Privacy

Last updated 21 August 2026. This describes what the app actually does with your information — nothing here is aspirational.

What we hold

• An account, if you make one. Your email address and a password, handled by Google Firebase Authentication. You can use the app without an account; a subscription needs one, so it can follow you to a new phone.
• What you cook with. The ingredients you enter, the recipes you save, your shopping list, and your meal history. Kept against your account so they survive a change of phone.
• How much you have searched. A count, so the free allowance can be applied. A random identifier is stored on your device for the same purpose. It contains nothing about you and identifies you nowhere else.
• Where you cook. Detected from your phone's language and region setting, and changeable in the app under Profile. It decides which ingredients and prices you are shown. We do not use GPS and never ask for your location.
• Crash reports. If the app stops unexpectedly we receive the device model, the operating system version and what the app was doing at the time, so it can be fixed. No recipes, photos or personal details are included.

Photos

When you photograph your food, the picture is sent to be read and is not stored — not by us, and not after the reading is done. Only the list of ingredients you then confirm is kept.

Who else sees it

• Anthropic receives your ingredient list, or your photo, in order to generate recipes. It is not used to identify you.
• Google Firebase stores your account, your recipes and your usage count, and receives crash reports.
• Pexels supplies the photograph shown with each dish. They are sent the name of the dish and nothing about you.
• Stripe handles payment if you subscribe. We never see or store your card details.

We do not sell your information, and there is no advertising or third-party tracking in the app.

Keeping and deleting

Your data is kept while your account exists. You can delete it yourself at any time: open the app, go to Profile, and choose Delete my account at the bottom. That erases your saved recipes, shopping list, cooking history and the account itself, and cancels any subscription immediately. It cannot be undone.

You can also email support@smarthomethings.co.za from the address on the account, and we will do it for you. Ask us for a copy of your data first if you want one.

Children

The app is meant for adults cooking for a household, including for children. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Contact

SmartHomeThings (Pty) Ltd, South Africa — support@smarthomethings.co.za