Privacy Policy
Last updated: 21 October 2026
Version 1.0
This policy explains what personal data Automeal collects, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it and your rights. We've written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, see our contact page.
1. Who we are
Automeal is operated by Sacristan Ltd, registered in England and Wales.
Sacristan Ltd is the controller of your personal data.
We don't have a Data Protection Officer, so the founder deals with privacy questions directly.
2. The short version
- We collect what we need to run Automeal: your email, the body and diet details you give us to set your targets, your pantry, meals and shopping list.
- Some of this is health data (for example weight, height, pregnancy, allergies). We only use it with your explicit consent and only to run the app for you. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Fridge photos are deleted as soon as they've been analysed. We keep only the list of ingredients found.
- We don't sell your data, we don't show ads, and we don't use advertising or analytics cookies.
- Automeal is for adults aged 18 and over.
3. What we collect and why
| What | Examples | Why we use it | Lawful basis (UK GDPR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account details | Email address; the date you joined; that you confirmed you're 18+; that you verified your email; sign-in codes and session records (we store only scrambled hashes of codes and session tokens) | To create your account, sign you in securely and stop abuse | Contract (Art 6(1)(b)), to provide the service you asked for; legitimate interests (Art 6(1)(f)) for security and rate limiting |
| Body and goal details (health data) | Year of birth, the sex used in the energy formula, height, weight, weigh-ins, activity level, training days, your goal, your calorie and macro targets and how we worked them out | To estimate your energy needs and set daily targets | Contract (Art 6(1)(b)) and your explicit consent (Art 9(2)(a)) |
| Pregnancy or breastfeeding answer (health data) | No / pregnant / breastfeeding / prefer not to say. Asked only if you choose fat loss and select female or prefer not to say | To make sure we never set a calorie deficit when it may not be safe | Explicit consent (Art 9(2)(a)) |
| Allergies and diet (health data, and diet may reveal beliefs) | Which of the 14 major allergens you avoid and how strictly; vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian; foods you dislike | To hide or flag recipes and shopping items | Contract and explicit consent (Art 9(2)(a)) |
| Kitchen and pantry | Your equipment, pantry items, amounts, use-by dates, where you store them | To suggest recipes you can actually cook | Contract |
| Meals and food log | What you cooked or logged, servings, calories and macros | To show what's left of your daily targets | Contract and explicit consent (it is part of your health profile) |
| Shopping lists | Items, amounts, aisles, which supermarket you sent a list to | To build your list and open supermarket searches | Contract |
| Fridge and cupboard photos | Up to 3 photos per scan | To recognise ingredients. See section 5 | Contract |
| Ask Automeal messages | What you type to the assistant | To answer you. We don't store the text of your messages. We keep a short technical record (which tools ran, safety checks) for 90 days | Contract; legitimate interests for the safety record |
| Waitlist | Email, whether you agreed to product news and when, the page and campaign you came from (UTM tags), your browser language, a one-way scrambled version of your IP address and your browser's user-agent | To send your beta invite, and product news if you asked for it. The IP hash and user-agent are used only to block spam sign-ups | Invite: legitimate interests / steps before a contract. Product news: consent (PECR). Anti-spam: legitimate interests |
| Supermarket link clicks | Which supermarket and which ingredient type, and the time. Not linked to you, no IP or cookie | To see which shops are useful | Anonymous; not personal data |
| Technical logs | IP address, browser type, pages requested, errors, recorded by our hosting providers | Security, fixing bugs, keeping the service up | Legitimate interests |
| Messages to us | Emails you send us | To reply | Legitimate interests |
Health data is special category data under UK GDPR. We ask for it on a separate screen with its own unticked box. If you don't agree, we can't calculate personalised targets, but you can still use the pantry, recipes and shopping list.
