Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We may collect information about you in a variety of ways. The information we may collect via the Service includes:

• Personal Data: If you choose to create an account or link a Google account, we collect your email address, display name, and a unique user identifier (UID). Guest accounts do not transmit personal identifying information.
• User-Generated Content: Recipes you create, edit, or import; meal plans; shopping lists; dietary preferences (Taste Profiles); and custom pantry inventories.
• Camera and Photos: Images you take or upload for the purpose of scanning pantry shelves, analyzing food plates, or attaching photos to your digital recipe book.
• Usage & Telemetry Data: Automatically collected information including device type, operating system, IP address, and interaction data (e.g., buttons clicked, AI generation request times, and crash reports) to help us improve the app's performance.

2. How We Process AI & Camera Data

RecipeCart AI relies on artificial intelligence to provide core features. We want to be entirely transparent about how this works:

• Google Vertex AI: Text prompts and images used for recipe generation, plate analysis, and pantry scanning are processed securely using Google Cloud's Vertex AI APIs.
• No Model Training on Private Data: Your private recipes, uploaded photos, and prompts are not used by Google to train their public foundation models (Gemini), as per Google Cloud's enterprise data privacy commitments.
• On-Device Processing: Certain features, like Barcode Scanning and Edge AI recipe variations, are processed entirely locally on your device via Google ML Kit and Gemini Nano. This data never leaves your phone.

3. How We Use Your Information

Having accurate information about you permits us to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience. Specifically, we use information collected about you to:

• Create and manage your account, ensuring your recipes sync securely across all your devices.
• Generate customized recipes and meal plans tailored to your specific dietary goals, pantry inventory, and "Taste Profile."
• Analyze food photos and recipe cards to extract culinary data.
• Process subscription purchases (Note: Payment processing is handled entirely by Google Play or Apple App Store; we never see or store your credit card data).
• Monitor app stability, troubleshoot crashes, and optimize AI generation latency.

4. Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share information we have collected about you in certain situations:

• Community Publishing: If you explicitly choose to publish a recipe to the "Community Discover" feed (or leave the Auto-Publish setting enabled), that specific recipe, its image, and your display name will become visible to other users of the app. You can unpublish these at any time.
• Third-Party Service Providers: We share data with trusted Google Cloud services (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Firebase Storage, and Google Vertex AI) strictly for the purpose of hosting, syncing, and processing your app data.
• By Law or to Protect Rights: If we believe the release of information about you is necessary to respond to legal process, to investigate or remedy potential violations of our policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of others.

5. Data Retention and Account Deletion

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. We provide an explicit "Delete Account" button inside the app's Settings → Privacy & Data section.

Executing an account deletion triggers an immediate, permanent GDPR-compliant purge of your Google account link, your personal Firestore databases, all Firebase Storage images, and any public community recipes associated with your UID. This action cannot be undone.

6. Security of Your Information

We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information. Your synced data is encrypted in transit and at rest on Google Cloud servers. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

7. Children's Privacy

The Service is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly solicit information from or market to children under the age of 13. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.

8. Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise your privacy rights (such as a data access request), please contact us at:

Email: privacy@recipecartai.app