Privacy Policy

MyChefStack

Effective Date: March 17, 2026

MyChefStack ("we," "our," or "us") operates the MyChefStack website and services accessible at mychefstack.com, mychefstack.ai, and related applications (collectively, the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal information when you use our Service.

By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of the Service.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Account registration: name, email address, password (hashed), and optional profile details.
• Social login: If you sign in via Google or other OAuth providers, we receive basic profile information from that provider (name, email, profile image URL) as permitted by your account settings.
• Recipes and content: Recipes you create, import, fork, or annotate; images and photos you upload; comments, ratings, and reviews.
• Dietary preferences and restrictions: Health conditions, allergens, religious or lifestyle dietary requirements you choose to provide.
• Health and fitness data: Calorie intake, exercise, weight, and related metrics if you connect third-party health applications (e.g., MyFitnessPal, Apple Health, Google Fit).
• Pantry and grocery data: Ingredient inventories, shopping lists, and expiration tracking data you enter.
• Meal plans: Planned meals and calendar entries you create.
• Communications: Messages, feedback, or support requests you send us.

1.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Usage data: Pages visited, features used, search queries, recipes viewed or saved, interactions with content, session duration, and referring URLs.
• Device data: Browser type and version, operating system, device type, IP address, and approximate geographic location (city/region level).
• Cookies and similar technologies: Session cookies, preference cookies, and analytics identifiers. See Section 7 for details.
• Log data: Server logs including access times, error reports, and performance data.

1.3 Information from Third Parties

• Social login providers (Google, and others we may add): Basic profile data as described above.
• Health and fitness apps: Data you authorize us to receive from connected applications.
• Analytics partners: Aggregated or pseudonymized data about Service usage patterns.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, operate, and improve the Service, including personalizing recipe recommendations.
• Operate our AI-powered features, including the AI sous chef assistant, recipe suggestions, meal plan generation, and dietary modification guidance.
• Match and display nutrition information from USDA databases based on ingredients you use.
• Enable social and community features: user profiles, recipe sharing, following, voting, comments, and challenges.
• Support our gamification system: awarding points, badges, and leaderboard rankings for community activity.
• Send you notifications you have opted into, including cooking timers, social activity alerts, and meal plan reminders.
• Send multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes via email, SMS, or push notification.
• Process and moderate user-generated content through automated AI review and, where needed, human moderator review.
• Build and maintain user trust scores that influence content visibility and moderation decisions.
• Generate grocery shopping lists and, where you opt in, surface local grocer promotions relevant to your ingredients.
• Respond to your support requests and communications.
• Monitor for fraud, abuse, and security threats.
• Comply with legal obligations.
• If you have given explicit consent, send marketing communications. You may opt out at any time.

3. Sharing of Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information as follows:

3.1 With Other Users

Content you post publicly — including recipes, profile information, comments, reviews, ratings, and gamification rankings — is visible to other users of the Service. You control the visibility of your content through your privacy settings where applicable.

3.2 With Service Providers

We share information with third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf, including cloud hosting, database services, email delivery, SMS messaging, push notification services, analytics, and AI API providers. These providers are contractually required to use your data only to perform services for us.

3.3 With Health and Fitness Integrations

If you connect a third-party health or fitness app, we exchange only the data necessary for that integration. You may disconnect these integrations at any time from your account settings.

3.4 With Social Media Platforms

If you use our sharing features to post content to external platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, Pinterest), information is shared with those platforms subject to their own privacy policies. We store OAuth tokens necessary to facilitate sharing on your behalf, which you may revoke at any time from your account settings.

3.5 For Legal Reasons

We may disclose information if required to do so by law or in good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with legal obligations, protect our rights or property, prevent fraud or abuse, or protect the safety of our users or the public.

3.6 Business Transfers

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change by posting a notice on the Service or by email.

4. User-Generated Content and Intellectual Property

Recipes, as collections of instructions and ingredient lists, are generally not protected by copyright under U.S. law. However, other content you submit to the Service — including photographs, images, written stories, original creative descriptions, and videos — may be protected by intellectual property rights.

By submitting content to the Service, you represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights to that content. You grant MyChefStack a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and create derivative works from your submitted content for purposes of operating and promoting the Service, including commercial uses. This license continues even if you later delete specific content, to the extent copies have been distributed or incorporated into Service infrastructure, subject to reasonable technical limitations.

We do not claim ownership of your content. You retain all rights not expressly granted here.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information within a reasonable time, except where we are required to retain it for legal, tax, fraud prevention, or safety purposes.

Anonymized or aggregated data that cannot reasonably identify you may be retained indefinitely for analytics and product improvement purposes.

6. Your Rights and Choices

6.1 Access, Correction, and Deletion

You may review, update, or delete your account information at any time through your account settings. If you wish to delete your account or request a copy of your data, please contact us at privacy@mychefstack.com.

6.2 California Residents (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), including the right to:

• Know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, or sell.
• Request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
• Opt out of the sale of your personal information (we do not sell personal information).
• Non-discrimination for exercising your CCPA rights.

To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@mychefstack.com. We will respond within the timeframe required by law.

6.3 Data Portability

You may request an export of your recipes, meal plans, and account preferences in standard formats. Contact us at privacy@mychefstack.com to request a data export.

6.4 Communication Preferences

You may unsubscribe from marketing emails using the link in any marketing email or through your account settings. You may manage push notification preferences through your device settings or our app. Note that transactional communications (MFA codes, account security alerts) cannot be disabled while your account is active.

6.5 Health Data

If you have connected health or fitness applications, you may disconnect them at any time from your account settings, which will stop further data collection from those sources. To request deletion of previously collected health data, contact us at privacy@mychefstack.com.

7. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to operate the Service and improve your experience. The types of cookies we use include:

• Strictly necessary cookies: Required for login sessions and core Service functionality. These cannot be disabled.
• Functional cookies: Remember your preferences, such as language settings and dietary filters.
• Analytics cookies: Help us understand how users interact with the Service (e.g., pages visited, features used). We use this data in aggregated or pseudonymized form.
• Advertising cookies: We may use third-party advertising technologies in connection with our ad-supported free tier. These may collect information about your interests to serve relevant ads. You may opt out of interest-based advertising through the DAA opt-out tool at optout.aboutads.info.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect Service functionality.

8. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information promptly. If you believe we have collected such information, please contact us at privacy@mychefstack.com.

9. Security

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information, including encrypted data storage, secure HTTPS transmission, and access controls. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we are committed to promptly addressing any breach in accordance with applicable law.

10. Third-Party Links

The Service may contain links to third-party websites, including external recipe sources, social media platforms, and health apps. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you access.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on the Service and update the effective date. For significant changes, we may also notify you by email. Your continued use of the Service after such changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us:

MyChefStack, LLC
Email: privacy@mychefstack.com
Website: mychefstack.com
State of Formation: Texas