Meal DNA Privacy Policy

Effective date: 26 October 2026

Meal DNA ("the app", "we") is a pantry and meal-planning app. This policy explains what information the app handles, where it goes, and the choices you have. The short version: Meal DNA has no accounts, no ads and no tracking. Your pantry, recipes, profile and history stay on your phone. Information leaves your phone only when you use a cloud feature, and only for as long as it takes to answer you.

1. Information stored only on your phone

The following is saved in the app's own storage on your device. We never receive it, and it is not sent anywhere unless you use one of the cloud features described in section 2:

• Your pantry items, amounts and expiry dates
• Your shopping list, saved recipes and meal plans
• Your profile, if you fill it in: age, sex, height, weight, activity level, goal and dietary restrictions
• Food logs, calorie and macro history, and water tracking
• Your AI chat history
• App settings, such as language, AI mode and reminders

Deleting the app removes all of it. Meal DNA has no account and no server copy of your data, so we cannot recover it for you.

Backups. If you use Settings → Back Up My Data, the app creates a backup file and opens your phone's share sheet. You choose where it goes (for example Files, Google Drive, iCloud Drive or email). That file is then handled by the service you chose, under its own privacy policy; we never receive it.

2. Cloud AI features (optional)

Meal DNA starts in Local Only mode. In this mode the chat, recipe ideas and food scanning all work on your phone, using the built-in recipe library and on-device image recognition, and the app makes no AI network requests.

If you switch the AI mode to Smart AI or Cloud AI (in the chat screen), some requests are sent to our server, which passes them to Google's Gemini API to generate an answer:

In Smart AI mode the app answers from the on-phone library first and uses the cloud only for questions it cannot answer itself.

How we handle these requests:

• We use them only to produce the answer you asked for.
• We do not store your messages, photos or chat history on our server. Photos are processed in memory and discarded once the answer is returned.
• AI meal plans may be kept in a short-lived cache for up to 1 hour, so repeating the same request is fast. They are then deleted automatically.
• We do not use your requests to build profiles, for advertising, or to train AI models.
• Google processes these requests as our service provider under the Gemini API Additional Terms and the Google Privacy Policy.

AI answers can be wrong. They are not medical or dietary advice; check with a qualified professional before making health decisions.

3. Barcode lookups

When you scan a product barcode, the app sends only the barcode number to Open Food Facts, a free, open food database, to look up the product name and nutrition. No other information is sent with it. Open Food Facts' handling of requests is described in its privacy policy.

4. Server logs

Our server is hosted by Render. For security and to keep the service working, it records basic technical information about each request: the time, the feature used (the request path), whether it succeeded, how long it took, and the IP address it came from. These logs do not contain your messages, photos or pantry. They are kept for a limited time and are used only to fix problems and prevent abuse (for example, rate limiting).

5. Phone permissions

• Camera: to scan barcodes and take food photos. Photos are analysed on your phone; one is sent to the cloud only in the case described in section 2.
• Photos / files: only the image or backup file you choose.
• Notifications: for expiry reminders, water reminders and the daily dinner idea. These are scheduled on your phone; we do not send push messages. You can turn them off in the app's Settings or in your phone's settings.
• Internet: for the cloud features and barcode lookups above.

6. What we don't do

• No sign-in or account
• No advertising and no advertising ID
• No analytics or tracking SDKs
• No selling or sharing of your data with anyone except the service providers named above, and only to run the features you use
• No location access

7. Children

Meal DNA is intended for adults (18 and over). We do not knowingly collect information from children. Weight-loss goals and calorie targets are offered only to adults.

8. Your choices and rights

• Keep everything on your phone: use Local Only mode (the default).
• Delete your data: uninstall the app, or clear its storage in your phone's settings. Because we keep no copy, there is nothing held on our server to delete. Any cached meal plan expires within 1 hour.
• Turn off reminders: in the app's Settings or your phone's notification settings.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK, India or California), you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal data, or to object to its processing. Since we hold no personal data beyond short-lived logs and caches, most requests are met by the steps above. You can also contact us at any time.

9. Security

Data sent to our server is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Data on your phone is protected by your phone's own security, such as its screen lock and storage encryption.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change how the app handles data, we will update this page and the effective date above. Significant changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.

11. Contact

Questions or requests: sunnytare@gmail.com