Privacy policy

In short

Good Gut Eats is a wellness app for tracking food, gut symptoms, and recipes you cook. We collect only what we need to run the app on your behalf. What you type, say, or photograph to log something is processed by AI services, because that is how the app turns what you tell it into a structured log. We keep first-party product analytics and crash reports so we can see what is broken. We do not sell or share your data. We do not run third-party analytics or advertising SDKs. You can delete your account inside the app.

Who runs Good Gut Eats

Good Gut Eats is built and operated by Pat Roberts, a solo developer. You can reach us at support@goodguteats.com.

What we collect

When you use the app, we collect the following, linked to your account:

• Account information: your email address and name from sign-in (Apple, Google, or email). Used only to sign you in and personalize the app.
• Profile data: dietary preferences, measurement units, notification settings, and other in-app preferences you choose to set.
• Food logs: meals you log, including ingredient names, portion sizes, timestamps, and any notes you attach.
• Symptom logs: Bristol Stool Chart entries, bloating, pain, energy, and any other symptom data you choose to record.
• Recipe overrides: ingredient swaps, skips, and additions you apply to a recipe. These let you save personalized versions of recipes you cook.
• Recipe library data: which recipes you favorite, view, or cook. Used to power personalization and discovery in the app.
• Creator engagement: when a recipe is attributed to a creator, basic counts of views and saves so we can credit the source.
• Trigger evidence data: statistical patterns computed from your food and symptom logs. These are derived values (not raw logs) showing correlations between foods you eat and symptoms you report. Used only within the app to show you your personal patterns.
• Discovery protocol runs: when you run a controlled food reintroduction test, the app records which category you tested, the phase you are in, daily check-in results, and the outcome. Used to show you your test results.
• Daily check-ins: your answers to the short daily check-ins. Energy, sleep, and stress are each answered on a scale of 1 to 3 and are asked by default. Exercise is a yes or no answer and is asked only after you turn it on. You can also create your own check-in goals: we store the name you give each goal, whether it is answered on a 1 to 3 scale or as yes or no, the reminder time you pick, and your daily answers. Used alongside your food and symptom logs for pattern recognition.
• Chat messages: the app's chat is how you log food, symptoms, and bowel movements by typing, speaking, or sending a photo. We do not keep the conversation itself on our servers. Each message the app sends for AI processing is kept in the record of AI parses described below, and when a message logs a symptom or a bowel movement, its text is also saved as that entry's note. Photos you send in chat are sent for parsing and are not stored by us. A chat you have not finished is kept only on your phone, for up to 24 hours, so you can pick it up again.
• Saved meals: meal templates you save for quick re-logging. Stored linked to your account.
• Ingredient and recipe preferences: which ingredients you restrict, prefer, or avoid, and any recipe-level preferences. Used to personalize recipe recommendations and filter recipes.
• Barcode scan data: when you scan a packaged product, the barcode number and the nutritional data retrieved are stored to build your personal product history.
• Apple Health data: the current version of Good Gut Eats does not connect to Apple Health. If you connected it in an earlier version, the daily totals that were imported remain stored with your account until you delete your account.
• Product analytics: which screens you open and which actions you take in the app. Each event is stored with your account id, an app-generated session id that lasts until you close the app, the event name, a small set of details about that event, and the build number of the app you are running. When we show different people different versions of a screen, such as the first-run setup steps, we also record which version you were shown. We use this to see which features get used and where people get stuck.
• Crash and error reports: when the app hits an error or does not shut down cleanly, it sends us a report with the error message, the app version, build number, device operating system version, the screen you were on, and a short trail of your last few in-app actions. Automatic reports carry no account id. If you send us a report yourself from inside the app, that one is linked to your account so we can follow up.
• Problem reports you send us: the message you type into Report a Problem inside the app, stored with your account id so we can answer it and so you can see the status of the reports you have sent. Only you and we can read your reports.
• A record of each AI parse: every time the app parses an entry for you we keep a row with your account id, what kind of parse it was, which model ran it, how long it took, the result, and details of what went in. For a typed or spoken entry, including a chat message, those details include the text you submitted and, when a meal is open on screen, the names of the foods on it. For a chat message we also record what the app did with it, for example whether it logged a food or a symptom. Photos and audio are never stored in this record. We use it to fix bad parses and to keep an eye on what the AI costs to run.
• Recipe photos you import: if you import a recipe by photographing it, that photo is stored with your account so the imported recipe keeps its original source image. It is stored at an unlisted address that is hard to guess, and it is not shown to other users, but anyone who has that link can open the image without signing in. Photos of meals you log are a different thing: they are sent for parsing and are not stored by us.

Stored in the following Supabase tables, transparently: auth.users, profiles, food_log, food_log_effective_lines, symptom_log, user_gut_checkins, user_trackable_events, user_checkin_goals, user_checkin_goal_answers, health_daily_metrics, saved_meals, pantry_items, shopping_list_items, user_supplement_log, user_ingredients, user_trigger_evidence, user_trigger_evidence_watermark, user_protocol_runs, user_plant_discoveries, user_ingredient_preferences, user_food_preferences, user_tag_preferences, user_recipe_preferences, user_recipe_interactions, user_recipe_instance_drafts, user_recipe_instance_draft_actions, user_default_variants, user_default_swaps, user_recommendation_card_interactions, user_activity_log, user_role_audit, recipes, imported_recipes, unmatched_ingredients_log, creators, food_match_items, ai_analysis_log, ai_intent_route_outcomes, ai_call_log, ai_usage_tracking, app_events, client_errors, support_messages, system_logs.

