Privacy Policy
Last updated: 3 June 2026

Mother Cupboard ("the App") is operated by Mother Cupboard Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17256868) ("we", "us", "our"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and your rights.

1. Data Controller
Mother Cupboard Ltd is the data controller for the personal data processed through this App. If you have questions about this policy, contact us at: info@mothercupboard.app

2. What Data We Collect
Data	Purpose	Legal Basis
Email address	Account creation, authentication, and password recovery	Contract performance
Inventory data (item names, quantities, expiry dates, storage locations)	Core app functionality — tracking your food inventory	Contract performance
Meal suggestion preferences (adventurousness, servings, moods)	Personalising AI-generated meal suggestions	Contract performance
Shopping list data	Core app functionality — managing your shopping list	Contract performance
Device identifiers and crash logs	App stability, debugging, and performance monitoring	Legitimate interest
Subscription and payment status	Managing your premium subscription (payments are processed by Apple or Google; we do not receive or store payment card details)	Contract performance
3. What Data We Do Not Collect
We do not collect your name, address, phone number, contacts, location data, browsing history, or any biometric data. We do not track you across other apps or websites. We do not serve advertisements.

4. How We Use Your Data
Your data is used solely to provide and improve the App's functionality:

To maintain your food inventory across your devices
To generate AI-powered meal suggestions based on your inventory
To send expiry reminder notifications (only if you enable them)
To authenticate your account and manage your subscription
To diagnose and fix technical issues
5. AI-Powered Features
Mother Cupboard uses AI for three features. In each case, data is sent only to process your request and is not used to identify you personally — no email address, device identifier, or account information is included.

Meal suggestions — When you request meal suggestions, your inventory item names, quantities, and expiry information are sent to Amazon Web Services (AWS), which uses OpenAI's API to generate personalised recipe ideas.
Voice input — When you add items using your voice, your audio recording is sent to OpenAI's Whisper service to transcribe your speech to text. The audio is not stored after transcription.
Receipt scanning — When you photograph a receipt or shopping list, the image is sent to OpenAI's GPT-4o service to extract food items. Please note that receipt images may contain personal information such as your name or loyalty card number. The image is not stored after processing.
OpenAI's data usage policy states that API data is not used to train their models. You can review OpenAI's privacy policy at openai.com/privacy.

6. Third-Party Services
We use the following third-party services to operate the App:

Supabase (authentication and data sync) — EU-hosted infrastructure
Amazon Web Services (backend API) — EU-West-2 (London) region
OpenAI (AI features: voice input, receipt scanning, and meal suggestions) — see section 5
Apple App Store and Google Play Store (subscription payment processing)
Sentry (error monitoring and crash reporting)
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any third parties for marketing or advertising purposes.

7. Data Storage and Security
Your inventory data is stored locally on your device and synchronised to our cloud servers hosted in the EU. Data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest. We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, or destruction.

8. Data Retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account (Settings → Delete my account), we will permanently remove all your personal data from our servers within 30 days, as required by UK GDPR. Anonymised, aggregated data that cannot identify you may be retained for analytical purposes.

9. Your Rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data
Erasure — ask us to delete your data (you can also do this directly in the App)
Portability — request your data in a structured, machine-readable format
Restriction — ask us to limit how we process your data
Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interest
To exercise any of these rights, email us at info@mothercupboard.app. We will respond within 30 days.

10. Children's Privacy
The App is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

11. Notifications
Expiry reminder notifications are entirely optional and controlled by you in the App's settings. We use local device notifications only — we do not send marketing push notifications.

12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated through the App or by email. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

13. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

14. Contact Us
Mother Cupboard Ltd
47a Tranmere Road
London
SW18 3QH
United Kingdom
Company number: 17256868

Email: info@mothercupboard.app