible in the App, on your device, at all times. |
| Portability | Export the whole library to a JSON file whenever you want. |
| Correction | Edit any record directly. |
| Deletion | Delete records, empty the Recycle Bin, erase all data, or delete the App. |
| Objection / restriction of processing | There is no processing by us to object to. |
| Opt out of sale or sharing | We do not sell or share personal information, and have none to sell. |
| Non-discrimination | Pico Plus is an optional purchase that unlocks extra features. Whether you buy it has nothing to do with data: there is no data to trade for a discount, and the free version collects exactly as little. |
If you believe we have handled something wrongly you may complain to your local supervisory authority. In India that is the Data Protection Board; in the EU or UK it is your national data protection authority. We would rather you wrote to us first at nixe.cxt@gmail.com.
Children
Pico is a general-audience budgeting tool and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included, since we collect none at all. If a child uses the App on a family device, their entries stay on that device and in that Apple Account under the same terms as anyone else’s.
Security
The App relies on the protections iOS already provides, and adds one of its own.
- Device encryption. Your database sits in the App's sandbox container, encrypted at rest by iOS whenever the device is locked with a passcode.
- Sandboxing. No other app can read Pico's storage.
- App Lock. Optional Face ID, Touch ID or passcode gate on launch and on return from the background, with the App Switcher preview redacted and figures hidden from widgets and notifications. Siri asks for your phone to be unlocked before it logs a spend.
- Captured spends at rest. The review list is a file iOS encrypts until you first unlock the phone after it starts.
- Very little in transit to attack. The App uploads nothing, so there is no traffic carrying your data to intercept. There is no API key inside the binary and no server of ours to breach. The one request it makes is an ordinary HTTPS download of a public file.
- Transport for sync. Handled by Apple's CloudKit, encrypted in transit and at rest under your Apple Account.
No system is perfect, and the honest limit is worth stating: if someone can unlock your phone, they can open Pico unless you have turned App Lock on, and an export file you have saved somewhere is only as protected as the place you saved it.
Changes to this policy
If Pico gains a feature that changes any of the above, we will update this policy, change the “last updated” date, and describe the change in plain terms rather than burying it. A feature that would send your financial data anywhere would be opt-in and explained at the point you turn it on.
What changed on 5 October 2026
Pico gained Quick Capture: logging a spend through Siri, Apple Pay, a bank text or a receipt photo. Section 09 is new and describes it. Section 03 lists the review list, recent Siri requests and capture settings; section 04 now covers the camera; section 08 says which notifications can show an amount. This revision also corrects three statements that had gone stale. Pico has three widgets plus a button, and App Lock now hides their figures. Pico Plus is sold through the App Store. Pico had been described as not registered for remote push, but iCloud sync relies on Apple’s silent change signals. Still none of your data reaches us.
What changed on 10 September 2026
Until this revision, this policy said Pico made no network requests of any kind. That was accurate when it was written. The App has since gained daily exchange rates read from the European Central Bank, a destination search that can ask Apple Maps, home-screen widgets and an optional daily reminder, so the old wording had to go rather than be softened. Section 05 now describes every connection the App can make, sections 07 and 08 cover the widgets and the reminder, and the summary at the top no longer claims an absolute that is not true. Nothing in this revision means more of your data reaches us: the answer there is still none of it.
Pico can already answer questions about your spending, budgets and balances through Siri, on your iPhone. A fuller financial coach is planned. As designed, it runs on Apple’s on-device models and performs no network calls, so it would not change this policy; if that design changes, this section is where you will read about it first.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or anything on this page that does not match what you observe in the App:
- EMAILnixe.cxt@gmail.com
- WEBnixe.in
This policy is written to be understood, and to be checkable against the App itself. It is provided for transparency and is not legal advice. It is intended to meet the requirements of the GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA and India’s DPDP Act, 2023.