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DRAFT — needs Jack's review. Not legal advice. Placeholders are highlighted; have a lawyer review before relying on this.

Legal

Privacy Policy

Draft dated October 19, 2026. Effective date: [DATE OF LAUNCH]

The short version: you can use Skip the Label without an account, and then your lists stay in your own browser. If you create an account we store what you need to use it (your email, a hashed password, your username, and your recipes, lists, favorites, avoid list, store choice, trips and budget settings). We never sell your personal data. Store product data from Kroger is fetched live and isn't stored. Skip the Label is not medical advice.

1. Who we are

Skip the Label (skipthelabel.com) is operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME] (“we”, “us”), based in Texas, USA. Questions or requests: support@skipthelabel.com.

2. If you use Skip the Label as a guest

  • Your recipe or shopping list, avoid list, favorites and budget switch are saved only in your browser (localStorage). Clearing your browser data deletes them. Your store choice isn't saved at all as a guest; create an account to keep it.
  • When you search, the list and avoid terms are sent to our server to build your results. They are used for that request and not saved to our database.
  • Photos of a shopping list or recipe card are sent to OpenAI to read the items, then shown to you to check. We process the photo in memory only and don't store it. OpenAI says it doesn't use API data to train its models and may keep it for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring (OpenAI Privacy Policy).
  • Feedback (beta): if you use “Send feedback”, we store what you write, an optional screenshot, the page address and store you were on, your browser type and screen size, and your email only if you choose to give it. This is the one case where we keep something a guest sends us.

3. If you create an account

We store:

  • Email address (to sign in, verify your account, and send password-reset and account emails; never shown publicly).
  • Password, stored only as a salted scrypt hash. We can't see it.
  • Public profile: username (handle), display name and optional bio.
  • Your content: recipes and shopping lists (private unless you make a recipe public), favorites and avoid list, your store choice (store, the ZIP code or city you searched, and the store you picked), shopping trips and budget settings, who you follow and block.
  • Security records: sign-in sessions (a hashed token, browser type, and times), hashed one-time tokens for email verification and password reset, and failed-sign-in counters used to stop password guessing.
  • Feedback you send (your text, optional screenshot, the page and store you were on, browser type, and your account id so we can follow up).
  • Reports you send about public recipes or profiles (the reason and any details you type). We don't store IP addresses with reports.

4. Product and ingredient data

  • Kroger: product, price and aisle data from the official Kroger API is fetched live for your search and kept only in temporary memory for at most 30 minutes. It is not stored in our database. Skip the Label is not affiliated with Kroger.
  • USDA FoodData Central (public domain) and Open Food Facts provide ingredient lists. We cache these public records to keep the app fast.
  • Open Food Facts data is © Open Food Facts contributors and available under the Open Database License (ODbL); individual contents are under the Database Contents License. Source: world.openfoodfacts.org.

5. Cookies and similar technology

  • Essential cookie: a sign-in session cookie (only if you sign in). It's httpOnly and secure and lasts up to 30 days.
  • Preference cookie: a theme cookie, only if you choose a different look.
  • Browser storage: guest lists and settings in localStorage, as described above.
  • We don't use advertising cookies or third-party analytics today. [If analytics are added later, name the tool here.]

6. Third-party affiliate cookies and tracking

We plan to add “buy” links to retailers and delivery services. Some will be paid (affiliate) links; see our Affiliate Disclosure. These programs include:

  • Walmart Affiliates, which runs on the Impact (impact.com) partnership platform, and
  • Instacart (planned).

When you click one of these links, Walmart, Impact and Instacart may place or recognize cookies on your browser and receive information from or about you (for example, that you came from Skip the Label, the time of the click, your browser and device, and what you buy) so they can track the referral and credit us with a commission. That information is collected by them, not by us, and their privacy policies apply: Walmart Privacy Notice, Impact Privacy Policy, Instacart Privacy Policy. We receive only reports of clicks, orders and commissions, not your name, address or payment details. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; affiliate links still work if you do, but we may not be credited.

7. How we use data

  • To run the service: check products against your avoid list, save your lists, show your profile and public recipes, and keep you signed in.
  • To send account email (verification, password reset, important notices). No marketing email without your consent.
  • To keep the service safe: rate limits, stopping password guessing and abuse, and reviewing reports.

8. We never sell your personal data

We don't sell or rent personal data, now or ever, and we don't share it for targeted (cross-context behavioral) advertising. We share data only with service providers that run the service for us, under contract, and only as needed:

  • Hosting: [Render, if approved] (servers and database in the United States).
  • DNS, security and email forwarding: Cloudflare.
  • Transactional email: [Resend or Postmark, once chosen].
  • Database backups: [Cloudflare R2, if approved].
  • AI photo and text reading: OpenAI. Photos you upload, pasted recipe or list text, and recipe pages without recipe markup are sent to OpenAI to pick out the items. Nothing else about you (such as your email) is sent.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or as part of a merger or sale of the business (this policy would still apply to your data).

9. Public content

Recipes are private by default. If you make a recipe public, it's visible to anyone along with your username and display name, and other people can copy it to their own lists. Making it private again removes it from the public library, but copies people already saved may remain in their private lists.

10. How long we keep data

  • Account data: until you delete your account (email support@skipthelabel.com; self-serve deletion is [coming]). We delete it within 30 days, and it ages out of backups within [30] days.
  • Sessions: 30 days. Password-reset links: 30 minutes. Verification links: 24 hours.
  • Reports: as long as needed to handle them and prevent repeat abuse.
  • Beta feedback and screenshots: until we've handled them, and no longer than [12 months].

11. Your choices and rights

You can view and edit most of your data in the app. You can ask us to access, correct, export or delete your data by emailing support@skipthelabel.com. Depending on where you live (for example California, Texas and other US states), you may have additional rights; we honor them for all users and won't treat you differently for using them. We'll verify the request comes from the account owner.

12. Children

Skip the Label is for people 13 and older. It's not directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, consistent with the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, email support@skipthelabel.com and we'll delete it. Users 13 to 17 should have a parent or guardian's permission.

13. Security

We use HTTPS, hashed passwords and tokens, secure cookies, rate limits and access controls. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data we'll notify you as the law requires.

14. Not medical advice

Skip the Label matches products to your ingredient preferences. It is not allergy, medical or dietary advice. Ingredient information can be out of date, so always check the label.

15. Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date above, and for significant changes we'll tell account holders by email or in the app before the change takes effect.

16. Contact

[LEGAL ENTITY NAME], Texas, USA · support@skipthelabel.com · [MAILING ADDRESS, if required]