Privacy policy

Who this is

Cuisson is made by Fornaq LLC. Write to support@fornaq.com about anything in this policy.

Cuisson is offered in the United States. What it keeps is stored in the United States, on Amazon Web Services.

This policy covers the Cuisson app on iPhone, the web app at app.cuissoncooking.com, and the site at cuissoncooking.com.

What Cuisson keeps

Your account: the email address you sign in with, your first and last name, the name Sous calls you, the handle you choose if you publish, and a photo and short description if you add them. If you fill in Where you cook (a city or a state), that is kept too. So are how you like amounts shown and the theme, light or dark look and font you chose.

Your recipes, exactly as you typed, pasted or imported them, with every version you save. Also the notes, tags and labels you file them under, your ratings, the words you use for shopping, and the address of a site you imported from. A photo you add is kept with the recipe. When you import from a site, Cuisson can keep the site's photo with it.

Your cooking: which recipe you cooked and when, which steps you checked off, the timers you set, what you said you saw in the pan, and how it came out.

What you tell Cuisson about food and about yourself: allergens and how serious each one is, including anything you write beside them; the diets you keep and the preferences you state; the daily targets you set; and what you planned, cooked and marked eaten, meals eaten out included. Some of this is health information, and it is treated as such.

Your kitchen: your week's plan, the batches in your fridge and freezer, your pantry with the brands, barcodes and package sizes you keep, your shopping lists and what you checked off, and your cooking lists and Favorites.

Your chats with Sous, in full, including what Sous did in reply. Clearing a chat hides it from you and from Sous's next answer. It does not delete it. You can delete a closed chat for good. A record of what each answer cost and which tools it used stays with your account after the chat is deleted, because it counts toward your month's AI credits.

What you share or publish: a recipe, a week or a cooking list you send to someone in your kitchen or share by link; a post at the potluck with its photo; and the loves, compliments, reports, follows and hidden cooks that go with them.

Coaching, if you use it: who coaches you or whom you coach, what a coach sent you and your answers, and a record of every look a coach took at your weeks.

The weekly note, and if you coach someone, the Monday summary. Each comes to your device unless you turn it off, and by email only once you turn its email on: the weekly note once you have used the potluck, the Monday summary while you coach someone. The Monday summary says only that last week's summary of your clients is ready and for how many, never a client's name or figures. For your iPhone, Cuisson keeps the phone's notification token while either is on for your phone, and turning both off deletes the token.

How you use the app: when you signed in, how long a reply took to start, how many AI credits a month has used and what they cost, which tools a turn used, how long each step of a spoken question took (never the words), which questions you answered when you started, which suggestions Cuisson showed you and which you opened, passed on or acted on, and when you stopped a cook-through. Cuisson uses this to run the app and to learn which parts help cooks.

Error reports. When the app or a page breaks, or the iPhone app crashes or hangs, a report is sent: what failed, where in the code, the page or screen, the app's build, and your browser or iOS version. It never holds what was on the screen or what you typed. If you are signed in, it is tied to your account.

Feedback you send with Send feedback: what happened and what you expected, in your own words, the screen you were on, your browser or iOS version, and the last five things the app logged for you. You must be signed in to send it, so it is tied to your account.

Which version of the sharing guidelines and the Potluck guidelines you agreed to, and when.

If Cuisson invites you, the invitation keeps your email address, which plan you start on, and any short note the person who invited you wrote. An invitation that is never used is deleted 30 days after it runs out.

What Cuisson does not keep

Your IP address. The app does not keep it. To slow down misuse, Cuisson counts some requests by the address they come from, such as reports sent without signing in and sign-in attempts. Each count is kept against a one-way code made from the address, never the address itself. Counts more than a day old are deleted the next time anyone signs in on the web.

Your phone's location. Cuisson never asks your phone or browser where you are. The only place it keeps is the city or state you type under Where you cook, if you do. Your phone or browser does tell Cuisson your time zone, so that "today" is your today. The time zone is not kept.

