Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 1, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Carbetic ("Carbetic", "we", "us") processes, why, and what rights you have. It applies to the Carbetic mobile app on iOS and Android.
Who is responsible (data controller): Diego Szekely Guija
Contact: diego@carbetic.app
In plain words
- Carbetic turns a photo, scan, link, text, or voice note about a meal into an estimated carb count using artificial intelligence.
- To do that, what you submit is sent to AI processing partners for analysis and is not stored on our servers afterwards.
- Your meal history and photos are normally saved only on your own device.
- We only keep your meals and photos to improve our AI if you switch that on yourself. It is off by default, optional, and you can turn it off any time. If you do, we may share them with partners who help us develop and analyze our technology, but never for advertising.
- We never use your health-related data for advertising.
- You can ask us to access or delete your data at any time: diego@carbetic.app.
1. The data we process
1.1 Data you give us
- Meal inputs: the photos you take or upload, and any recipe link, text description, or voice note you submit for analysis.
- Your condition (optional): during setup you may tell us whether you have type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, obesity (adipositas), none of these, or prefer not to say. This is health-related data (see section 1.3).
- Healthcare-professional status (optional): whether you use Carbetic personally or as a healthcare professional.
- Access & cooperation details (optional): if you redeem a partner, doctor, or cooperation code, we may store the name, email, and (for some codes) clinic and country you enter to grant that access.
- Clinical-study details (optional): if you join a study cohort or ask to receive study results, we store your trial ID and/or email and a record that you gave consent, with the date and time.
1.2 Data created when you use Carbetic
- An anonymous account ID: on first launch the app creates an anonymous identifier for your install. It is not your name, email, or a device advertising ID, and we do not use it to identify you personally.
- App and device data: app version, device type and operating system, language, approximate technical location derived from your IP address, and your IP address.
- Usage and diagnostics: in-app events (for example which steps of setup you complete), crash reports, and performance data.
- Subscription status: your plan (Free, Standard, Unlimited) and entitlement state. Payments themselves are handled by your app store; we do not receive your full card details.
- Marketing-attribution data: if you installed Carbetic from an ad, limited measurement data that tells us the ad worked (see section 11).
- Push token (optional): if you allow notifications.
1.3 Health-related data (special category)
The condition you can optionally tell us at setup (type 1 / type 2 diabetes or obesity) is special-category (health) data under the GDPR. We process it only with your explicit consent, keep it separate, and do not link it to your meal photos or to anything you share through "Help improve Carbetic".
The meal scans and photos you may optionally share to improve Carbetic are stored without your condition and without any identifier; they are food images, not a record of your health. We never use any of this for advertising.
2. AI analysis of your meals (not stored by us)
When you ask Carbetic to analyze a meal, the photo, voice note, or text you submit is transmitted securely to one or more third-party AI processing partners that generate the carb estimate and return it to the app.
- We do not permanently store these inputs on our own servers.
- Our AI partners process them on paid, business terms under which your content is not used to train their models, and they retain it only briefly (typically up to ~30 days) for security and abuse prevention before deleting it.
- The resulting estimate and the photo are saved on your device as your meal history, and stay there until you delete them or uninstall the app.
3. Optional: extended data sharing
You can choose to let us use your meals to build, analyze, and improve Carbetic's products, features, AI, and research. This is off by default. If you switch it on:
- We store the meal scans you create, including the photos, and any corrections you make to an estimate, so our models can learn from real examples.
- We store this in pseudonymized form: it is kept under a separate random identifier, decoupled from your anonymous account, your condition, and any email you may have given us.
- We use it to develop, train, test, and improve Carbetic's carb-recognition and other AI; to build and improve current and new features and products; for nutrition, food-recognition, and product research; for analytics; and to create de-identified, aggregated datasets and statistics. We may share it with Carbetic and the partners who help us with these purposes, under contracts that limit them to that use. We do not use it for advertising, and we will ask you again before using it for any genuinely new, unrelated purpose.
- It is based on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Settings. Withdrawing stops any further use of your data. Data that has already been incorporated into a trained model cannot be individually extracted from that model, but it will be excluded from all future training, and the underlying stored copy will be deleted.
