Privacy policy

What we collect

Chimney Top Books stores only what it needs to work:

• Your email address, used to sign you in

• Your business transactions, categories, rules, reconciliations and month-close history

• CSV files you import (bank, card and Stripe exports) and receipt files you upload

• An activity log of changes, kept with the books

• Monthly backups of your books

Product analytics

To learn which features to improve or remove, Chimney Top Books collects a small amount of anonymous usage data. Our own usage counts use no cookies and no third-party service; any optional scripts described above are separate and load only with your consent.

What is collected: a random session id that lives only in the current browser tab (never a user id or email address), the pages you visit (the path only, never the address bar’s query string or anything you type), which buttons and forms are used (by their internal names, never their text or values), error messages with email addresses, numbers and anything resembling a credential removed, your device type (phone or desktop, iOS, Android or desktop) and the app version.

Individual events are stored in our own database for 90 days and then deleted automatically. Daily totals (how many times each page, button or error was seen that day, with no session id) are kept so we can see trends. IP addresses are not stored.

Opting out: your browser’s Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals are honored automatically, and you can switch analytics off for your browser at any time with the "Share anonymous usage data" checkbox in Settings.

Who processes it

We use these service providers to run Chimney Top Books: Amazon Web Services (hosting, email), Stripe (payments, as merchant of record).

We do not sell your data. We do not use it for advertising, except in products whose own privacy page says they show ads.

Deleting your data

Account owners can delete the account from Settings. Deletion removes your sign-in, transactions, rules, receipts, imported files and activity log from the app straight away.

For tax record-keeping, the monthly backups of your books (which include any closed accounting periods) are kept for 7 years after the account is deleted and are then deleted. If your books have closed periods, Settings asks you to confirm this before deleting, and we also keep a snapshot of the books as of deletion, and a record of who deleted the account and when, for the same period.

Files (receipts and imported CSVs) and backups are stored in write-once storage that keeps each file for 7 years from the day it was saved, so a deleted file is no longer shown or used by the app but its stored copy remains until that period ends. We use that copy only to restore your data at your request or where the law requires it.

Children

Chimney Top Books is for people aged 13 and older (16 and older in the EU). It is not directed at children under 13; we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email support@chimneytopdigital.com and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes; the effective date above shows the current version. For a material change, such as collecting a new kind of data or sharing data with a new kind of service provider, we will tell account holders by email or by a notice in the service at least 30 days before it takes effect, and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent first. Earlier versions are available on request.

Contact

Questions: support@chimneytopdigital.com