🔒 Security & Encryption

Your financial privacy is our priority. We built JustinsEnvelopeBudgeting.com with server-side field-level encryption that keeps your sensitive financial information private and secure.

Why Encryption Matters for Budgeting Apps

Other budgeting applications might store your financial data in plain text on their servers. This means:

Employees can read your transaction details and spending patterns
Data breaches expose your complete financial history in readable form
Your private account names and payee information are visible to support staff
Government requests can access all your financial information directly

We encrypt your sensitive data so even we can't read your private financial details.

Our Server-Side Encryption Architecture

How Your Data Stays Private

1. Session Login: Your password creates a unique server-side encryption key for your session

2. Field Encryption: Sensitive data fields are encrypted on our servers using your session key

3. Database Storage: We store encrypted data that appears as meaningless text to anyone with database access

4. Session Security: Your encryption key expires automatically and is never permanently stored

What Gets Encrypted

✅ Encrypted Fields (We Can't Read These)

Account names and descriptions
Transaction descriptions and payee names
Envelope (category) names and notes
Personal notes and comments
Import data and transaction details

🔢 Visible to Us (Required for Service Function)

Financial amounts and balances (numbers only, no context)
Transaction dates and timestamps
Account creation and login times
Session tokens (temporary, automatically expire)

🚫 We Don't Even Know

Your email address (stored encrypted)
What your accounts represent (encrypted names)
Who you pay money to (encrypted payees)
What you spend money on (encrypted descriptions)
Your budgeting categories (encrypted envelope names)

Technical Security Specifications

Server-Side Encryption: AES-256-GCM (Advanced Encryption Standard) Key Derivation: PBKDF2 with SHA-256 (100,000 iterations) Session Security: Cryptographically secure random tokens Transport Security: HTTPS/TLS with secure headers Password Hashing: BCrypt with salt (industry standard) Database: Encrypted field storage with secure connections

Why AES-256-GCM Server-Side Encryption?

Military Grade: Same encryption used by government agencies for classified information
Authenticated Encryption: Prevents tampering and ensures data integrity
Session-Based Keys: Encryption keys derived from your password, expire automatically
Database Protection: Even database administrators can't read your private data

Comparison with Other Budgeting Apps

Security Feature	JustinsEnvelopeBudgeting.com	Most Competitors
Sensitive field encryption	✓ AES-256-GCM	✗ Plain text storage
Account names readable by staff	✓ Encrypted, unreadable	✗ Fully visible
Transaction descriptions visible	✓ Encrypted, private	✗ Staff can read everything
Data breach protection	✓ Sensitive data encrypted	✗ All data exposed
Email address privacy	✓ Encrypted in database	✗ Stored in plain text
Support staff data access	✓ Only numbers, no context	✗ Full financial history

Privacy vs. Support Balance

What This Means for Support: Because we encrypt your sensitive data, our support capabilities are intentionally limited:

Account Details: We can see you have accounts but not what they represent
Transaction Issues: We can see amounts and dates but not payees or descriptions
Category Problems: We can see you have budget categories but not their names
Password Recovery: If you forget your password, encrypted data cannot be recovered

We believe protecting your financial privacy is worth these support limitations, but please keep your password secure!

Session Security

Automatic Protection

Session Expiration: Automatic logout after 24 hours of inactivity
Secure Tokens: Cryptographically secure session identifiers
Key Management: Encryption keys exist only during your active session
Auto-Cleanup: Keys automatically expire and are removed from memory

Infrastructure Security

Database Security: Encrypted connections and access controls
Server Hardening: Regular security updates and monitoring
Network Security: Firewalls and intrusion detection systems
Backup Security: Encrypted backups with restricted access

Real-World Example

Here's what we can and cannot see in our database:

What Our Database Shows Us

Your Transaction: "Paid $45.67 to grocery store for weekly shopping"

What We See:

Amount: $45.67 ✓
Date: 2025-01-15 ✓
Payee: "k2x9mP4qR..." (encrypted gibberish)
Description: "A7bN8kL3..." (encrypted gibberish)
Account: "9zQw5eR1..." (encrypted gibberish)

We can help with amount discrepancies or date issues, but we have no idea what you bought or where you spent your money!

Responsible Security Practices

Security Questions?

We welcome questions about our security implementation. For security-related inquiries, please contact us at:

Email: justin@jrtstudio.com

For responsible disclosure of security vulnerabilities, please use the same contact method. We appreciate security researchers who help keep our users safe.

Bottom Line: Your sensitive financial data is encrypted with military-grade AES-256 encryption. Even if our database were compromised, attackers would see only meaningless encrypted text instead of your private account names, payees, and transaction details.

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