ChopCue
Privacy Policy
ChopCue is a guided-cooking app. It is designed to work fully offline, and you never need an account to cook. This policy explains the small amount of data the app handles and where it lives.
1. What we collect
If you never create an account, everything stays on your device and is never sent to us:
- Your recipes, custom ingredients, prep boards, checkoff state, and timers
- Your free-tier usage state and unlock status
- App preferences
If you delete the app, this local data is deleted with it.
If you create an account (optional — cooking never requires one), the same local data above is also automatically backed up to our server so it survives a reinstall or a new device, plus:
- An account identifier from Firebase Authentication (e.g., your email address or a sign-in provider ID, plus a Firebase user ID)
- A private copy of your recipes, mirrored to our database as a backup — this mirror is not public and is separate from anything you explicitly share
If you additionally opt into community features (sharing, likes/dislikes, feedback, Explore feed submissions):
- The content you choose to share: recipes you submit to the Explore feed, likes/dislikes, and feedback text
- Basic timestamps associated with that content
If you use the barcode scanner to look up a product while adding it to your shopping list, the scanned barcode number (not your name, account, or location) is sent to Open Food Facts and/or UPCitemdb to look up a product name.
If you translate a recipe step or comment, that text is sent to a translation provider to produce the translation — currently MyMemory Translated, ChopCue's always-available keyless provider; DeepL or Microsoft Translator may also be used if we've configured a key for them at build time. No account information is attached to a translation request.
If you allow website analytics, chopcue.com uses PostHog EU to collect anonymous page views, clicks, feature-demo interactions, device/browser details, and privacy-masked session replays. Analytics does not start unless you choose “Allow analytics.” Form inputs and email addresses are excluded and masked.
We do not collect your precise location, contacts, photos (beyond images you attach to a shared recipe, if any), advertising identifiers, or browsing history.
What we never see: payment details. Purchases are processed entirely by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play). We receive only a confirmation that the one-time unlock was purchased — never your card number, billing address, or payment credentials.
2. How we use it
- Local data exists solely to make the app work on your device.
- The signed-in recipe backup exists solely so you don't lose your recipes if you lose or replace your device; it is never shown to other users.
- Account and community data are used to operate the Explore feed: displaying shared recipes, attributing them, counting likes/dislikes, and routing feedback to recipe authors and moderators.
- Shared recipes go live immediately; reports and feedback may be reviewed by our moderators, who can remove or restrict content after publication if it breaks the rules.
We do not sell your data and do not use it to target advertising to you. There are no third-party ad networks and no ad-tracking SDKs in ChopCue. ChopCue does show its own promotional banners from advertisers we approve directly (a paid placement we run ourselves, not a third-party ad exchange); we count aggregate clicks on these banners to bill advertisers and measure reach, without attaching them to your identity.
3. Third parties
- Firebase (Google LLC): If you create an account, authentication is handled by Firebase Authentication and your account/community/recipe-backup data is stored in Google Cloud Firestore. Google processes this data on our behalf under its own terms; see Google's Privacy Policy and the Firebase privacy documentation.
- Cloudinary: Photos you attach to a shared recipe, profile, or CookSnap are hosted by Cloudinary so they're visible to other users, under Cloudinary's own privacy terms.
- Translation providers (MyMemory Translated, and DeepL / Microsoft Translator if configured): text you ask to translate is sent to whichever provider is available, solely to return the translation.
- Open Food Facts and UPCitemdb: a barcode you scan is sent to these product databases to look up a product name.
- Apple / Google billing: In-app purchases are handled by the App Store or Google Play under their respective privacy policies. We never receive payment details.
- PostHog EU: if you consent on chopcue.com, PostHog processes anonymous website analytics and privacy-masked session replay so we can understand which pages and product demonstrations are useful. Email and form values are not captured. You can decline analytics when first visiting the site.
We do not share your data with any other third party, and we do not sell it.
4. Data retention
- Local data stays on your device until you delete it or uninstall the app.
- Account and community data are retained while your account exists. If you delete your account, we delete your account record and the community content associated with it within a reasonable period, except where a short retention is needed for moderation, abuse prevention, or legal compliance.
- Recipes you shared publicly may be removed from the Explore feed upon account deletion or on request.
5. Children's privacy
ChopCue is not directed at children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your jurisdiction). Community features require an account and are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children; if you believe a child has provided us personal data, contact us at support@chopcue.com and we will delete it.
6. Your rights
Depending on where you live (e.g., GDPR in the EU/UK, CCPA in California), you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. Because almost all app data lives only on your device, most of this is under your direct control. You can delete your account at any time from Settings in the app, which removes your account, friend and family memberships, and activity, and removes your name from anything you've published. For anything else, contact us at support@chopcue.com and we will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.
7. Security
Community data is stored in Firebase using industry-standard protections (encryption in transit, access rules restricting reads/writes). No system is perfectly secure, but we limit what we collect so there is little to lose.
8. Changes to this policy
If we materially change this policy, we will update the effective date above and note the change in the app or store listing.
9. Contact
Questions or requests: support@chopcue.com