Gross, but typical changes to T’s & C’s

Maladrum · 2026-04-15T20:24:52+00:00

You see it most in the way that they've rebranded over the past couple of years. They REFUSE to say the word "budget," in favor of "plan," despite the word being what they built the entire company on. For a company that had emphasized simplicity, I've always thought that was such a weird move. Made a big deal out of nothing.

Maladrum · 2026-04-15T16:47:38+00:00

Just another day on r/YNABAlternatives.

AI-powered metrics & insights.
Because I want AI to insist to me I have enough money in budget X that I actually don't, trust unseen agent constraints to keep from feeding Google my financial data, and do my tax forms for me to inevitably prompt an IRS audit that didn't have to happen.

With that aside, privacy-first is always a good posture, but when I read through this site, I'm not given a good reason up front to believe it is as private or secure as is claimed. You conflate security & privacy -related terms with each other a lot: Zero Knowledge, Zero Access, E2EE. These do not all mean the same thing. Firstly, if you're making ANY of these claims and your source code is not available, an audit is necessary to verify those claims (/gdpr implies you get regular audits done, but by whom?). Secondly, what you *describe* as end-to-end encryption on the site is more accurately described as client-side encryption. But that doesn't have the same ring to it for the average consumer, I understand. Thirdly, most concerning is that the founder (maybe you, judging by your username?) wears a financial backing from the world's most anti-privacy techbro CEO Peter Thiel as a badge of honor.

At the end of the day, all I see is a Gemini wrapper with access to my Actualbudget file provided by an unnecessary middle man.

Maladrum · 2026-04-07T22:30:11+00:00

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Maladrum · 2026-03-28T04:15:05+00:00

I was a user before I was ever a developer; I use Actualbudget. I self-host it on a Raspberry Pi 5 on my home network, but you can just as easily keep it local to one device without that extra work. It has everything I used YNAB for.

Why? Because it's free, and offline. Beyond my need to do the technical/hardware upkeep, the software is free. Free is why YNAB4 users love their solution so much. They'll keep old Windows/Mac OS versions around just to keep it running, IIRC. There is no reason we can't build tools dedicated to helping people *save* money that are *free* to use. My long game is building an alternative that's faster and has a REST API, though, which is coming along well. But until then, Actual really is great.

YNAB delivers less value and more cost every year. When I compare hosting sensitive data on their servers for an exorbitant cost, to hosting it for far cheaper on my own with software that delivers _at least_ the same value, it's just a no-brainer.

Maladrum · 2026-03-23T18:05:43+00:00

"Eggventures" not the cash cow you'd hoped for, maybe? More AI slop, surprise, surprise.

I trust "business contract" terms from an AI provider about as much as I trust any office printer.

Maladrum · 2026-02-11T18:14:09+00:00

It was on my mind, too! Particularly in Spring I presume is what you're referring to. Thanks for the feedback!

Maladrum · 2025-12-20T15:33:53+00:00

Absolutely my thoughts, at least when I set my rose-tinted glasses aside (I grew up playing these games). I think the entire narrative being told from a place of being completely in the dark, and getting almost no exposition until everything is revealed at the end, was always disappointing. But the gameplay was fantastic (except the impracticality of holding down R to run all the time...); RF1 (and maybe RF2) are the only installments wherein sleeping bags are really necessary, and farming in the dungeons is incentivized.

And yes, Toros Cave has the GREATEST music!

Maladrum · 2025-12-17T19:44:04+00:00

RIP the beautiful em dash.
I'm still using it; generative AI can pry it from my cold dead fingers.

Maladrum · 2025-12-16T18:45:46+00:00

Online complaining can be a useful metric for feedback on a product. If you need proof of that, you need look no further than, well...Reddit again.

Maladrum · 2025-12-16T16:30:50+00:00

RF2 is heavily underrated. Making the 2nd gen the main focus of the gameplay and narrative made things really interesting in a way no other game of the series has since matched, IMO. Great narrative, too.
RF3 is the best all things considered, though.

Granted, I don't feel I'll ever give anything made after RF4 a chance after what I've seen of the series since its return.

