Privacy Policy for Friddy

Friddy is an AI-powered kitchen, grocery, and food-planning application operated by Everything Essential. Friddy helps users manage kitchen inventory, track expiration dates, generate recipe and shopping recommendations, compare grocery options, analyze receipts, and improve grocery spending decisions.

By accessing or using Friddy, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

1. Information we collect

We collect information to provide, maintain, personalize, secure, and improve Friddy.

1.1 Account information

When you create or use a Friddy account, we may collect:

• Name or display name
• Email address
• Phone number, if provided
• Login and authentication information
• Profile preferences, such as language, household size, budget range, dietary preferences, allergy information, and grocery preferences
• Subscription or premium status

Guest (anonymous) accounts. When you first open Friddy, the app signs you in automatically with an anonymous guest account so you can use Friddy without registering or providing any personal details. A guest account is identified only by a random account ID issued by Firebase Authentication; for a guest account we do not collect your name, email, or phone number. Data you create as a guest — such as kitchen inventory, shopping lists, and preferences — is stored under that anonymous ID.

Upgrading a guest account. You can later create a permanent account by adding an email address and password. Your existing guest account is then upgraded in place: the same account ID is kept, so the data you created as a guest carries over to your registered account. From that point we collect and store your email address (and display name, if provided). If you instead sign in to a different existing account, the data under your guest account is not transferred and remains associated only with the anonymous ID. You can delete a guest or registered account at any time in the app (Profile → Settings → Account), which removes the associated data on the same schedule described in "Data retention".

1.2 Kitchen and inventory data

To provide Friddy's inventory and food-planning features, we may collect information you enter or generate in the app, including:

• Food items in your kitchen inventory
• Quantity, unit, category, and storage location
• Expiration dates or estimated shelf life
• Food status, such as fresh, expiring soon, expired, or consumed
• Reorder preferences
• Notes, tags, or custom item details

1.3 Grocery, shopping, and budget data

To support grocery planning, price comparison, and smart basket optimization, we may collect:

• Shopping list items
• Grocery budget preferences
• Preferred grocery stores or platforms
• Purchase history entered or confirmed by you
• Estimated prices, selected offers, and basket recommendations
• Store ratings or feedback submitted by you
• Aggregated price history per item (your past purchase prices), used to detect savings opportunities
• Savings records (such as avoided duplicate purchases or purchases below your average price) displayed in the savings dashboard

1.4 Receipt and fridge/kitchen photo data

If you use receipt scanning, fridge/kitchen photo scanning, or purchase verification features, we may collect:

• Photos or images of receipts that you upload
• Photos of your refrigerator, pantry, or kitchen that you upload so Friddy can identify food items (these photos may incidentally capture other items visible in the frame)
• Receipt text extracted from the image
• Food item names, estimated quantity, and category detected from fridge/kitchen photos
• Purchased item names, quantities, prices, store names, purchase dates, and totals
• Matching results between your receipt and shopping list
• Information needed to update your inventory after a purchase or a fridge/kitchen scan

1.5 AI interaction data

Friddy uses Anthropic's Claude API for recipe analysis, expiry prediction, price analysis, and spending insights based on your purchase history and current market prices, and Google's Gemini API for receipt and fridge/kitchen photo analysis and for extracting food items from voice-input transcripts. Both providers contractually agree not to use data submitted through their APIs to train their models. Data sent to these providers is processed only to generate the specific output requested by the user and is not retained by the providers beyond their stated retention periods.

Depending on the AI feature, we may process:

• Your inventory data
• Dietary preferences and allergy settings
• Shopping list data
• Receipt-related data
• Fridge/kitchen photo data
• Voice-input transcripts (converted text)
• Budget preferences
• User prompts or feedback given to AI features
• AI-generated recommendations and outputs

1.6 Location data

Friddy may request general location information to improve store availability, grocery recommendations, regional pricing, or market-specific features. We may collect:

• Country, city, or approximate region
• Preferred shopping area
• Store availability near your selected area

Friddy does not require continuous real-time location tracking for core kitchen and grocery features unless a specific feature clearly asks for it and you grant permission.

1.7 Usage, device, and technical data

We may automatically collect technical and usage information, including:

• Device type and operating system
• App version
• IP address
• Crash logs and diagnostic data
• Feature usage events
• Performance data
• Authentication and security logs
• Approximate session activity

This information helps us maintain app stability, detect abuse, improve user experience, and secure the Service. Device integrity signals (Google Play Integrity / Apple DeviceCheck) may be processed to prevent abuse.

