Keep the receipt only when you choose to

A receipt is more personal than the number on it

Scan a receipt and you've created a small dossier: where you were, what time, what you bought, how you paid, and sometimes your name. The expense itself — “₹1,050, groceries” — is tame. The image is not. So the question of whether an app keeps that image matters far more than most people realise.

The uncomfortable default across the industry is to store everything, indefinitely, sometimes to train models. You get a tidy archive; the app gets a warehouse of your life.

Opt-in flips the default the right way

Opt-in storage means the safe thing happens automatically: the AI reads your receipt, extracts the line items, and then discards the image. Nothing is kept unless, on that specific scan, you tick “keep this one.”

• --Default is privacy — you never have to remember to turn storage off.
• --Keeping a receipt becomes a deliberate act, for the few that matter (warranties, reimbursements, taxes).
• --The rest — your daily coffees and groceries — leave no image trail at all.

When keeping a receipt is genuinely worth it

Opt-in doesn't mean never. There are good reasons to keep specific images — the point is that you decide which ones:

• --A big-ticket purchase with a warranty or return window.
• --Anything you'll expense to work or claim on tax.
• --A disputed or shared charge where the group may want proof later.

For everything else, the number is enough. The image is a liability you don't need to hold.

What to check before you trust any scanner

• --Is the image discarded by default, or kept unless you opt out?
• --If you do keep one, where does it live and can you delete it — and does deleting the expense delete the file?
• --Is any receipt image ever used to train AI models? (It shouldn't be.)