Privacy Policy

The short version

• We keep what you save in Potsticker so it's backed up and comes back on a new phone. We don't sell it, and there are no ads.
• A photo you snap for a calorie estimate is used for that estimate and isn't kept on our servers.
• A barcode you scan is looked up in our own copy of a public food database. We don't keep a history of your scans.
• A recipe you share is public, without your name, until you stop sharing it.
• You can turn off usage and crash reports, and delete your account and everything in it, in Settings.

The short version is only a summary. The full policy below is what counts.

Who we are

Potsticker is a cooking app for iPhone, operated by Dishpin Apps LLC, a California limited liability company ("Potsticker", "we", "us"). Andrey Neudachin is our authorized representative. We decide how your personal information is used, and we are responsible for it. This policy covers the Potsticker app, Potsticker Plus and the website at potsticker.app. Questions go to [email protected].

What we collect

Your account

You need an account to use the app. If you sign in with a code, we use your email address to send it. If you sign in with Apple, Apple gives us an ID for you, your email address (or a private relay address, if you choose Hide My Email), and the first time, your name, if you choose to share it. We keep your email address, your name from Apple if given, when your account was created and when you last used Potsticker.

What you save

So that your kitchen is backed up and comes back on any phone you sign in on, we store:

• Recipes: the recipes you save, import, write or edit, the ones you like, and your collections. An imported recipe keeps the creator's name and a link to the original.
• Imports: the link you share with Potsticker stays with the recipe. Text you paste, or a caption that comes with a link, is deleted once the recipe is ready, and kept with the import if it fails. Photos you import a recipe from are deleted once the recipe is ready, within a day at most, except the first one, which becomes the recipe's picture (see How long we keep it).
• Your meal journal: the meals you log, with their titles, notes, ratings, servings and when you ate them, and a backup copy of their photos.
• Meal tracking (Potsticker Plus): quick adds, the foods you type, what you ate and how much, the foods and calories Potsticker estimated, and any daily targets you set.
• Menu and shopping lists: planned weeks and dishes, checked shopping items, staples marked out, and extra items, including scanned products you add.
• Shared recipes: which recipes you've shared, and when you stopped.

Photos you snap for an estimate

When you snap a meal to log it (Potsticker Plus), the photo is sent to Potsticker to estimate what's on the plate. It's passed to our AI provider, Google Gemini, to identify the foods and portions, then discarded by Potsticker. We don't store the photo or log it on our servers. We keep the estimate: the foods, amounts and calories. The photo itself stays on your phone with the meal, and isn't backed up.

Store scan

When you scan a barcode in the store (Potsticker Plus), the app sends the barcode to Potsticker, and we look it up in our own copy of product information from the free Open Food Facts database. We don't send your barcode to Open Food Facts, we don't connect scans to your account, and we don't keep a history of what you scan; like every request, a scan appears in our short-lived server logs. Product photos on the card load straight from Open Food Facts, so, as with any picture on the web, Open Food Facts can see that your device loaded them. A scanned product you add to your shopping list is saved with the list on your phone and synced to your account.

Potsticker Plus

Apple handles payment, so we never see your card details. Apple and RevenueCat tell us whether you have Potsticker Plus, which plan, and when it renews or ends. We also count your imports to apply the free allowance.

Notifications

When the app starts, it registers your device for notifications and we store the notification address Apple gives it, with the app version and which of these notifications you want. We use it to tell you, for example, that an imported recipe is ready (the notification names the recipe) or that your free imports are back. You only see notifications if you allow them, and you can turn them off in your iPhone's Settings. Signing out removes the address.

Usage and crash reports

Unless you turn them off, the app sends reports about which features are used and about crashes. SeeUsage and crash reports for exactly what's in them.

Technical information

Like most online services, our servers record basic details of each request: the time, the internet address it came from, the app and device details your phone sends, the page or feature asked for, and whether it worked. We use them to keep Potsticker secure, stop abuse and fix problems.

Camera, photos and other permissions

Potsticker uses the camera and your photo library only when you choose to take or pick a photo, and receives only the photos you pick. It doesn't use your location, contacts, microphone or health data.

The website

potsticker.app doesn't use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers. Our hosting provider records basic request details, like any website. If you email us, we keep the email to answer it.

What stays on your phone

Your kitchen is also saved on your phone, so Potsticker works without a connection and syncs when you're back online. Some things are kept only on your phone and never sent to us:

• the saved copy of photos you snap for an estimate (a copy is sent for the estimate only with your permission);
• your cooking progress and timers;
• the name you give yourself in Settings, and your preferences;
• your choices about AI processing and usage and crash reports, and reminders your phone schedules itself, such as tonight's dinner.

Because they aren't backed up, signing out, deleting the app or moving to a new phone clears them. Signing out clears the rest of your kitchen from the phone too; it comes back when you sign in again.

How we use it

• To run Potsticker for you: save and sync your kitchen, import recipes, make estimates, look up products, send notifications, and provide Potsticker Plus.
• To keep it working and safe: find and fix bugs and crashes, prevent abuse and fraud, and apply fair-use limits.
• To make it better: see which features people use, from usage reports, unless you turn them off.
• To find recipes for Explore: a recipe imported from a public social post can be added to Explore after we review it, with its creator's credit, for other cooks to find. Explore never shows who imported a recipe.
• To talk to you: answer your emails, and tell you about important changes to Potsticker or these policies.
• Because the law requires it: for example, keeping a copyright notice and what we did about it.

