SmartChoice (“we,” “us”) is an ingredient scanner: you scan a product barcode — food, cosmetics, cleaning products, or supplements — and we return an ingredient-based verdict. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your choices. We do not sell your personal information.
What we collect
Account (only if you sign in). SmartChoice uses Sign in with Apple. We receive a unique Apple identifier and, only if you choose to share them, your name and email (which may be an Apple private-relay address). You can use much of the app without an account; personalization, saved items, and synced history require one.
Your preferences. Allergens, diets, health conditions, a custom “avoid” ingredient list, and any family-member profiles you create. These are stored on our servers so we can personalize your verdicts across devices.
Scan history & saved products (only when signed in). The barcodes you scan, the product name and verdict at the time, and products you save to your list are stored on our servers so you can revisit them. History is capped to your most recent scans and is fully deletable by you. If you are not signed in, we do not keep a per-user scan history.
Photos you submit. Scanning a barcode uses your camera on-device. A photo only leaves your device when you choose to submit one — for example, to add a product we don’t have yet or to report incorrect data. Submitted photos are uploaded to our servers, processed by an AI vision service to read the ingredient list, and reviewed by our team before the product is published.
Scan requests. When you scan, we send the barcode (and, for label submissions, the ingredient text or photo) to our API to produce a verdict. We keep aggregate, anonymous product-level scan counts, and a log of barcodes that returned no result — this log is not linked to you and helps us prioritize which products to add.
Basic technical data. Standard request logs kept by our hosting provider (device/app type, timestamps) for security and reliability.
How we use it
Return ingredient verdicts and personalize them to your preferences and household.
Sync your history and saved list, and let you manage them.
Read and review submitted photos to grow and correct our product database.
Maintain, secure, and improve the service, and respond to your support requests.
Who we share it with (service providers)
We use a small number of processors to run the app; we don’t sell data or share it for advertising.
Cloudflare — hosting, database, and photo storage.
Anthropic — AI reading of the ingredient labels you submit (photo → text).
Apple — Sign in with Apple.
Amazon — some verdicts include “better alternative” links. If you tap one, you go to Amazon under our Associates affiliate tag; Amazon then handles you under its own privacy policy. We never receive or store payment information — all purchases happen on Amazon, not in SmartChoice.
Public data sources we query for product information — Open Food Facts, Open Beauty Facts, Open Products Facts, USDA FoodData Central, and the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database.
Your choices & rights
View, edit, or clear your scan history, and remove saved products, at any time in the app.
Edit or delete your preferences and family profiles.
Delete your account — this erases your preferences, scan history, saved products, and family profiles from our servers, and severs your identity link. You can also email us to request deletion.
Retention
Scan history is capped to your most recent scans; preferences, saved items, and history are deleted when you delete your account. Submitted photos are retained to support the product entry they created; contact us to request removal.
Children
SmartChoice is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.
Changes
We’ll update this page and the “Last updated” date when our practices change.