Data & privacy.

Merchant Ledger is a personal finance project for a single owner. It is currently in development, with sample data and Plaid Sandbox support. It is not currently offered as a public financial service.

This public website

This informational website contains no bank connection form, account registration, advertising scripts, or application analytics. Its example purchases are fictional. The hosting provider may process ordinary request information, such as IP addresses, for delivery and operational purposes.

The local dashboard

The dashboard runs on the owner's computer and stores transaction records in a local SQLite database. It currently connects only to simulated Plaid Sandbox accounts. There is no real-account integration enabled in this version.

Plaid connections

When the owner chooses to connect a test bank, the dashboard loads Plaid Link and communicates with Plaid. The backend uses a client ID and Sandbox secret stored in local configuration. Access tokens are encrypted before storage; the encryption key is also stored on the owner's computer. Transaction records themselves are not encrypted by the application.

Data use and retention

The dashboard uses account and transaction information to display spending by merchant. It does not upload the local ledger to this public website or sell transaction information. Local records remain until the owner deletes them. Plaid's handling of information is described in Plaid's privacy policy.

Future changes

Real-account access, remote access, and use by other people would require further development and updated data practices before being enabled.