1.8 Voice input data

If you use the feature that adds items to your shopping list by voice, we collect and process:

• The converted text (transcript) of what you say in order to add items to your shopping list
• The food items extracted from that text (name, quantity, unit, and category)

The process works as follows:

1. You tap the microphone button in the app and say what you need to buy.
2. Your device's operating system converts the speech to text using its own speech recognition (iOS: Apple Speech Recognition (SFSpeechRecognizer); Android: Google Speech Recognition (SpeechRecognizer)). If your device does not have an offline recognition model for that language, the operating system may send the voice data to Apple's or Google's servers to perform the conversion. This is behavior of the device's operating system and is not controlled by Friddy.
3. Only the converted text (transcript) is sent to Friddy's server (Google Cloud Functions, us-central1, United States). The voice (audio) data itself is not sent to Friddy's server, and Friddy does not collect or store it.
4. Friddy's server passes the transcript to Google Gemini (United States) to extract food items (name, quantity, unit, and category).
5. The extracted results are shown in the app, and only the items you review and select are saved to your shopping list (covered by the grocery, shopping, and budget data described in Section 1.3).

The transcript is used solely to extract items; it is not stored in our database and is discarded as soon as processing completes. Our server operation logs do not record the content of the transcript — only a user identifier, the character count, and the language code. However, if item extraction fails, part of the AI response (up to 500 characters) may remain in the operation logs for troubleshooting, and this may include recognized food names.

Each recording is limited to a maximum of 3 minutes, and each transcript to a maximum of 1,500 characters.

2. How we use your information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes.

2.1 To provide core app features

We use your data to create and manage your account, store and display your kitchen inventory, track expiration dates, generate recipe suggestions, build shopping lists, recommend grocery purchases, analyze receipts and fridge/kitchen photos to automatically recognize food items and help populate your inventory, update your inventory after confirmed purchases, and provide spending and waste insights.

2.2 To personalize recommendations

We may use your information to personalize recipe recommendations, expiring-food alerts, shopping suggestions, budget-aware grocery plans, store or product recommendations, smart basket optimization results, and reorder reminders.

2.3 To provide AI-powered features

We may use your data to generate AI-assisted outputs, including meal ideas based on inventory, estimated expiration dates and shelf-life predictions, grocery optimization suggestions, price insights based on your own purchase history and current market prices, receipt review results, automatic food-item recognition from fridge/kitchen photos, budget-saving recommendations, recipe extraction from cooking video links you provide, food waste reduction insights, savings tracking showing how much Friddy helped you save, and personalized shopping plans.

2.4 To process premium or subscription features

If Friddy offers paid features, we may use account and subscription status data to confirm premium access, enable premium-only features, prevent unauthorized access, and manage billing-related access through app store or payment providers. Friddy does not directly collect full payment card numbers unless we separately state otherwise. Payments are generally handled by app stores or third-party payment processors.

Note: All features are currently available free of charge. Paid subscription features may be introduced in the future, at which point this section will apply.

2.5 To improve and secure the Service

We may use information to debug errors and crashes, improve app performance, prevent fraud, abuse, or unauthorized access, enforce our terms and policies, monitor system reliability, and test and improve product features.

2.6 To communicate with you

We may use your contact information to send account-related notices, security alerts, service updates, customer support responses, important policy updates, and optional product or feature announcements, where permitted.

3. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information only in the situations described below.

3.1 With service providers

We may share information with trusted vendors that help us operate Friddy. The current list of processors is:

3.2 With AI providers

When you use AI-powered features, relevant data may be sent to third-party AI providers to generate outputs. We send only the data needed for the feature. For example, the receipt-review feature may send receipt text or image information to Google Gemini to identify purchased items. The fridge/kitchen scan feature uploads your photo to Firebase Storage and sends it to Google Gemini to identify the food items in the image (name, quantity, and category); you review the detected items before they are added to your inventory. When you add shopping-list items by voice, only the transcript converted on your device is sent to Friddy's server and then to Google Gemini to extract food items; the voice (audio) data itself is never sent to Friddy's server (see Section 1.8). The recipe analyzer feature may send a recipe URL and your inventory data to Anthropic Claude to generate meal suggestions. When you paste a YouTube cooking video link, Friddy uses the YouTube Data API to retrieve the video's public title and description, which are then sent to Anthropic Claude to extract ingredients and cooking steps. Friddy does not download, store, or process the video content itself. On the shopping screen, when you search for an item, Friddy uses the Coupang Partners API to show matching product search results and recommendations, including current prices and affiliate purchase links. Only the item name you search is sent as a search query; no personal data is shared with Coupang through this search. Friddy participates in the Coupang Partners program and may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through these links.

3.3 With affiliate or grocery partners

Friddy displays product search results, prices, and purchase links from grocery partners such as Coupang on the shopping screen, retrieved via the Coupang Partners API. Friddy may also include affiliate links on the Everything Essential website and blog. If you click a purchase link in the app or on our website:

• The partner may collect information under its own privacy policy
• Friddy may receive limited affiliate attribution information
• Friddy may track whether a link was clicked for analytics or commission purposes
• Friddy does not control the partner's privacy practices

Unless clearly stated, Friddy does not automatically complete purchases on your behalf.

3.4 For legal, safety, or compliance reasons

We may disclose information if we believe it is necessary to comply with applicable law or legal process, respond to lawful requests from authorities, protect the rights, property, or safety of Everything Essential, users, or others, investigate fraud, security incidents, or misuse, or enforce our agreements or policies.

