Privacy policy

Last updated October 29, 2026.

Honest Dinner turns your grocery store's weekly deals into a week of dinners your family picks, one shopping list, and help while you cook. It is run by Patrick Durkin in New York ("we", "us"). This page says what we collect, why, who else sees it, how long we keep it, and how to delete it. If anything here is unclear, email patrick@honestdinner.com and a real person answers.

The short version

We use what you tell us to plan your family's meals. That's the job.
We never sell your personal information.
Your allergies, eating styles, health limits and anything about your children are never shared with advertisers.
To write your menus and recipes, we send your family's food needs and your store's deals to our AI provider, Anthropic. We ask first, at sign-up.
You can delete your family's data from the app at any time.
If Honest Dinner ever closes, every family is offered a download of its data first, before anything is deleted.

What we collect

What you tell us: a name for your family, the first names of the people at your table and whether each is a child or an adult (never an age), allergies, eating styles, foods anyone won't eat, any limits you choose to set (like a daily salt or calorie number; never a diagnosis), your ZIP code, your stores, your kitchen, which nights you cook and for how long, your budget, your goals, the notes you type for us, and a birth month if you give one.
What you add: flyer photos and PDFs, recipe cards (photos or typed), pantry items, what you type into "I'm craving", the dinners you pick, cook and rate, your shopping list and what you tick off, and your answers at the end of a week.
Photos you send with a problem report, if you add one.
Your sign-in: if you save your family to an email, that email address. If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple's ID for you and the email Apple shares with us, which may be a private relay address that forwards to you, and a token Apple gives us for that sign-in, which we hand back to Apple when you delete your family so the link ends on Apple's side too. Each phone you sign in on gets its own key, which we keep only in scrambled (hashed) form.
Your plan: which plan you're on and its dates, and what was paid and refunded. Apple handles payment in the iPhone app and Stripe on the web. We never see or keep your card number. On the web we ask for your email when you start a plan, and Stripe tells us the email you gave at checkout: we send your plan's terms, the reminder before your free days end and a note when you cancel there, and you can sign in with it on any phone (we email a code).
How you use the app (see "What we measure").
Where you found us: the tag on the link you first opened (for example one of our ads, a post or a friend's link), and your answer if you tell us how you heard about us.
The usual technical details: your IP address (every connection carries one), your phone or browser type, and the app's version.

Photos

Flyer photos: we read the items, prices and dates from them and keep only those, never the photo. Location and other hidden details are stripped from every photo before it is read. A photo is held on our server only while it is being read; if a read fails, it is kept up to a day so "Try again" works without a new photo, then deleted.
Kitchen photos: when the app offers "snap your kitchen" (your fridge, pantry or spice rack), each photo is read and then deleted. Only the list of what we spotted is kept, and you can fix that list. Kitchen photos are never used for ads.
Recipe cards: we copy the recipe into your recipe box in your own words. The recipe stays private to your family.
A photo on a problem report is stripped of its location, kept with your report so we can see what went wrong, and deleted when you delete your family.
Ads: we only ever show something from your family in our ads if you tick "OK to show this in our ads (never your name)" when you share it. It starts unticked. Your name is never shown.

The AI we use, and your yes

Honest Dinner uses AI from Anthropic to read flyers and recipe cards and to write menus and recipes, and our own code checks what it writes: allergies, eating styles, cooking temperatures and prices. To do that, we send Anthropic your family's food needs, allergies, eating styles, limits, the dinners you like, your kitchen, and your store's deals, plus the photos being read, the questions you ask while you cook, the recipe cards you add and your problem reports. We don't send your email or your sign-in. Under its business terms, Anthropic may not use it to train its AI.

We ask before anything is sent. The first screen of sign-up says this in a few lines and names Anthropic, and nothing is sent until you tap Agree. That tap is also your consent, as Washington's and Nevada's health-data laws ask, for us to collect what you tell us about allergies and limits and share it with Anthropic to plan your meals. To take it back, delete your family's data (Your family, then Delete our family's data), or email us. Your notes to us and your problem reports are read and answered by a person; AI may draft a reply, but a person reads it and sends it.

What we measure, and why

We measure how the app is used so we can make it work better: which screens you open and for how long, which buttons you tap, how far down a screen you scroll, when the app is opened and closed, the steps and timers you use while cooking, which dinners get cooked, and when something goes wrong. We record which button was tapped, never what you typed into it. We don't use your camera, microphone or location to do this, and the measuring is our own: no outside analytics or advertising tools are used, in the app or on our website.

We use it to find what's confusing or broken, to make menus and lists fit families better, and to understand which of our posts and ads bring families who stay. It stays with us and the companies that help us run the app, and it is never sold.

Ads, Meta and cookies

We advertise on Facebook and Instagram. We never share your name, email, family, food, flyers or anything about health with Meta or any other advertiser. The most Meta would ever hear is that a sign-up came from one of its ads (below, and not switched on today). There is no Meta pixel or any other advertiser's code on our website or in the app.

