Ipsimo Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how Ipsimo, a recipe saving app for iOS and Android developed by Idion, collects, uses, and protects your information. It applies specifically to the Ipsimo app on iOS and Android, not to other Idion products.

By using Ipsimo, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

What we collect

**What you share into the app.** When you save a recipe, Ipsimo receives the thing you chose to send it: a link or a post shared from another app, a link you pasted, screenshots or a screen recording you picked from your camera roll, or a photo of a cookbook page you took with the camera. From a link we fetch and parse the text of the post, including its caption and the creator's handle. From a video you shared we sample still frames on your own device, and only those frames leave it. The video itself is never uploaded, stored or transcoded.

**The saved recipe.** Each save holds the title, the ingredient lines and the steps, the chip under each line naming what it was read out of, the lines that could not be read, any repair or edit you made to a line, the creator's handle where the post carried one, the source text and frames the chips point at so you can open them offline, the collections you create and name, and the number of times you have marked a recipe as made.

**Capture material that did not become a save.** If a capture is abandoned or comes back with nothing readable, the material you sent is held for the rest of that session so you can continue the same capture by adding screenshots or a photo. If a capture finishes before your session exists, the result is held on the device until the session lands and is then attached to it.

**An anonymous session identifier.** Ipsimo creates one on first launch, before you are asked for anything at all. It is what your library belongs to while you have no account. It outlives deleting and reinstalling the app on the same phone, which is why a reinstall returns your library, and it reaches nothing outside Ipsimo.

**Your email address, if you create an account.** An account takes an email address and a password, and nothing else. There is no name field, no username and no sign-in through another company.

**Your subscription status,** through our subscription management provider, and the answer you give to the four-option reason survey if you start to cancel and do not skip it.

**Usage events in our own database.** Which screens you reach and which actions you take, the answers to the four onboarding questions, and events about saving, cooking and reaching the paywall. These events are anonymous. Your email address is never used as an analytics identifier.

**Data kept on your own device,** so the app works without a connection: your session, your theme choice, and your saved recipes with their chips and sources.

This is the complete list of what Ipsimo collects today. If that changes as the app grows, this policy will be updated first, and the "last updated" date above will reflect it.

What we do not collect

To be specific rather than leave this to inference, Ipsimo does not collect:

- **Your name, username, postal address, phone number or date of birth.** An account is an email address and a password, and there is no profile. - **Your location,** precise or approximate. The app requests no location permission of any kind. - **Audio.** Ipsimo does not request microphone access, does not record anything, and does not transcribe. It reads text and images. When a line cannot be read the app says it could not read it, never that it could not hear it. - **Your contacts, your calendar, or your health, fitness, dietary or medical information.** There is no calorie count, no macro figure, no nutrition column and no dietary tag anywhere in the app. - **Your payment card, bank or other financial account details.** Payment is handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play. - **An advertising identifier.** There is no advertising software and no third-party analytics software in Ipsimo, at any tier, so there is no tracking prompt and nothing to opt out of. - **A notification token.** Ipsimo sends no push notifications and asks for no notification permission. - **Your photo library.** The app reads only the specific items you select and never scans, indexes or browses the rest. It also never writes anything to your camera roll. - **Video.** No video you share is downloaded, stored, transcoded or redistributed by us. - **Biometric data or government-issued identification.** - **Content from other users.** Nothing you save is visible to anybody else, and Ipsimo has no shared, household or public library.

We also do not use your email address for marketing. Exactly one kind of email is ever sent from Ipsimo, and it is a password reset you asked for.

If any of this changes in a future version of the app, we will update this policy before that change ships, not after.

Accounts and identifiers

Ipsimo can be used without an account. When you start without signing in, the only identifier we hold is an anonymous session id that lets your library persist on this device. Everything the app does is reachable that way: ten free saves, cook mode, collections, search, the recipe card, the subscription and restoring a purchase.

If you later create an account, we collect your email address and a password. Ipsimo offers no sign-in through Apple, Google or any other provider, so no private relay or third-party identifier is involved. Creating an account upgrades your existing anonymous session rather than replacing it, and no saved recipe is ever removed by signing in, signing out or merging two libraries. Your email address is used to sign you in and to send a password reset you requested. It is not used for marketing, it is never shown to anybody else, and it is never used as an analytics identifier.

An anonymous library lives on one phone. It comes back if you reinstall Ipsimo on that same phone, and it does not reach a new one. We say this in the app rather than only here, because without an account we hold nothing that could return your recipes to you.

Camera permission

Ipsimo requests access to your device's camera so you can photograph a cookbook page and capture the recipe on it.

