Cookguy helps you manage pantry ingredients, discover and create recipes, and follow recipes while cooking. This policy explains how information is handled when you use the Cookguy mobile app, website, and related services (together, the “Services”).
1. Privacy at a glance
- No advertising tracking: Cookguy does not track you across apps or websites owned by other companies, use advertising identifiers, or show third-party ads.
- No sale of personal information: we do not sell or rent your personal information.
- Account-linked service data: the content you save, your usage and Bowl balance, and your subscription status are linked to your account so Cookguy works across devices and can enforce feature limits.
- Optional device access: photos, camera, and notifications are used only after you choose the feature and, where required, grant permission.
2. Information we collect
Account and contact information
We collect your email address, account identifier, display name, profile preferences, and authentication information. If you sign in with Apple or Google, we receive the name, email address, provider identifier, and other basic profile details you authorize that provider to share. Apple may provide a private relay email address when you use Hide My Email.
Kitchen, recipe, and other user content
- Pantry items, quantities, units, expiry information, allergies and intolerances, dietary preferences (including optional halal or kosher guidance), languages, and recipe-generation selections.
- Recipe ideas and requests, generated and saved recipes, recipe translations, ratings, feedback, moderation reports, favorites, public recipes, daily dish wishes, and recipe-chat messages.
- Cooking-navigation state, including guidance level, completed steps, active steps, and timer end times, so your cooking session can be restored.
- Support messages and any information you choose to include when contacting us.
Photos and visual requests
When you use Food Lens, pantry scanning, dish identification, or another image-assisted feature, Cookguy processes the photo you choose or take to identify ingredients or dishes and provide the requested result. Camera and photo-library access require device permission. The selected photo is not saved to your Cookguy account or Cookguy image storage. It is transmitted to our processing providers to complete the request and may be retained temporarily by those providers for security and abuse prevention. Cookguy does not use photos for advertising.
Subscriptions, purchases, and Bowls
We receive purchase and subscription information from Apple, Google, and RevenueCat, including product identifiers, store, entitlement status, renewal or expiry status, transaction or event identifiers, and subscription-management information. We do not receive your complete payment-card or bank-account details. We also keep your Bowl allowance, Bowl usage, and reset date.
Usage, device, and diagnostic information
- Device and app information such as platform, app version, language, time zone, IP address, and identifiers needed for authentication, security, installations, and service operation.
- A push-notification token, platform, locale, enabled status, and last-seen time if notifications are enabled. Firebase may also process limited device, installation, usage, and diagnostic information to deliver and maintain messaging.
- Technical logs, request status, and limited performance or diagnostic data used to keep the Services reliable and secure. We may infer an approximate region from an IP address for security and service operation; Cookguy does not request precise device location.
3. How this maps to Apple App Privacy
Cookguy’s App Store privacy answers describe data that may be collected by Cookguy or integrated service providers. Depending on the feature you use, those disclosures include:
- Data linked to you: name, email address, user ID, account-linked device or push identifiers, photos, other user content, health information such as allergies or intolerances, sensitive information such as optional religious dietary guidance, purchase or subscription history, usage needed to operate service limits, and approximate location inferred from network activity, used for app functionality, personalization, or security.
- Data not linked to you: limited device, installation, messaging, purchase, other data, and diagnostic data that certain platform service providers process without associating it with your Cookguy profile.
- Tracking: none. Cookguy and its integrated services are not used to combine your Cookguy activity with third-party data for targeted advertising, advertising measurement, or data-broker purposes.
Some categories apply only when you use the corresponding optional feature, such as Google Sign-In, photo recognition, notifications, or a paid subscription.
4. How we use information
We use information to:
- create and secure your account and authenticate sign-in;
- sync your pantry, recipes, preferences, chats, and saved content across devices, and restore cooking progress and timers locally on the device where the session was started;
- recognize ingredients and dishes; generate recipe ideas, recipes, cooking plans, and images; translate recipes; and answer recipe-related questions;
- personalize results using your pantry, preferences, language, and selected recipe settings;
- verify subscriptions, restore purchases, manage Premium access, enforce weekly Bowl allowances, and prevent fraud;
- deliver Recipes of the Day and other service notifications when you enable them;
- understand whether cooking-navigation features work as intended, troubleshoot problems, maintain security, and improve reliability; and
- comply with law and protect users, Cookguy, and others.
Where required by law, we rely on your consent, performance of our contract with you, our legitimate interests in operating and improving Cookguy, and compliance with legal obligations.
6. Your choices and rights
- Update profile, language, recipe, image-preview, and notification preferences in the app.
- Withdraw camera, photo-library, or notification permission in device settings. Disabling notifications also disables the registered device token in Cookguy.
- Delete pantry items, saved recipes, recipe ideas, and chats where the app provides a delete control, and choose whether a recipe is public.
- Manage or cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription through the applicable store account or Cookguy’s subscription management screen.
- Request access, correction, deletion, portability, or restriction of personal information, or object to certain processing, where your local law provides those rights.
You can permanently delete your account from the Profile screen in the app. Deleting the app does not delete your account or cancel an app-store subscription. Account deletion removes your recipes, including public recipes, and associated account data. Independently created remixes are retained, but their link to a deleted source recipe is removed. You may also have the right to complain to your local privacy or data-protection authority.
7. Retention and security
We keep account and user content while your account is active and as needed to provide the Services. Push-device records are retained while notifications are enabled or until the token is disabled, removed, replaced, or becomes invalid. Subscription and purchase records may be kept as needed to verify access, handle disputes or refunds, prevent fraud, and satisfy legal or accounting obligations. Limited RevenueCat webhook audit records are normally removed after 90 days. Ordinary recipe feedback is normally removed after 90 days, resolved or dismissed moderation reports after 12 months, and failed recipe-generation drafts after 30 days.
When an account-deletion request is completed, we delete or de-identify account-linked information unless retention is required for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, dispute resolution, or backup recovery. Remixes independently created by other users may remain, without a link to your deleted source recipe. Backup copies are removed according to our normal backup lifecycle.
We use administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect information, including authentication, access controls, encrypted network transport, row-level data controls, and restricted server credentials. No internet or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.
Children
Cookguy is not directed to children under 13, or a higher minimum age where required by local law. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below that age. If you believe a child has provided information, please contact us.
8. Changes and contact
We may update this policy as Cookguy, its providers, or legal requirements change. We will post the revised version here and update the date above. If a change is material, we will provide additional notice where required.
Questions or privacy requests can be sent to support@cookguy.app. Please include “Privacy Request” in the subject line.