Mealcents
Privacy Policy
Effective November 6, 2026 · Applies to Mealcents for iPhone, version 1.0 and later
In one paragraph: Mealcents has no account, no sign-in, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Everything you enter — your household size, budget, meal plan, receipts, prices and pantry — is saved only on your iPhone. We have no server that receives it, so we cannot see, sell, share or lose it. The app makes exactly one kind of network request: a check for app updates, described below.
Who we are
Mealcents is made and run by Sourav Das, an independent developer in the United States ("we", "us"). Contact: support@getmealcents.com.
What the app stores, where, and for how long
All of this is stored in Mealcents' private storage on your iPhone (the app's sandbox, protected by iOS file encryption). None of it is sent to us or to anyone else.
| Data | Exactly what | Kept until |
|---|---|---|
| Your setup | Number of people (1–8), weekly budget, cuisines, diets and allergies you chose | You change it, or delete the app |
| Meal plan | The 7 dinners in your week | You make a new plan, or delete the app |
| Receipts | For each scan you save: store name, date, item count and total | You delete the receipt or all prices, or delete the app |
| Prices | For each saved line: item name as printed, price, store and date | You delete it (Prices tab), or delete the app |
| Pantry | Ingredients you added, the date, and whether you scanned or picked them | You remove them or tap Clear pantry, or delete the app |
| Checklists | Ticked shopping-list items and prep tasks | You make a new plan or change household size |
| Settings | Whether prep reminders are on | You change it, or delete the app |
| Cooking timer | Which dinner you're cooking and when the timer ends | You tap Done cooking, or 30 minutes after it ends |
Widgets and Live Activities. To show tonight's dinner, your budget, a cooking timer or your shopping progress on the Home Screen, Lock Screen or Dynamic Island, the app copies those few values into a storage area on your iPhone shared only with Mealcents' own widgets. It stays on the device.
Backups. If you use iCloud Backup or an encrypted Mac/PC backup, iOS includes this data in your device backup under your Apple account, as it does for every app. We have no access to those backups.
Camera, photos and text recognition
- Camera: iOS asks for camera access the first time you open the receipt or pantry scanner. If you say no, you can still choose a photo instead. Change it any time in Settings › Mealcents › Camera.
- Photo library: Mealcents never gets access to your library. When you tap Choose a photo, iOS shows its own picker and gives the app only the one photo you pick.
- Reading the photo: text is read on your iPhone with Apple's built-in text recognition (Vision). The photo is not uploaded to us, to Apple or to anyone else.
- What's kept: only the item names, prices and store you review and save (or the pantry ingredients you confirm). The photo itself is held in the app's temporary cache folder on your iPhone while it's read; it isn't part of your saved data, isn't backed up by the app, and iOS clears that cache automatically.
Notifications
Off until you turn on Remind me in the Prep tab; iOS asks for permission at that moment. When on, the app schedules two kinds of notifications on your iPhone from your plan: Sundays at 4:00 PM ("Sunday prep") and 8:00 PM the night before a dinner whose meat is in the freezer ("Thaw for tomorrow"). They're created on the device — no push server, nothing sent anywhere. Turn them off in the Prep tab or in Settings › Notifications › Mealcents.
The one network request: app updates
Each time you open Mealcents, it asks our update provider, Expo (650 Industries, Inc., USA), whether a newer version of the app's code is available, and downloads it if so. This lets us fix bugs and add recipes between App Store releases. The request contains:
- your IP address (part of any internet request);
- the platform (iOS), the app's runtime version, the update currently running and the release channel;
- a random ID created the first time you open the app, used by Expo to roll updates out and count update downloads. It's not linked to your name, Apple account or device identifiers, and it's deleted when you delete the app.
It never contains your plan, receipts, prices, pantry or anything else you enter. Expo's handling of this request is covered by Expo's privacy policy.
What Mealcents does not do
- No account, sign-in, name, email address or phone number is asked for in the app.
- No advertising, no ad networks, no tracking across apps or websites, and no request for Apple's tracking permission.
- No analytics or crash-reporting service is active in the app. If we add one, we'll update this policy and the App Store privacy details before that version is released.
- No access to location, contacts, microphone, Health, calendars or Face ID.
- We do not sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined in California law (CCPA/CPRA).
Purchases
Mealcents has no in-app purchases today. If we add a paid option, Apple will process the payment through the App Store and we will never receive your card details. We will update this policy, including how the app checks whether you've paid, before that version is released.
Deleting your data
- One price: Prices tab › tap the product › trash icon next to the price.
- One receipt and all its prices: Prices tab › Receipts › trash icon.
- All prices and receipts: Prices tab › Delete all prices.
- Pantry: Pantry tab › the × next to an item, or Clear pantry.
- Everything: delete the Mealcents app. This removes all of its data from your iPhone, including the random update ID.
We hold no copy, so there's nothing for us to delete on our side. Data inside an old device backup stays there until that backup is deleted in iCloud or on your computer.
Children
Mealcents is made for adults planning household meals and is not directed at children under 13. The app collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Your requests
You can see and delete everything Mealcents stores directly in the app, as listed above. You can also email support@getmealcents.com with any privacy question or request.
Changes to this policy
If we change what the app stores or sends, we'll update this page and its effective date before the change ships, and mention it in the App Store "What's New" notes for that version.
Contact
Sourav Das (Mealcents) · support@getmealcents.com