4. Automated calculations
Automeal calculates your targets automatically (Mifflin-St Jeor formula, activity multiplier and safety limits). It also automatically hides recipes that may contain your severe allergens, and refuses fat-loss targets in some situations (for example pregnancy, BMI under 18.5, under 18). These are suggestions about food. They don't have legal or similarly significant effects on you. You can see the maths, edit your targets within safe limits, or contact us to question a result.
5. Photos
- You choose to upload or take a photo. Photos are kept in memory only, analysed to find ingredients, then wiped. We don't write them to disk or our database. We keep only the ingredient list you confirm.
- Today the scan uses an internal recogniser. Photos are not sent to an outside AI provider.
- Please photograph food only. Avoid people, documents, screens or anything with personal details. Photos can contain hidden location data (EXIF); we remove it before the photo is stored or analysed.
- We'll never keep your photos unless you turn on a separate keep-my-photos setting, which doesn't exist yet. If we add it, we'll ask first.
6. Ask Automeal (AI assistant)
Ask answers on our systems. We don't send your messages to an outside AI provider while this is switched off. We don't store the text of your conversation. See our Health, nutrition and AI disclaimer.
7. Who we share data with
We don't sell your personal data or share it with advertisers. We use these service providers (processors). They act on our instructions under written contracts:
| Provider | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel Inc. | Hosts the website and app, and passes requests (including photos) to our API | USA, with a global edge network |
| Render Services, Inc. | Runs the Automeal API | Frankfurt, Germany (EU) |
| Supabase, Inc. | Database, and sending sign-in codes by email | Database in London, UK (eu-west-2); company in the USA |
We may also share data if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or with a buyer if Sacristan Ltd or Automeal is sold (we'll tell you first).
When you tap a supermarket link (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Ocado, Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons, Amazon Fresh), you leave Automeal. We send only the ingredient search, not your identity, and we stop your browser sending our page address. That supermarket's own privacy policy and cookies then apply.
8. International transfers
Some providers are US companies or may access data from the US. Where personal data leaves the UK, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (for example for the EU), the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, or the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement / UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in the provider's data processing agreement. Ask us for details.
9. How long we keep data
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, targets, pantry, food log, lists | While your account is open. If you delete your account, we delete everything within 30 days |
| Photos | Deleted straight after analysis |
| Ask technical record (tools used, safety checks) | 90 days |
| Sign-in codes and attempts | 24 hours |
| Sessions | 14 days, or until you sign out |
| Waitlist | Until you join the app, unsubscribe or ask us to delete it, and in any case no more than 12 months after our last email to you |
| Anti-spam counters (hashed IP) | 48 hours |
| Hosting logs | Per provider settings, usually up to 30 days |
| Emails with us | Up to 2 years |
| Records we must keep by law | 6 years |
10. Your rights
You have the right to: access your data; correct it; delete it; restrict or object to processing; data portability (a copy in a machine-readable format); and to withdraw consent at any time (this doesn't affect processing before you withdrew).
You can update most details in Settings. We'll reply within one month. It's free.
Withdrawing health consent deletes your body details, pregnancy answer, allergies, diet, weigh-ins, targets and food log. You can keep using the pantry, recipes and list without personal targets or allergy filters. Without allergy filters, Automeal can't hide recipes for you.
11. Complaints
Please tell us first. We'll acknowledge within 30 days and tell you what we're doing. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint (opens in a new tab), 0303 123 1113.
12. Age
Automeal is for people aged 18 and over. We ask you to confirm your age and we refuse targets for anyone whose year of birth shows they're under 18. If you think a child has given us data, contact us and we'll delete it.
13. Security
We use encrypted connections, store sign-in codes and session tokens only as hashes, keep photos out of storage, limit staff access to the founder, and use providers with recognised security certifications. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach is likely to put you at risk, we'll tell you and the ICO as the law requires.
14. Cookies
We only use cookies and similar storage that are strictly necessary. See our Cookie Policy.
15. Changes
We'll update this policy when Automeal changes, for example when we switch on AI providers, affiliate links or paid plans. We'll show the date above, and tell you in the app or by email before a significant change takes effect.