Privacy Policy
Effective date: May 17, 2026
PlanChop ("we", "our", or "us") operates the PlanChop recipe organizer. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. By using PlanChop, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy.
1. Information We Collect
Account Information
When you create an account, we collect your email address, display name, and password. If you register using a passkey (biometric or hardware key), we store the cryptographic credential associated with your device.
Recipe Preferences
To personalize your recipes, we collect your dietary restrictions, allergies, food likes and dislikes, cuisine preferences, protein preferences, cooking style, available kitchen equipment, preferred serving size, household size, spice tolerance, and eating style. These preferences are used exclusively to tailor the recipes you import.
Recipes & Saved Library
We store the recipes you save, including the original imported content, the personalized version PlanChop produces, your edits, any ingredient or side swaps, recipe favorites, and the feedback you provide on your recipes. If you import from external websites or videos, we store the extracted recipe content.
Support & Feedback
When you contact support or submit a suggestion, we collect the content of your messages along with your name and email address (if provided). Support chat sessions may be processed by an AI assistant before reaching a human agent.
Automatically Collected Information
We collect your IP address and browser user agent for security and audit purposes. We use an authentication cookie to keep you signed in. As of the effective date of this policy, we do not use third-party analytics services, advertising trackers, or third-party tracking cookies. If this changes, we will update this policy accordingly.
2. How We Use Your Information
- Personalize the recipes you import to your preferences and allergies
- Swap ingredients and sides automatically based on your dietary profile
- Calculate nutrition information for recipes and personalized ingredients
- Provide customer support and respond to your inquiries
- Send transactional emails (account verification, password resets, import milestones)
- Process subscription payments through our payment provider
- Maintain security through audit logging and fraud prevention
- Improve the quality of personalization over time based on your feedback
We may also anonymize or aggregate your data, removing all personally identifiable information, for internal research, analytics, and business improvement purposes. Once data has been fully anonymized, it is no longer considered personal data and may be used without restriction.
3. Third-Party Services
We share specific data with third-party services to provide core functionality. We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, as defined by applicable US state privacy laws.
AI Language Model Providers
Your preferences and the recipes you import are sent to AI service providers to personalize ingredients, swap sides, recalculate nutrition, and power our support chat assistant. We use API-tier services whose terms prohibit using customer data for model training. We select providers whose data handling practices align with this policy.
Payment Processors
Subscription payments are handled by a third-party payment processor. We send your email address and subscription plan details to this provider. We do not store your credit card number, bank account information, or other payment details - the payment processor handles this directly under their own privacy policy.
Cloud Email Providers
Transactional emails (verification, password reset) are sent through a cloud email delivery service. Only your email address and the message content are shared with this provider.
Nutrition Data Services
We query public nutrition databases using ingredient names to calculate recipe nutrition information. No personal data is sent to these services.
Image Generation Services
Recipe descriptions and ingredient information may be sent to image generation services to create food photography for recipes. No personal data is included in these requests.
4. External Links & Third-Party Content
PlanChop allows you to import recipes from external websites and videos. Those external sites are governed by their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you interact with through PlanChop.
5. Data Storage & Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your information. Passwords are stored using industry-standard hashing. All data in transit is protected with HTTPS encryption. Authentication cookies are configured with secure, HTTP-only flags to prevent unauthorized access.
6. Cookies & Local Storage
We use a single authentication cookie to maintain your signed-in session. We use browser local storage to remember UI preferences (such as whether you've visited before). We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or any third-party cookies.
7. Household Sharing
If you create or join a household, your saved recipes and personalization preferences are shared with other household members. Recipe imports made by any member count toward the household owner's import allowance. Your account credentials and billing information are never shared with household members. Household invitations are sent via email to the address you specify.
8. Data Retention
We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. Temporary data such as email verification tokens and authentication challenges expire automatically within hours. Security audit logs are retained for a reasonable period to support fraud prevention and security investigations. When you delete your account, your personal data is removed from our active systems. Residual copies may persist in encrypted system backups for up to 60 days before being permanently purged.
9. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Update or correct your account information and preferences at any time
- Request a copy of your data. Contact us via our and we will export your account data for you, including recipes and preferences.
- Delete your account and associated personal data
- Leave a household at any time
- Contact us with questions about your data
To exercise any of these rights, visit your account settings or contact us via our .
10. Jurisdiction-Specific Rights
United States
If you are a resident of California, Virginia, Colorado, or another US state with applicable privacy legislation, you may have additional rights regarding your personal information, including the right to know what data we collect, the right to delete it, and the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. As stated above, we do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), the categories of personal information we have collected in the preceding 12 months include:
- Identifiers - email address, display name, IP address, device credential IDs
- Commercial information - subscription history
- Internet or electronic network activity - browser user agent, authentication events, audit logs
- Inferences - recipe preference signals, AI-generated personalization decisions
- Sensory data - none collected
- Geolocation data - none collected
International Users
If you are located outside the United States, please be aware that your data is processed and stored in the United States. Our lawful basis for processing your personal information includes: performance of the contract we have with you (providing the PlanChop service), your consent (where applicable), and our legitimate business interests (security, fraud prevention, and service improvement). You may have additional rights under your local laws, including the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
11. Do Not Track
PlanChop does not track users across third-party websites and does not use advertising trackers. Because we do not engage in cross-site tracking, PlanChop does not currently respond to "Do Not Track" (DNT) browser signals or Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals, as there is no tracking behavior to disable.
12. Business Transfers
In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. In such cases, we will ensure that the receiving entity is bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy or will notify you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
13. Children's Privacy
PlanChop is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will promptly delete it.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or through a notice within the application. Your continued use of PlanChop after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
15. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how your data is handled, contact us via our .