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Mia Budget Buddy  ›  Terms of Service

Terms of Service — Mia Budget Buddy

⚠️ DRAFT — REQUIRES LAWYER REVIEW BEFORE PUBLICATION.

Effective Date: 2026-05-17 Last Updated: 2026-05-17

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and Sierra Digital Forge LLC (“Sierra Digital Forge,” “we,” “us”) governing your use of the Mia Budget Buddy Android application and any associated services (collectively, the “App”). By installing, accessing, or using the App, you agree to be bound by these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the App.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the App. By using the App, you represent that you meet this age requirement. The Community features are available only to users 13 years of age or older, and additional protections apply for users under 18 (see COMMUNITY_GUIDELINES.md).

If you are using the App on behalf of a household or organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that household or organization to these Terms.

3. Your Account

To use Community features or to link a financial institution through Plaid, you must create an account. We use Google Firebase Authentication as our identity provider; your credentials are managed by Firebase, not by us. You agree to:

  • Provide accurate, current information.
  • Maintain the security of your credentials (and use multi-factor authentication when available).
  • Notify us promptly of any unauthorized use at support@sierradigitalforge.com.

You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

4. What Mia Budget Buddy IS — and is NOT

Mia Budget Buddy IS a personal-budgeting, debt-tracking, goal-setting, and household-management Android application. It helps you record transactions, set budgets, track debts, manage a shopping list, capture receipts, and (optionally) connect a bank account through Plaid to import transactions.

Mia Budget Buddy is NOT:

  • A bank, brokerage, lender, financial institution, or money-transmitter.
  • A registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, tax preparer, or accountant.
  • A source of financial, tax, legal, or investment advice.
  • Insured by the FDIC, NCUA, or any deposit-insurance scheme.

You are solely responsible for the accuracy of every record you enter, every category you assign, every tax filing you make, and every financial decision you take. Mia is a tool. The decisions are yours.

5. Bank-Account Linking via Plaid

If you choose to connect a bank account, brokerage, credit card, or other financial institution to the App, that connection is made through Plaid Inc., an independent third party.

  • Plaid presents the financial institution’s authentication screen directly to you inside the Plaid Link UI. We never see, collect, or store your online-banking credentials.
  • Plaid acts as a data processor under its own End User Privacy Policy: https://plaid.com/legal/#end-user-privacy-policy.
  • The data Plaid returns to the App (account names, balances, transactions, identifiers) is used solely to populate your in-App financial records. We do not resell that data.
  • Linking is entirely optional. The App’s core budgeting and tracking features work without Plaid.
  • You can revoke a Plaid connection at any time from inside the App (Settings → Linked Accounts → Disconnect). Disconnecting instructs Plaid to stop pulling data on your behalf, and removes the corresponding cached transactions from the App.
  • Plaid usage incurs per-Item and per-account costs (see Section 7 “Premium”). We do not pass these costs to you on the Free tier; they are absorbed by Sierra Digital Forge and ultimately funded by Premium subscriptions.

6. AI Features

Selected features (receipt OCR, recipe extraction, product/barcode classification, voice transcription, and the in-App assistant “Mia”) send specific content to third-party AI providers (currently Google Gemini and ElevenLabs) for processing. The content sent, and the exact purpose, are described in PRIVACY_POLICY.md §5.

  • We configure these providers to not use your submissions to train their models, to the extent the provider supports such an opt-out.
  • AI outputs are best-effort and not guaranteed accurate. You should verify amounts, merchants, dates, and classifications before relying on them for taxes, payments, or financial decisions.
  • AI processing requires an internet connection. The App’s core local features continue to work offline.

7. Premium Subscription (forthcoming)

We expect to offer a paid Premium tier in the future. Pricing has not been finalized. When Premium launches, the following clauses will apply:

7.1 Plans and Pricing

The current Premium pricing will be disclosed inside the App at the time of purchase and on our Play Store listing. We will provide at least 30 days’ notice of any price change for existing subscribers.

7.2 Free Tier

The core local features of the App (budgets, debts, goals, lists, recipes, receipt capture, on-device categorization, voice playback via system TTS) will remain available at no cost without a subscription.

7.3 Premium Features (expected)

Premium will gate features that have ongoing per-user cost or that depend on third-party AI:

  • AI-powered features (Gemini OCR, classification, ElevenLabs voice).
  • Bank-account linking via Plaid.
  • Selected Community features.