Card or payment details. Cuisson takes no payments, and nothing of that kind is stored.

Your voice. When you talk to Sous on your phone, the speech is turned into words on the phone and the sound never leaves it. On the web, the sound of your question goes to OpenAI to be written out, and Cuisson keeps none of it: only the words you send, as your chat. Either way the words are a question, like typed ones, and use AI credits.

Anything in Apple Health. If you turn Apple Health on in the app on this device, Cuisson writes each meal you mark eaten there, with its name, its mealtime, its energy and up to twelve nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat, saturated fat, fiber, sugars, sodium, cholesterol, calcium, iron, potassium and vitamin D), and reads nothing from Health.

A meal whose figures Cuisson has not checked (a site's own figures, or a label from Open Food Facts you have not matched to your package) is not written to Health until you confirm them.

Anything in Reminders. If you tap Send to Reminders on your iPhone, Cuisson adds the week's unchecked shopping items to your list called Shopping or Groceries, one reminder each, and makes a Shopping list if you have neither. iOS asks you for full access to Reminders to do this. Cuisson reads only that one list, to leave out what is already on it, and nothing from Reminders reaches Cuisson's servers.

Pictures from the camera. When you tap Scan, the iPhone reads the barcode's digits itself. No picture is kept or sent.

A photo of a meal you log. If you add one so Sous can work out what was on the plate, it goes to OpenAI for that answer without the details stored inside the file, such as where it was taken, and Cuisson does not keep it. What OpenAI keeps of what it is sent is in the section Who else handles your information.

Trial settings. In a test build, the settings marked "(trial)" stay on your iPhone and are not sent to Cuisson, except Font (trial), which is kept on your account like your theme, so your next phone has it.

There is no advertising in Cuisson, no analytics service, and no tracking of you across other apps or sites. Nothing here is sold, and nothing is shared for advertising.

Who else handles your information

OpenAI, Amazon Web Services and Apple, the first three below, work on Cuisson's instructions and for Cuisson's purposes. They are not given anything to use for their own. Each request Cuisson sends to OpenAI's models asks OpenAI not to store the response for later use. OpenAI says it still keeps each request for up to 30 days to check for misuse, unless it must keep it longer, and may hold one for up to 24 hours, in a form only its models read, so the next answer starts sooner. The sound of a question spoken on the web goes to OpenAI only to be written out, and OpenAI says it keeps none of it. The services after those three are not Cuisson's, and their own policies apply.

OpenAI runs Sous and the readings Sous's model makes. What goes depends on what you do.

When you ask Sous something, typed or spoken: your question and the chat so far; the name Sous calls you; today's date; your recipes' names; the recipe or cook-through you have open; your allergens, with how serious each is and what you wrote beside them; your diets and preferences; and whatever Sous reads to answer you, such as a recipe's text, your week, the meals you logged and how they add up against your targets, your fridge, pantry, shopping list, cooking lists and cooking history.

When you import a recipe from a site: the page's text, with the recipe as saved, so its cooking notes can be picked out. If the page has no recipe card, its text is also read so the recipe can be copied out of it. When you ask Cuisson to cut a pasted page down to its recipe, your paste.

When you log a meal eaten out: what you said about it, and its photo if you add one.

During a cook-through: the recipe's title, ingredients and steps, to find which way of cooking it fits; the step you are on, with the steps before it and what you say you saw in the pan; the same when you ask for tips; and how it came out.

When you share by link, send again something a person closed, or publish to the potluck: each recipe's name, note and text, and your photo, read against the guidelines. A flagged post is read again with each flag's reason.

If you filled in Where you cook: that place, with the name, servings and text of a recipe you record as cooked, to estimate what the dish would cost to buy and to make. This runs by itself, when you record the batch or open your cooking record.

When you talk to Sous on the web: the sound of your question, to be written out.

