Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Mertcan Eren – 21collective (sole proprietorship registered in Turkey, "we"), Dindoğru Mah. Büyük Elçi Rahmi Apak Sok., Babaeski, Kırklareli, Türkiye. For any privacy question or request: [email protected].

2. What stays on your phone

Everything you put into the app is kept in a database on your phone that belongs to the app. None of it reaches us:

• items: name, category, amount, where it's kept, purchase and expiry dates, whether you ate it or binned it
• prices, currency, store or place, and any names you added for "who paid"
• shopping lists, and the places and stores you added
• settings: language, reminder times, currency

Receipts and barcodes are read on the phone. A receipt photo is only used while it's being read; it isn't kept or sent anywhere.

3. When data leaves your phone

Data leaves your phone only in the cases below, and only as much as each one needs:

• Barcode lookup: when you scan a barcode, only the barcode number is sent to Open Food Facts (an open product database based in France) to find the product's name. Your phone's IP address is visible to them in that request. Nothing else about you is sent.
• Google ML Kit: receipts and barcodes are recognised on the phone with Google's ML Kit. Google may collect diagnostic and usage data about the library (such as error logs and device model); the contents of your receipts or pantry are not sent.
• Your phone's own backup: if Google (Android) or iCloud (iPhone) backup is on, the app's data is included and comes back when you move to a new phone. Google or Apple keep that backup under their own policies. You can turn it off in your phone's settings.
• Backup files and sharing: a backup file from Settings, a shared list or a "What can I cook with this?" prompt goes only where you choose to send it.
• Purchases: Pro is bought through Google Play or the App Store. They handle payment; we never see your card details. To check that a subscription is active, the store and RevenueCat (our subscription service) keep a random ID and the purchase record; your name and email don't reach us.
• Household sharing (only if you turn it on): if you share your pantry with your household, that household's items, lists, places and the name you show to them are stored on our server so they reach the other phones. The server runs on Supabase in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany). No account is created; your phone gets a random, anonymous ID. Only approved members of that household can see the data.
• Household notifications (only while you share a household and allow notifications): so you hear when someone buys something, heads to the shop or asks to join, Google Firebase Cloud Messaging gives your phone a notification address. That address, your app language and which notifications you want are kept on our server. The notification text (e.g. "Ayşe bought bread") reaches your phone through Google. The address is deleted when you leave the household; you can turn each notification off in Settings › Notifications.
• Website: when you visit smells-fine.21collective.co, we count visits with Umami, running on our own server, to see which pages get read. It uses no cookies, keeps no ID that recognises you and does not store your IP address; only totals such as page, country, browser and device type remain. There is no such counting inside the app.

The app uses no advertising, analytics or tracking tools. We don't sell your data or share it with anyone for marketing.

4. Permissions

• Camera: only while you scan a receipt or barcode.
• Notifications: for expiry and shopping reminders. They are scheduled on the phone, not sent from a server.

5. How long we keep data, and deleting it

• On your phone: until you delete it. "Delete all data" in Settings, or uninstalling the app, removes it all.
• Household sharing: when you leave a household, your name and membership are deleted from the server straight away; when the last person leaves, all of that household's data is deleted from the server straight away. Each phone keeps a copy up to that moment. Traces of deleted items are removed after 90 days, households nobody has used for a year after a year, and anonymous IDs that never joined a household after 30 days. Removal from our hosting provider's technical backups takes up to 7 days.
• If you can't do it from the app, write to [email protected] and we'll delete your data on our server within 30 days.

6. International transfers

Because of the barcode lookup (France), the household server (Germany) and the Google, Apple and RevenueCat services, some data may be processed outside your country. It is used only for the purposes described above. Where it leaves the UK or the European Economic Area, it is protected by the standard contractual clauses approved for this (with the UK addendum) in our agreements with these providers, who process it only on our behalf.

7. Your rights (UK, EU and Turkey)

Under the UK GDPR, the EU GDPR and Turkey's KVKK you can ask to access, correct, delete, restrict, port or object to the processing of your data. Our legal bases are performing our agreement with you (running the app and sharing you asked for), our legitimate interests (security, such as limiting invite-code guesses) and, where required, your consent. Write to [email protected]; we reply within 30 days. You can also complain to your data protection authority (the ICO in the UK, the KVK Kurulu in Turkey).

8. Children

Smells Fine isn't aimed at children under 13 and doesn't knowingly collect their data.

9. Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date above, and tell you in the app if the change matters.