Privacy Policy
This policy explains how Bamboo Forest ("we", "us") handles information when you use the Munch mobile app and its related services (together, "Munch"). Munch shares its account system with our sibling app, Flex: one sign-in works for both apps, and the same account holds your data for each.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own purposes, such as advertising.
The short version. We collect what you give Munch (your account details, meal photos and descriptions, answers to questions, your goals, and your common object if you set one) so we can estimate nutrition, show you your log and write insights for you. An AI model run by a cloud provider processes this to make those estimates and insights. We may also use your meal data to improve Munch, including to train the models that power it. Munch is a paid subscription sold through the App Store or Google Play; Apple or Google handles your payment. We don't show ads, we don't track you across other apps or websites, and we don't collect your location, contacts or audio. You can delete your account and all of your data from inside the app at any time.
1. Information we collect
Information you give us
| Category | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Account details | Your email address, your name, a profile picture link if your sign-in provider supplies one, and a unique account identifier. Sign-in is handled by Auth0 (see section 4). If you sign up with an email and password, your password is held by Auth0; we never see or store it. |
| Meal photos | Photos of food and drink that you take in the app or choose from your photo library. The app shrinks each photo before upload. We only receive the photos you choose to submit; Munch does not browse or upload your photo library. |
| Meal descriptions and corrections | Text you type about a meal, your answers to follow-up questions (for example portion size, brand or cooking method), questions you mark "Not sure" or skip, and any edits you make. |
| Health details (optional) | Answers to the "About you" questions: your birth year (for your age), sex, height, weight, how active you are, whether you're pregnant or breastfeeding, and whether you're managing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or kidney disease. Every question can be skipped or answered "Prefer not to say". These details are health information; Munch uses them only to pick the published nutrient references that fit you. |
| Nutrient targets (optional) | Minimums and maximums you set yourself for a nutrient, in place of the ones Munch picked. |
| Goals (optional) | Up to three goals you write in your own words, for example lowering cholesterol or avoiding a food you're allergic to. Goals can reveal information about your health. |
| Common object (optional) | The size of an everyday object you choose as a size reference, such as a driver's license, gift card or anything similar in size to a credit card. You can pick a preset, type the size, or measure it from a photo of the object beside a ruler. That measuring photo is analysed by the AI model to read the size and is not stored. |
| Saved meals | Meals you save as "common meals" so you can log them again quickly. |
| Messages to us | What you send us when you contact support. A report sent with Report an issue in the app also carries your account's email address (so we can reply), your platform (iOS or Android), its operating system version and the app version. |
Information we create from what you give us
- Nutrition estimates for each meal: a meal name, estimated calories, macronutrients, micronutrients and related notes.
- Goal interpretations: a short summary of each goal and the nutrients it makes worth highlighting.
- Daily nutrient totals and insights: summaries of your intake over time and short research notes that compare what published research reports about a nutrient with what your meals show. Insights link to their sources.
- Processing records for each meal, such as when it was analysed and the questions it raised.
The Munch website and waitlist
If you join the waitlist on our website, we collect your email address, where on the page you signed up, and whether you ticked "I agree to be contacted for newsletters, offers and updates". If you tick it, we also keep the exact wording you agreed to and when. Without the box ticked we use your address only to tell you when Munch is available; with it, we may also send newsletters, offers and updates. Every email includes a way to unsubscribe, and you can ask us to remove you at any time. The website is hosted by Vercel, which briefly processes your IP address to deliver the page and to limit abusive sign-ups.
Subscription information
Munch is a paid subscription bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google handles the payment, and we never see your card or bank details. We receive purchase and subscription status through RevenueCat: your account ID, which plan you bought, purchase and renewal dates, whether you're in a free trial, and whether the subscription will renew.
Information collected automatically
- Push notification token: if you allow notifications, your device gives us a token so we can send you notifications (for example, when a meal has a question for you). On Android these are delivered through Firebase Cloud Messaging. Some notifications are generated on your device and never leave it.
- Crash and diagnostic data: when the app crashes or hits an error, we may collect a diagnostic report (such as the error, the app version, the device model and operating system version) through Sentry so we can fix the problem. We do not use this data for advertising.
- Server logs: our servers record basic technical information about requests (such as time, the endpoint called, and errors) to keep the service running and secure.
What we do not collect
- Your precise or approximate location. Munch does not request location permission.
