Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 21, 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 and to the website carbetic.app (see section 13).

Who is responsible (data controller): Diego Szekely, Rudolfgasse 1, 2380 Perchtoldsdorf, Austria
Contact: diego@carbetic.app · Legal notice

We are not required to appoint a data protection officer, so enquiries go directly to the address above.

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 12).
• 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. 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. If you turn on Carbetic Follow, daily summaries (and photos only if you enable them) are additionally shared as described in section 4.

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. Carbetic Follow: sharing your data with people you choose

Carbetic Follow is an optional feature that lets you share your carb log with a person or organisation you trust, for example your family or a team that supports you. Nothing is shared until you enter their follow code in the app and explicitly confirm on the consent screen.

4.1 What is shared

• Daily summaries of your logged meals for the last 90 days and, while sharing stays active, each new day: meal times, estimated carbohydrate and related nutrition values, how each entry was created (for example 3D scan or text input), and daily totals.
• Meal names and ingredients, unless you switch them off.
• Meal photos, only if you switch them on (off by default).
• The profile you choose for sharing: the name you enter, your date of birth, and your chosen avatar.

As everywhere in Carbetic, this is food and nutrition information (section 1.3): it is not a medical record.

4.2 Who receives it

The person or organisation whose follow code you entered can view this data on our web dashboard at follow.carbetic.app after signing in to their own account. We show you their name and organisation before you consent. You choose the recipient; how they use what they see is their responsibility.

4.3 Storage

Shared data is stored for this purpose with the cloud providers described in section 6. A record of your consent (what you agreed to and when) is kept as proof of consent (Art. 7(1) GDPR).

4.4 Legal basis

Sharing is based on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), given on the consent screen when you connect. You can withdraw it at any time.

4.5 Stopping and deletion

You can stop any connection at any time in Settings. Stopping deletes the shared copy of your data, including photos, from the dashboard and our servers; the consent record is retained as proof. The recipient can also remove the connection on their side, which equally deletes the shared data.

4.6 The dashboard account (for people who view shared data)

If someone shares their data with you and you use the dashboard at follow.carbetic.app, we store your account data: your name, email address, sign-in method (Google, Apple, or email and password), the organisation name you enter, your follow code, your display preferences, and a record of your acceptance of the dashboard notice. We process this to provide the dashboard (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). You can delete your dashboard account at any time in its settings, which removes your account data and ends your connections.

5. Why we use your data, and our legal bases

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 10).

6. 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.
• People you choose (Carbetic Follow): if you connect with a follow code, the recipient you chose sees the data described in section 4. This happens at your direction and is never sharing for advertising.

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.

7. 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.

8. 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.
• Carbetic Follow shared data: until you or the recipient end the connection (deleted right away) or you ask us to delete it; consent records are kept as proof of consent.
• Clinical-study data: until the study ends or you withdraw.

9. 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.

10. 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. As we are established in Austria, the competent authority is the Austrian Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde), Barichgasse 40–42, 1030 Vienna, dsb.gv.at. You may also complain to the authority where you live or work.

Do you have to give us your data? No. Using Carbetic requires only the meal input you choose to submit. Everything marked optional in section 1 is genuinely optional, and declining it costs you nothing except the feature it powers. For the forms on our website, the fields marked as required are needed for us to reply at all.

Automated decision-making. Carb estimates are produced automatically by AI, but they are only estimates for your own use. We do not take any decision about you that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you (Art. 22 GDPR), and we do not profile you for such decisions. Carbetic is not a medical device and must not be used as a basis for treatment decisions.

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. Data you share through Carbetic Follow is disclosed at your direction to the recipient you choose and is not "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. The carbetic.app website

Everything above describes the app. This section describes the website, which is a separate system with its own, much smaller set of data.

13.1 No tracking, no advertising cookies

The website contains no analytics, advertising, or tracking scripts and sets no tracking cookies. Your browser stores two purely technical values on your own device: the language you selected, and, once you have sent the healthcare-professional form, a note that you already sent it so you are not shown the form twice. Neither is transmitted to us as an identifier, and you can clear both in your browser at any time. Because this storage is strictly necessary for functions you asked for, no cookie banner is required.

13.2 Server logs

Our hosting provider records standard log data whenever a page is requested: IP address, date and time, the page requested, the referring page, and your browser and operating system string. This is needed to deliver the site and to detect and defend against attacks (Art. 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in a functioning and secure website). These logs are kept only for a short period and are not used to build a profile of you.

13.3 Forms on the website

The website offers a small number of forms. Data you enter is stored on our hosting account outside the publicly accessible web directory and is also sent to us by email. In each case we store your IP address and the time of submission for a short period to limit abuse and spam (Art. 6(1)(f)).

• Healthcare-professional form (/doc): form of address, name, clinic or practice, postal address, email, phone, your message, and which follow-up you asked for (call, visit, patient materials). We use this to answer your enquiry, send the materials you requested, and arrange any follow-up you asked for — Art. 6(1)(b) (steps taken at your request) and Art. 6(1)(f). We keep it for as long as the professional contact is live and for a reasonable follow-up period afterwards.
• Job applications (/jobs and /apply): name, email, optionally phone, Instagram handle, what you currently do, how many hours per week you could contribute, a link to your work, and any file you choose to upload. We use this solely to assess your application — Art. 6(1)(b) (steps prior to a contract). Uploaded files are stored under a random file name outside the public web directory and are not reachable from the internet. We delete applications at the latest six months after the position is filled or the process ends, unless you agree that we may keep yours on file.
• Individual landing pages maintained with partners may carry a simple contact form. It collects only what the form shows, is used only to answer you, and follows the same rules.

Providing this data is voluntary; without at least a name and an email address we cannot reply. Your data is not used for advertising and is not passed on for anyone else's purposes.

13.4 Paying on the website

If you subscribe through the website rather than an app store, payment is handled by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe and we never receive the full card number. Stripe processes payment data as an independent controller under its own privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy; we receive only the payment status and the details we need for our records and tax obligations (Art. 6(1)(b) and Art. 6(1)(c)).

13.5 Email

If you write to us, your message and address are stored in our mailbox at our email provider so we can reply and keep a record of the correspondence (Art. 6(1)(b) and Art. 6(1)(f)).

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Contact

Diego Szekely
Rudolfgasse 1, 2380 Perchtoldsdorf, Austria
diego@carbetic.app

For EU/EEA and UK users, you also have the right to contact your local data protection authority.