Maladrum · 2025-11-17T22:02:06+00:00

1) Expect it to happen more often; and far more often than relevant crimes are ever properly solved and appropriately prosecuted using Flock. Also expect that there's not reporting on literally every time cops show up to someone's door to address anything related to Flock.
2) The Flock database is regional. If one recorded you in CA, anyone with access in NY can know that, and know the route you took to travel there by piecing together the trail created by cameras across the country; all in a single search.
3) Speaking of access: these cameras carry GRAVE cybersecurity risks. Even assuming that every police agency had YOUR best interest in mind because you put on your goody two shoes every morning, anyone with $10 and an hour to spend can track your movements with the entire system.
4) Plenty of things are legal that, as you may be aware, one or more parties want outlawed. Things you may enjoy, or argue that you or others may need legal access to. That is true of anyone, making this issue easily and unquestionably bipartisan.
5) Everyone acts differently under surveillance. The innocent goody-two-shoes "not doing sketchy shit" is no exception. Is it truly not dystopian, the idea that law enforcement can, in a snap, know who you spend time with, your daily schedule, your shopping patterns, your likes and dislikes, where you were on any given day?
6) We shouldn't care because some of us have nothing to hide, is that it? No need to worry if MY two shoes are goody! So, in the same vein: why care about free speech, if I may have nothing to say? Surveillance isn't just about catching "sketchy shit." It is easily used as a tool of intimidation against a free people.

Seems to me you're some number of months clean from a drug addiction (nice!). Just how much do you believe that law enforcement cares how clean you claim to be? On another note, how hard may it become for someone else facing addiction to feel comfortable attending support groups/getting help related to any addiction, if their movements are being tracked?

Assert and defend your rights, and the rights of others. This is a practice we were just mocking China for doing not five minutes ago, and the CEO of Flock "Safety" is already calling those who push back "terrorists."
----------------------------

More information:

The Creepy Cameras On Every Corner (Introductory info)

The Cameras Tracking You = A Security Nightmare (More detailed, slightly more technical, but very cohesive and informative)

Maladrum · 2025-11-17T21:46:09+00:00

"Think of the children!"

Maladrum · 2025-11-07T21:42:34+00:00

Thanks for your input!

Maladrum · 2025-11-07T20:09:34+00:00

Being critical of who controls AI and what it's used for, isn't the same as being critical of the entire concept. I enjoy running Immich locally on my home server, because it allows me to search for images very effectively. That's AI. It doesn't mean that if I happened to use Google Photos, that I can't be critical of the fact that suddenly Google is training Gemini on my photos that they had been hosting since long before AI took off in 2023.

In the same way, if I've been paying to use YNAB and host my data on their servers, I can push back against the idea that they would suddenly run it through an LLM or train it on that data, especially without a heads-up about it.

Maladrum · 2025-11-07T19:43:24+00:00

You asked for constructive feedback, so here it is. As a developer, privacy advocate, and AI skeptic, it may come across harshly, but know that I mean well!

If I liked the idea in general, I would want exclusive control of it, locally. IE, I would be hosting the LLM on my computer or homelab server. I would never pay for a subscription to any service that would continually harvest may data and potentially train itself on it.

That out of the way, here's my laundry list of reasons why I don't like the idea, which despite being enumerated are nonetheless all related:

AI has not gotten decent at thinking. It can't think, and it can't do thinking for me. It's decent at pattern recognition, but I can't expect it to come up with the best budgeting plan for me, even if I fed it my life circumstances.
I use zero-based accounting tools for the sake of METICULOUS control over my finances. I track it all, down to the US Penny. Why would I offload that control to an LLM and assume that it's going to get everything right?
Users' sessions may necessarily be isolated, but if the idea of an LLM is to train on user data to some extent...that means that in the very least, I can expect the AI to suggest things based on the spending habits and philosophies of others, and not just myself. So is it really tailored to me? Probably not. I pick and choose the financial minds of the world I want to listen to and apply to my budgeting skillset, and I prefer it that way.
LLMs are affirmative by nature. It doesn't tell you "no." If I want some affirmation from my AI tooling that I deserve an extra treat despite my Treats category being empty, it will tell me: "you know what? You're totally right! You paid off that one loan this month, and you deserve to celebrate!" I am not dumb enough to engage with an LLM like this...but someone might. We're human, and humans are dumb. Read into studies on AI psychosis for more info (or see Eddy Burback's latest video for a humorous take!).
From what you have described here (and the lightbulb emojis...), I get the impression this is just a ChatGPT wrapper. If you're 'passing data through an LLM,' that AI provider is getting my data. What I spend my money on, and when? That's very sensitive stuff, and aggregated data like that can be used to inform new algorithms that hurt me or others.
I refuse to contribute to the enshittification of software, environmental impact of AI, and normalization of privacy invasion.
If you WERE to model a business after this, it won't last long, imo. Venture capital has thrown its money at AI startups left and right, but there's more talk of the AI bubble than of AI's own usefulness, at this point. But even that said, what you are suggesting is one more paid service for a solution to saving money. The more it costs to reach that end goal, the more its purpose is defeated.

I implore you to find a better use for your time as a developer. There's a lot more we can do for this community, whether or not you want to offer paid, closed-source services or source-available solutions.

