KochChat Privacy Policy

Welcome to KochChat — your AI cooking companion. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, how we use it, and what choices you have.

1. Who we are (data controller)

KochChat is an independent service operated by Oleksandr Marchenko, based in Switzerland, who acts as the data controller for personal data processed through KochChat. For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, email support@kochchat.com.

2. What we collect

• Account info: your name, email address, and profile picture provided when you sign in via Google (handled through Clerk, our authentication provider).
• Cooking chats: the prompts and messages you send to KochChat, plus AI-generated chat titles, stored so you can view your chat history.
• Saved content: recipes you save or like, recipe collections you create, meal plans, and shopping lists you choose to save.
• Preferences: dietary restrictions, allergies, cuisine preferences, cooking skill level, default servings, and measurement units you set in your account settings.
• Subscription & payment data: if you subscribe to a paid plan, Stripe collects and processes your payment information (card details, billing address, country) on our behalf. We do not store full card numbers ourselves; we store only your subscription status, plan, and Stripe customer/subscription identifiers needed to manage your subscription.
• Device & usage: IP address, browser type, and basic usage data to keep KochChat secure and functioning properly.

3. Children

KochChat is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

4. How we use your data

• To run KochChat — process your prompts through AI providers (currently Anthropic, with OpenAI available as a fallback) and display results.
• To personalise your experience — preferences, dietary needs and skill level are sent to the AI so responses better match your style.
• To store and display your saved recipes, collections, meal plans, and shopping lists.
• To process payments and manage your subscription via Stripe.
• To communicate with you about service updates or legal information when needed.
• To comply with legal requirements and prevent abuse.

We do not sell your personal data, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, or use it for advertising. Both Anthropic and OpenAI state that API inputs are not used to train their models by default, and we do not opt in to any such training.

5. AI & cooking safety

KochChat uses AI to generate cooking suggestions. Outputs can be inaccurate or incomplete — always verify ingredients, times, temperatures, and allergen information yourself before cooking.

6. Legal bases (GDPR & Swiss FADP)

We rely on contract (to provide KochChat and process your subscription), legitimate interests (securing and operating the app, preventing abuse), and legal obligation (tax and accounting records for paid subscriptions). Where required, we will ask for your consent separately (e.g., for optional analytics).

7. Service providers (subprocessors)

We share data only with trusted providers necessary to operate KochChat:

• Clerk — authentication and session management
• Supabase — database and data storage
• Vercel — hosting and infrastructure
• Anthropic — primary AI processing of your chat messages
• OpenAI — fallback AI processing (when the primary provider is unavailable)
• Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing

Each provider processes data under their own privacy policies and data processing agreements. We do not share your data with any other third parties.

8. Data retention

We keep your account data and chat history while your account exists. You can request deletion at any time — see Section 12. When you delete your account, your personal data and content are removed from our live systems immediately and from our encrypted backups within 30 days. Billing and tax records related to paid subscriptions may be retained for up to 10 years where required by Swiss accounting law.

9. Cookies & local storage

KochChat uses strictly necessary cookies to manage your login session (via Clerk). If you visit a checkout or billing page, Stripe may set its own cookies for fraud prevention and payment processing — these are governed by Stripe's privacy policy. We do not use tracking, advertising, or analytics cookies. We also use your browser's localStorage to remember small UI preferences (such as shopping list state) — this data never leaves your device.

10. Security & breach notification

Data is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and stored on trusted infrastructure. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable technical steps to protect your information. If a personal-data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the competent supervisory authority and, where required, affected users without undue delay, in line with GDPR Article 33/34 and Swiss FADP requirements.

11. International transfers

Your data may be processed outside your country (including the United States) by our service providers. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), the Swiss FDPIC SCC addendum for Swiss data, the EU-US and Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified, or applicable adequacy decisions.

12. Your rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, port, restrict, or object to processing of your data, and to withdraw consent at any time. You can delete your account directly in Settings → Account. For any other request, email support@kochchat.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In Switzerland, this is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC). In the EU/EEA, you may contact the data protection authority of your country of residence.

13. Updates

We will update this policy as KochChat evolves. Major changes will be announced in-app or by email before they take effect.

Cook happily and thank you for using KochChat!