# Offline use and privacy

Your phone does the work first, then syncs in the background. Your groups are locked on your phone.

## Use Rata offline

- You can open your groups, add expenses and record payments with no signal.
- Rata keeps the changes on your device and sends them when you are online again.
- When the group is not up to date, the top of the group shows a word like **Offline**. When it syncs, the word goes away.
- A group that is not on your device yet, for example a new invite link, needs the internet one time.
- Currency rates are from the last time you were online.

## Live sync

When two people add expenses at the same time, both expenses stay. Other phones in the group get each change in a few seconds. When you come back to Rata, it gets the changes at once.

## Who can read your groups

- Each group has its own random key. The key is in the invite link after the `#` sign. Browsers do not send that part of a link to a server.
- Your phone locks (encrypts) each expense, payment, note, UPI ID and bill photo before it leaves the phone.
- Our server keeps only locked data. It cannot read names, amounts or notes.
- Only people with the invite link can read the group.
- Rata has no ads and does not track you.

Read more in the [privacy policy](https://rata.fyi/privacy) and on the [security page](https://rata.fyi/security).

## Remove a group

- To remove a group from your phone, open the group settings and tap **Remove from this device**. The group stays for the other people.
- To delete a group from the server, write to [hello@rata.fyi](mailto:hello@rata.fyi).

## A new phone

Your groups are on your device. On a new phone, sign in and open the invite link of each group again. All the data comes back from the server. Keep your invite links in a safe place, for example in a WhatsApp chat with yourself.