Privacy Policy

1 Your account

A Platter account is required to use the app. It's what saves your recipes and kitchen and keeps them in sync across devices. You can sign up in one of three ways, and what we receive depends on which you choose:

• Email & password. We collect your email address and a password. The password is stored only as a secure one-way hash (Argon2), never in plain text.
• Sign in with Apple. Apple sends us a signed identity token containing a stable Apple user identifier and, depending on what you allow, your email address (which may be an Apple private-relay address) and your name. Apple shares your name only once, at first sign-up.
• Sign in with Google. Google sends us a signed identity token containing a stable Google user identifier, your email address, and your name if available.

For every account we store an internal account id, your email address and whether it's verified, your name if provided, the identifier linking your Apple or Google login, and when the account was created and updated. Identity tokens are used only to verify you at sign-in and are not kept.

When an account is created we also record the app's install identifier for that device (a random id Platter generates, not an Apple advertising identifier). We use it only to spot many accounts being created from one device to farm free features. It flags an account for review and never blocks anyone.

2 What you keep in Platter

So your data follows you across devices, we store what you create and save on our servers, tied to your account:

• Recipes: your recipe library, cookbooks, and anything you save from Tonight or pantry suggestions.
• Planning: your meal plan, budget meal plans you generate, and your grocery list (checked-off items and items you add yourself).
• Your kitchen: pantry items, when you added them, and their estimated use-by dates.
• Cooking preferences: household size, dietary preferences, country and area type (city, suburb or rural), the grocery store you choose, your weekly budget, food mood and kitchen appliances. These shape your recipes, portions and budget estimates.
• "How did you hear about Platter?" Your answer, if you give one.

This data is held in a PostgreSQL database hosted by Railway, our infrastructure provider. It's used only to run and sync the app's features, never for advertising.

Some things stay only on your phone: your Cook Mode history, which tips you've seen, notification settings, and the date the app was first opened on that device.

3 Turning links into recipes

When you share an Instagram Reel, a TikTok or a recipe page with Platter, we send that link to our servers. We retrieve publicly available information about it (such as a video's caption or a page's text) and use AI to turn it into a structured recipe with ingredients, steps and estimated nutrition. If a site blocks automatic import, you can paste the recipe text yourself, and we process that text the same way.

Extracted recipes are cached under the source (for example, the video), not under your account, so the same link doesn't have to be processed again for anyone who saves it. When a shared post doesn't contain a full recipe, Platter may create a standard version of the dish using AI and general cooking knowledge.

4 Photos you take

Platter uses your camera only when you tap to use it, for three features:

• Fridge Snap: a photo of your fridge or groceries, to list what you have.
• Receipt scan: a photo of a grocery receipt, to add what you bought.
• Check my pan: a photo of what's cooking, to check how a step is going.

The photo is sent to our servers and passed to our AI provider in a single request. It is held in memory only for that request, and is never saved or logged. Only the result is kept: the items you choose to add to your pantry, or the answer shown to you. Platter does not access your photo library.

5 Voice in Cook Mode

Voice is off until you tap the microphone, and it listens for one question at a time.

• Your voice stays on your phone. Speech is turned into text by Apple's speech recognition running on your device. We require on-device recognition, and no audio is sent to us or anyone else.
• The text of your question, along with the recipe and step you're on, is sent to our servers and our AI provider to get an answer. It is not stored or logged.
• Spoken replies are generated by our AI provider's text-to-speech. Audio for recipe steps and standard phrases is cached and shared across users, since it contains only recipe text. Audio of answers to your questions is never stored.

6 AI features and OpenAI

Platter uses OpenAI to power recipe extraction, nutrition estimates, Fridge Snap and receipt scanning, pantry-based suggestions, Tonight picks, "Make it work" recipe adaptations, leftover ideas, budget meal plans, Cook Mode answers and spoken replies.

For each request we send only what that feature needs: for example recipe text, ingredient names, your pantry items, your cooking preferences, or a photo. We do not send your name or email. Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through its API is not used to train its models by default.

Adapted recipes are cached by recipe and ingredient list, not by account, so the same adaptation can be reused.

