Cook Compass

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 23, 2026
Last Updated: August 23, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how cook compass (“cook compass,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information when you visit cookcompassai.com, create an account, or use our website, web application, AI-powered recipe tools, and related services (collectively, the “Service”).

This Privacy Policy also explains the privacy choices and rights that may be available to you.

By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have received this Privacy Policy. Where consent is required by applicable law, we will request it separately. Merely visiting the website does not constitute consent to non-essential cookies, sensitive-data processing, or marketing communications.

1. Who Is Responsible for Your Information

cook compass is responsible for determining how and why personal information is processed through the Service, except where a payment provider or another third party acts independently for its own purposes.

You can contact us about this Privacy Policy or your personal information at:

cook compass
Website: cookcompassai.com
Email: support@cookcompassai.com

2. Scope of This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to personal information processed through the cook compass website and web application.

It does not govern independent websites, payment services, or other third-party services that have their own privacy policies. Where the Service links to or integrates with a third party, you should review that third party’s privacy policy.

3. Personal Information We Collect

The personal information we collect depends on how you use the Service and which features you choose.

3.1 Account Information

When you create or manage an account, we may collect:

  • your email address;
  • username or account display name;
  • account identifier;
  • encrypted or securely hashed authentication credentials;
  • email-verification status;
  • account settings;
  • subscription type and status; and
  • account creation and last-login information.

If we offer sign-in through a third-party authentication provider, we may receive basic account information authorized by you, such as your email address, name, profile image, and authentication identifier. We do not receive your password for the third-party service.

3.2 Recipe Requests and Preferences

When you use recipe or meal-planning features, we may collect information you provide, including:

  • ingredients;
  • recipe prompts and instructions;
  • cuisine and taste preferences;
  • saved or generated recipes;
  • dietary preferences;
  • disliked or excluded ingredients;
  • portion or serving preferences;
  • cooking equipment and available preparation time;
  • vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher, low-carbohydrate, or similar preferences; and
  • allergy or food-intolerance information you choose to provide.

You should provide only the information reasonably necessary to receive the requested recipe or meal suggestion.

3.3 Health-Related and Sensitive Information

Certain information about allergies, food intolerances, dietary restrictions, religious dietary practices, weight goals, health conditions, pregnancy, medication, or eating disorders may be considered sensitive personal information, consumer health data, or special-category personal data under applicable law.

cook compass does not require you to provide detailed medical records, laboratory reports, or diagnostic information. Please do not upload medical records or provide health information that is not necessary to use a requested feature.

If you voluntarily provide health-related information, we use it only to provide the feature you requested, maintain safety, remember preferences where you ask us to do so, and comply with applicable law.

Where applicable law requires explicit or separate consent to process health-related or other sensitive information, we will request that consent before processing it. You may withdraw consent as described in Section 18. Withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out lawfully, but it may prevent us from continuing to provide features that require the information.

We do not use health-related or sensitive information for targeted advertising.

3.4 Prompts, Uploads, and AI Output

We may process:

  • text prompts and instructions;
  • ingredient or meal images;
  • recipe information;
  • dietary settings included in a request;
  • feedback about an AI response;
  • AI-generated recipes and other output; and
  • technical information needed to process the request.

User uploads are treated as private account content unless you deliberately use a sharing or publication feature that clearly indicates otherwise.

Images may contain information that you did not intend to provide, including people, objects, documents, or location metadata. You should review images before uploading them and avoid uploading images containing unnecessary personal or confidential information.

Where technically practical, we may remove or avoid using embedded image metadata that is not needed to provide the requested feature.

3.5 Communications

If you contact us, submit feedback, request a refund, or report a problem, we may collect:

  • your name and email address;
  • the content of your message;
  • attachments you provide;
  • account and transaction identifiers;
  • support history; and
  • information reasonably necessary to investigate and respond.

3.6 Payment and Subscription Information

Payments may be processed by Creem, Stripe, or another payment provider identified at checkout.

