Privacy Policy
Showcase document. CookingVerse is a fictional product built to demonstrate design and engineering work. This document is a realistic template, not a binding agreement, and it is not legal advice. Replace it with counsel-reviewed text before using it for a real service.
This policy explains what CookingVerse collects, why we collect it, who we share it with and what you can do about it. We have tried to write it in plain language; where a term has a specific legal meaning under the GDPR or the CCPA/CPRA, we say so.
The short version: we sell subscriptions, not people. We do not sell or rent your personal information, we do not use your recipes or cooking history to train third-party models, and grocery partners only ever receive the order you explicitly approved.
Who we are
CookingVerse Labs, Inc. (“CookingVerse”, “we”) is the data controller for the personal data described here. Our registered office is 1180 Kearny Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94133. Our Data Protection Officer can be reached at [email protected].
For users in the EEA and UK, our Article 27 representative is CookingVerse Europe B.V., Keizersgracht 555, 1017 DR Amsterdam, Netherlands.
What we collect
| Category | Examples | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Email, display name, password hash, plan tier | To create and secure your account |
| Kitchen profile | Dietary restrictions, allergies, dislikes, household size, skill level | To plan meals you can and want to eat |
| Pantry & planning | Tracked ingredients, expiry dates, saved recipes, weekly plans | To build plans and deduplicate carts |
| Order data | Approved grocery baskets, store selection, delivery windows | To place the order you approved |
| Voice | Utterances during guided cooking, transcripts | To answer you mid-recipe |
| Appliance | Device model, capability set, session telemetry (temperature, state) | To orchestrate cooking steps safely |
| Technical | IP address, device type, app version, crash traces | Security, abuse prevention, debugging |
We do not collect payment card numbers. Payments are processed by our PSP, which returns only a token and the last four digits.
Voice data, specifically
Voice deserves its own section because it is the most sensitive thing we touch.
- The microphone is active only during an explicitly started guided-cooking session, or after your wake word. A persistent on-screen indicator shows when it is live.
- Where your device supports it, recognition runs on-device and only the resulting text reaches our servers.
- Audio is discarded within 24 hours by default. Transcripts are retained for 30 days so you can review a session, then deleted.
- You can disable transcript retention entirely in Settings → Privacy → Voice, and delete all past transcripts in one action.
- We do not use your voice data to train third-party models. We use aggregate, de-identified error statistics to improve recognition of cooking vocabulary.
Legal bases (GDPR)
- Contract — account, planning, cart building, appliance control: we cannot provide the service without them.
- Consent — voice capture, marketing email, optional analytics. Withdrawable at any time, without affecting prior processing.
- Legitimate interests — security, fraud and abuse prevention, aggregate product analytics. We balance-test each of these and record the outcome.
- Legal obligation — tax records for paid plans.
Who we share with
We share the minimum necessary, and never for another party’s own marketing:
- Grocery partners receive the basket you approved, a delivery address and a delivery window. They do not receive your dietary profile, cooking history or voice data.
- Appliance platforms receive the control commands for a running session.
- Infrastructure and support processors under written data-processing terms.
- Authorities, where legally compelled — we require valid process, narrow the scope where we can, and notify you unless prohibited.
We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CPRA, and we have not done so in the preceding twelve months.
How long we keep things
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Voice audio | 24 hours |
| Voice transcripts | 30 days, or off entirely |
| Meal plans, pantry, saved recipes | Life of account |
| Order history | 24 months |
| Appliance session telemetry | 90 days |
| Security and access logs | 12 months |
| Billing records | 7 years (statutory) |
On deletion we purge active systems within 30 days and encrypted backups within 90.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can access, export, correct and delete your data from Settings → Privacy, or by writing to us. Depending on your jurisdiction you may also have rights to restrict or object to processing, to portability, and to withdraw consent.
We answer within 30 days and never charge for a first request. You will not receive worse service for exercising a right. If we get it wrong you can complain to your supervisory authority — for EU users, the Dutch AP; for UK users, the ICO.
International transfers
We are US-headquartered and process data in the United States and the European Union. Transfers out of the EEA/UK rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses plus a transfer impact assessment, and on the UK Addendum where relevant. EU users’ planning and voice data is processed in the EU region by default.
Children
CookingVerse is not directed at children under 13 (16 in the EEA) and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. Household profiles for minors may be created by an adult account holder, who controls them. If you believe a child has given us data directly, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest, hardware-backed key storage, least-privilege internal access with audited break-glass, mandatory SSO and 2FA for staff, annual third-party penetration testing and a SOC 2 Type II programme. No system is perfect; we publish incidents and notify affected users and regulators within 72 hours of becoming aware of a qualifying breach.
Changes to this policy
We will post any change here and update the date above. For material changes we give 30 days’ notice by email and in-app before they take effect.
Contact
Questions about this document go to [email protected], or by post to CookingVerse Labs, Inc., 1180 Kearny Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94133.