Privacy Policy
Who we are
IQFood (“we”, “us”) is a health and nutrition tracking app and the website iqfood.app. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and the choices you have. Questions or requests: support@iqfood.app.
What this policy covers
It covers both the IQFood mobile app and this website (including the launch waitlist). If you only joined the waitlist, the only personal data we hold about you is your email address, used to tell you about the launch; every email includes an unsubscribe link.
Data we collect in the app
- Account data: your email address, sign-in provider, display name and profile photo (if you set one), and your @tag.
- Profile data: weight, goal weight, height, birth date, gender, goal and activity level — the answers you give during onboarding and in your profile.
- Health and lifestyle data you log: meals and their nutrition, weight entries, daily check-ins (sleep, steps, stress, activity, workouts, mood), menstrual-cycle entries, and lab results you choose to add (for example HbA1c or lipid values). This is sensitive health data — we process it only to run the app for you, with your explicit consent.
- Photos and voice: meal photos you take and voice notes you record for AI logging are sent to a third-party AI service to recognize and log food (see "AI processing" below). IQFood does not store that photo or recording — only the food log you confirm. Photos and voice notes you send in chats with friends are stored as messages.
- Social content: messages, stories, reactions and connections you create inside the app.
- Phone number (optional): if you choose to verify your phone number, we store it to confirm it is yours. You can additionally turn on "find me by phone number" so people who have your number can add you; this is off by default and you can turn it off at any time. Your number is never shown to other users.
- Device and usage data: device model, OS and app version, language, and crash/performance diagnostics.
- Approximate location: our analytics provider (Google) derives an approximate, city-level location from your device's IP address to give us aggregate usage statistics. We do not collect precise/GPS location, and the app asks for no location permission.
- Access level: whether your account has free founding access. IQFood currently has nothing to buy; any future purchases would be processed by the Apple App Store or Google Play, and we would never see your card details.
Wearables and platform health data (Health Connect / Apple Health)
If you choose to connect a health platform — Health Connect on Android or Apple Health on iOS — IQFood reads the following data types from it: steps, sleep sessions, heart rate, resting heart rate, heart-rate variability, exercise/workout sessions, active calories burned, body weight, body fat and lean body mass. We use them for one purpose: filling in your daily log and powering your personal metabolic, training and recovery estimates, exactly as if you had entered the values by hand. Values you enter manually always take precedence over synced ones.
What is stored: steps, sleep and active minutes are written into your daily log and stored with the rest of your log data, so they are available across your devices. The remaining types — heart rate, resting heart rate, heart-rate variability, active calories, body fat and lean body mass — are read and used on your device to render your training and recovery view; they are not stored on our servers.
Read-only: IQFood never writes to Health Connect or Apple Health. We access this data only with your permission, which you can review or revoke at any time in Health Connect settings (Android) or the Health app (iOS) — the app keeps working without it. Health-platform data is treated like every other health record in this policy: it is never used for advertising, never sold, and never shared with third parties beyond the processors that run the app (listed below), and it is deleted with your entries or your account per the retention rules below.
Why we process it
To provide the service you signed up for: logging meals, computing your personal metabolic estimates, syncing across devices, and connecting you with friends or a coach you choose (performance of contract). Health data is processed on the basis of your explicit consent, which you can withdraw at any time by deleting the data or your account. We also process limited data to keep the service safe (abuse prevention), to send notifications you can turn off, and to meet legal obligations. We do not sell your data and we do not show ads.
AI processing
When you use AI logging (photo, voice or chat), IQFood sends the content you submit to a third-party AI service: Google LLC's Gemini model on Google Cloud Vertex AI, acting as our data processor.
What is sent: the photo, the voice recording or the text you submit for logging, the earlier messages in that AI conversation, the foods already in your draft, your app language and your local time. What is never sent: your name, email, weight, goals, lab results, check-ins, Apple Health or Health Connect data, or anything else from your profile — only what you put into the AI conversation itself is sent.
How it is collected: only when you choose to log with the camera, the microphone or the AI chat — never in the background — and only after you have given explicit permission on the "AI logging" consent screen the first time you use it.
All uses: to identify foods, portions and nutrition and turn them into your food log. We also keep a per-account usage counter (how many AI requests you made this month) and an error log that contains no content. The content is used for nothing else.
How Google protects it: Google processes the content as our data processor under the Google Cloud Terms of Service and the Cloud Data Processing Addendum. Google uses it to return the answer and for abuse monitoring only: it does not use it to train or improve its models, does not use it for advertising, and does not disclose it outside Google and its contracted subprocessors, who are bound by the same data-processing terms. Google may cache a request for up to 24 hours and may log prompts for abuse monitoring, as described in Google Cloud's data-governance documentation. These commitments provide the same or equal protection of your data as this policy.
Your control: AI logging is optional — search and barcode logging never contact an AI service. You can withdraw your permission at any time in Profile → Privacy → "AI logging (Google Gemini)", after which the app asks again before any AI use. No other part of the app sends your personal data to an AI service.
Who processes it for us
The app runs on Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging) and Google Cloud (Vertex AI — the third-party AI service described under "AI processing"), acting as our processors under data-processing terms. Any future purchases would be handled by the Apple App Store or Google Play. Data you share with a coach or with friends inside the app is visible to them per the permissions you grant, and those grants are revocable in the app. Google may process AI requests on servers outside the EU/EEA; such transfers are covered by the Cloud Data Processing Addendum and its Standard Contractual Clauses / EU-US Data Privacy Framework commitments.
Retention and deletion
Your data is kept while your account exists. You can delete individual entries at any time, and you can delete your whole account in the app (Profile → Delete account), which removes your account data.
You can also request deletion without the app:account deletion instructions, or email support@iqfood.appto request deletion or a copy of your data. Waitlist emails are deleted when you unsubscribe.
AI request records (date, kind, token counts and cost — never the photo, audio or text) are kept for up to 12 months for billing and abuse prevention, including after you delete your account, and are then deleted.
Your rights (EU/GDPR)
You have the right to access, rectify, erase, and receive a portable copy of your data; to restrict or object to processing; and to withdraw consent at any time without affecting prior processing. You can lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority (in Romania: ANSPDCP,dataprotection.ro). To exercise any right, use the in-app controls or email support@iqfood.app.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit and protected by per-user access rules on our backend. No method of storage or transmission is 100% secure, but we restrict access to what the app needs to function.
Children
IQFood is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child is using the app, contact us and we will delete the account.
Changes
If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we will tell you in the app (or by email, for waitlist-only contacts) before the change takes effect.