Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Chowmigo is provided by CP Cloud Innovations Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16713036), whose registered office is at 8 The Clough, Chesterfield, S41 0BZ ("we", "us"). We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy, and are registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (registration number ZC055766). You can contact us about privacy at support@chowmigo.com.

2. Information we collect

Adults (account holders)

• Account details: email address and password (the password is stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider).
• Profile: display name, avatar (a character, emoji, or a photo you choose to upload), and your role in the family.

Children and other family members

An adult in the family creates each child's profile. We do not ask children for an email address. A child's profile holds:

• a display name and avatar (children can choose a character; only an adult can add a photo avatar for them),
• an optional age band (for example "5 to 8"), used to suggest suitable recipes and settings,
• a 4-digit PIN, stored only as a secure hash,
• the settings an adult chooses, such as whether the child can edit the pantry and their daily Ask Migo limit.

Guests

Adults can add guests who never sign in, such as grandparents or a friend staying for tea. We store the name and dietary needs you enter for them. Please only add information the guest would be happy for you to share.

Family content

• Dietary needs and preferences for members and guests, such as allergies or "vegetarian". This can include health-related information, such as a food allergy. We use it only to tailor recipes and warnings for your family.
• Pantry: food items, quantities, locations and use-by dates.
• Recipes, favourites and meals you log as cooked.
• Meal votes: polls, suggestions and who voted for what.
• Ask Migo requests: what you type, the options you pick, and the recipe Migo returns. We keep a record of each request to apply usage limits.
• Photos you choose to send: a photo of a shopping receipt or list (receipt scanning), or a photo of a dish to recreate (Ask Migo). These are sent for processing and are not saved to your family's account.

Device information

• Push notification token, if you allow notifications, so we can send alerts such as "use soon" reminders and vote updates.
• Face ID / fingerprint sign-in: if you turn this on, your phone keeps a random sign-in key locked behind its own biometrics. We store only a scrambled (hashed) copy of that key. We never receive your face, fingerprint or any biometric data.

Purchases

If your family subscribes to Chowmigo Plus, payment is handled by Apple or Google. We never see your card details. We receive confirmation of the subscription and its status, linked to your family rather than to an individual.

3. How we use information

• To run the app: show your family's pantry, recipes and votes, and keep them in sync across your devices.
• To sign people in, including children's PIN sign-in and Face ID sign-in.
• To generate recipes with Ask Migo and read receipts, applying your family's and guests' dietary needs.
• To send notifications you've allowed.
• To provide Chowmigo Plus and apply plan limits.
• To keep the service secure, for example by locking a profile after repeated wrong PINs and limiting the rate of requests.

We do not sell personal information, use it for advertising, or build marketing profiles. We do not use your family's content to train AI models.

4. Our legal bases (UK and EU)

• Contract: to provide the app and any subscription you have asked for.
• Consent: for push notifications, photo avatars, Face ID sign-in and dietary information that relates to health. You can withdraw consent at any time in the app or your phone's settings.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the service secure and prevent abuse.

5. Who we share information with

Within Chowmigo, your family's information is visible only to members of your family. These rules are enforced by our database, not just hidden in the app.

We use these service providers to run Chowmigo. They process data on our behalf and only for that purpose:

When you scan a barcode or search for food, the barcode or search term is sent to Open Food Facts or USDA FoodData Central, and recipe searches go to TheMealDB. These lookups don't include your name or account details.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of our users.

6. International transfers

Some of our providers process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, we rely on safeguards approved under UK data protection law, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the UK–US data bridge. Our main database is hosted in the European Union, in Ireland, which UK law recognises as providing adequate protection.

7. How long we keep information

• Family data is kept while your family uses Chowmigo.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time (Family tab → Delete account), or ask us to do it.
• When an adult deletes their account, their sign-in, profile, photo, Face ID sign-ins, private recipes, votes, favourites and Ask Migo history are deleted immediately. Things they added for the whole family, such as pantry items and family recipes, stay with the family.
• When an adult removes a member or guest, that person's profile, sign-in, photos and Face ID sign-ins are deleted.
• When a whole family is deleted, all its members' sign-ins, photos and family data are deleted immediately, and we ask our subscription provider to delete the family's record. We may keep limited records where the law requires it (for example, for tax).
• Receipt and dish photos are not stored after they are processed.

8. Children

Chowmigo is designed for families, and children use it under the supervision of a parent or carer. Children cannot create an account themselves: an adult creates their profile, chooses what they can do, and can change or remove it at any time. We collect the minimum needed for a child to take part. Children's profiles are private to their family, are never used for advertising, and we don't use tracking or analytics tools.

If you think a child's information has been added without a parent's permission, contact us at support@chowmigo.com and we will delete it.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal information, or object to or restrict how we use it. Parents and carers can exercise these rights for their children. Adults can edit or remove most information directly in the app. For anything else, email support@chowmigo.com and we will reply within one month.

If you're in the UK and unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

10. Security

Data is encrypted in transit, passwords and PINs are stored as secure hashes, avatar photos are kept in private storage shown only through short-lived links, and access is restricted to members of your own family. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

11. Changes to this policy

If we make important changes, we'll tell you in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows when this policy was last updated.

12. Contact

CP Cloud Innovations Ltd
8 The Clough, Chesterfield, S41 0BZ
Company number 16713036
ICO registration ZC055766
support@chowmigo.com