Who we are
Oru is a money companion. It runs in Telegram as @heyoru_bot, in the Oru app for Android, and in the dashboard on heyoru.com, all on one account. It logs what you spend, answers questions about your money, and checks messages that might be scams.
Oru is run by BaseNovo Technologies, based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Grievance Officer: Deepak Carpenter, BaseNovo Technologies, privacy@heyoru.com. Questions, requests and complaints go here. We acknowledge within 7 days and resolve within one month (Information Technology Rules, 2011), and always within the time the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 allow.
What we collect
From Telegram: your Telegram user ID and first name. Your mobile number, if you sign in with it or choose to share it; Telegram confirms it is yours.
If you sign in by SMS: your mobile number and the sign-in SMS you send. It arrives on a phone Oru keeps only for this, in India, which passes it to our servers at once; the number it came from is how we know it is yours. The SMS holds only a one-time sign-in key. The sign-in record is deleted after a day, and the SMS is cleared from that phone regularly.
What you tell Oru: spends, money that comes in, fixed bills, budgets, goals, debts, notes you ask it to remember, plans and monthly limits you set, categories and tags you make, your monthly income and any saving plan you choose, and your language and daily message time.
Your conversation: at most the last 32 messages between you and Oru, so it can follow what you are saying. Photos are not kept in it.
The Oru app keeps up to your last 200 chat messages on your phone, for each account, so you can scroll back. They stay on the phone when you log out and come back when the same account signs in; another account never sees them. They are not sent to Oru again.
If your phone backs up apps to your Google account (Android's own backup), that chat is included, so it comes back on a new phone or after a reinstall. Moving to a new phone by cable or Wi-Fi during its setup carries it the same way. The backup is yours, kept by Google in your account; Oru never receives it. Your sign-in and any bank SMS waiting to be sent are left out of it.
Bank alert emails, only after you agree in Telegram, and only those that reach your private Oru address: for money out, the amount, shop, date and bank; for money in, the amount, who sent it, date and bank; plus each email's sender and subject. We do not keep the email itself.
Bank SMS and, on iPhone, Apple Pay payments, only after you agree in Telegram (/sms), and only those your own phone forwards to your private Oru link, through a Shortcut or app you set up: the same details as for emails (amount, shop or person, date, bank or card name). We do not keep the SMS itself. One-time passwords and messages that are not payments are discarded without being stored. On this route no Oru app reads your messages: your own Shortcut or forwarding app sends them. Stop any time with /sms off.
In the Oru app for Android, bank SMS are read on your phone, only after you agree on the app's Bank SMS screen. The app checks each SMS on the phone first: it must come from a business sender id (such as VM-HDFCBK, never a phone number), contain an amount and a payment word, and not give a code. Only those are sent to Oru, over an encrypted connection; OTPs, codes and personal messages never leave your phone, except with Scam watch on (below): then every SMS that does not give a code is sent, as it arrives, to be checked for scams. When you turn it on, you can also let it read the last 30 days of bank SMS once. Oru keeps the transaction details (amount, shop or person, date, bank, the last digits of the account), not the SMS text. Turn it off any time in More → Bank SMS.
How each spend was paid (card, bank, UPI or cash), when the bank alert says it or you set it, and for a card a short label such as "HDFC Credit card xx1234": the bank, the kind of card and its last four digits, never the full card number. Oru shows what you spent on each card and remembers how you usually pay a shop, for you only. A payment of a credit card's bill is not logged as spending, because what you bought on the card already counts. Change or clear it on any entry.
App lock in the Oru app uses your phone's own fingerprint, face or screen lock. Oru never receives it; it stays on the phone.
Speak to type in the Oru app uses your phone's own speech recognition. Oru receives the text it produces, not the audio.
Error reports from the Oru app: where in the app something went wrong, the app and Android version, with numbers and names taken out. They are only used to fix problems.
If you turn on Help improve Oru in the app (it is off until you do): which screens you open, and when you add an entry whether it had a category, a place or a note, sent to Oru and to Google Analytics for Firebase (below). Never the amount, the place or your words. Turn it off any time in More.
An email address, if you add one in your profile: only to reach you about your account, never for marketing and never to sign in. Change or remove it any time in Edit profile.
A bill photo you attach to an entry in the Oru app stays on your phone. It is never uploaded and not included in backups; it goes when you remove it, use Delete my data, or uninstall the app.
Bank or card statements you send as a PDF: the transactions read from them (date, amount and the bank's description) and the ones you choose to add. The PDF itself is not kept. Most statements are read on our own servers; one that cannot be read that way, such as a credit card statement, is sent once to Anthropic to copy the lines out. If you cancel, or do not answer within a day, the lines read are deleted.