We don't sell your personal information, we don't share it for advertising, and Potsticker has no ads. We don't train AI models on your recipes, photos or meals. We use Google's paid Gemini API, whose terms don't let Google use what we send to improve its products. Google may temporarily log inputs and responses for safety and abuse prevention.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, our legal bases are: our contract with you, to run Potsticker; our legitimate interests, to keep Potsticker secure, to find recipes for Explore and to understand how Potsticker is used (you can object, and turn usage reports off); and our legal obligations.

Your permission for AI processing

We ask for permission before sending recipe links, pasted text, cookbook scans, selected recipe photos, meal descriptions or meal photos to Google Gemini through Potsticker. It extracts recipes and estimates nutrition. The app remembers your choice for your account on that device, including automatic retries when you reconnect. You can turn AI processing off in Settings; this stops future AI requests from that device, but does not recall requests already sent. Entering your own calories, viewing saved recipes and logging a meal without an AI estimate do not require this permission.

The iPhone share extension asks separately for each share, including retries while that share sheet stays open. Potsticker keeps the resulting recipes and estimates. Imported recipe photos follow the retention rules below; meal-estimate photos are not stored by Potsticker's service. Google may temporarily retain inputs and responses for safety.

Who helps us run Potsticker

We use a small number of companies to run Potsticker. They handle personal information on our behalf, only to provide their service to us:

When you import a recipe, Potsticker opens the public post or page you shared, so that site sees a visit from Potsticker, not from you. We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety or our rights, or as part of a sale or merger of Potsticker, in which case this policy keeps applying to your information.

Shared recipes

When you share a recipe, Potsticker makes a public page for it at dishpin.app or potsticker.app. Anyone with the link can see it, and search engines can list it. The page shows the recipe and its picture, and for an imported recipe, the creator's credit and a link to the original. It never shows your name, email or account, unless you wrote them into the recipe yourself.

You can stop sharing at any time from the recipe in the app. The page stops working within a few minutes and drops out of our sitemap, and search engines remove it as they catch up. Deleting the recipe or your account takes the page down too. Anyone who saved the recipe into their own Potsticker keeps their copy.

Usage and crash reports

The app sends usage and crash reports to PostHog unless you turn them off in Settings ("Share anonymous usage and crash reports"). Turning it off stops them straight away, and the choice is remembered on that phone.

• Reports name an event, such as "recipe saved" or "meal logged", with simple details like where an import came from.
• They include the app version and basic device details, such as the model, system version and language.
• They never include your recipes, captions, links, photos, notes, barcodes, email or name.
• They're linked to your Potsticker account ID, a random code, so we can count how many people use a feature.
• We don't record your screen, and we don't use your internet address to work out where you are.

How long we keep it

• Your account and what you save: until you delete it, or delete your account.
• Photos you snap for an estimate: not kept on our servers at all.
• Photos you import a recipe from: deleted once the recipe is ready, within a day at most. The first photo is kept as the recipe's picture, at a web address that can't be guessed. Deleting your account queues automatic removal of imported artwork that no remaining recipe or post uses. Other cooks may keep copies of recipes you shared, including their pictures.
• When you delete your account: your account and everything saved with it are deleted right away, and your shared pages stop working. Backed-up meal photos, unreferenced imported artwork and your sign-in record are deleted automatically shortly after. We keep a note that the account was deleted, made only of random IDs with no email or name, so an old sign-in can't bring it back.
• Server logs: kept for up to 30 days.
• Usage and crash reports: kept for up to 12 months. They stay linked only to a random ID after you delete your account; email us and we'll delete them.
• Subscription records: RevenueCat keeps your purchase history, under your random account ID, as long as we need it for accounting and tax records.
• Backups: our database provider keeps backups for up to 7 days, so deleted data can remain in a backup until it expires.
• Emails to us and legal records: as long as we need them to help you, or as long as the law requires.

Your choices and rights

• See and change your data: almost everything Potsticker keeps is right there in the app, and you can edit or delete it there.
• Delete your account: in the app, open Settings, then Delete account. This deletes everything stored with it. If you have Potsticker Plus, cancel it in your Apple ID settings too, because deleting your account doesn't stop Apple's billing. If you signed in with Apple, you can also stop using Sign in with Apple with Potsticker in your Apple ID settings.
• Get a copy: email [email protected] from the address on your account, and we'll send you your data in a common format.
• Turn things off: usage and crash reports in Settings; notifications, the camera and your photo library in your iPhone's Settings.
• Stop sharing a recipe from the recipe in the app.

Depending on where you live, you may have more rights, such as to know what we hold, to correct it, to restrict or object to how we use it, to move it, or to appeal a decision about your request. California residents have the right to know, delete and correct their personal information, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We don't sell or share personal information as California law defines those words.

To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We may need to confirm the request comes from you, and we'll answer within the time the law sets, usually a month. If you're in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom and unhappy with our answer, you can complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

Potsticker isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, email [email protected] and we'll delete it. In some countries the age is higher, up to 16; there, a younger person needs a parent's permission.

Where your data is

Potsticker is run from the United States, and our providers store and process data in the United States and possibly other countries. If you use Potsticker from outside the United States, your information is transferred there. Where the law requires it, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses in our providers' terms.

Keeping it safe

Your information travels encrypted between the app and our servers, and your sign-in is stored encrypted on your phone. Backed-up meal photos are stored privately and shown only to you, through links that expire. Access to our systems is limited to the people who need it to run Potsticker. No service can promise perfect security, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy when Potsticker changes, and change the date at the top of this page. If a change matters, for example a new kind of data or a new use for it, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Email [email protected] with any question about your privacy or this policy.