7 Notifications

If you allow notifications, Platter can remind you at 5pm when something in your pantry is close to its use-by date, and once suggest planning a week of meals. These are scheduled on your phone from your own pantry data. There is no push-marketing server. You can turn them off under Account → Reminders → Dinner nudges, or in iOS Settings.

8 Purchases

Platter Pro is sold through Apple's App Store, and Apple handles payment. We never see your card or payment details. To unlock Pro, we receive and verify Apple's signed transaction information (such as the transaction id, which plan you bought, and when it renews or expires) and store it with your account. Apple also notifies us when a subscription renews, changes or is refunded.

9 Usage limits

To run free trials fairly and keep costs under control, we record per account how many times you've used each feature (recipe imports, Fridge Snap, Make it work, Check my pan, leftover ideas, voice sessions, budget plans), short-term request counts for rate limiting, and the estimated cost of the AI requests your account makes. These records hold counts, timestamps and the feature name, not the content of your requests.

10 Analytics

We use PostHog to understand which features people use, so we can improve the app. We send only a fixed list of named events (for example "fridge snap used" or "plan generated") linked to your account id, plus your "how did you hear about Platter" answer if you gave one.

We never send your email, name, recipes, links, pantry contents, photos or voice. Automatic tracking, screen recording, session replay and device fingerprinting are all turned off. The Share Extension does not include analytics.

11 Images and feedback

• Recipe images: when a recipe has no usable photo, we fetch a stock photo from Pexels, searched by the recipe title. Ingredient pictures in the app are bundled with it.
• Feedback: if you send feedback in the app, we store your rating, message and optional contact email. It's visible only on a password-protected internal page and isn't shared with anyone.

12 Who processes your data

We rely on a small set of service providers who process data on our behalf, only to run Platter:

• Apple: Sign in with Apple, App Store purchases, on-device speech recognition
• Google: Sign in with Google
• OpenAI: the AI features in section 6
• Railway: servers and database hosting
• PostHog: product analytics (section 10)
• Pexels: stock recipe photos (we send only search terms)

To import a recipe, our servers also request the public page or post from the site you shared (such as Instagram, TikTok or a recipe blog). These providers may process data in the United States and other countries.

13 What Platter does not do

• We don't show ads or track you across other apps and websites.
• We don't sell or share your personal information for advertising.
• We don't access your location, contacts or photo library.
• We don't store your photos or voice recordings.

14 Deleting your account

You can delete your account from inside the app at any time (Account → Delete Account). We then permanently remove:

• Your account, profile and linked Apple/Google sign-ins, and your saved sessions
• Your recipe library, cookbooks, meal plans, budget plans, grocery list, pantry, cooking preferences and "how you heard about us" answer
• Your Pro entitlement record, usage counts, free-trial counts, AI cost records and the device sign-up record
• Feedback linked to your account or email

If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke Platter's access to your Apple ID. A few shared caches are kept because they aren't linked to your account and other people rely on them: extracted recipes (stored by source link), adapted recipes (stored by recipe and ingredients), and spoken audio for recipe steps. Deleting your account doesn't cancel an App Store subscription. Cancel it in your iPhone's Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions.

15 Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal information.

• EU, UK and similar laws (GDPR): you can access, correct, delete, or receive a portable copy of your data, restrict or object to certain processing, and complain to your local data protection authority.
• California (CCPA/CPRA): you can know what we collect and why, delete it, correct it, and opt out of its sale or sharing. We don't sell or share personal information, so there's nothing to opt out of.

To use any of these rights, email platterapp.privacy@gmail.com. Deleting your account in the app covers erasure directly.

16 How long we keep information

We keep your account data while your account is active, and remove it as soon as you delete it (see section 14). Photos and voice questions aren't kept at all. Short-term rate-limit counters expire on their own. Feedback is kept so we can act on it; email us to have a specific message removed.

17 Children's privacy

Platter is not directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact platterapp.privacy@gmail.com and we'll delete it.

18 Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy when Platter changes how it handles data, and the date at the top shows the latest version.