Privacy Policy
Better Groceries · Last updated 8 November 2026
Better Groceries is a shared grocery list for iPhone and Apple Watch. This policy explains what data the app collects, why, who processes it, and how you can have it deleted. We don’t show ads, we don’t track you across apps or websites, and we never sell your data.
What we collect
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Account details: email address, name and profile photo, from the sign-in method you choose (Apple, Google or email) | To sign you in and to show you to the people you share lists with. |
| Your lists: list names, the items on them, notes such as “2” or “lactose-free”, custom items you create, aisle order, and who is on each list | To provide the app and keep lists in sync between you, your devices and the people you share them with. |
| Voice recordings, only when you tap the microphone | To turn what you say into list items, and to check and improve how well speech recognition works. When you mark a result as wrong, that recording is kept for our administrator to listen to for troubleshooting. Recordings are kept for up to 120 days and then deleted automatically. A recording our administrator saves as a speech recognition test example is kept for up to 12 months. |
| Photos of paper lists, only when you take or pick one to import | To read the items on it. The photo is deleted as soon as it has been read; we don’t keep photos. |
| Voice and photo request logs: the transcript or the items read from a photo, the items we recognised, timing information and your optional 👍 / 👎 rating | To check and improve how well voice and photo adding work. |
| Voice and photo usage counts for the current month, and how many free photo imports you’ve used | To apply the fair-use allowance in the Terms of Use. |
| Subscription status, only if you subscribed to Plus earlier (it’s no longer offered): the App Store transaction ID, which Plus plan you have and when it renews or ends, as signed by Apple. We never see your payment details. | To keep that subscription in sync when it renews, lapses or is refunded. |
| Language preference | To show product names in your language. |
| Country you live in (only if you answer) | To show supermarket promotions only where they're available (mainland Portugal for now). The app asks you; it never uses your location. You can change it in the app's settings, and it is deleted with your account. |
| App usage events: which features you use and when (for example opening the app, going through the intro, adding an item by tap, voice or photo, sending or accepting an invite, viewing the Plus screen, starting, completing or restoring a purchase, using the Apple Watch app), with counts such as how many items were added. Each event also carries the app version, device model, operating system, language and time zone. We don’t use your IP address to work out where you are, and it isn’t stored. Before you sign in, events are tied only to a random ID on your device; after you sign in, they’re tied to your account ID (not your name or email). Events never contain what is on your lists, what you said or what was in a photo. You can turn them off at any time in Profile › Share usage analytics; subscription events (purchases and renewals, from RevenueCat) are still recorded. | To understand which features people use, where they get stuck, and whether changes make the app better. Never for advertising, and never combined with data from other companies’ apps or websites. |
We don’t collect your precise location, contacts, health data, advertising identifiers or browsing history.
AI features and your permission
Adding by voice, from a photo or by typing a whole sentence (“milk, eggs and 2 bananas”) works by sending that request to third-party AI services. The app asks for your permission before anything is sent, the first time you use one of these features, and shows what is sent and who receives it. If you don’t allow it, nothing is sent and the rest of the app works as before; voice, photo and sentence adding stay off. You can turn it on or off at any time in Profile › AI processing; turning it off stops all further requests straight away, including from the Apple Watch, Siri and widgets.
| What is sent | How it’s collected | What it’s used for |
|---|---|---|
| The voice recording, plus the names of the items on the list you’re adding to (so less common words are heard correctly) | Recorded only while you hold or tap the microphone on the iPhone, Apple Watch, a widget or Siri | Speech-to-text, then reading the items out of the transcript and matching them to our product catalog |
| The photo of your paper list | Taken or picked by you to import a list | Reading the items written on it |
| The sentence you type, or the name of a new item you add by typing | Typed by you in the search box | Reading the items out of the sentence; for a new item, choosing its aisle and picture |
| The text of feedback you send from the app | Written by you in Send feedback | Sorting complaints from other feedback so problems are seen first (without permission, all feedback is read by us directly) |
Who receives it: requests go through Vercel’s AI Gateway to OpenAI (speech-to-text, reading sentences and photos), Anthropic (reading photos when OpenAI is unavailable), Cerebras and Groq (hosting OpenAI’s open-weight model, for sentences, new item names and feedback) and TypeSafe AI (matching items to our catalog). Your name, email address, account ID and your other lists are never sent. Each request is used only to return the result to us; we use these services under API terms that don’t allow them to use your data to train their models or for advertising, and that require them to protect it at least as well as this policy does.
