Privacy Policy

Short version: your fridge stays on your phone. We have no accounts, we sell nothing, and we do not follow you around the internet. The only thing that ever leaves your device is a photo you choose to take, used briefly to recognize your groceries and then forgotten.

What stays on your device

The items in your fridge, when you bought them, when they expire, the storage tips, your reminder settings, your notification permissions, your onboarding progress, and your in-app feedback are all stored locally in an encrypted database on your iPhone. None of this ever reaches our servers. If you delete the app, that data is gone.

Photos you choose to take

When you tap to scan groceries, Fridge Buddy resizes the photo on your device and sends it to a small image-recognition service we operate, which uses a third-party machine-vision provider under contract to identify the items in the picture. The provider returns a list of item names and short storage descriptions, which is what you see on the review screen. We do not store the photo. Our provider holds it briefly for safety review (typically a few weeks at most) and does not use it to train its models. After that it is deleted.

You control when this happens by choosing to tap the scan button. The Add by name flow does not send any photo at all.

Anonymous usage signals

To understand how the app is being used and catch bugs, we collect a small amount of anonymous usage data: that the app opened, that a scan completed, that an item was added or marked as used, that a notification was tapped, that you gave a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on a result. These events are tied only to a random device identifier we generate when you first open the app. They are not tied to your name, email, phone, Apple ID, or any other personal identifier. We do not use this data for advertising, and we do not sell it.

If you would rather not share these signals, turn off analytics in the device Settings for Fridge Buddy.

What we do not collect

• Your name, email address, phone number, or any other contact information
• Your location, GPS coordinates, or IP address (beyond the brief connection needed to call the image-recognition service)
• Your photo library (we only see the single photo you choose to take or pick for a scan)
• Your contacts, calendars, health data, or device identifiers used for advertising
• Anything from outside the app

Notifications

If you turn on reminders, Fridge Buddy schedules notifications locally on your iPhone using its system notification service. We do not send push notifications from a server, so no notification you receive has been seen by us.

Children

Fridge Buddy is a general-audience app for managing a household kitchen. We do not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. If you believe we have, please contact us and we will delete it.

International users

Our image-recognition provider runs on infrastructure in the United States. By using the scan feature, you understand that the photo briefly leaves your country to be processed there, even if you live elsewhere. Everything else stays on your device.

Your choices

• Delete the app to remove every piece of local data we hold
• Use the Add by name flow if you would prefer no photos ever leave your phone
• Turn off analytics in iOS Settings to stop the anonymous usage signals
• Email hello@getfridgebuddy.com with any privacy question

Changes to this policy

If we materially change how Fridge Buddy handles your data, we will update this page and bump the effective date at the top. If you have notifications enabled, we will also send you one in-app notice.

Contact

Fridge Buddy is built by Chef Fatty (Chan Woo Kim). Questions, requests, or complaints go to hello@getfridgebuddy.com.