Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Kin-Lung Wong, operating Food Journal ("Food Journal," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, discloses, and protects information when you use the Food Journal mobile application and related services (the "Service").
1. Scope and eligibility
This Policy applies to the Service offered in the United States. Food Journal is intended only for people age 18 or older. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has provided information, contact us so we can investigate and delete it.
2. Information we collect
Information you provide
- Account information: email address, name or profile information, authentication identifiers, and account settings.
- Food-journal content: meal descriptions, foods, serving information, nutrition values, notes, corrections, saved foods, favorites, goals, and related timestamps.
- Photos: meal photos you choose from your library or take with the camera.
- Speech input: audio you choose to dictate and the resulting transcript. Speech recognition may be performed by your device's operating-system provider under its settings and policies. Food Journal uses the transcript to process your request and does not intentionally retain raw microphone audio on our servers.
- Support communications: messages and information you send when contacting us.
- Bring Your Own Key information: if the BYO plan permits you to submit a third-party API credential, we process that credential to provide the requested connection. Do not submit credentials you are not authorized to use.
Information collected automatically
- Service activity: feature usage, estimate requests, usage allowances, subscription entitlement status, and records needed to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the Service.
- Technical information: app version, device or platform type, IP address and request metadata that our infrastructure and security providers ordinarily process.
- Purchase information: product, subscription status, transaction identifiers, renewal or expiration information, and store environment. Apple or Google processes your payment method; we do not receive full card or bank details.
We do not use advertising SDKs, and we do not collect precise location through the Service.
3. Camera, photos, microphone, and speech permissions
Camera, photo-library, microphone, and speech-recognition access is optional and used only when you choose the corresponding meal-entry feature. You can change permissions in your device settings. Denying a permission prevents that input method but does not prevent manual meal entry.
4. How we use information
We use information to:
- create and secure accounts, authenticate users, and provide the Service;
- store and display your journal, calculate summaries and trends, and synchronize data across sessions;
- generate and improve nutrition estimates from submitted text, transcripts, and photos;
- manage plan entitlements, enforce usage limits, restore purchases, and support subscriptions;
- respond to support, deletion, privacy, and legal requests;
- detect abuse, investigate errors, protect users, and maintain reliability; and
- comply with law and enforce our Terms of Service.
5. AI and search processing
To generate estimates, Food Journal may send meal text, a speech transcript, or a meal photo to Google's Gemini service for automated processing. For text-based research, Food Journal may send meal-related search queries to Exa to retrieve public nutrition sources. We do not send your meal photos to Exa. Automated results can be inaccurate; please review them before relying on them.
We use these providers to perform requested functions on our behalf. Their processing is also governed by their applicable service terms, contractual commitments, and privacy practices.
6. When we disclose information
We may disclose information to:
- Clerk for authentication and account management;
- Convex for application hosting, database, file storage, and backend processing;
- Google Gemini for AI-assisted nutrition estimation and photo interpretation;
- Exa for nutrition-related web search;
- RevenueCat for subscription entitlement and purchase management;
- Apple and Google for app distribution, payments, subscriptions, device services, and speech recognition where applicable;
- professional advisers or authorities when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights and safety, or investigate misuse; and
- a successor in connection with a merger, financing, reorganization, sale, or transfer of the Service, subject to appropriate protections.
We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or use it for targeted advertising.
7. Legal bases and sensitive information
We process information as needed to provide the Service you request, pursue legitimate interests such as security and product reliability, comply with legal obligations, and obtain consent where required. Food and nutrition entries can reveal health-related inferences. Food Journal is not a healthcare provider and is not designed to receive protected health information under HIPAA. Please do not submit information you do not want processed as described in this Policy.
8. Retention
We retain account and journal information while your account is active and as reasonably needed to provide the Service. After a verified deletion request, we delete or de-identify personal information unless retention is required for legal, security, fraud-prevention, dispute, or accounting purposes. Some information may remain temporarily in backups and logs until overwritten under ordinary retention cycles. Subscription transaction records may be retained as needed for tax, accounting, and fraud-prevention obligations.
9. Your choices and privacy rights
You may review and edit much of your journal information in the app, control device permissions in system settings, manage marketing or service emails through available controls, and manage subscriptions through Apple or Google.
To request access, correction, deletion, or a copy of your personal information, email developer@valentinowong.com from the address associated with your account. We may need to verify your identity. We will respond as required by applicable law and will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. You may use an authorized agent where applicable, subject to verification.
10. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information, including authenticated access and access controls. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. Protect your account credentials and contact us if you suspect unauthorized activity.
11. International processing
Although the Service is offered only in the United States, our service providers may process information in the United States and other locations where they operate. Those locations may have different data-protection laws.
12. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy as the Service or law changes. We will post the updated version here and change the effective date. If a change materially affects your privacy rights, we will provide additional notice through the Service, by email, or by another reasonable method when required.
13. Contact
Food Journal is operated by Kin-Lung Wong. For privacy questions or requests, email developer@valentinowong.com.