This Privacy Policy explains how Herbi ("Herbi", "the app", "we", "us") handles information when you use the Herbi mobile application. Herbi is a meal planning app that builds weekly meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists tailored to your chosen UK supermarket, weekly budget, food preferences, dietary needs, and kitchen equipment. We built Herbi to be useful without asking you to create an account or hand over your identity, and this document describes exactly what that means in practice. By using Herbi you agree to the practices described here.
Herbi does not ask you to register, sign in, or provide your name, email address, phone number, or postal address. The only inputs Herbi works with are the meal planning preferences you select inside the app. These include your preferred supermarket, your weekly grocery budget, the cooking "vibes" you pick (for example Quick & Easy, High Protein, or Family Favourites), your dietary needs (for example vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, or dairy free), and the kitchen appliances you own (for example oven, air fryer, or slow cooker). These choices describe meal preferences only and are not used to identify you as an individual.
To generate a meal plan, Herbi reads your device region and currency settings so that prices and budgets are shown in the correct local format. This locale and currency information is sent together with your meal preferences when a plan is requested. Herbi does not collect your precise location, your contacts, your photos, your device advertising identifier for tracking, or your browsing activity in other apps.
The preferences and locale information you provide are used for a single purpose: to generate meal plans, recipe details, nutritional estimates, shopping lists, and dish illustrations that match what you asked for. Your inputs are sent to our backend service, which uses an artificial intelligence model to produce these results and return them to your device. We use this data only to create the content you requested and to keep the app working correctly. We do not sell your information and we do not use it for advertising profiles.
If you ask Apple for a refund on a purchase made inside Herbi, we may need to share certain transaction-related details with Apple to help process and assess that request. The information that could be shared may include how long the app was actively used, an anonymized identifier that is not tied to your real identity, the total amount you have spent within the app, and the total amount that has been refunded to you. This exchange exists only to support the handling of refund requests and is not used for any other purpose.
Most of your Herbi data lives only on your device. Your saved meal preferences, your current meal plan, your recent plan history, your downloaded dish images, and the items you have ticked off your shopping list are stored locally on your iPhone using the device's standard local storage. This information is not uploaded to us for safekeeping and is not synced across devices. If you delete the Herbi app, this locally stored data is removed from your device.
Herbi relies on a small number of third-party services to function. We use a backend service to run the artificial intelligence that generates your meal plans and dish images; only your meal preferences, budget, and locale are sent to it, never personal identity details. We use Apphud to manage subscriptions, present subscription offers, and verify your subscription status; Apphud may process a non-identifying subscription identifier and purchase information for this purpose. Purchases themselves are processed by Apple through the App Store, and Apple's own privacy practices apply to that transaction. Each of these providers handles data according to its own privacy policy.
Herbi offers an auto-renewable subscription that unlocks premium features. Subscriptions are sold and billed through your Apple ID and the App Store, not directly by Herbi. When you subscribe, payment is charged to your Apple account upon confirmation of purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is switched off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within the 24 hours before the period ends. You can view, manage, or cancel your subscription at any time in your Apple account settings. We receive confirmation of your subscription status through Apphud and Apple but we do not receive or store your payment card details.
Herbi is intended for a general audience of people who plan and cook meals, and it is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because Herbi does not require an account and does not gather identifying personal data, it does not build profiles of any user, including minors. If you believe a child has provided information to us in a way that requires attention, please contact us and we will address it.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data under laws such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These can include the right to access, correct, or delete information about you, and the right not to have your personal information sold. Because Herbi operates without accounts and does not collect identifying personal information, most of the data tied to you exists only on your own device and is fully within your control. You can exercise control at any time by editing your preferences, clearing your plan history within the app, or deleting the app. For any additional requests related to these rights, you can reach us at the contact address below. Herbi does not sell personal information.
Meal preferences and plans stored on your device remain there until you change them, clear them in the app, or remove the app. Information sent to our backend to generate a plan is processed to fulfill that request and is not used to build a long-term profile of you. Subscription status information is retained for as long as needed to keep your subscription working and to meet legal and accounting obligations.
We take reasonable technical measures to protect information while it is transmitted to and from our backend service, including transmission over encrypted connections. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, but because Herbi avoids collecting identifying personal data, the amount of sensitive information involved is intentionally limited.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the app or in legal requirements. When we make a meaningful change, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this document. Continued use of Herbi after an update means you accept the revised policy.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or about how Herbi handles information, you can contact us at herbi@web.app.