3.5 Business transfers

If Everything Essential is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, restructuring, or sale of assets, user information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will take reasonable steps to ensure continued protection of user information.

4. International data transfers

Friddy stores and processes information in countries where Everything Essential, its service providers, or infrastructure partners operate. The following international transfers occur:

These transfers are protected by contractual safeguards and the recipients' applicable security frameworks.

5. Data retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide Friddy, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, improve security, and maintain business records.

You may request deletion of your account or certain personal data as described in Section 6.

6. Your rights and choices

Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights to access your personal information, correct inaccurate information, delete personal information, withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, object to certain processing, request restriction of processing, request information about how your data is used, and request account deletion.

Account deletion

You can delete your account at any time directly within the Friddy app:

1. Open Friddy
2. Go to Profile → Settings → Account
3. Tap Delete Account (계정 삭제)
4. Confirm deletion

Upon deletion:

• All inventory, shopping list, and recipe data is permanently deleted within 30 days
• Your account credentials are immediately invalidated
• Anonymized usage statistics may be retained
• Records required by law (such as purchase history retained for 5 years per the Korean E-Commerce Act) are retained for the legally required period and then deleted

You may also request account deletion by emailing ee.friddy@gmail.com. We will respond within 10 business days. To exercise other rights, contact us at the same address. We may need to verify your identity before completing certain requests.

7. Permissions

Friddy may request device permissions, including:

• Camera or Photo Library — used for receipt scanning, fridge/kitchen photo scanning, food-item images, or profile-related uploads.
• Notifications — used for expiration reminders, grocery reminders, reorder alerts, and account notices.
• Location — used for region-based store recommendations, price comparison, or localized grocery features.
• Microphone — used when you add items to your shopping list by voice. (Optional)
• Speech Recognition (iOS) — used to convert what you say into text. (Optional)

You can manage permissions through your device settings. Some features may not work properly if permissions are disabled.

The Microphone and Speech Recognition permissions are both optional. If you choose not to grant them, you can still use every feature of the app by entering items manually.

8. Children's privacy

Friddy is not intended for children under the age required by applicable law to consent to data processing (14 years in Korea). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without appropriate consent. If you believe a child has provided personal information to Friddy without appropriate consent, please contact us at ee.friddy@gmail.com so we can take appropriate action.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information, including authentication controls, database access rules, encryption in transit, role-based access controls where applicable, logging and monitoring, secure cloud infrastructure, and limited internal access to user data.

10. AI, recommendations, and automated outputs

Friddy uses automated systems and AI models to generate recommendations. These outputs may include suggested recipes, grocery optimization results, budget recommendations, inventory predictions, expiration reminders, receipt matching results, and food waste insights.

These recommendations are for convenience and informational purposes only. Friddy does not guarantee that AI-generated recommendations are always accurate, complete, safe, or suitable for your personal circumstances. Users are responsible for reviewing allergy information, ingredient suitability, food safety, expiration status, grocery prices, store availability, and purchase decisions.

11. Food safety and allergy notice

Friddy may help organize food information, but it is not a medical, nutrition, or food safety authority. You should independently verify whether food is safe to consume. Friddy's allergy and dietary features are intended to assist users, but they may not detect every risk. Always review ingredient labels, allergen warnings, and official product information before consuming food.

12. Third-party links and services

Friddy may contain links to third-party websites, grocery platforms, affiliate partners, payment providers, or external services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or policies of those third parties. When you leave Friddy, your activity is governed by the third party's own terms and privacy policy.

13. Personal Information Protection Officer

Under Korea's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), Article 31, we designate a Personal Information Protection Officer to oversee personal information handling and respond to user inquiries.

Personal Information Protection Officer
Name: Siyoun Kim
Position: Co-founder, Everything Essential
Email: ee.friddy@gmail.com

14. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify users through the app, email, website, or another appropriate method. The "Effective Date" at the top of this document indicates when the policy was last updated.

• August 9, 2026 — Added voice input for shopping lists: microphone and speech-recognition permissions, the voice input data category, and Apple/Google speech recognition as processors.
• July 20, 2026 — Named usage-analytics and crash-reporting tools (Firebase Analytics/Crashlytics), added Google Play payments, and clarified AI price-analysis.
• July 10, 2026 — Added fridge/kitchen photo scanning (analyzed via Google Gemini) to automatically recognize food items for your inventory; clarified that the Coupang Partners integration covers product search and recommendations shown on the shopping screen and added the required commission disclosure; changed the retention period for receipt and fridge/kitchen photos to "until account deletion."
• June 27, 2026 — Added anonymous (guest) accounts and the guest-to-registered account upgrade flow.

15. Contact us

If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or how Friddy handles personal information, please contact:

Everything Essential
Email: ee.friddy@gmail.com

A Korean-language version of this Privacy Policy is available at 한국어 버전.

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