Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

What we collect depends on how you use Food Cost Guide. If you only use the free tools without an account, see section 2 — in that case almost nothing reaches us. If you create an account, we collect what's needed to run the Service:

• Account information — your email address and password (handled by our authentication provider; we never see or store your plaintext password).
• Content you create — cost guide entries, recipes, price history, and preferences (currency, Food Cost % thresholds, color scheme) you enter into the Service while signed in.
• Billing information — if you subscribe, our payment processor (Stripe) collects and stores your payment details. We receive only your subscription status, not your card number.
• Support messages — if you use the contact form, we store your message, the email address you give, the page you sent it from, and your browser's user-agent string, so we can read and reply.
• Usage data — basic technical data (like pages visited and page-load performance) via analytics, and cookies from our ad provider on the free tier (see sections 4 and 5).
• Error and diagnostic data — if something breaks, our error-monitoring provider automatically receives details of the failure (e.g. the error message, the page it happened on, your browser/IP address), so we can fix it.
• Approximate location — your country, inferred from your IP address at the network level, is checked against a list of countries where the Service is currently offered. We don't store this or use it for anything else.

2. Using the tools without an account

The free tools (the Cost Guide, recipe costing, sales, purchasing, and inventory under /free-tools) run entirely in your browser. The cost guide, recipes, inventory, sales log, and settings you create there are saved on your device only (in your browser's local storage), and are never transmitted to us. We can't see them, we don't back them up, and we can't recover them for you. This is true whether or not you're signed in — work done in the free tools is never saved to an account.

• Clearing your browser's site data for this site deletes that work permanently.
• Use the export option to save a backup file whenever you want a copy or want to move your data to another browser or into an account.
• The free tools are ad-supported, the same as a free account: if you accept ad cookies (see section 5) they're served by Google AdSense. Our own analytics stays aggregate page-view and performance data only — no cookie, nothing tied to you. Neither ever sees the cost guide or recipes you create, which stay in your browser.

3. How we use it

For account holders, we use this information to:

• Provide, maintain, and secure the Service (e.g. keep you signed in, save your data).
• Process subscription payments and billing.
• Respond to support requests.
• Diagnose and fix errors.
• Understand aggregate usage so we can improve the Service.

We don't sell your personal information.

4. Who we share it with

We share data only with the service providers that operate Food Cost Guide:

• Supabase — hosts our database and handles authentication. Your account and content data live here.
• Stripe — processes subscription payments.
• Sentry — receives error reports and basic performance data if something goes wrong, so we can diagnose and fix it.
• Vercel — hosts the Service and provides cookieless, aggregated page-view and performance analytics.
• Google AdSense — serves ads on the free tier (the browser tools and free accounts alike) and may set its own cookies; see Google's advertising policy for how it uses that data. Subscribing removes ads (and this data sharing) entirely.

We don't share your data with anyone else, except if required by law. Note that Ko-fi — linked from our Support the project page — is a separate third-party service. We don't send it any data; if you choose to click through and donate, your interaction there is governed by Ko-fi's own privacy policy, and we never see your payment details.

5. Cookies and local storage

When you're signed in, we use a session cookie to keep you signed in — this one's essential and doesn't require a choice. On the free tier (whether or not you have an account) you're asked to accept or decline ad cookies from Google AdSense the first time you'd be shown an ad; declining (or not answering) means no ad cookies are set and no ads are shown, with no other change to how anything works. We don't use tracking cookies for our own analytics beyond basic, aggregated usage counts.

The free tools also use your browser's local storage to save your cost guide, recipes, and preferences on your device. This isn't a cookie, isn't sent anywhere, and isn't used for tracking — it's just where your work is kept. See section 2.

6. Data retention

We keep your account content for as long as your account is active. Deleting your account (from Account) permanently removes your cost guide, recipes, price history, and preferences — this can't be undone. Support messages are kept as long as needed to handle the request and keep a record of it. Data you create in the no-account tools is retained only by your own browser, for as long as you leave it there.

7. Your rights and choices

You're in control of your data:

• Export — download your Cost Guide and Recipes as CSV at any time (Dashboard, or the Download buttons on each page); the no-account tools have their own export.
• Correct — edit anything directly in the app.
• Delete — permanently delete your account and all associated content from Account.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights (e.g. under GDPR or CCPA). Contact us and we'll do our best to help.

8. Security

Your data is protected by row-level access controls at the database layer, so it's only ever readable by your own account. We use industry-standard practices, but no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

9. Children's privacy

The Service is intended for business use and isn't directed at children. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll make a reasonable effort to let you know (e.g. by email or an in-app notice), and material changes are also noted on our changelog.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data? Use the contact page or email support@foodcostguide.com.