Loan Data Privacy: What Stays on Your Phone, App Lock and Backups

With App lock on, leave Loan Calculator for more than 30 seconds and it asks for your fingerprint, face or screen lock before it shows a single number. That is one of four privacy controls in the app. The other three decide what leaves your phone, what shows on your home screen and lock screen, and where a spare copy of your loans is kept.

There is no account and nothing to sign in to. Calculating, saving loans, ticking payments, reminders and widgets all run on the phone and work without a connection. A few things do use the internet, though, and this guide lists them one by one, based on how the app actually works.

What should you compare?

Privacy here comes down to a few questions:

• What stays on the phone vs what is sent: your loan figures stay; anonymous usage data is sent unless you switch it off.
• Who can open the app: anyone holding your unlocked phone, unless App lock is on.
• What shows outside the app: widgets and reminders can show amounts on your home screen and lock screen.
• Where a copy of your loans lives: only on the phone, in a backup file you saved yourself, or in your phone's own Android backup.
• Free or Pro: the usage data switch is free; App lock, Hide amounts and file backups need Pro.

Privacy controls at a glance

Credits don't unlock App lock, Hide amounts or file backups. They need Pro itself.

1. What stays on your phone and what leaves it

Best for: knowing exactly what the app shares, and with whom.

Your saved loans, the months you ticked as paid, reminder days and settings are kept in the app's private storage on the phone. Android removes that storage when you uninstall the app. The app doesn't upload your loans anywhere.

Four things do involve the internet or another service:

• Anonymous usage data. The Privacy section in Settings says: "The app sends anonymous usage data: which screens you open, which features you use, and error codes." It goes to Google's Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics. Events can name the interest method or a term range such as "1 to 5 years", never an amount, a rate or a name. Alongside the events the app attaches coarse context: a random ID created for this install (not your phone's hardware ID or advertising ID), the country code of your SIM or region, your language, the app and Android versions, the phone's make and model, a rough memory and screen-size class, where the app was installed from, and whether you use the free version or Pro.
• Google Play. Buying Pro, checking that it is still active and Restore purchases go through Google Play. Google handles the payment; the app only keeps whether Pro is active.
• Reward videos (free version only). These are the app's only ads: no banners and no pop-up videos. A video plays only when you tap to watch one, for example Watch a video · +1 credit. To have one ready, the app starts loading a video from Unity Ads when you open Settings, the Pro screen or the credit prompt. Unity may use your advertising ID and device data to serve and measure the video. With Pro, no video is ever loaded.
• Android's own backup. The app doesn't opt out of Android's device backup. If your phone backs up app data to your Google account, that copy can include your saved loans and may come back when you reinstall. It follows your phone's backup settings, not the app's.

The same Privacy section also says: "Your loan amounts, interest rates, income and loan names are never sent anywhere. Those numbers stay on this device."

2. Switch off usage data

Best for: sending nothing about how you use the app.

1. Open Settings and scroll down to Privacy.
2. Turn off Share anonymous usage data.

The switch is on by default and turning it off stops both usage data and crash reports. The app sends one last event saying the switch was turned off, then stops. Every feature keeps working the same. The switch doesn't cover Google Play purchases or reward videos, which are separate services, and you can turn it back on at any time.

3. App lock

Best for: a phone or tablet that other people sometimes pick up.

1. Set up a screen lock (PIN, pattern or password) or a fingerprint on your phone first. Without one, the app says "Set up a screen lock or fingerprint on your phone first."
2. In Settings, under Security & backup, turn on App lock.

It doesn't lock you out the moment you turn it on. After that, whenever the app starts up fresh or you come back to it after more than 30 seconds away, you see "Loan Calculator is locked" with the prompt "Unlock with fingerprint, face or screen lock". If you close the prompt, tap Unlock to bring it back. The back button sends the app to the background instead of skipping past the lock.