- Your contacts.
- Audio. Munch never records sound; iOS requires a microphone description for the camera library, but the microphone is never used, and on Android the microphone permission is removed from the app.
- Your card or bank details. Apple and Google handle payment.
- Advertising identifiers, or data about your activity in other apps and websites.
Note that a photo file can carry metadata set by your phone's camera. Munch itself does not request location access.
2. How we use information
- To provide Munch: sign you in, store your meal log, analyse meals, estimate nutrition, ask follow-up questions, calculate daily totals, write insights, and let you save and re-log meals.
- To personalise Munch: your health details pick the nutrient references that fit you (or the targets you set yourself are used instead), and your goals decide which nutrients Munch highlights and shape your insights and meal analysis. Your common object helps judge portion sizes when it's visible in a meal photo.
- To manage your subscription: check whether you have access, and show your plan and renewal status.
- To improve Munch: we may use meal photos, descriptions, corrections, answers and the resulting estimates to operate and improve Munch, including to evaluate, develop and train the models and features that power it.
- To send notifications you've allowed.
- To keep Munch working and secure: diagnose crashes and errors, prevent abuse, and enforce our Terms.
- To respond to you when you contact support or report an issue.
- To email you about Munch's launch if you joined the waitlist, and newsletters, offers and updates only if you agreed to them.
- To meet legal obligations.
We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell it or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
Legal bases (EEA, UK and similar laws)
- Contract: to provide the features you ask for and your subscription.
- Consent: for health details and goals that may reveal information about your health, for push notifications, and for marketing emails from the waitlist. You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing your health details (Profile → Health details), editing or deleting a goal, turning off notifications, or unsubscribing; this does not affect processing that already happened.
- Legitimate interests: to improve Munch and its models, to keep Munch secure and reliable, and to fix crashes, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
- Legal obligation: where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.
3. Sharing
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own purposes, such as advertising.
Your meals, goals and insights are private to your account. We share information only in these cases:
- Service providers that process data only on our behalf to run Munch (listed in section 4).
- Legal reasons: if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our users or others.
- Business transfers: as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, in which case this policy will continue to apply to your information.
4. Service providers
We use the following providers to run Munch. They process data only on our behalf, under contracts that limit their use of it to providing their service to us. They may not use it for their own purposes.
| Provider | What they do | Data involved |
|---|---|---|
| Auth0 (Okta) | Sign-in and account security | Email, name, password (email sign-up) or social sign-in details, account ID |
| Fly.io | Hosts our servers (API) and our database | All data passing through the service, and your stored account, meal, estimate, health detail, target, goal, insight, common object, issue report, waitlist, subscription status and notification-token data |
| Resend | Sends email on our behalf, such as issue reports to our support team | Email addresses, and the content of the email (for an issue report: your message, email address and app details) |
| Vercel | Hosts the Munch website and its waitlist form | Waitlist email address and consent choice in transit; IP address, briefly, to serve the page and prevent abuse |
| Amazon Web Services (S3) | Stores meal photos | Meal photos |
| Amazon Web Services (Bedrock) | Runs the AI model that analyses meals, interprets goals, reads your common object's size from a measuring photo, and writes insights | Meal photos, meal descriptions, your answers and corrections, your goals, recent meal and nutrient summaries, common object measuring photos |
| Serper | Web search used to look up published nutrition facts and research | Search terms about foods, nutrients and related health topics, such as a dish, product or brand name. We do not send your name, email or account ID. |
| RevenueCat | Processes purchase and subscription status | Account ID, product purchased, purchase and renewal dates, trial and renewal status |
| Apple and Google | Sell the subscription and process payment through the App Store and Google Play | Handled under Apple's and Google's own terms; we don't receive your payment details |
| Google Firebase Cloud Messaging | Delivers push notifications on Android | Device push token, notification content |
| Sentry | Crash and error diagnostics | Diagnostic reports as described in section 1 |
Google user data
If you choose Continue with Google to sign in, Google shares the following with us (through our sign-in provider, Auth0), and only with your permission on Google's consent screen:
- your name,
- your email address,
- your profile picture link, and
- your Google account identifier.
We request only these basic profile scopes (openid, email and profile). We do not access your Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Google Fit, or any other Google service or data.
How we use it. Only to create and identify your Munch account, sign you in, show your name and picture in the app, and contact you about your account or support requests. We do not use Google user data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it to build profiles or to train AI models.