Our ads link to our site with a tag in the address (like ?ref= or utm_campaign=), so we know which ad you came from. That stays with us: we use it to see which of our ads bring families who stay.

Today we send Meta nothing at all, and the sign-up card says so. If we ever start telling Meta that a sign-up came from one of its ads, it will happen only on our website's sign-up pages, never in the iPhone app, and Meta would hear only that a sign-up came from one of its ads, with your IP address and browser type, so it can count it. Never your name, email, family, food, flyers or anything about health. We'll update this page and the sign-up card, and ask you again, before it starts.

If you clicked one of our ads, Meta knows you clicked it, because the click happened on Facebook or Instagram; that is covered by Meta's own privacy policy (facebook.com/privacy/policy).

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control: our website and the app honor both signals. We use no outside tracking, so today nothing changes either way; if we ever tell Meta that a sign-up came from one of its ads, a browser that sends either signal is never counted.

Cookies and storage on your phone: the app keeps your family's key, your settings, the week you're on and your shopping list in your phone's own storage (local storage, and a small database in the browser for the list), and keeps a copy of the app and of this week's recipes so they open with no signal. That is all needed for the app to work, and it stays on your phone. Signing out keeps the list on that phone; another family signing in on it, or deleting your family, clears it. The app sets no cookies. Our free holiday planner, when it's open, sets one cookie that remembers your plan's link for 90 days. No advertiser's cookies are set anywhere.

Email

Your family's email. If you save your family to an email, or give one for a web plan, we use it for sign-in codes. Once you're on a plan we also email what the law and our promises require, like the terms of your plan when it starts, the reminder 2 days before your free days end, a note about 30 days before a yearly plan renews, and a note when you cancel, and we answer you there if you write to us. These emails never carry marketing.
Seasonal dinner ideas, only if you ask. The "Seasonal dinner ideas by email" box on our website takes an email address and nothing else. Only our own seasonal dinner ideas, a few times a year. We never sell or share your address, and nobody else ever emails you through us. Nothing is sent until you tap the link in the email we send to confirm, and an address that isn't confirmed within 30 days is deleted. Every email has a one-tap unsubscribe, with no sign-in, and unsubscribing deletes your address from the list. This list is separate from your family: deleting your family doesn't take an address off it, and unsubscribing doesn't touch your family.
Families, too, may get those same few seasonal ideas at the email they saved, with the same one-tap unsubscribe on every one, and a switch in Settings to turn them off.

Who else sees it

We don't sell your personal information. If that ever changes, we'll tell you first and ask for your yes before any of your information is included.
Companies that help us run the app, and only what each needs for that work: our hosting company (the server and database); Anthropic (the AI, above); our email service (sign-in codes, replies, and the seasonal ideas you asked for); Apple and Stripe (payments); and, to find stores near you, Kroger's store finder and a public ZIP-code lookup, which get your ZIP code only. Each must protect what it gets.
Other families see facts, never you: prices and items read from a store's flyer aren't personal information, so a page one family reads can fill in the deals for another family at the same store, and we may use or share them in other ways. Nobody is ever told who snapped a flyer. This week's most-picked dinners show only dish names, and only once at least five families picked one.
A page you choose to share: "Share my week" makes a public page at an address like honestdinner.com/w/... with the dinners you cooked, about what you saved, your store and the first three digits of your ZIP code. It never shows a name. Anyone with the link can open it. Deleting your family takes it down, or email us and we'll take it down.
Combined, anonymous trends (for example, prices by store and week, or which dinners and ingredients are popular in an area) may be shared or sold one day. Each figure covers many families, it can't be tied back to you or your family, we don't try to, and anyone who gets it must promise not to either. Health details, allergies, eating styles, photos, names, emails and exact locations are never included.
If the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety, we share what is required.
If Honest Dinner is ever sold, merged or reorganized, or its assets are transferred, your information may move with it, and these promises go with it.

Allergies, diets and health limits

You may tell us about allergies, eating styles and limits so the app can check every recipe against them. We use them only for that, and to show you your own numbers. They are never used for advertising, never sent to Meta or any other advertiser, never sold, and never shared except with the companies that run the app for us (the AI that writes recipes needs to know what to leave out). We ask for limits, never medical conditions. In some states this counts as "consumer health data"; we treat it that way everywhere. Our consumer health data notice has the details.