Website language and country
The website uses the country code supplied by its host, Vercel, from your connection’s IP address to show the Portugal savings-beta section. This feature uses only the country code, does not request GPS access, and does not save the country to your account or send it to app analytics. If country detection is unavailable, the country-specific section stays hidden. Your selected website language is saved in your browser so we can remember it; you can change it in the language picker.
Android beta registration
If you join the Android beta on this website, we collect the Google Play email address you enter and the website language you selected, and the invitation code if you arrived from a shared list, so your confirmation can help you reopen it after installing. We store your registration in Convex and notify the developer by email and through a private Telegram message. We use the address to add you to the Google Play closed test, send your invitation and instructions, and contact you about testing. Registration does not automatically grant Play Store access.
Amazon Web Services SES sends beta emails on our behalf when enabled. Your registration is kept until the beta ends or you ask us to remove it. To withdraw or request deletion, reply to a beta email or contact contact@bettergroceries.app. We do not add beta signups to a marketing mailing list. To limit automated submissions, the website uses a daily-changing, keyed hash of the connection IP for short-lived request limits; the beta signup database does not store the raw IP.
Who processes your data
We use a small number of service providers to run the app. They process data only on our behalf:
- Clerk: sign-in and account management.
- Convex: database and backend hosting for your lists.
- Vercel AI Gateway, only after you’ve allowed AI processing (see AI features and your permission): routes voice and text requests to AI models: OpenAI (speech-to-text), OpenAI’s open-weight model hosted by Cerebras or Groq (reading the items out of a sentence), and TypeSafe AI (matching items to our product catalog). Photos of paper lists are read by OpenAI, or by Anthropic if OpenAI is unavailable. Only the audio, text or photo of that one request is sent, with the item names of the list it’s for, never your account details or other lists.
- Amazon Web Services: stores voice recordings (in Ireland, EU) until they’re deleted after 120 days (12 months for saved test examples).
- Apple: Sign in with Apple, TestFlight and App Store distribution, and payments for Plus subscriptions taken out earlier (handled entirely by Apple).
- PostHog: stores and analyses the app usage events described above, on its EU cloud (Frankfurt, Germany). Our private quality-review table also reads recent voice request logs from AWS, showing the account name, transcription and recognised items. The recordings themselves are not shared with PostHog.
- RevenueCat (United States), only if you subscribed to Plus earlier: receives your subscription transactions (the store’s transaction IDs, product, price, and purchase and renewal dates) and your account ID, to report on subscriptions and renewals. It never sees your payment details. Transfers to the US are covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Sharing with other people
When you invite someone to a list, or join someone else’s list, everyone on that list can see its name, its items and each member’s name and profile photo. Anyone with a list’s invite link can join it, so only share the link with people you trust.
Apple Watch
The watch app receives a device-specific access key from your iPhone so it can show and update the list you pin to it, including when your iPhone isn’t nearby. Signing out on the iPhone removes it.
How long we keep data
We keep your account and lists while your account exists. Voice recordings are deleted automatically after 120 days (12 months for recordings saved as speech recognition test examples), and photos right after they’ve been read. Items read from a photo that you haven’t added yet are deleted within a day. Voice and photo request logs are kept for up to 12 months. App usage events tied to your account are kept while your account exists; events tied only to a device’s random ID (before sign-in) are kept for up to 7 years, PostHog’s storage limit. When you delete your account, we delete your account details, your sign-in account, feedback you sent, voice logs, your voice recordings (including any saved as test examples) and the lists only you are a member of. Shared lists stay available to their other members. A few minutes later we automatically delete your app usage events from PostHog and your subscription records from RevenueCat (both finish the deletion in the background). Apple and Google keep their own records of your purchases.
Your rights
You can see and edit your profile in the app at any time. You can delete your account and its data yourself in the app: tap your profile picture at the top right of a list, then Delete account. To get a copy of your data, or if you can’t use the app, email contact@bettergroceries.app. We’ll reply within 30 days. If you’re in the EU or UK you also have the right to object to processing, to restrict it, and to complain to your local data protection authority.
Children
Better Groceries isn’t directed at children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their data.
Changes
If we change this policy, we’ll update the date above and, for significant changes, tell you in the app.
Contact
Alexandre Ramalho · contact@bettergroceries.app