Sharing. We share Google user data only with the service providers in section 4 that run Munch on our behalf (Auth0 for sign-in, Fly.io for hosting), or where the law requires it.
Storage and protection. It is stored with your account, encrypted in transit, with access limited as described in section 9.
Retention and deletion. We keep it while your account is open. Deleting your account (in the app at Profile → Delete account, or at Delete your account) deletes it from our systems and removes your sign-in from Auth0. You can also revoke Munch's access at any time from your Google Account's Security → Third-party apps & services page.
Munch's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
5. AI processing
Munch uses an AI model, hosted on Amazon Web Services (Bedrock), to identify foods in your photos and descriptions, estimate nutrition, decide which follow-up questions to ask, interpret your goals, read your common object's size from a measuring photo, and write insights. Your photos, descriptions, answers, and questions you mark "Not sure" or skip are all part of that analysis. To research a food, the model may run web searches (through Serper) on food, dish, product or brand names. To build insights, it searches the web for published research about nutrients, using nutrient, food and related health terms, never your name or contact details. Insights link to the sources they draw on.
These estimates and insights are produced automatically, can be wrong, and are information, not medical advice. You can correct any meal, and the estimate is recalculated.
As described in section 2, we may use meal photos, descriptions, corrections, answers and resulting estimates to improve Munch, including to train the models and features that power it. We don't allow our AI service providers to train their own general models on your data for their own purposes. Under our provider's terms for the service we use, AWS Bedrock does not use the inputs and outputs it processes for us to train its models.
6. How long we keep data
- While your account is open, we keep your data so the app works: your meal log, photos, estimates, saved meals, goals, insights and common object. You can delete individual meals at any time, which removes them, including their photos, from your log, your totals and our storage.
- When you delete your account, we delete your account data and meal photos from our live systems, and remove your sign-in from Auth0. See Delete your account.
- Backups: copies of deleted data in backups are overwritten on the backup provider's normal rolling schedule. We never restore backups to bring a deleted account back.
- Waitlist: we keep your email until Munch launches and we've told you, or, if you agreed to newsletters, until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you.
- Issue reports are kept while we work on the issue and for a limited time afterwards, and are deleted with your account.
- Crash reports and server logs are kept for a limited period for troubleshooting, and then deleted by our providers on their standard schedule.
- Purchase records are kept by Apple, Google and RevenueCat as their terms and the law require.
- We may keep limited information for longer where the law requires it or to resolve a dispute.
7. Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EEA, the UK GDPR, or California's CCPA/CPRA), you may have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you.
- Correct inaccurate data. You can edit meals, goals and your common object directly in the app.
- Delete your data. You can delete your whole account in the app at Profile → Delete account, or ask us by email.
- Portability: receive a copy of your data in a common, machine-readable format.
- Object to or restrict certain processing, and withdraw consent where we rely on it.
- Not be discriminated against for using these rights.
- Complain to your local data protection authority.
To make a request other than in-app deletion, email help@bamboo-forest.tech from the email address on your account. We may need to verify your identity before acting. We will respond within the time the law requires (usually within 30 days for GDPR requests and 45 days for CCPA requests). You can also turn off notifications in your device settings at any time.
California
In the past 12 months we have collected the categories described in section 1: identifiers (email, name, account ID), customer records, commercial information (subscription purchase and status), sensitive personal information that you choose to provide (such as health details and health-related goals), photos, and device and diagnostic information. We collect them for the purposes in section 2 and disclose them only to the service providers in section 4. We do not sell or "share" personal information as those terms are defined under California law, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you beyond providing the service.
8. International transfers
We and our providers process data in several countries, including Canada and the United States, which may be different from where you live. Where the law requires it (for example for transfers out of the EEA or UK), we rely on appropriate safeguards such as adequacy decisions or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
9. Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Photos are stored privately and are accessed through short-lived, signed links. Access to our systems is limited to what is needed to run Munch. On your phone, your sign-in session is kept in the device's secure storage. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security; if we learn of a breach affecting your data, we will notify you as the law requires.
10. Children
Munch is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13 (or under the minimum age required in your country, such as 16 in some EEA countries, without parental consent). If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. We'll change the effective date above, and if the changes are significant we'll let you know in the app or by email before they take effect.
12. Contact
Bamboo Forest
Email: help@bamboo-forest.tech