Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 10, 2026

At RecipeCart AI, we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our mobile application and website (collectively, the “Service”). If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the Service.

1. Information we collect

• Personal data. A Google account is required. We collect your email address, display name, and a unique user identifier (UID). There is no guest mode.
• User-generated content. Recipes you create, edit, or import; cookbooks; meal plans; shopping lists; dietary preferences (Taste Profiles); and pantry inventories. A free cookbook stays on the device. A Pro cookbook syncs with your account.
• Camera and photos. Images you take or upload to scan pantry shelves, analyze food plates, or attach to recipes.
• Usage and telemetry. Device type, operating system, IP address, and interaction data (including AI request timing and crash reports) used to keep the Service stable.
• Website visits. The public pages and the kitchen at /app/ use Google Analytics to count page views. That includes a cookie and an approximate location taken from the IP address.

2. How we process AI and camera data

• Google Vertex AI. Text prompts and images used for recipe generation, plate analysis, and pantry scanning are processed with Google Cloud Vertex AI APIs. Page text, shared-post text, and text read from an imported screenshot are sent the same way when a recipe still has to be extracted. A shared video you import is uploaded and processed in the cloud.
• No model training on private data. Your private recipes, uploaded photos, and prompts are not used by Google to train public foundation models, per Google Cloud enterprise data privacy commitments.
• On-device processing. Barcode scanning, text read from an imported screenshot, and some Edge AI variations run locally via Google ML Kit and Gemini Nano and do not leave the device. A web page that already lists ingredients and steps is read on the device and is not sent to Vertex AI.

3. How we use your information

• Create and manage your account and sync recipes across your devices.
• Generate recipes and meal plans from your pantry, diet, and Taste Profile.
• Analyze food photos and recipe cards to extract culinary data.
• Process subscriptions. Payment is handled by Google Play; we never see or store card numbers.
• Monitor stability, troubleshoot crashes, and improve AI latency.

4. Disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information. We may share information in these cases:

• Community publishing. If you publish a recipe to Community Discover (or leave Auto-Publish on), that recipe, its image, and your display name become visible to other users. You can unpublish at any time.
• Service providers. Google Cloud services (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Firebase Storage, Vertex AI) host, sync, and process app data. Google Analytics counts website visits.
• Legal. If we believe release is necessary to respond to legal process, investigate policy violations, or protect rights, property, and safety.

5. Retention and account deletion

We retain your data while your account is active. Opening the planner removes meal-plan entries dated before the 1st of the current month, on the phone and in the cloud. Recipes in your library stay. Settings → Privacy & Data includes Delete Account. Deletion permanently purges your Google account link, personal Firestore data, Firebase Storage images, and public community recipes for your UID. This cannot be undone.

6. Security

Synced data is encrypted in transit and at rest on Google Cloud. No security measure is perfect.

7. Children’s privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If we learn we have, we will delete it as quickly as possible.

8. Contact

Questions or privacy requests: privacy@recipecartai.app