How Dowel handles your information.
Dowel is a budgeting and financial planning app designed to help individuals and households plan, track, and manage their money with greater clarity.
Last updated: June 5, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Dowel Budgeting App Inc., operating as Dowel, collects, uses, shares, stores, and protects personal information when you visit our website, use the Dowel app, contact us, or interact with our services.
By using Dowel, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
1. Our privacy commitment
Dowel is built around trust. Because budgeting information can be personal and sensitive, we aim to collect only what we need, use it only for clear purposes, protect it responsibly, and be transparent about how it is handled.
Dowel is a manual-first budgeting app. At this time, Dowel does not connect directly to your bank account, does not collect your online banking login credentials, and does not move money in or out of your bank account.
2. Information we collect
We collect personal information in a few different ways, depending on how you use Dowel.
Account information
When you create or use a Dowel account, we may collect name, email address, login and authentication information, account status, household membership or invitation details, preferences, and app settings.
Budgeting and financial planning information
Dowel collects the financial planning information you choose to enter into the app. This may include income sources and income amounts, budget categories, planned spending amounts, expenses and transactions, transaction dates, notes and descriptions, savings goals, giving goals or giving contributions, set-aside or reserve amounts, recurring income or recurring expense schedules, monthly budget summaries and archive records, and other budgeting details you choose to enter.
This information is used to operate the app and provide budgeting features such as dashboards, category tracking, recurring entries, month-end summaries, household views, and progress tracking.
Household/shared budgeting information
Dowel may allow users to create or join a shared household budget. If you are part of a shared household, information entered into that household may be visible to other authorized household members.
This may include shared income planning, spending categories, transactions, savings goals, giving goals, budget progress, monthly summaries, and other household budgeting information.
You should only join or create a shared household with people you trust to view shared budget information.
Website and contact information
When you visit our website or contact us, we may collect name and email address, messages or support requests you send to us, information submitted through forms, newsletter or waitlist signup information if applicable, and basic website usage information such as browser type, device type, pages visited, referring pages, and approximate location based on IP address.
Technical, usage, and security information
We may collect limited technical information to help operate, secure, improve, and troubleshoot Dowel, including IP address, device and browser information, app usage activity, log data, error, crash and performance data, and security and authentication events.
Payment and subscription information
If Dowel offers paid plans, payments may be processed by third-party payment providers such as app stores or payment processors.
Dowel does not intend to collect or store full credit card numbers. We may receive limited payment-related information such as subscription status, payment confirmation, transaction identifiers, plan type, renewal status, or billing-related metadata.
3. Information we do not collect
At this time, Dowel does not collect your online banking username or password, connect directly to your bank account, import bank transactions automatically, move money between accounts, sell your personal financial information, or make lending, credit, banking, or investment decisions.
Dowel is a budgeting and planning tool. It is not a bank, financial institution, investment advisor, credit counsellor, or accounting firm.
4. How we use your information
We use personal information to create, maintain, and secure your account; provide the Dowel app and website; display your budget, dashboard, categories, transactions, savings, giving, and monthly summaries; support shared household budgeting features; process recurring budget entries; save your settings and preferences; provide customer support; respond to questions, requests, or feedback; improve app performance, usability, and reliability; monitor for errors, abuse, fraud, or security issues; send important service-related notices; manage subscriptions or billing if applicable; and comply with legal, regulatory, tax, security, or business obligations.
We may also use limited information to understand how users interact with our website or app so we can improve the Dowel experience.
5. Consent
We collect, use, and disclose personal information with your consent, except where permitted or required by law.
Your consent may be provided when you create an account, use the website or app, enter budgeting information, join or create a household, submit a form, contact us, subscribe to updates, or continue using Dowel after this Privacy Policy is made available.
You may withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal, contractual, technical, or operational limitations. If you withdraw consent for information that is necessary to provide the app, Dowel may no longer be able to provide some or all services to you.
6. How we share information
We do not sell your personal financial information.
With authorized household members
If you use a shared household budget, information entered into that household may be visible to other authorized members of the household.
With service providers
We may share information with trusted service providers who help us operate, host, secure, support, analyze, or improve Dowel. These may include providers for app hosting and infrastructure, authentication and account management, data storage, website hosting, customer support, email delivery, analytics, error tracking and performance monitoring, payment or subscription processing, and security and fraud prevention.