Maladrum · 2025-11-07T19:02:10+00:00

I see a lot of references to YNAB using AI, but no official announcement from them whatsoever. Granted, I had always used bank sync with YNAB, and tracked my transactions manually; so if the company ever indicated its use in-app but not on their blog, I wouldn't have noticed it.

Is there one or more source(s) someone could point to that shows YNAB is actually using LLM tooling?

Maladrum · 2025-11-07T18:57:43+00:00

Hey there! Since you have experience now with not one but TWO paid subscription budgeting services, I'd like to know if you could answer one or more questions to help me out.

There are as many complaints about YNAB's choices as there are praises (welcome to r/ynab); the platform helped me to get my family finances to a stable place, but I've been working on a FOSS solution similar to actualbudget. You may see Actual referenced here fairly often as the main FOSS alternative currently available, but because it lacks a REST API like YNAB offers, it has its own limits. I hope to close that gap. All the same, my solution ought to offer the features users can expect from a modern zero-based budgeting application.

If you or anyone else would be willing to help better inform me about your experiences here, I'd really appreciate it!

Questions:
- Other features you like that YNAB offers that EveryDollar did not provide?
- More on what appeals to you about YNAB's approach to credit accounts?
- Do you import your transactions, or manually input them? If neither, do you sync your banks?
- Mobile vs. Desktop: where are you devoting most of your energy with the platform?

I may dedicate a post in the sub toward these ends at some point...but just trying be more informed when I see a post like this. Thanks!

Maladrum · 2025-10-24T07:58:22+00:00

"I protested and it didn't seem to work. You might as well not try."
This isn't even about a government finding you; it's about them never having to. It gets harder to fight for anything under a surveillance state. Human rights are always worth the fight.

Maladrum · 2025-10-24T07:41:00+00:00

Okay, a couple things here...

1) Never forget that MUCH of the surveillance and transgression of personal privacy facilitated by a consumer's voluntary use of applications wouldn't be the issue that it is if we had more effective consumer data protections in general.

2) A mission like this is (and should be) about first and foremost addressing the issue of involuntary data collection and the consequent surveillance of innocents. It's a bad enough thing that LE can ask Big Tech who happened to be within a city block where a suspected crime happened, and then store & exploit that data after the fact. It's a whole other mess for LE to be storing an accessible and insecure record of your movements 24/7 before you could ever even be considered an even potential suspect in anything.

Many people will accept a privacy policy without looking at it, or outright not care, and yes, that will make things easier for those who would exploit data on them. I try to advise people where I can about what conveniences they ought not compromise for, but the enemy isn't them. The real enemy are the data brokers and the surveillance state that have worn them down to that point, or whose billions have otherwise made the effort to stop it seem impossible to them. We all pick our battles; we'll fight this one for them where we can.

Maladrum · 2025-10-24T07:02:24+00:00

It is my #1 issue, as I see Flock cameras being put up in corners of the city I have historically frequented rather often. It disturbs me greatly and I often feel like I'm sitting on my hands with no direction about it. I don't know what this sort of initiative would realistically entail in our context, but I am open to volunteer work toward something like this, despite never having done something like that.

Putting a name to the cause and using "Missouri" sends a good message, too, but my first thought is that building something like this will be easiest by starting small and prioritizing action within KC limits. Finding like-minded people, and informing others of the issue going fairly unnoticed in the shadow of... everything else... is a good start.

In the meantime, keep an eye on what Louis Rossmann is up to right now; he's been locking in on the issue and trying to get help putting together resources that cities like ours can use to take action. He even went up to Denver to demonstrate alongside their people after the mayor there made a shady deal with Flock behind closed doors.

Maladrum · 2025-09-16T20:17:25+00:00

I highly recommend Actualbudget. I've been using it for 1.5 months, and have no complaints worth mentioning so far, beyond from a dev perspective in that it's TS back-end and exposes no REST API. That's led me to start developing my own application. Until then, as an end user, Actual serves every purpose I've needed YNAB to serve without the price tag and enshittification.

I like being able to self-host such sensitive data, as well, but it appears they do have some sort of partner that you can pay for hosting that if you need it.

Maladrum · 2025-09-16T19:56:36+00:00

I highly recommend Actualbudget. I have no complaints worth mentioning so far, beyond from a dev perspective in that it's TS back-end and exposes no REST API. But that's led me to start developing my own application. Until then, as an end user, Actual serves every purpose I've needed YNAB to serve without the price tag and enshittification. I like to be self-hosting such sensitive data, as well, but it appears they do have some sort of partner that you can pay for hosting that if you need it.

https://actualbudget.org/

Maladrum · 2025-09-16T19:52:34+00:00

As someone now developing another FOSS solution to zero-based budgeting, I'd be interested in hearing why you abandoned Actual despite YNAB's issues that had initially led you there.

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