When your coach asks Sous about you: your name, your weeks, the meals you logged, your fridge if you chose to show it, and, while Nutrition is on, your targets and how your meals added up against them.

Amazon Web Services is where Cuisson runs: the database, your photos, signing in, the cooking checks, and sending email. Amazon Cognito, part of it, holds your email address and password for signing in, and sends your invitation and any password-reset code. If you choose Sous's natural voice on iPhone, the sentences Sous says go to Amazon Polly to be spoken, and the sound comes back. Your own voice is never sent there.

Apple delivers the weekly note and the Monday summary to your iPhone, each only while it is on for your phone.

If you test the iPhone app with TestFlight: Apple runs TestFlight. While you test, Apple collects crash logs and how often you use the test app, and passes them to Fornaq. You cannot turn this off. If you send feedback in TestFlight, a screenshot with a note or a note about a crash, Apple passes that to Fornaq too, with your email address, your device and the build you were using. A screenshot shows whatever was on your screen, so crop out anything you do not want to send. Fornaq reads this in Apple's App Store Connect, only to fix and improve Cuisson, and gives it to no one else. Cuisson keeps no copy of its own. Apple says it keeps feedback for one year. To have your feedback deleted, write to support@fornaq.com. Apple's TestFlight & Privacy page says what Apple collects, under Apple's own policy.

These you choose to use, and the other company's own policy covers what you do there.

Instacart, only when you choose it to shop. A shopping list sends its title, each item's name in your words with the recipe lines it came from, and the brand or barcode you keep. A recipe also sends its title, servings and time, each ingredient with its amount, and the steps only for a recipe Sous wrote for you. The recipe is sent under Cuisson's name, never yours. If Cuisson joins Instacart's affiliate program, Cuisson may earn a commission on orders placed through its Instacart links. That would not change what you pay.

Apple Health and Reminders, on your iPhone only, as the section What Cuisson does not keep says.

These are public sources. Cuisson's server asks each of them, so they do not learn who you are.

The United States Department of Agriculture (FoodData Central): a barcode you scan, to look up the product. Cuisson's server asks, and sends only the barcode.

Open Food Facts: a barcode USDA cannot answer. Cuisson's server asks, and sends only the barcode.

A recipe site, when you import from it: Cuisson's server fetches the page, and its photo.

What other people see

Your recipes, your pantry, your week, your chats and what you tell Cuisson about food are yours. No other cook sees them, except as this section says.

A kitchen you share shows its pantry, and who changed what, to the people in it.

A coach you let in sees, for as long as you let them: your plan for any week; the meals you log, eaten out too; while Nutrition is on, your targets, how your meals added up against them, and how many days a week landed in range; when you last logged a meal; and a summary of your week each Monday. They see your fridge only if you choose to show it. They never see your chats with Sous, your recipes' notes, your pantry, your email, or anything about anyone in your kitchen. Every look they take is written down, and you see it on your profile. Either of you can stop at any time. Stopping ends every look at once and deletes their chats with Sous about you. They keep a record of what they sent, your answers, and when they looked, never your weeks.

A post at the potluck shows your handle, your photo of the dish and the recipe to every signed-in cook. Any cook can copy a post's link, and anyone who opens it, signed in or not, sees the dish's name, your handle, your photo and how long it takes. It can appear in other cooks' weekly note, in the app, by email and on their phone.

A share link works for anyone who has it, without an account, for thirty days. Someone who has not signed in sees, for a recipe, its name, your first name, your photo and how long it takes; for a week, its name, your first name and what is on each day; for a cooking list, its name, your first name and its recipes' names. Your targets go with a week only if you choose to send them.

A copy someone keeps of what you shared or posted is theirs. It keeps your first name, or your potluck handle, as the cook it came from, and your photo of the dish.

Loves and compliments on a post show as counts, and nobody sees who gave them.