Apple Health

Good Gut Eats no longer connects to Apple Health and does not read or write HealthKit data. If you connected Apple Health in an earlier version, the daily step, active energy, and sleep totals that were imported remain stored with your account.

We never use that data for advertising, tracking, or model training, and we never sell it. Deleting your account deletes it with your other account data.

What we do not collect

• Location data of any kind.
• Contacts, calendar, or other device data outside what the app explicitly needs.
• Browsing history outside the app.
• Third-party analytics SDKs, advertising SDKs, advertising identifiers, or cross-app tracking signals. The product analytics and crash reports described above are first party: they go to our own database and nowhere else.
• Payment data. Good Gut Eats is free with no in-app purchases. We do not collect any payment information.

Within the App Store privacy nutrition label, we answer No, this app does not track users to App Tracking Transparency.

Third-party services we rely on

We use a small set of third-party processors so the app works. Each is named here in full:

• Supabase (database and authentication, hosted on AWS US-East, SOC 2 Type II). All account, profile, food log, symptom log, and recipe override data lives here. Supabase is contractually a data processor and may not use your data for any purpose other than running the service.
• Apple Sign-In. If you choose to sign in with Apple, Apple receives your email and name during the auth flow. Apple is a data controller for the sign-in event under its own privacy policy.
• Google Sign-In. If you choose to sign in with Google, Google receives your email and name during the auth flow. Google is a data controller for that event under its own privacy policy.
• Google Gemini (AI parsing, with your consent). AI parsing is off until you allow it: the first time you log with AI, the app shows a Log with AI sheet that names these services and what is sent, and you can change your answer any time on the Profile screen under Account & Privacy, AI food parsing. When you log a meal by voice, photo, barcode, or text, the entry you just submitted is sent to Google Gemini so it can be turned into structured food items and nutrition estimates. That entry is sent along with up to a few of your own recently logged or added foods, used only to match it: not your symptom logs, not your profile. Voice logging is transcribed by Apple's speech recognition on your iPhone, which may process the audio on Apple's servers under Apple's own privacy policy. Good Gut Eats receives only the resulting text and never your audio. We do not use what you submit to train AI models, we do not use it for advertising, and we never sell it. We use the paid tier of the Gemini API, and under the Gemini API Additional Terms of Service Google does not use the prompts you send through a paid service, including files such as images, or the responses it returns, to improve its own products.
• TypeSafe AI (chat routing). Messages you type or dictate in the app's chat are first sent to TypeSafe AI, which works out whether each one logs a food, a symptom, a bowel movement, or something else, so the app can respond the right way. Short replies the app recognizes on its own, such as a greeting or a change to the meal on screen, are not sent. What is sent is the text of that message and, when a meal is open on screen, the names of the foods on it. No account id, email, or history is sent with it.
• OpenAI (standby for AI parsing). If Google is unavailable, the same entry is sent to OpenAI instead so your log still works. It is used for that one parse only, on the same terms: not for training our models, not for advertising, never sold.
• USDA FoodData Central, Open Food Facts, and FatSecret (packaged food databases). When you scan a barcode, the barcode number on its own is sent to these three services to look up the product and its nutrition. When the app needs to pin down a packaged product you typed or photographed instead, what is sent is the product name and brand from that entry. If those sources cannot find it, the product name and brand may also be looked up on the web through Google Search, and when the databases disagree about a scanned product, the name and brand they returned are searched on Google to find its nutrition label. Nothing that identifies you travels with these lookups: no account id, no email, no food or symptom history.
• ScrapingAnt (recipe page loading). When you import a recipe from a web link and the page will not load for us directly, the link you pasted is sent to ScrapingAnt, which opens the page and returns the page content so we can read the recipe from it. Only the link is sent.
• Cloudflare (web infrastructure). Cloudflare serves goodguteats.com and may log basic request metadata (IP, user agent, timestamp) for security and abuse prevention. It does not receive your account or log data.

How long we keep your data

Account and log data are retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, all personal data, including any Apple Health data imported by an earlier version, food logs, symptom logs, check-ins, the records of your chat messages and AI parses, and authentication tokens are removed within 24 hours via the delete-user-account Supabase edge function. Anonymized aggregate metrics (e.g., total recipes cooked across the app) may persist with no link back to you.

Server backups follow a 7-day rolling retention window. Deleted accounts roll out of backups within that period.

Your rights

You can do the following at any time:

• Access: see your data in the app. Email us for a machine-readable export.
• Correct: edit any food log, symptom log, or profile field in the app.
• Delete: on the Profile screen, under Account & Privacy, tap Delete Account and confirm twice. This permanently deletes your account and its associated data. Or email us and we will do it for you within 24 hours.
• Limit AI parsing: AI parsing is off until you allow it, and the switch on the Profile screen under Account & Privacy, AI food parsing, turns it off again at any time. With it off, log by manual entry. Deleting a log entry deletes it from our database.
• Complain: contact your local data protection authority if you believe we have mishandled your data.

Health and wellness disclaimer

Good Gut Eats is a general wellness app that supports a healthy lifestyle and personal pattern recognition. It is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Symptom logs, including Bristol Stool Chart scores, are for your own pattern recognition, not for clinical use. Always consult a registered dietitian or physician before starting a new diet or making changes for a health concern.

We do not provide medical advice. If you are experiencing severe or persistent gastrointestinal symptoms, contact a qualified healthcare provider.

Children

Good Gut Eats is intended for users 16 and older. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has used the app, please email us and we will remove the account.

Changes to this policy

We will update the date at the top of this page whenever the policy changes. Material changes will be announced in the app and by email if you have signed up for launch updates.

Contact

Privacy questions? Email privacy@goodguteats.com. We answer every message.