Privacy Policy — DonationTracker
Last updated: July 12, 2026 · All privacy policies · Source
Summary: DonationTracker is a self-hosted app you run yourself. Your donation records stay in a local database on your machine. It has no telemetry and sends nothing to me — but the data is stored unencrypted and the web app has no password by default, so please read the security notes below.
What the app does
DonationTracker helps you track your charitable donations locally. You run it as a small web app on your own machine or home server and enter your records.
What it stores, and where
Data is stored in a local SQLite database and file folder under the app's data directory (./data by default):
- Donation records — item descriptions, categories, estimated values, quantities, and notes; donation events including charity names and addresses; donor names; and cash donations including amounts, dates, and payment methods.
- Uploaded images — item photos and receipt images you upload, kept in
data/uploads/. - Daily database backups (last several) under
data/backups/.
This data is stored unencrypted on disk, and the export feature produces a ZIP containing the full database, CSVs, and all images.
What leaves your device
- By default, nothing. DonationTracker has no telemetry or analytics and no cloud sync.
- Item photo categorization (optional AI) — when you add an item photo, the app can send that image to an OpenAI-compatible model to suggest a category. By default this points at a local model (Ollama on
localhost), so the image stays on your machine. You can change the endpoint in Settings; if you point it at a remote/cloud service, your item photos will be sent there. Cash receipt images are never sent — only item photos, and only if you use this feature. - Optional self-update pulls new code from the app's Git repository if you enable it; no data is uploaded.
Access and security
DonationTracker has no built-in authentication, and by default its web server listens on all network interfaces — so on an untrusted network, others could view, edit, or export the records described above. Your data is also stored unencrypted on disk. These are deployment properties, not data that is sent to me.
For how to run it safely — binding to localhost, fronting it with authentication, and protecting the data directory — see the Security notes in the README.