These providers are expected to use personal information only for the services they provide to us and to protect it appropriately.
For legal and safety reasons
We may disclose information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with the law, respond to lawful requests, court orders, or legal processes, protect the rights, safety, or security of Dowel, our users, or others, investigate fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, or security incidents, or enforce our terms, policies, or agreements.
Business transfers
If Dowel is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar business transaction, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to appropriate confidentiality and privacy protections.
7. Cookies, analytics, and website tracking
Dowel's website may use cookies or similar technologies to operate the website, understand website traffic, improve performance, remember preferences, and support basic analytics.
You can usually adjust your browser settings to refuse or delete cookies. Some website features may not work properly if cookies are disabled.
If Dowel uses third-party analytics tools, those tools may collect limited information about website usage, such as pages visited, device type, browser type, approximate location, and referring website.
8. Email communications
We may send you service-related emails about your account, security, policy updates, product changes, or important app notices.
If you sign up for marketing emails, updates, or a waitlist, we may send occasional promotional or product-related messages. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails using the unsubscribe link in the email or by contacting us.
You may still receive non-promotional service emails that are necessary for your account or use of Dowel.
9. Storage and processing of information
Dowel and our service providers may store or process personal information in Canada, the United States, or other jurisdictions where our service providers operate.
If information is stored or processed outside your province, territory, or country, it may be subject to the laws of that jurisdiction, including lawful access by courts, law enforcement, or government authorities.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is protected when handled by our service providers.
10. How we protect information
We use reasonable physical, organizational, and technical safeguards designed to protect personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.
These safeguards may include access controls, authentication protections, secure service providers, encryption or secure transmission where appropriate, monitoring and logging, limiting access to personal information based on need, and administrative and technical security practices.
No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Users are responsible for keeping their login credentials confidential and for using a secure device and network when accessing Dowel.
11. Retention of information
We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
The length of time we retain information may depend on whether your account is active, whether the information is needed to provide Dowel, legal, accounting, tax, security, or compliance requirements, backup and disaster recovery processes, and dispute resolution or enforcement needs.
If you delete your account or request deletion, we will take reasonable steps to delete or anonymize personal information, subject to legal, technical, backup, security, or legitimate business requirements.
12. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live and subject to applicable law, you may have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, request access to your personal information, request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information, withdraw consent where applicable, request deletion of your account or certain information, ask questions about how your information is collected, used, disclosed, or protected, and make a privacy complaint.
To make a privacy request, contact us using the information below. We may need to verify your identity before responding.
13. Account deletion
You may request deletion of your Dowel account by using the account deletion option in the app, if available, or by contacting us.
When your account is deleted, Dowel will take reasonable steps to delete or anonymize personal information associated with your account, subject to legal, technical, backup, security, and legitimate business requirements.
If you are part of a shared household, deleting your account may not automatically delete information that belongs to the household or information entered by other household members.
14. Accuracy of information
Dowel relies on the information you enter into the app. You are responsible for keeping your account and budgeting information accurate and up to date.
You may update or correct much of your information directly in the app. For other correction requests, contact us.
15. Children and minors
Dowel is not designed for use by children. Dowel should only be used by individuals who are old enough to understand this Privacy Policy and provide valid consent, or by users with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian where required by law.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without appropriate consent. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child in a way that does not comply with applicable law, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.
16. Financial disclaimer
Dowel helps users organize and understand their budgets. Dowel does not provide financial, legal, tax, investment, credit, or accounting advice.
Any budgeting insights, summaries, progress indicators, or calculations in Dowel are based on information entered by users and are provided for planning and informational purposes only.
17. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to notify users, such as posting the updated policy on our website, updating the Last updated date, or providing notice through the app or email.
Your continued use of Dowel after an updated Privacy Policy is posted means you accept the updated policy.
18. Contact us
If you have questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or Dowel's privacy practices, contact us at:
Privacy Contact: Privacy Officer
Email: privacy@getdowel.com
Company: Dowel Budgeting App Inc.
Address: 1958 Gough Ave., London, Ontario N5X 0H2
Location: Ontario, Canada
You may also contact us if you wish to access, correct, delete, or ask questions about your personal information.