If you turn on notifications in the dashboard or the app: a notification token for that browser or phone, so reminders you asked for (a bill due, a goal saving day, the daily line) can reach it. Notifications never show full account numbers or codes. In the app, turning notifications off stops them; the token is deleted when you turn them off in the dashboard, sign that browser or the app out, delete your account, when Google says it no longer works, or after 90 days unused.
When you move a shop to another category, Oru files that shop that way for you next time. Once at least three people have filed the same shop under the same built-in category, Oru uses that to file it for others too. Only the shop name and the category are shared this way, never who filed it or anything else about you.
Other people's names, where they appear in what you log or forward: who you paid or who paid you, as your bank writes it. They are kept only as part of your own records, to show you where your money went, and never used to contact or profile anyone.
People you pay or who pay you, as your bank names them, and whether you told Oru one of them is your own account.
Messages you ask Oru to check for scams, with its verdict.
Bank SMS your phone sends Oru are also checked for scams, and you are warned at once if one looks like one; a scam SMS is never logged as a spend. If you turn on Scam watch (/scamwatch, or in settings), every SMS your phone sends Oru is checked this way, not only bank ones. For these automatic checks the SMS, with names and numbers taken out, is sent once to Anthropic for the verdict and then dropped. Oru keeps only the verdict and a one-line reason, never the SMS, and deletes them after 90 days. A message with a code (an OTP, a PIN) is skipped unread. Turn Scam watch off any time with /scamwatch off.
If you join a family on Oru (only with your agreement when you join): the family sees your monthly total, what you spent and whether your month is on track, and goals you choose to share. Never your entries, shops or chats. If, when joining, you choose to, the person who invited you is told when you check a message that looks like a scam; the message itself is never passed on. Leave any time ("leave my family"); sharing stops at once.
A bank SMS Oru could not read, only if you tap Share when Oru asks: a copy with numbers, UPI ids and people's names hidden, exactly as shown to you, so the team can teach Oru that bank's format. If you tap No, or do not answer within a day, it is deleted. A shared copy is deleted once it has been used, and within 90 days at the latest.
A record of what you agreed to, and when.
A log of what Oru did, for example "logged a spend" or "sent a reminder", used to fix problems. The team sees daily counts per person (messages, spends logged, emails read, errors), never what you wrote.
To help you and act on your requests, the team can see your account details: your name, plan, which ways in are linked (Telegram, a masked phone number, the app, the dashboard) and how many entries, bills, goals and budgets you have. Never the entries themselves, amounts, places, notes or your chat, except feedback you send to the team. Every look is recorded.
Anything you send with /feedback, which the team reads.
Oru uses no advertising IDs and no location. It tracks nothing unless you turn on Help improve Oru in the app, or accept analytics on the website (below).
Why, and on what basis
Only to run Oru for you: logging spends and money coming in, working out what is safe to spend, reminders you asked for, answers to your questions, and scam checks.
Your consent. Before Oru processes anything you send, it shows you what it keeps and why, and you agree, confirming you are 18 or older. Delete my data (say "delete my data" in the chat, or use Delete my data in the dashboard or the app) withdraws it and erases your account. Bank alert emails and bank SMS each need their own consent on top, which you can withdraw at any time (/disconnect, /sms off).
Bank alert emails are read only with your consent, which you give by tapping "I agree" and can withdraw at any time.
What you type or send to Oru yourself is used for the purpose you sent it for, as the law allows for information you give voluntarily.
What we never do
Oru never moves money, and never asks for an OTP, PIN, password or card number.
Oru never gets permission to read your Gmail inbox. With "Connect Gmail" you add your Oru address as a forwarding address in Gmail yourself. Oru confirms it only for the Gmail you signed in with, or after asking you. The Google sign-in asks only for permission to manage basic Gmail settings, so it can check that address and create one filter that forwards bank alerts. Oru makes that one change and gives the permission up straight away. While that finishes, the sign-in is kept encrypted, for at most an hour, and then deleted.
Oru's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
We do not sell your data, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone except the services Oru runs on, listed below.
Services Oru runs on
Anthropic, United States: the AI model that reads your messages so Oru can reply. Oru never tells it who you are: before anything is sent, Oru takes out your name, phone numbers, email addresses, and Aadhaar, PAN, card and account numbers, and the model sees only labels in their place. Anything else you write yourself is sent as you wrote it, and photos are sent as they are. Anthropic's commercial terms do not allow it to train models on this data.
Supabase: the database, in Mumbai. Vercel: the servers, in Mumbai. Cloudflare: receives bank alert emails. Telegram: the chat. Google: during Connect Gmail, and Firebase Cloud Messaging to deliver notifications if you turn them on.