The camera is never activated automatically or in the background. It opens only when you choose the camera yourself from the ways of saving a recipe, and it closes when that capture is done. The photo is used to read that one recipe and is held with the save so you can open the source behind each line later. Nothing is written to your camera roll.

If you decline this permission, you can still use the rest of Ipsimo: sharing a post from another app, pasting a link and picking screenshots from your camera roll all work normally. Only photographing something new will be unavailable.

Photo library permission

Ipsimo requests access to your photo library so you can save a recipe from screenshots or a screen recording you already have.

This access is user-initiated. It is triggered only when you choose the camera roll as the way into a capture, and Ipsimo reads only the specific items you select. Selecting four screenshots produces one recipe, not four. The library is never scanned, indexed or read in the background. When the item you select is a video, still frames are sampled from it on your own device and only those frames are sent for reading. The video is not uploaded, not stored and not transcoded.

If you decline this permission, you can still use the rest of Ipsimo: sharing a post from another app, pasting a link and photographing a cookbook page all work normally. Only saving from media already on your phone will be unavailable.

How we use information

We use the information described above to read the recipe you asked us to read, to keep your library and show it back to you, to run your subscription, and to see where the app is confusing so we can fix it. We do not use your information for purposes beyond operating and improving Ipsimo, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles.

Usage analytics

We record which screens you reach and which actions you take, so we can see where the app is confusing and fix it. This includes the answers to the four onboarding questions and, if you start to cancel a subscription and do not skip it, the reason you pick. These events are stored in our own database and are not tied to your email address. **We do not use any third-party analytics service and we do not use any advertising service**, so this information is not shared with anyone and is not combined with data from other apps.

AI processing

To read a recipe, Ipsimo sends the caption text fetched from the link, together with the images and the device-sampled frames you supplied, to Google Gemini. This happens on our servers, not on your device, and our access key is never included in the app.

The content is sent for the sole purpose of reading that one recipe and is not used to train the model provider's systems. We do not send your email address or account identifiers with it.

What the model produces

The model's only job in Ipsimo is to report what is present in the material you shared: the ingredient lines, the steps, and which of your caption, on-screen text or frame each one was read out of. It is instructed to return nothing plus a reason rather than fill a line it could not read, and the app shows that as an amber gap you can repair in one tap. It does not write recipes, invent quantities, suggest substitutions, translate, or offer cooking advice of its own. See our AI Policy for how this works and what its limits are.

Automated decision making

Ipsimo's reading of what you shared is designed to inform and support your own decisions. It does not make decisions about you that produce legal effects or similarly significantly affect you, and it is not used for any form of automated profiling. Nothing in the app scores you, ranks you or categorises you, and the app never files a recipe into a collection you did not create.

Subscriptions and payments

If you subscribe, we collect your subscription status through our subscription management provider. Payment itself is handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play. **We never see or store your payment card details.**

Your subscription lives against your store account and your library lives against your Ipsimo account, and the two are never joined. That is why deleting your Ipsimo account does not cancel your subscription, and why restoring a purchase on a new phone returns the subscription and not the recipes.

Third-party services

We rely on a limited number of infrastructure providers to operate Ipsimo: the model provider that reads what you share, our own database and server hosting, and our subscription management provider. These process information on our behalf, under confidentiality and data protection commitments, and only to the extent needed to provide their service to us.

We do not sell your information to third parties, and we do not share it with third parties for their own independent marketing purposes.

Security

We apply reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, loss, or misuse, including encrypting data in transit and restricting access so that your records are readable only by your own account. No system is perfectly secure, but security is a priority in how we build Ipsimo, not an afterthought.

If we become aware of a security incident that affects your information, we will notify you and take appropriate action as required by applicable law.

Data retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide Ipsimo's features. Material from a capture that never became a save is held only for the rest of that session. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your information as described on our Data Deletion page, except where retention is required by law or for the limited purposes described there.

International transfers

Your information may be processed in countries other than your own. Where this happens, we take steps to ensure it receives an appropriate level of protection, consistent with applicable data protection law.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access the information we hold about you, correct it, delete it, export it in a portable format, restrict or object to certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, California, or another jurisdiction with its own data protection law, you may have additional or more specific rights under that law. These are not reduced by anything in this policy.

See our Data Deletion page to request deletion, or contact us using the details on our Contact page for any other request. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law, and in any case within a reasonable time.

Children's privacy

Ipsimo is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under the age required by applicable law to consent to data processing on their own behalf. If you believe a child has provided us with information, please contact us so we can remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Ipsimo evolves. We will update the "last updated" date above when we do, and for material changes we will make a reasonable effort to notify you.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to our privacy team. See our Contact page for details.