Following and hiding a cook are yours alone. They are not told, and nothing of theirs is removed for anyone else.

Reports, and who reads them

You can report a post, a shared recipe, a week or a list. A model reads a report on a post first. It can take down a post that clearly breaks the guidelines, and a person reads anything it is unsure of, within 48 hours. A person reads every report on a share within 48 hours.

Reports on a post are weighed by how that person's earlier reports turned out. Someone whose reports have usually not held up counts for less than someone whose have. It is never nothing, and it is worked out from those outcomes alone, not from anything else about you. Reports on a share are weighed the same way, except that one sent without signing in counts for less. That weight only sets which report a person reads first.

Enough weighed reports take a post off the potluck until a person has read it. Nothing is decided by that alone.

If a person takes down a post you flagged, you are told in your Inbox when your flags have a record of being upheld.

The people who run Cuisson read what reaches them to keep Cuisson working: reports and flags, the posts and shares they are about, feedback you send, error reports, ingredient lines you report as unmatched, and figures counted across all cooks.

How long things are kept

Your account and what is in it: until you delete it, or until you delete the thing itself.

Error reports, and records of where the cooking checks came up short: 90 days.

A link Cuisson could not read as a recipe: Cuisson keeps a record of the site, the page's address without anything after ? or # and with any part that looks like a key or code removed, what went wrong and the site's response code, so importing can improve. For links to file-sharing and note services (such as Google Docs, Dropbox or Notion) only the site is kept, and for addresses on your own network nothing of the address is kept. The record is not tied to your account. If you then paste the recipe instead, Cuisson notes that a paste followed for that site; your paste is not part of that record. This record is kept 90 days.

Feedback you send: until your account is deleted.

The counts of requests by the address they come from: a day, then deleted at the next sign-in on the web.

Signing in on the web lasts 30 days. A share link lasts 30 days.

A potluck post that comes down keeps its record (why it came down, and its flags) while your account lasts. Its photo is deleted 90 to 97 days after it came down, or sooner by a person's decision.

The app's and the cooking engine's working logs are kept for two weeks, to find faults.

Backups of Cuisson's database are kept for seven days. Something you delete can stay in a backup until it is replaced.

What Cuisson's server learns from USDA or Open Food Facts about a barcode is kept by barcode alone, with nothing about who scanned it, until a later answer replaces it.

What Sous cost to run for you, and the one-way code kept when an account closes (both under Deleting your account): with no end, to prevent abuse.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, on the phone or on the web. It cannot be undone. If you own a kitchen other cooks are in, hand it on to one of them first.

Write to support@fornaq.com if you cannot get into your account and want it deleted.

What goes: your account and your sign-in, your recipes and their versions, your photos, your cook-throughs, your chats, your week, your pantry, your feedback and how you used the app, what you shared and what you published. Coaching ends: a coach you have, or a cook you coach, stops seeing your weeks.

What stays without your name on it: a shared kitchen's pantry and the record of who changed it, decisions made at the potluck, and error reports.

Three things are kept on purpose. When a recipe was read for checking, the cooking engine kept its own copy of that recipe's text; there is no way to delete it, and it holds recipe text only, never your name, email or password. A one-way code made from your email address is kept with the dates your account opened and closed, how many times an account was closed with it, how many of your posts and shares a person took down or a report upheld, and whether the address may open an account again, with a note from the people who run Cuisson if they barred it. It holds no name and nothing you wrote. And what Sous cost to run for you, with no name and nothing you said: the model, how much it read and wrote, what it cost and when, so Cuisson's own running costs stay right.

A copy of a recipe somebody kept from you stays theirs, with your first name, or your potluck handle, on it as the person it came from, and your photo of the dish if it had one.

Children

Cuisson is not for children, and is not directed at them. If you tell Cuisson about someone else (a child's allergy, say), that becomes part of your account, and it goes when your account does.

Changes

The version and date of this policy change whenever its words do.