The payment provider may collect and process:

  • your name and email address;
  • billing address and country;
  • payment-card or other payment details;
  • transaction amount and currency;
  • applicable tax information;
  • payment status;
  • subscription status;
  • fraud-prevention information; and
  • refund or chargeback information.

cook compass does not ordinarily receive or store your complete payment-card number. We may receive limited transaction information, such as:

  • payment-provider and transaction identifiers;
  • subscription plan and status;
  • amount, currency, and payment date;
  • billing country;
  • payment status;
  • invoice or receipt information; and
  • refund or chargeback status.

Depending on the transaction, a payment provider may act as our processor or as an independent merchant of record, contractual reseller, billing provider, or tax-collection provider. The checkout page, receipt, and payment provider’s privacy policy will provide additional information.

3.7 Information Collected Automatically

When you use the Service, we or our service providers may automatically collect:

  • IP address;
  • browser type and version;
  • device type;
  • operating system;
  • approximate location derived from IP address;
  • language and time-zone settings;
  • referring and exit pages;
  • access dates and times;
  • pages and features used;
  • session and authentication information;
  • interactions with the Service;
  • errors, crashes, and performance information; and
  • security and fraud-prevention logs.

We do not seek to collect precise geolocation through the Service unless a specific feature clearly requests it and we provide appropriate notice and choice.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We may use cookies, local storage, pixels, and similar technologies.

4.1 Essential Technologies

Essential technologies may be used to:

  • keep you signed in;
  • authenticate your account;
  • maintain security;
  • prevent fraud and abuse;
  • remember privacy choices;
  • operate checkout and subscription functions; and
  • provide features you request.

These technologies are necessary to provide the Service and cannot always be disabled through our consent tool. You may be able to block them through your browser, but doing so may prevent parts of the Service from functioning.

4.2 Preference Technologies

With appropriate controls, we may use technologies to remember language, display, recipe, or dietary preferences.

4.3 Analytics Technologies

We may use analytics services to understand how people use the Service, identify errors, measure performance, and improve features.

Where applicable law requires consent, non-essential analytics technologies will not be activated until you provide consent. You may reject or withdraw consent through our cookie settings or other controls made available through the Service.

We do not treat continued browsing as consent to non-essential cookies.

4.4 Browser Controls

Most browsers allow you to delete or block cookies. Browser settings may not control every type of local storage or similar technology. Blocking cookies may affect account login, preferences, or other Service functions.

5. How We Use Personal Information

We may use personal information to:

  • create, authenticate, and manage accounts;
  • provide AI-generated recipes and meal suggestions;
  • process prompts, images, and other requests;
  • remember preferences selected by users;
  • provide and administer free credits and paid subscriptions;
  • process payments, refunds, cancellations, and account requests;
  • provide customer support;
  • communicate about accounts, security, subscriptions, and changes to the Service;
  • maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the Service;
  • monitor reliability and performance;
  • prevent fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, and security incidents;
  • enforce our Terms of Service;
  • comply with legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
  • establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; and
  • send marketing communications where permitted by law and subject to your choices.

We do not use personal information for materially different purposes without providing any additional notice or obtaining any consent required by law.

6. Legal Bases for Users in the EEA and United Kingdom

If the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on different legal bases depending on the processing activity.

6.1 Performance of a Contract

We process information where reasonably necessary to:

  • create and manage your account;
  • generate requested recipes or other output;
  • save your selected settings;
  • provide subscription features and credits;
  • administer payments, cancellations, and refunds; and
  • provide requested customer support.

6.2 Legitimate Interests

We may process information where necessary for legitimate interests such as:

  • maintaining and securing the Service;
  • preventing fraud and abuse;
  • diagnosing errors;
  • understanding general product performance;
  • protecting our users and legal rights; and
  • improving the reliability and usability of the Service.

We consider the nature of the information, the effect on users, and whether your rights override those interests.

6.3 Legal Obligations

We may process and retain information to comply with tax, accounting, consumer-protection, fraud-prevention, law-enforcement, and other legal obligations.