While App lock is on, the app's preview in recent apps is hidden, and Android also blocks screenshots of the app's screens. If you later remove your phone's screen lock, the app has nothing to ask for, so App lock turns itself off rather than locking you out of your own loans.

App lock protects the app's screens only. Home-screen widgets and reminder notifications sit outside the app, so they stay visible, and their paid buttons still work. That is what Hide amounts is for.

4. Hide amounts

Best for: widgets and reminders that other people can glance at.

Turn on Hide amounts under Security & backup, and the app shows •••• in place of money amounts in these places:

• Saved list: the loan amount, the monthly payment and the balance. The name, rate and term still show.
• Loan progress widget: the next payment and the balance, so the bottom line reads "5/60 paid · Balance ••••".
• Quick calculate widget: the loan amount and the payment, shown as "••••/month".
• Reminders: the notification leaves out the amount and uses the general message the app shows when a payment varies, asking you to tap to open the schedule.

Inside the app, the calculator, the schedule and the other tools still show full numbers; App lock covers those. The loan name also stays in the reminder title, as in "Payment due — Car loan", so choose a name you are happy to see on your lock screen. For more on widgets and reminders, see tracking payments, reminders and widgets.

5. Back up to a file and restore

Best for: moving to a new phone, or keeping a copy you control.

To make a backup:

1. In Settings, under Security & backup, tap Back up to a file.
2. Android's file picker opens with a name such as loan-calculator-backup-20260924.json. Save it wherever the picker offers: Drive, Downloads or another folder.
3. The app confirms with a message such as "Backed up 3 loans".

The file holds every saved loan: name, amount, rate, term, interest method, promo and grace settings, currency, disbursement date, fees, day count, reminder day and the months you ticked as paid. It doesn't hold your settings, Pro status or credits. Three loans with a few ticked months come to under 2 KB; a 30-year loan with all 360 months ticked is about 5 KB.

The file is plain JSON text. It isn't encrypted and has no password, so anyone who can open it can read your loan names and amounts. Keep it in a private folder, the way you would a bank statement.

To restore:

1. On a new phone, install the app and tap Restore purchases first, because restoring from a file needs Pro.
2. Tap Restore from a file and pick your backup.
3. The app reports what it did, for example "Restored 2 loans (1 already here)".

Restoring only adds loans. It never deletes or overwrites what is already on the phone, and it skips any loan that matches one already there (same name, amount, rate, term, method, currency and creation time). Paid months come back with each loan, reminders are set again and widgets refresh. On Android 13 and later, check that notifications are allowed for the app on the new phone, or the reminders stay silent. A file that isn't a backup from this app, comes from a newer version of the app or is larger than 5 MB is refused with "This is not a Loan Calculator backup file".

Restore purchases and Restore from a file do different jobs: the first brings back Pro, the second brings back your loans. If you keep several offers saved to compare them side by side, a backup keeps those too.

Which privacy setup should you choose?

FAQ

Does Loan Calculator upload my loans?

No. Loan amounts, interest rates, income and loan names stay on the phone. What leaves it is anonymous usage data (which you can switch off), Google Play purchase checks, reward video requests to Unity Ads in the free version and, if it is on, your phone's own Android backup.

Does the app work without internet?

Yes for everyday use: calculating, saving loans, ticking payments, reminders and widgets all work offline. Buying Pro, Restore purchases and watching a reward video need a connection.

Is the backup file encrypted?

No. It is a plain JSON file that anyone who opens it can read. Store it somewhere private, and delete old copies you no longer need.

What happens to App lock and Hide amounts if Pro ends?

They need Pro to work. If a Pro subscription ends, the app stops locking and shows amounts again. Your choices are kept, so both come back on their own when Pro does.

Does the app use my advertising ID?

The app's own usage data uses a random install ID instead. In the free version, Unity Ads may use the advertising ID when it loads or shows a reward video. You can reset or delete the advertising ID in Android settings, and with Pro no video is loaded at all.