Groq, United States: turns voice notes into text. Only the voice note is sent. Oru keeps the text as your message and never keeps the audio.
Because Anthropic and Groq are in the United States, your messages and voice notes to Oru are processed outside India. Google Analytics for Firebase, if you turn it on, may also process outside India.
Google Analytics for Firebase, only if you turn on Help improve Oru in the app: which screens you open, that an entry was added (yes or no for a category, a place, a note), the app version, the phone model and Android version, your country from your IP address, and an id for this install of the app. Never amounts, places, notes, your chat, SMS or the advertising id. Turning the switch off stops it.
Web3Forms: the website's waitlist and contact forms.
This website
Cookies on heyoru.com: one keeps you signed in to the dashboard, and another lasts the few minutes of a sign-in code. The site needs these to work. Your browser also remembers your language choice on your device. No advertising cookies.
To count visits we use Vercel Web Analytics. It records the page you visit, the site that sent you, and your country, browser, operating system and device type. It uses no cookies and does not identify you.
Google Analytics (through Firebase), only if you tap Accept on the cookie banner; nothing from Google loads before that. It gets the address of each page you open without anything after ? or #, the site that sent you, your device and browser, your approximate location from your IP address, and a random id kept in a cookie (_ga). Never the sign-in page, and never amounts, names, entries or your chat. No advertising features. Google keeps it for 2 months. To stop it, tap Decline, or Cookie settings at the foot of any page, which also removes the cookies; clearing this site's cookies in your browser does the same.
The WhatsApp waitlist and the contact form are sent through Web3Forms, which emails them to us. We use a waitlist email address only to tell you when WhatsApp is ready, and a contact message only to reply to you. To have either deleted, write to privacy@heyoru.com.
When you join the waitlist, your browser saves your email address on your device, only so the page can show your confirmation. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes it.
Like any website, the servers (Vercel) keep request logs, including IP addresses, to keep the site secure and fix problems. The same servers answer the Oru app and the dashboard, so their requests are logged the same way. These logs are short-lived and kept by Vercel; Oru's own record is the log of what it did, described below.
How long we keep it
Until you use Delete my data, or ask us to. Conversation history keeps at most the last 32 messages. A Connect Gmail sign-in is deleted within an hour. Statement lines not added are deleted within a day; sign-in codes after a day.
Chat on your phone in the Oru app stays there until you tap Clear chat on this phone (More → Privacy on this phone), use Delete my data, or uninstall the app. If Android backs it up to your Google account, the backup copy is replaced at the next backup, or goes when you remove the backup in your Google account.
The Oru app's error reports and Help improve Oru events: 90 days.
Oru keeps a log of what it did (for example "logged a spend", "sent a reminder"), for 13 months, to keep the service secure and fix problems, as Indian law asks (CERT-In directions; DPDP Rules, rule 8).
When you delete your account, everything about you is erased. For one year after, only a record of what happened and when stays, under a one-way code that is not your id: no amounts, names or messages. Then it is erased too.
We do not delete accounts for inactivity. If we ever start, we will tell you at least 48 hours before.
Your rights
Access: ask Oru, for example "show my recent spends" or "what do you remember about me". In the Oru app you can save your entries as a spreadsheet (Entries → Save as a spreadsheet, one month or everything); the file is made on your phone. For a full copy of everything, write to us.
Correction: tell Oru, for example "that was transport, not food".
Stop email reading: send /disconnect. Your Oru email address stops working at once, and your consent is recorded as withdrawn.
Turn conversations off: in the Oru app you can turn off chatting with Oru in Telegram (and later WhatsApp). While it is off, Oru does not read, log or keep anything you send there, and does not pass it to the AI model; it only replies once an hour to say it is off. Sign-in codes still arrive there.
Erasure: say "delete my data" in the chat and confirm, or use Delete my data in the dashboard's account menu or the app's settings. Your account and everything linked to it is erased.
Nominate: you can name someone to use these rights for you if you die or cannot act yourself. Write to us with their name and contact.
Complaints: write to us first. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.
Security
Data travels encrypted and is stored with providers that encrypt it at rest. Access is limited to the people who run Oru. Sign-in tokens, links and codes are stored only as one-way hashes. If a breach affects you, we will tell you without delay, and report it to CERT-In within 6 hours and to the Data Protection Board as the law requires.
Children
Oru is for people aged 18 and over. Before Oru processes anything, you confirm you are 18 or older. If you tell Oru you are under 18, it does not serve you and deletes what it had.
Changes
If we change what we collect or why, we will tell you in Telegram or in the app, and ask again before reading any email.