Privacy Policy

Who We Are

ClearIngredient ("we," "us," or "our") is a food ingredient transparency application operated by Mike J., doing business as ClearIngredient, accessible at clearingredient.app. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our application and services.

If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at contact@clearingredient.app.

Information We Collect

We collect the following types of information when you use ClearIngredient:

• Account Information: Your email address and an optional display name when you create an account.
• Profile Information: Optional profile photo and dietary preferences (Health Goals, Avoid List) you choose to provide.
• Scan Data: Images you capture using the scanning feature are sent to Google's Gemini API for ingredient analysis. We do not permanently store the original images — only the resulting text-based ingredient list and analysis are saved to your scan history.
• Usage Data: Counts of scans performed, dates of activity, and the ingredients identified in your scans. This data powers your personal history, dictionary, and Health Goals tracking.
• Device & Browser Information: Standard log information including IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, and app version — used for security, debugging, and compatibility.
• Payment Information: If you subscribe to Premium, payment is processed by Stripe. We receive only confirmation of successful payment, the subscription tier, and renewal dates. We never receive or store your credit card number, CVV, or full payment credentials.

How We Use Your Information

We use your information solely to provide and improve ClearIngredient. Specifically, we use your data to:

• Create and manage your account and authenticate your identity
• Process ingredient scans and deliver analysis results
• Personalize your experience based on dietary preferences and Health Goals
• Send transactional emails such as account confirmations, password resets, and subscription renewal reminders
• Send the ClearIngredient newsletter only if you have opted in (you can unsubscribe at any time)
• Manage your subscription and process payments through Stripe
• Improve app performance, identify bugs, and develop new features
• Show advertisements to free-tier users (see Section 04)
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not sell your personal information to any third party. We do not share your name, email, scan history, or dietary preferences with advertisers.

Advertising (Free Tier Only)

Free-tier users see advertisements served by Google AdSense. AdSense uses cookies and similar technologies to:

• Serve ads based on your prior visits to ClearIngredient and other websites you have visited
• Personalize ads based on contextual signals such as device type, general location (country/region), and the content of the page
• Measure ad performance and prevent the same ad from being shown to you repeatedly

We do not share your name, email address, account details, or specific scan/ingredient history with Google or any advertiser. However, Google's ad-serving cookies operate independently and are subject to Google's Advertising Privacy & Terms (opens in new tab).

To opt out of personalized advertising:

• Visit Google Ads Settings (opens in new tab) to control Google's personalized ads across all sites
• Visit aboutads.info/choices (opens in new tab) (US) or youronlinechoices.com (opens in new tab) (EU) for industry-wide opt-out
• Or upgrade to Premium to remove all ads entirely

For more details about how cookies are used for advertising on ClearIngredient, please see our Cookie Policy.

Third-Party Services

ClearIngredient uses the following third-party services to operate the application. Each service has its own privacy policy governing how they handle data:

• Supabase — Provides our authentication, database, and file storage infrastructure. Your account data, scan history, and preferences are stored on Supabase's servers. See Supabase Privacy Policy (opens in new tab).
• Google Gemini API — Processes your captured images to extract ingredient lists and generate safety analysis. Images are sent to Google for processing and are subject to Google's privacy policy (opens in new tab). Per Google's terms for paid API customers, your data is not used to train Gemini models.
• Stripe — Handles all payment processing for Premium subscriptions. Stripe receives your payment details directly through their secure checkout page. See Stripe's Privacy Policy (opens in new tab).
• Google AdSense (free-tier users only) — Serves advertisements. See Section 04 above for details.
• Hostinger — Provides web hosting for the ClearIngredient front-end. See Hostinger's Privacy Policy (opens in new tab).

We carefully select third-party services that meet industry standards for data security and privacy. We do not use third-party behavioral analytics platforms, social media tracking pixels, or marketing automation tools.

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. You may request deletion of your account and associated data at any time by contacting us at contact@clearingredient.app. Upon request, we will delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required by law to retain it.

• Account data is retained until you request deletion
• Scan history is retained for the last 50 scans for Free users and indefinitely for Premium users (or until you delete them)
• Scanned images are not permanently stored — they exist only momentarily during analysis and are then discarded
• Payment records are retained by Stripe for 7 years as required by financial regulations
• Email communications with our support team are retained for 2 years

Data Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously. ClearIngredient implements the following security measures:

• All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using TLS (HTTPS)
• Passwords are hashed using industry-standard algorithms; we never store plaintext passwords
• We use Supabase's Row Level Security (RLS) so that users can only access their own data at the database level
• Payment data never touches our servers — Stripe handles all card information directly
• Access to administrative data is restricted to authorized personnel only

While we take all reasonable precautions, no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your data.

If we ever experience a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by law within the timeframes mandated (typically 72 hours for GDPR-protected data).

Children's Privacy

ClearIngredient is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately at contact@clearingredient.app and we will take steps to delete that information.

Users between 13 and 18 should obtain parental or guardian consent before creating an account or providing personal information.

Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to Deletion: Request deletion of your personal data
• Right to Portability: Request your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent for data processing where consent is the legal basis
• Right to Object: Object to processing of your personal data in certain circumstances, including for direct marketing
• Right to Opt Out of Personalized Advertising: See Section 04 for details on opting out of ad personalization

For specific rights under GDPR (EU/UK residents) or CCPA (California residents), please see our GDPR & CCPA Rights page.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at contact@clearingredient.app. We will respond to all requests within 30 days.

Cookies & Tracking

ClearIngredient uses cookies and similar technologies for several purposes:

• Essential cookies required for the application to function (such as keeping you signed in)
• Advertising cookies set by Google AdSense — only for free-tier users (see Section 04)

Premium subscribers have no advertising cookies set during their use of the app. For complete details on every cookie used, please see our Cookie Policy.

International Data Transfers

ClearIngredient is operated from the United States. By using our services, you acknowledge that your data may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States and other countries where our service providers operate, including Google's data centers (Gemini API processing) and Supabase's infrastructure.

For users in the European Economic Area (EEA) and United Kingdom, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses and other approved transfer mechanisms to ensure your data is protected to GDPR standards regardless of where it is processed.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page and notify registered users by email of any material changes. Your continued use of ClearIngredient after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.