4. Why we use your data, and our legal bases
| Purpose | Main data used | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Provide the app and generate carb estimates | meal inputs, anonymous ID, device data | Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Tailor the experience to your condition | condition, HCP status | Your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) + Art. 9(2)(a)) |
| Build, improve, and research our products, features, and AI (optional) | meal scans incl. photos and your corrections (no condition, no identifier) | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
| Analytics, crash and performance diagnostics | usage events, device data, crash data, IP | Consent where required by law, otherwise our legitimate interest in a stable, improving app (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Measure advertising / attribution | attribution and identifier data | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), see section 11 |
| Send push notifications | push token | Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
| Manage subscriptions and prevent abuse | subscription status, anonymous ID | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)), legal obligation, and legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Clinical-study participation (optional) | trial ID, email, consent record | Your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) + Art. 9(2)(a)) |
| Comply with law and protect rights | as needed | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) and legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (section 9).
5. Who we share data with
We share data only with service providers ("processors") who handle data on our behalf and under contract, and, if you switch on the optional "Help improve Carbetic" setting (section 3), with the partners who help us with the purposes described there. Recipients fall into the following categories:
- Cloud hosting, database, and authentication providers store your anonymous account record and app data.
- AI processing partners analyze your meal inputs to generate estimates (section 2).
- Analytics and crash-diagnostics providers help us understand usage and fix problems.
- Push-notification provider delivers notifications if you opt in.
- Marketing-measurement / attribution provider measures ad performance if you arrived from an ad.
- App-store and payment providers process your subscription.
We may also disclose data if required by law, to protect our rights or users' safety, or in connection with a business transfer.
You may request the current list of the specific named providers we use at any time by emailing diego@carbetic.app.
6. International data transfers
Some of our providers process data in countries outside your own, including the United States. Where we transfer personal data outside the EEA/UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, UK Addendum, or an adequacy decision / Data Privacy Framework certification. You can request a copy of the relevant safeguards at diego@carbetic.app.
7. How long we keep data
- Meal inputs sent for analysis: not retained by us; deleted by our AI partners shortly after processing (typically within ~30 days).
- On-device meal history and photos: stored on your device until you delete them or uninstall.
- "Help improve Carbetic" data (if you opt in): the identifiable part (your meal photos) is kept for up to 36 months, or until you withdraw consent or ask us to delete it, whichever comes first. The anonymized part (carbohydrate/nutrition values under a random id, with no photo and no identifier) may be kept indefinitely for statistics and model improvement.
- Account, condition, and access data: until you ask us to delete it, or your account becomes inactive for an extended period.
- Analytics and diagnostics: typically up to 14 months.
- Clinical-study data: until the study ends or you withdraw.
8. How we protect your data
We use encryption in transit (SSL/TLS), pseudonymization of training data, anonymous accounts by default, access controls, and reputable infrastructure providers. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the data.
9. Your privacy rights
If you are in the EEA or UK (GDPR), you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- correct inaccurate data;
- delete your data ("right to be forgotten");
- restrict or object to processing;
- data portability;
- withdraw consent at any time (including the "Help improve Carbetic" setting); and
- lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
If you are in California (CCPA/CPRA), you have the right to: know, access, correct, and delete your personal information; opt out of the "sharing" of personal information; limit the use of sensitive personal information; and not be discriminated against for exercising these rights. The only personal information we share (as that term is defined by the CCPA) is the optional "Help improve Carbetic" data, which is off by default; turning that toggle off (or leaving it off) opts you out.
10. How to exercise your rights (and a note about anonymous accounts)
To make any request, email diego@carbetic.app, or use the in-app Settings → Privacy controls to change consent or delete your data.
Because Carbetic accounts are anonymous and there is no login, we normally identify your data by the anonymous ID on your device. To act on a request we may need you to make it from within the app (or provide your in-app ID) so we can locate the right data. This also means that if you uninstall the app, the data stored only on your device is gone and cannot be recovered by us.
11. Tracking and advertising
If you installed Carbetic from an ad, we use a marketing-measurement / attribution service to confirm the install and key events (such as starting a trial) so we can measure and improve our advertising. On iOS, this only happens if you allow it through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt. We do not use your health-related data, meal photos, or condition for advertising.
12. Children
Carbetic is intended for users 16 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact diego@carbetic.app and we will delete it.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, for example to how we use data to improve our AI, we will update the date above and notify you in the app. Where the law requires, we will ask for your consent again.
14. Contact
Diego Szekely Guija
diego@carbetic.app
For EU/EEA and UK users, you also have the right to contact your local data protection authority.