Privacy policy – Tembo
Last updated: 5 October 2026
In short: Tembo reads the texts on your phone to work out what you earn, spend, borrow and save. Everything stays on your phone. There is no Tembo account and no Tembo server. Nothing leaves your phone unless you choose to: by using the optional AI guesser, by saving a backup file, or by sharing a spreadsheet.
No ads. No analytics. Your data is never sold.
Who we are
Tembo is published by Terra Softworks Limited, Kenya, and made by Mat Nyaga. Questions about privacy: matnyaga@gmail.com.
Tembo is not made by or linked to Safaricom, M-PESA, Fuliza or any bank. It only reads the texts they send you.
What Tembo reads, and why
| What | Why | Needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Your text messages (SMS) | To find money texts from M-PESA, Fuliza, banks and similar services and turn them into your payments, income and savings. Tembo reads all texts so it can find these, and it keeps a copy of them inside the app so your history is not lost when old texts are deleted. Texts sent around the time of a payment can be shown as clues to what the payment was for. While you set Tembo up, it can also suggest your own bank accounts: it looks through some banks' texts on the phone for wording such as "your account" and shows you the bank and the last digits. Nothing is chosen until you pick it, and the suggestions never leave the phone. | Yes. Without texts Tembo has nothing to show. |
| Your contacts | To show names instead of phone numbers. | No. You can say no. |
| One contact you pick | When you choose someone to keep private, you can pick them with your phone's contact picker. Tembo gets only the contact you pick and keeps only its phone number and name, so it can keep that person's payments private (see the AI guesser below). This works without the Contacts permission. | No. |
| Files you choose to import | For example an SMS Backup & Restore file with old texts (and calls, if the file has them), or a Tembo backup file. | No. |
Tembo does not read your call history. It does not use your location, camera, microphone, photos or files you have not picked.
Where your data is kept
Everything Tembo reads or works out is stored only on your phone, in Tembo's private storage, which Android protects with the phone's own encryption. Keys for the AI guesser are encrypted with the phone's Android Keystore. Tembo has no server and no account, so we cannot see your data.
Tembo keeps this data until you delete it (see "Deleting your data").
When data leaves your phone (only if you choose)
1. The AI guesser (optional, off until you set it up)
If you add your own key for Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (ChatGPT) or Google (Gemini), or point Tembo at an AI program on a computer in your home, Tembo can ask it what some unclear payments were for.
- Nothing is sent until you tap Send on the "Ask the AI" screen, which first shows you what will be sent.
- What is sent: for each unclear payee (at most 40 per run) the payee's name, the amounts and dates of its payments, and the calls and texts from the hours around each payment (with names from your contacts). Payees you marked private (typed by name or picked from your contacts) are never sent, and neither are texts or calls from their phone numbers. Your balances and your key are never part of the question.
- Where it goes: to the company you picked, using your own account with them, over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. Their own privacy policy covers what they do with it. If you picked a computer on your home network, it goes there over your home Wi-Fi without encryption (plain http), so only use this on a network you trust.
2. Backup files (optional)
If you make a backup, Tembo writes one file, locked with a password you choose (AES-256-GCM encryption; the password itself is never stored), to the place you pick, for example Google Drive or your phone's storage. If you turn on the daily backup, Tembo keeps an encrypted key on the phone so it can save the file each day without asking for the password. AI keys are never put in a backup.
3. Sharing a spreadsheet (optional)
If you tap "Export as spreadsheet", Tembo makes a file of the payments you are looking at and hands it to the app you pick in the share menu.
Notifications, the widget and the lock
- Alerts are off until you turn them on. While they are on, Tembo checks for new money texts in the background about every 30 minutes. Alerts don't show amounts or names unless you turn on "Show amounts and names", and the lock screen never shows them.
- The home-screen widget hides the amount unless you allow it, and never shows it while the app lock is on.
- The optional app lock uses your phone's own fingerprint, face or PIN. It hides Tembo's screens; it does not add extra encryption. On Android 13 and newer, the recent-apps picture is blank while the lock is on.
What Tembo does not do
- No ads, no analytics, no tracking, no crash-reporting tools inside the app.
- Your data is never sold or shared with anyone for advertising.
- Google Play may collect basic crash and performance statistics about apps on your phone if you allowed that in your phone's settings; that is Google's service, covered by Google's privacy policy.
Permissions Tembo asks for
- SMS – read your texts (needed).
- Contacts – show names instead of numbers (optional).
- Notifications – only if you turn alerts on.
- Internet – only for the optional AI guesser.
- Run at startup – so the daily backup and alert checks you turned on keep running after the phone restarts.
- Fingerprint / face – only for the optional app lock.
Deleting your data
- In Tembo: Settings › About this data › Delete everything. This removes all texts, choices, rules and keys from Tembo. The texts in your phone's Messages app are not touched.
- Uninstalling Tembo also deletes all of its data.
- Backup files and spreadsheets you saved stay where you saved them; delete them there.
- Anything you sent to an AI company is covered by that company's policy.
Children
Tembo is meant for adults. It is not directed at children.
Changes
If this policy changes, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change.
Contact
Terra Softworks Limited · Mat Nyaga · matnyaga@gmail.com