Privacy Policy – Calories

Calories ("we," "us," or "our") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information when you use the Calories mobile application (the "App").

1. Information We Collect

To provide an account and sync your data across devices, the App collects:

• Account information — your email address and display name, collected when you sign up with email/password or Sign in with Apple
• Profile photo — if you choose to add one
• Meal photos — photos you take of your food, sent to our AI service to estimate nutrition
• Nutrition and health data — calorie and macro goals, logged meals (name, calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, sugar, sodium, health score), weight entries, height, weight goals, and workout frequency
• Barcode data — barcodes you scan, sent to a third-party food database to look up product nutrition
• Friends and social data — if you choose to use the App's optional social features, we collect a username and friend code you create, your friend relationships (who you are connected with), friend requests you send or receive, meals you choose to share with friends, comments and likes on meals, and challenge participation and progress between friends

We do not collect payment information. The App is completely free, with no subscriptions or in-app purchases.

2. How We Use Your Information

We only use the information you provide to:

• Create and manage your account
• Analyze meal photos via our AI service to estimate calories and nutrition
• Look up packaged food nutrition by barcode
• Calculate personalized calorie and macro goals based on your stats and fitness preferences
• Sync your meals, weight log, goals, and streaks across your devices
• Display your nutrition history and progress over time
• Let you find and connect with friends by username, and manage friend requests
• Display meals, comments, and likes shared between you and your friends, if you choose to use social features
• Track and display shared challenge progress between you and your friends
• Send notifications about friend requests and social activity (e.g. new friend requests, comments, or likes)

3. Data Storage and Processing

On Your Device (Local): Recently logged meal photos and nutrition data are cached locally for fast loading and offline access.

Cloud Storage: Your account information, meal logs, weight logs, nutrition goals, profile photo, and any friends/social data you create (username, friend code, friend relationships, shared meals, comments, likes, and challenges) are securely stored using Firebase (a Google service), tied to your account.

Third-Party Processors:

• We use Google's Gemini AI to analyze meal photos and estimate nutrition. Photos are sent securely for processing and are used solely to generate your meal's nutrition estimate.
• We use the free, open Open Food Facts database to look up nutrition information for scanned barcodes. Only the barcode number is sent — no personal information.
• No third-party service is permitted to use your data for advertising, profiling, or cross-app tracking.

4. Data Sharing

• We do not sell, rent, or share your information for marketing purposes.
• We do not use third-party advertising or analytics SDKs.
• We only share data with the third-party processors listed above, strictly for core App functionality (meal analysis and barcode lookup).

Sharing with other users: If you choose to use the App's optional social features, some of your information becomes visible to other users at your direction. Specifically, once you and another user become friends, that friend can see meals you choose to share (including meal photos, calories, and macros), and can comment on and like your shared meals; your username, display name, and profile photo are visible to users you send or receive a friend request from; and challenge progress is visible to the friend(s) you're participating in a challenge with. You control this by choosing whether to create a username, whether to accept or decline friend requests, and by using "Leave Social Features" (Section 6) at any time to withdraw.

5. Data Protection

• Industry-standard encrypted data transmission (HTTPS) for all network requests
• Account access is protected by Firebase Authentication (email/password or Sign in with Apple)
• Face ID/Touch ID verification is required before deleting your account
• Firestore security rules restrict access to friends' and shared social data to authorized, authenticated users only

6. Data Retention

• Your data is retained as long as your account exists
• You can permanently delete your logged meals, weight entries, and goals at any time using "Clear Stats" in the App
• You can leave the App's social features at any time using "Leave Social Features" in the App — this releases your username and friend code, ends all friendships, cancels any pending friend requests, and deletes all challenges you're participating in. Comments and likes you've previously left on other users' meals, and that others have left on yours, are not deleted, so you can still be recognized if you choose to rejoin later — but once you leave, you cannot post new comments, replies, or likes until you create a username again
• You can permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time using "Delete Account" in the App — this removes your profile, meal logs, weight logs, profile photo, username, friend code, friendships, friend requests, and challenges from our servers
• Meal photos sent for AI processing are not retained by us beyond what's needed to generate your nutrition results

7. Children's Privacy

Calories is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13.

8. Legal Compliance

We comply with applicable privacy laws and regulations, including:

• App Store privacy requirements
• GDPR (for EU users)
• CCPA (for California residents)

9. Contact Information