What we keep, and for how long

We keep your family's information while you use Honest Dinner, and delete it when you delete your family (see the next section). Item by item:

Your family's setup: the answers above and your settings. Deleted when you delete your family.
The people at your table: first names, child or adult, allergies, eating styles, limits and foods they won't eat. Deleted when you delete your family.
Changes you make in Settings: what changed and when, so a recipe written before a change is checked again. Deleted when you delete your family.
Your kitchen and pantry: what you've told us you have. Deleted when you delete your family.
Your weeks: the deals read from your flyers, the dinners offered, picked, cooked and rated, the recipes written for you, your shopping lists and what you ticked (kept in step across your phones), the steps you asked our AI to do and its answers, and what you typed into "I'm craving". Deleted when you delete your family.
Your recipe box: your recipe cards and the recipes you asked for. Deleted when you delete your family.
Flyer photos: deleted once read, or a day after a read that failed.
Kitchen photos: deleted once read.
Problem reports: what you wrote, any photo, and our reply. Deleted when you delete your family.
Questions you ask Bowlby while cooking, and your follow-ups. Deleted when you delete your family.
How we use what families write: once a week, the problem reports, end-of-week notes, Bowlby questions, cancel reasons and store reviews are grouped into themes by AI so we can see what to fix. Before any of it reaches the AI, emails, phone numbers, addresses, ZIP codes and names are removed; the themes are counts and short examples, never a family's name. A family's own note is never shown to other families.
End of the week: your answers, the note you typed, and any page you shared. When you delete your family, the note and the page go; the taps stay with nothing that points to you.
Your free days: if we ever test where the card screen comes (after the preview, or after your first cooked dinner; at launch everyone sees it after the preview), which version you saw, so we can see which works better. When you delete your family, that record keeps only its counts, with nothing that points to you. One set of free days per card: we keep a scrambled code of your card (never the number; a one-way hash of the code our payment provider gives us), and that code stays after you delete your family, so a card cannot get free days twice by deleting and joining again. If a card already had its free days, we note that we turned them down, and nothing is charged.
Sign-in: your saved email, your Sign in with Apple link, each phone's scrambled key, sign-in codes (each works once, for ten minutes) and the one-time link that signs the iPhone app in. Deleted when you delete your family.
Your plan and payments: your plan is deleted when you delete your family (a web plan is stopped first, so nothing more is charged, and a refund you asked for, or a yearly plan's unused months, is paid first). The record of each payment and refund, and the payment companies' notices about them, are kept for our books, as long as tax rules require, with nothing that points to you.
How the app was used: the measuring above, what was cooked, the ticks on lists, the savings estimates, how well each flyer read (the store, the prices read, and any price you told us the flyer printed instead), and what each AI step cost. When you delete your family these stay as counts, with nothing that points to you.
Where you came from: the link tag and how you heard about us. When you delete your family it stays as a count, with no link to you or the friend who shared it.
Free months from friend links: when a friend who joined with your link pays their first month, a record that each family is owed a free month, and how it was given (added to your web plan, or an App Store code we sent). A month still owed when you delete your family is cancelled; the record stays for our books with nothing that points to you.
When a family leaves: a short record with no name: how many weeks it used the app, its store, and the reason, if you chose to give one.
The free holiday planner: your answers, kept behind your plan's link with no name or email, deleted after the holiday season.
The seasonal ideas list: your email address, when you asked, from which page, and when you confirmed. Deleted the moment you unsubscribe, or after 30 days if it was never confirmed.
Anything sent to Meta: a record of each event, if that is ever switched on (see "Ads, Meta and cookies"). Today there are none.

Our hosting company keeps short-lived server logs and backups; deleted data leaves them as they roll over.

Deleting your data

You can delete your family any time: Your family → Delete our family's data in the app, or email us. Deleting removes your people, allergies, pantry, menus, recipes, lists, problem reports, your saved email, your Apple sign-in link (we also ask Apple to end it on its side) and every phone's key, and takes down any page you shared. It can't be undone. What stays can't be tied back to you: the counts described above.

Deleting the app from your phone doesn't delete your data. Cancelling a plan is separate: a web plan ends when you delete your family, but a plan bought on an iPhone keeps billing until you cancel it with Apple (your iPhone's Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions).

If Honest Dinner ever closes, we'll tell every family first and offer each one a download of its data, before anything is deleted.

Children

Honest Dinner is for adults who plan their family's meals. You must be 18 or older to make an account. A parent may enter children's first names, and says only that each is a child, never an age, so dinners fit the table; we don't collect anything from children directly, and we don't knowingly let anyone under 13 use an account. If you think a child under 13 has signed up, email us and we'll delete it.

Keeping it safe

Connections to Honest Dinner are encrypted. Phone keys are stored only in scrambled form, sign-in codes expire after ten minutes and work once, and only the people who run Honest Dinner can reach your data. No system is perfectly secure; if something ever goes wrong with your information, we'll tell you.

Your choices and rights

See and change your information in the app, any time.
Email us for a copy of everything we hold about your family.
Delete your family from the app, or ask us to.
Sign out of your other phones from Settings.
Cancel at any time.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or get a copy of your information, and to opt out of its sale or of "sharing" for advertising. We honor them for everyone, wherever you live. Email us, and we'll answer within 30 days.

If this policy changes

We'll post the new version here and tell you in the app. If a change would let us use information you already gave us in a new way, we'll ask you first.

Contact

patrick@honestdinner.com · Honest Dinner, New York