6.4 Consent

We rely on consent where required, including for:

  • non-essential cookies and analytics;
  • certain marketing communications;
  • processing health-related or other special-category information where explicit consent is required; and
  • other optional processing presented to you at the time.

You may withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal.

6.5 Legal Claims and Substantial Public Interests

Where applicable, we may process sensitive information when necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims or where another condition permitted by applicable law applies.

7. AI Processing and Model Training

To generate requested content, we may send relevant prompts, images, dietary preferences, and other request information to AI technology providers that process information on our behalf or under their own applicable terms.

We limit the information sent to what is reasonably necessary to provide the requested function. You should not include unnecessary identifying, confidential, or medical information in a prompt or upload.

cook compass does not use your prompts, uploads, dietary information, or AI Output to train or fine-tune cook compass AI models.

We seek to use AI service arrangements that restrict providers from using submitted content to train general-purpose models where commercially and technically available. However, AI providers may temporarily process or retain submitted data for service delivery, security, abuse prevention, or legal compliance in accordance with their applicable terms and our agreements with them.

We do not sell User Content to AI model providers.

8. Human Access and Review

We do not routinely read private user prompts or uploads.

Authorized personnel or service providers may access limited user information where reasonably necessary to:

  • respond to a support request initiated by you;
  • investigate a technical problem;
  • investigate fraud, abuse, or a security incident;
  • respond to a report of illegal or dangerous content;
  • enforce our Terms of Service;
  • comply with law; or
  • protect the rights, safety, and security of users, cook compass, or others.

Access is limited according to role and business need where reasonably practical.

We do not conduct human review of private content for advertising purposes.

9. How We Share Personal Information

We may share personal information only as described below.

9.1 Service Providers

We may provide information to vendors that help us operate the Service, including:

  • cloud-hosting and storage providers;
  • database providers;
  • AI model and infrastructure providers;
  • authentication providers;
  • payment and subscription providers;
  • analytics and performance providers;
  • security and fraud-prevention providers;
  • email-delivery providers;
  • customer-support providers;
  • error-monitoring providers; and
  • professional advisers.

These providers may process information only for the relevant service, subject to applicable contractual and legal obligations.

9.2 Payment Providers

We share transaction and account information with Creem, Stripe, or another provider where necessary to process purchases, renewals, cancellations, refunds, taxes, fraud reviews, and chargebacks.

Some payment providers may act independently as merchants of record or for legal, tax, fraud-prevention, and compliance purposes. Their own privacy policies apply to their independent processing.

9.3 Legal and Safety Disclosures

We may disclose information where we reasonably believe it is necessary to:

  • comply with applicable law, legal process, or a valid governmental request;
  • investigate fraud, security incidents, or illegal activity;
  • enforce our agreements;
  • protect the rights, property, or safety of users, cook compass, or another person; or
  • establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

We assess requests and disclose only information reasonably necessary under the circumstances where legally permitted.

9.4 Business Transactions

Personal information may be reviewed, disclosed, or transferred in connection with a proposed or completed merger, financing, acquisition, restructuring, insolvency, or sale of all or part of the Service.

Where required, we will provide notice before personal information becomes subject to a materially different privacy policy.

9.5 With Your Direction or Consent

We may share information when you direct us to do so, deliberately use a sharing feature, or provide consent.

10. Sales, Sharing, and Targeted Advertising

cook compass does not sell personal information for money.

We do not use or disclose health-related information, allergy information, food-intolerance information, private prompts, or private uploads for targeted advertising.

We do not currently use personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising based on activity across unrelated websites or services.

If these practices materially change, we will update this Privacy Policy, provide any legally required notice, and offer consent or opt-out controls required by applicable law.

11. Marketing Communications

We may send service-related communications concerning:

  • account verification;
  • password or security matters;
  • subscription and payment status;
  • cancellations and refunds;
  • important Service changes; and
  • changes to legal terms or policies.

These messages are not promotional, and you may not be able to opt out while maintaining an account.

We may send marketing emails only where permitted by applicable law. Where consent is required, marketing emails will be sent only after you opt in.

