Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect information you provide directly and information gathered automatically when you use SpiceGuyBot.

• Account information: When you create an account via Google Sign-In or email/password, we collect your email address, display name, and profile photo URL.
• Dietary preferences: Diet tags, allergies, favourite cuisines, and cooking skill level you set in your profile.
• Chat messages: Messages you send to our AI assistant are processed to generate responses. Signed-in chat history is stored on our servers so it can be retrieved later.
• Optional analytics and advertising measurement data: If you accept optional tracking, Google Analytics may collect pages visited, features used, browser and device type, and general geographic region. Meta may receive page views and selected conversion events used to measure campaigns. We do not send recipe text, chat messages, fridge photos, or saved cookbook contents to these services.
• Fridge photos: Images you upload for ingredient scanning are sent to the OpenAI API for analysis and are not stored on our servers after processing.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To provide and personalise the SpiceGuyBot service (e.g. injecting your dietary preferences into AI chat context).
• To create and manage your user account.
• To respond to your AI chat messages and generate recipe suggestions.
• To improve our service through aggregated, anonymised analytics.
• To send service-related communications (e.g. password reset emails).

3. Third-Party Services

We use trusted third-party services to operate SpiceGuyBot:

• Firebase (Google): Authentication and user account management. Firebase Privacy Policy.
• OpenAI: Powers the AI recipe chat assistant and fridge photo ingredient analysis. Messages are processed under OpenAI's Privacy Policy. We have opted out of OpenAI's training data usage for API requests.
• Google Analytics: Aggregated, anonymised usage analytics. Google Privacy Policy.
• Meta Pixel: Optional advertising measurement for Facebook and Instagram campaigns, including page views and selected signup, activation, and purchase-intent events. Meta is not loaded until you accept optional tracking. See Meta's Privacy Policy.
• Google AdSense: Serves the advertising that keeps SpiceGuyBot free to use. Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure ads. See How Google uses information from sites that use its services. SpiceGuy Pro subscribers are not served ads and the advertising script is not loaded for them.
• Polar: Merchant of record for SpiceGuy Pro subscriptions. Payment details are entered on Polar's own hosted checkout and never reach our servers. See Polar's Privacy Policy.
• Google Fonts: Font files loaded from Google's CDN. Subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
• PostgreSQL database: Stores user accounts and preferences on secure servers.

4. Cookies and Local Storage

We separate storage required for product features from optional analytics and advertising measurement:

• Essential and product storage: Authentication, security, theme, saved product preferences, and session caches support features you request. This storage does not depend on optional tracking consent.
• Consent preference: Local storage records whether you accepted or declined optional tracking so the site can respect that choice on later visits.
• Optional analytics storage: Google Analytics may set analytics identifiers only after you accept optional tracking.
• Optional Meta advertising measurement storage: Meta may set identifiers such as _fbp only after you accept optional tracking.

Your tracking choice

Optional tracking is off until you affirmatively accept it. Declining or withdrawing consent does not limit product features. Signed-in users can review this choice under Account details. You can also change it here at any time. Withdrawal stops future browser events; it does not retroactively delete information a provider received while consent was active.

Advertising

SpiceGuyBot is free to use because it carries advertising. Here is exactly what that means for your data:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to SpiceGuyBot and other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info and Your Online Choices.
• We ask for your first-party consent before loading Google Analytics or Meta advertising measurement tags. We do not infer Meta consent from Google or any other vendor's consent state.
• SpiceGuy Pro subscribers see no ads. The advertising script is not requested at all on a Pro account, so no advertising cookie is set by us while your subscription is active.
• We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share your recipes, chat messages, fridge photos or saved cookbook with advertisers.

5. Data Retention

• Account and preferences data: Retained while your account is active. You can delete your account here after signing in and confirming.
• Chat messages: Signed-in chat history is stored until cleared or removed as part of an account-data deletion request.
• Fridge photos: Not stored. Processed by OpenAI and immediately discarded.
• Analytics data: Retained per Google Analytics' standard data retention policies (up to 26 months by default).

6. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Update or correct your preferences via your profile page at /profile.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your SpiceGuyBot account and associated data.
• Portability: Receive your data in a machine-readable format.
• Objection: Object to certain types of processing.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected].

7. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data, including HTTPS encryption in transit, Firebase Authentication for secure account management, and limited access controls on our database. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children's Privacy

SpiceGuyBot is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

9. International Transfers

Your data may be processed in countries other than your own (including the United States) by our third-party service providers (Google, OpenAI). These providers have appropriate safeguards in place to ensure your data is protected.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify users of material changes by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of SpiceGuyBot after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: spiceguybot.com