Your recipes stay yours.

Cookendium stores your account, saved recipes, collections, meal plans, grocery lists, and calendar-feed settings so the service can work across your devices. This information is private to your account and is not sold.

Information we process

We process the email address you use to sign in, the recipe and planning content you choose to save, and limited security and diagnostic information needed to prevent abuse and operate the service. When you import a public link, the server retrieves that page or the platform's official embed metadata. When you tap “Import this recipe” in the iPhone recipe browser, Cookendium sends the selected page URL and up to 28,000 characters of visible page text to our server to organize an editable recipe. Nothing is captured merely because you browse. Optional AI extraction is used only when configured by the operator and needed to structure content you submit.

In-app recipe browser

The iPhone recipe browser connects your device directly to third-party websites such as Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and recipe publishers. Those sites receive ordinary web-request information such as your IP address, browser information, and any information you enter on their pages, under their own privacy policies. To avoid requiring a new login every time, Cookendium uses persistent WebKit storage for social-site cookies, local website data, and sign-in sessions on your device. This website data is kept inside Cookendium's iOS app storage; Cookendium's server does not receive or store your social-media password. A platform may expire its own session or require additional verification. You can clear all social-browser sign-ins and website data from Cookendium Settings, and removing the app also removes this app-local data. Cookendium does not monitor general browsing history. The current page URL and visible text are sent to Cookendium only after you tap an import action.

Video speech transcription

Video transcription is optional and begins only after you select a video or tap “Transcribe video.” On iPhone, Cookendium extracts the audio track and uploads only that temporary audio over encrypted HTTPS to your private Cookendium service; the full selected video is not uploaded. For an accessible video on a selected website, your device retrieves the media stream directly from that website for temporary audio extraction; Cookendium does not circumvent protected or hidden streams. Without a connected OpenAI account, the Cookendium service transcribes temporary media with its locally hosted speech-recognition model. If you connect an OpenAI API key in Settings, the Cookendium server sends the temporary audio and resulting transcript to OpenAI for the transcription and recipe-formatting requests you initiate. If OpenAI cannot complete a request, Cookendium automatically attempts the locally hosted fallback. In the web app, the media file you explicitly choose is uploaded temporarily because audio extraction occurs on the server. Cookendium does not save the selected video, audio file, or full transcript in your account or media storage. Temporary working files are deleted after each request; only the structured recipe you choose to save becomes part of your account.

Optional OpenAI connection

You may provide your own OpenAI API key to improve recipe transcription and formatting. The key is transmitted to Cookendium over encrypted HTTPS, encrypted at rest with authenticated encryption, never returned to the app, and used only from the Cookendium server for requests you initiate. The OpenAI connection is optional, is subject to OpenAI's terms, privacy practices, account limits, and usage charges, and can be removed at any time in Settings. Removing the connection deletes the active encrypted credential; deleting your Cookendium account also deletes it. Restricted disaster-recovery backups may retain an encrypted copy until that backup rotates out under the normal retention schedule.

Legal and safety acknowledgments

When you register or accept an updated policy, Cookendium records the versions you accepted, the acceptance time, and limited request information such as IP address and user-agent string. This provides an audit trail of your consent. Cookendium is a general-audience service and does not permit account registration by children under 13.

Calendar access

The iOS app requests full calendar access only when you enable Smart Week or calendar publishing. Smart Week analyzes the times of events from calendars you select entirely on your device to estimate available cooking windows. Event titles, locations, attendees, notes, and calendar contents are not uploaded to Cookendium. Calendar writes are performed on your device only for meals you approve.

Location and grocery checkout

If you choose “Use my current location,” Cookendium uses a one-time, approximate device location to determine a postal code. You may enter a postal code instead. When you ask to find stores or build a shopping cart, Cookendium sends that postal code and the unchecked grocery items you approved through our server to Instacart so it can find participating retailers and prepare a shopping list. Cookendium does not store precise location coordinates, place an order, or receive your payment information. You review products, substitutions, prices, and checkout with Instacart.

Face ID and saved login

When you enable Face ID, Cookendium protects its saved session in the Apple Keychain and asks Face ID or your device passcode to unlock it. Your account password is not stored, and Cookendium never receives your face, biometric template, or device passcode.

Retention and deletion

Your data remains until you delete individual content or delete your account. Account deletion is available in the app and removes the account, its associated content, active sessions, optional encrypted OpenAI credential, and linked consent records from the active service. Limited encrypted backups rotate on a restricted schedule and are used only for disaster recovery.

Your choices

You can decline optional video transcription, calendar, location, Face ID, and grocery-provider features. You can review the Terms of Use and Allergy and Food-Safety Notice at any time. Contact support to request access or correction where applicable, or use in-app deletion to remove the account.

Contact

Questions or privacy requests can be sent through the Cookendium support page.