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails by using the unsubscribe link in the message or contacting support@cookcompassai.com. Unsubscribing from marketing does not stop necessary service communications.

12. International Data Transfers

cook compass and its service providers may process personal information in countries other than the country where you live. These countries may have different data-protection laws.

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we use an appropriate transfer mechanism where required, which may include:

  • an adequacy decision;
  • the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses;
  • the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum;
  • another legally recognized transfer mechanism; and
  • supplementary contractual, organizational, or technical safeguards where appropriate.

You may contact us for additional information about the safeguards applicable to your personal information.

13. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, including to provide the Service, comply with law, resolve disputes, and maintain security.

Our general retention criteria are as follows:

  • Account information: retained while your account remains open and for a limited period after closure where necessary for security, dispute resolution, or legal compliance.
  • Saved preferences, recipes, prompts, uploads, and AI Output: retained while associated with your active account or until you delete them, where deletion controls are available. Photos uploaded for ingredient recognition are processed in memory only and are not stored.
  • Deleted account content: removed from active systems within a reasonable period, ordinarily within 30 days, unless retention is legally required.
  • Backups: deleted or overwritten through our normal backup cycle, ordinarily within 90 days, unless preservation is required by law or for security.
  • Security and technical logs: ordinarily retained for up to 12 months, unless a longer period is necessary to investigate abuse, fraud, or a security incident.
  • Customer-support records: ordinarily retained for up to three years after the request is closed, unless a shorter or longer period is appropriate.
  • Payment, invoice, refund, and tax records: retained for the period required by applicable tax, accounting, and consumer-protection laws.
  • Consent and privacy-request records: retained as necessary to demonstrate compliance.
  • Anti-abuse information: limited records may be retained after account deletion where reasonably necessary to prevent repeated fraud, refund abuse, or security threats.

Information may be retained for longer if required by law, subject to a legal hold, or necessary for a legal claim.

Where information has been irreversibly anonymized so that it can no longer reasonably identify you, it may be retained without the same time limits.

14. Account and Data Deletion

You may delete available saved content through the Service.

You can delete your account at any time from the account page (Account menu → Account → Delete account), or request deletion by contacting:

support@cookcompassai.com

Please submit your request from the email address associated with your account where possible. We may ask you to verify account ownership before completing the request.

Deleting your account will normally remove or de-identify account content from active systems, subject to:

  • payment, tax, and accounting obligations;
  • unresolved transactions or disputes;
  • fraud and security prevention;
  • legal claims;
  • legal preservation requirements; and
  • normal backup cycles.

Account deletion does not automatically cancel a paid subscription if the subscription is managed separately by a payment provider. You should also cancel the subscription through:

Account menu → Credits & Subscription → Cancel subscription

15. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

  • request access to personal information;
  • obtain a copy of certain information;
  • correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
  • request deletion;
  • restrict certain processing;
  • object to processing based on legitimate interests;
  • request data portability;
  • withdraw consent;
  • opt out of marketing;
  • opt out of certain sales, sharing, or targeted advertising;
  • appeal a refusal of a privacy request where applicable; and
  • complain to a privacy or data-protection authority.

These rights may be subject to legal exceptions. For example, we may need to retain certain transaction records to comply with tax or legal obligations.

To exercise a right, email support@cookcompassai.com. Please identify the right you wish to exercise and the account concerned.

We may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity. An authorized agent may submit a request where permitted by law, but we may require proof of authority and identity verification.

We will not unlawfully discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

16. Rights in the EEA and United Kingdom

If you are in the European Economic Area or United Kingdom, you may have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability, and withdrawal of consent.

You may also lodge a complaint with the data-protection authority in your country. In the United Kingdom, the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If we rely on legitimate interests, you may object based on your particular situation. If we use personal information for direct marketing, you may object at any time.

17. United States State Privacy Rights

Residents of certain US states may have rights concerning access, correction, deletion, portability, sensitive personal information, sales, sharing, targeted advertising, profiling, and appeals.