7.4 Automatic Renewal

Premium subscriptions purchased through Google Play will automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current price, per the standard Play subscription terms. You may cancel renewal at any time via Google Play (Subscriptions → Mia Budget Buddy → Cancel). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period.

7.5 Refunds

See REFUND_POLICY.md.

8. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

  • Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive source code from the App except as permitted by law.
  • Use the App for fraudulent purposes (e.g., laundering, structuring transactions, evading tax obligations).
  • Circumvent access controls or interfere with the App’s operation.
  • Use Plaid or any third-party integration in violation of that provider’s terms.
  • Harvest other users’ Community content, scrape, or use automated tools against our backend.
  • Sublicense, lease, or resell your account.

9. Content You Submit

“Your Content” means anything you enter, capture, or upload through the App — including transactions, receipts, recipes, photos, voice recordings, Community posts, and profile fields.

9.1 Ownership

You retain all ownership rights in Your Content.

9.2 License to Operate the App

By submitting Your Content, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, process, and display that content solely to operate the App and the features you are using. For example, to display your own data back to you, to run a receipt through OCR, to publish a Community post you authored.

9.3 Community Content

Content you publish to Community features is visible to other Community users. See COMMUNITY_GUIDELINES.md for the friendly rules and PRIVACY_POLICY.md §6 for the legal description.

9.4 AI Training

We do not use Your Content to train AI models. Third-party AI providers we use are configured to not train on submissions to the extent they support that setting.

10. Moderation

We use automated content moderation (powered by Google Gemini) as a first-pass filter for Community submissions, supplemented by human review for borderline cases. We reserve the right to remove any content that violates these Terms or the Community Guidelines, and to suspend or terminate accounts of repeat offenders, with or without notice.

11. Intellectual Property

The App, its design, source code, the “Mia” character, and the Sierra Digital Forge and Mia Budget Buddy names and marks are owned by Sierra Digital Forge LLC and are protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark, and other laws. Nothing in these Terms transfers our intellectual property to you.

12. Termination

You may stop using the App at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access for material violations of these Terms, illegal activity (including financial fraud), non-payment, or behavior that endangers other users or the integrity of the service. Upon termination:

  • Your right to access Premium features ends immediately.
  • Your local on-device data remains on your device until you uninstall the App or use Settings → Account → Delete Account & Wipe Data.
  • Backend records are retained or deleted per PRIVACY_POLICY.md §7.

13. Disclaimers

THE APP IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR ACCURACY. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE APP WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE.

Financial calculations (debt payoff, savings projections, budget rollovers, OCR results) are provided as estimates and aids. You are solely responsible for verifying every figure before relying on it for taxes, payments, financial decisions, or any other purpose. Sierra Digital Forge is not liable for financial losses resulting from incorrect categorizations, OCR errors, missed reminders, or any other App output.

14. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL SIERRA DIGITAL FORGE LLC BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUES, DATA, OR BUSINESS, WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO THE APP SHALL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (a) $100 USD OR (b) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

Some jurisdictions do not allow exclusion or limitation of certain damages; in those jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Sierra Digital Forge LLC from any claim, damage, or expense (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from Your Content, your use of the App, your linking of any financial institution through Plaid, or your violation of these Terms.

16. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Nevada, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or the App shall be resolved as follows:

  1. Informal Resolution: You agree to first contact us at support@sierradigitalforge.com to attempt informal resolution.
  2. Binding Arbitration: If informal resolution fails, the dispute shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, with the arbitration seated in Douglas County, Nevada, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in court.
  3. Class Action Waiver: You agree to resolve disputes only on an individual basis and waive any right to participate in a class action.

(Note: arbitration + class waiver provisions are enforceable in most U.S. states but may be limited in California and a few others. Lawyer to confirm before publication.)

17. Google Play Terms

Your use of the App is also subject to the Google Play Terms of Service and the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement. If any of those terms conflict with these Terms in a way that disadvantages you, the more user-favorable provision applies.

18. Export Control

You agree not to export, re-export, or transfer the App to any country, person, or entity subject to U.S. sanctions or to which export is otherwise restricted by U.S. law.

19. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be announced in-app and (where we have your email on file) by email at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.

20. Contact

Questions about these Terms: support@sierradigitalforge.com Mailing address: Sierra Digital Forge LLC, c/o Northwest Registered Agent LLC, 732 S. 6th St., Suite N, Las Vegas, NV 89101, USA