CookFeed — Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2026

1. Information We Collect

When you use CookFeed, we collect the following information:

• Account Information: Name, username, email address, and profile photo (provided via Google Sign-In or email registration)
• Recipe Data: Recipe titles, descriptions, ingredients, instructions, and images that you create
• Usage Data: App language preference
• Social Interactions: Likes, comments, star ratings, shares, group memberships, and follow relationships

2. How We Use Your Information

• To provide and maintain the recipe management service
• To enable social features (sharing recipes, comments, likes, star ratings, groups, following)
• To generate AI-powered features including: meal plans and recipe translations
• To send push notifications about activity on your recipes (likes, comments, shares, new followers, group additions)
• To moderate, review, feature, unpublish, or remove user-generated content for community safety, quality control, and compliance with our Terms of Service
• To manage user accounts, including blocking or deleting accounts that violate our rules
• To feature popular or selected public recipes within the app
• To track usage of our AI features (such as the AI Meal Planner and recipe translation) for implementing usage limits, preventing abuse, and managing our operational costs. For free users, the AI Meal Planner is limited to 5 generations per month. These usage limits may change over time.

3. Public Information

The following information is visible to other users of the app:

• Public Profile: Your username, display name, and profile photo are visible to other users
• Public Recipes: When you make a recipe public, its title, description, ingredients, instructions, images, and your name as the author are visible to all users. Public recipes may be featured or promoted based on popularity or editorial selection
• Social Activity: Your likes, comments, star ratings, followers, and following lists are visible to other users
• Groups: Other users can add you to recipe sharing groups. You can leave any group at any time

4. AI Features

When you use the AI meal planner or recipe translation features, your recipe data (titles, ingredients, instructions) is sent to Google’s Gemini AI service for processing. This data is used solely for generating the requested AI response (meal plan or translation) and is not stored by the AI service beyond the request. We only log basic usage metadata (timestamps) for rate limiting purposes.

5. Moderation and Admin Access

We maintain a secure admin interface accessible only to authorized members of our team. Through this interface, we may access, review, moderate, feature, unpublish, or delete user content and accounts when necessary to enforce our rules, ensure app quality, prevent abuse, respond to reports, or meet legal obligations.

6. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services:

• Google Firebase: Authentication, database (Firestore), file storage, cloud functions, and push notifications
• Google Gemini AI: AI meal planner and recipe translation features

These services have their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review Firebase Privacy Policy and Google AI Terms.

7. Data Storage & Security

• All data is stored in Google Firebase infrastructure
• Data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS
• Images are stored in Firebase Storage with access controls
• We do not sell your personal data to third parties

8. Your Rights

• You can delete individual recipes at any time (moved to recycle bin for 30 days, then permanently deleted)
• You can export all your recipes as a JSON file or PDF for backup
• You can request complete account deletion (Settings → Delete Account), which removes all your data including recipes, images, comments, likes, ratings, and account information
• You can delete comments on your own recipes
• You can accept or reject recipes shared with you
• You can leave groups you were added to at any time
• You can upload, change, or remove your profile photo at any time
• You can change your pricing region for cost estimates at any time
• If a moderation action has been taken on your content or account, you can contact us
• You can contact us at [email protected] for any privacy-related requests

9. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), we process your personal data under the following legal bases:

• Contract: Processing your account data, recipe data, and social interactions is necessary to provide the CookFeed service you signed up for
• Consent: The AI meal planner, recipe translations, and push notifications are processed based on your explicit consent. You can withdraw consent at any time by stopping use of these features or disabling notifications
• Legitimate Interest: Usage tracking for rate limiting and abuse prevention, content moderation for community safety, and analytics for service improvement

10. Your Rights Under GDPR (EEA Users)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have the following additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Right of Access: You can request a copy of all personal data we hold about you
• Right to Rectification: You can update your account information at any time through the app settings
• Right to Erasure: You can delete your account and all associated data (Settings → Delete Account)
• Right to Data Portability: You can export your recipes as JSON or PDF files
• Right to Restrict Processing: You can request that we limit how we use your data
• Right to Object: You can object to processing based on legitimate interest
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing
• Right to Lodge a Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. For users in Sweden, this is Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY)

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

11. International Data Transfers

Your data is stored on Google Firebase servers which may be located outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. These transfers are protected by Google's Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and compliance with applicable data protection frameworks.

12. Data Retention

Deleted recipes are moved to a recycle bin and permanently deleted after 30 days. When you delete your account, all associated data is permanently removed from our servers. Anonymous guest accounts inactive for 7 days are automatically cleaned up.

13. Children's Privacy

CookFeed is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these ages. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the new policy on this page, updating the "Last updated" date, and where appropriate, notifying you through the app.

15. Data Controller

The data controller for CookFeed is the app developer, based in Sweden. For any questions about data processing or to exercise your rights, contact us at: [email protected]