During the preceding 12 months, cook compass may have collected the categories described in this Privacy Policy, including:

  • identifiers;
  • account and customer-record information;
  • commercial and subscription information;
  • internet or electronic-network activity;
  • approximate location derived from IP address;
  • user-generated content;
  • dietary preferences and other potentially sensitive information; and
  • inferences necessary to provide requested recipe features.

We use and disclose these categories for the business and operational purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

cook compass does not sell personal information for money. We do not use sensitive health-related information for targeted advertising.

If cook compass becomes subject to a law requiring recognition of browser-based opt-out signals, such as Global Privacy Control, we will process legally valid signals as required for the applicable browser or device.

You may submit a state privacy request or appeal by emailing support@cookcompassai.com.

18. Sensitive Information and Consent Withdrawal

You may remove saved dietary, allergy, or other sensitive information through available account controls or by contacting us.

Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw consent at any time by:

  • changing the relevant account setting;
  • using the applicable privacy or cookie control; or
  • emailing support@cookcompassai.com.

If a requested feature requires particular information, withdrawing consent or deleting that information may mean that the feature can no longer be provided.

We do not require you to consent to unrelated advertising in order to use basic recipe features.

19. Consumer Health Data

cook compass is not automatically subject to HIPAA merely because users may provide health-related information. HIPAA generally applies to covered entities, certain healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and their business associates.

Even where HIPAA does not apply, health-related information may still be protected by state consumer health-data laws, general privacy laws, consumer-protection laws, or data-breach laws.

Where an applicable consumer health-data law requires it, we will:

  • obtain separate consent for collecting or sharing consumer health data;
  • use the data only for disclosed and authorized purposes;
  • provide access and deletion mechanisms;
  • restrict access to personnel and providers with a need to process it;
  • avoid selling the data without legally valid authorization; and
  • maintain appropriate contractual and security controls.

We do not sell consumer health data.

20. Automated Processing

The Service uses AI to generate recipes and related information based on information submitted by users.

This automated processing is used to provide requested content and personalize recipe results. It is not intended to make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects concerning employment, credit, insurance, housing, education, healthcare eligibility, or access to essential services.

AI Output may be inaccurate and should not be treated as a medical diagnosis or professional decision.

21. Children’s Privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13, and children under 13 may not create an account.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 provided personal information without legally valid parental authorization, we will take reasonable steps to delete the information and close the account.

If you believe that a child under 13 has provided personal information, contact support@cookcompassai.com.

Users under the age at which they may independently consent to applicable data processing in their country must use the Service only with any parental or guardian authorization required by local law.

We do not knowingly use a minor’s sensitive information for targeted advertising.

22. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information. Depending on the nature of the information and Service, these measures may include:

  • encrypted transmission;
  • access controls;
  • authentication protections;
  • limited personnel access;
  • logging and monitoring;
  • service-provider safeguards;
  • software updates;
  • backup and recovery procedures; and
  • incident-response processes.

No Internet transmission, system, or storage method is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

You are responsible for using a strong, unique password and protecting your account credentials.

23. Data Breach Response

If we become aware of a personal-data breach, we will investigate and take reasonable steps to contain, assess, and remediate it.

Where required by applicable law, we will notify affected individuals, data-protection authorities, or other regulators within the legally required period.

24. Do Not Track

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” setting. Because there is no universally accepted standard for interpreting all Do Not Track signals, the Service may not respond to those signals.

This does not affect our obligation to recognize Global Privacy Control or another legally required opt-out mechanism where applicable.

25. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the Service, our data practices, technology, or applicable law.

We will post the updated policy and revise the “Last Updated” date. If a change materially affects how we use personal information, we will provide additional notice through the Service, by email, or by another appropriate method.

Where required by law, we will obtain consent before applying a materially different use to information previously collected.

26. Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, complaints, or privacy requests, contact:

cook compass
Website: cookcompassai.com
Email: support@cookcompassai.com

If you are in the EEA or United Kingdom, you may also contact your local data-protection authority. If cook compass is required to appoint an EU representative, UK representative, or Data Protection Officer, the applicable contact information will be made available through this Privacy Policy or the Service.