CartSense LLC ("CartSense," "we," "our," or "us") provides a meal-planning and grocery tool used by individuals and offered by gyms, personal trainers, dietitians, and nutrition coaches ("Organizations") to their members. This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. It applies to the CartSense app, website, and related services (the "Service").
By using CartSense you agree to this policy and to our Terms & Conditions.
The short version
- We collect what we need to run the Service: your email, your food preferences, the meals you generate and save, and your shopping lists.
- Diet, allergy, and nutrition-plan information is health-related. We use it only to shape your meals, we encrypt it, and we never sell it or use it for advertising.
- If you joined through an Organization, its staff can see your name, email, when you were last active, and the plans they wrote for you — not your meals, lists, or purchases.
- CartSense is free. We earn a commission from Instacart when you shop through the app; the links carry an anonymous code, not your identity.
- You can see, correct, export, or delete your data, and leave an Organization, from your account at any time.
1. Information We Collect
1.1 Account
- Email address (sign-in is by emailed link; we do not store a password)
- Name, if you enter one
- A session token so you stay signed in on your device
1.2 Food preferences and health-related information
- Diet type, allergies, sensitivities, and disliked foods
- Cooking experience and household size
- Household member profiles you create (name, diet, allergies)
- Photos of diet instructions you upload, and the rules extracted from them
- Ingredient locks (always / never include) and preferences learned from what you generate, save, and skip
Diet, allergy, and plan information is health-related. See Section 7.
1.3 Meals and shopping
- Prompts you type, links or videos you paste, and the meals generated from them
- Meals you save and the collections you organize them into
- Shopping list items, pantry items, and your chosen store
- Chat messages you send to adjust a meal
- Records of carts you build (items, quantities, an estimated value, and the store) — see Section 5
1.4 Organization membership
If you join CartSense through an Organization, we also record:
- Which Organization you belong to, your role (member or staff), and when you joined
- When you last used CartSense (shown to staff as an activity date)
- Which staff member you are assigned to, if any
- Nutrition plans staff create for you: diet style, daily targets, foods to include or avoid, a written summary, and any photos or documents staff uploaded to create them
- Private notes staff write about your plan — visible only to your Organization's staff and never used to generate meals
1.5 If you run an Organization
- Your name, the Organization's name, type, and join link
- Branding you upload (logo, colors, display name) and a website address if you use "Match my website" — we fetch that page once to suggest a logo and colors and do not store the page
- Staff you invite (email addresses) and the plans and templates you create
- Aggregate activity for your Organization (meals generated, carts built, members active) — never individual members' meals
1.6 Collected automatically
- Device and browser type, app version, and approximate region from your IP address
- Usage events (for example, which features you use and when) and error logs
- Push-notification tokens, if you turn notifications on
2. How We Use Information
- To generate meals that match your preferences, restrictions, and any plan assigned to you
- To build shopping lists and grocery carts
- To sign you in, keep you signed in, and secure your account
- To show Organization staff the information in Section 4
- To show Organizations aggregate activity for their members
- To improve meal quality, product matching, and the Service generally
- To send transactional email (sign-in links, invitations, plan updates) and, if you opt in, push notifications
- To enforce fair-use limits, prevent abuse, and comply with law
We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.
3. Artificial Intelligence
Meals, recipes, plan summaries, and chat replies are generated with OpenAI's models. To do that we send OpenAI:
- Your prompt or message and the meal being discussed
- Your diet type, allergies, sensitivities, dislikes, and locks
- The rules and targets of any plan assigned to you (never staff's private notes)
- Diet-instruction photos you or your coach upload, to read them
- Household members' diets and allergies, so meals work for everyone
We do not send your name, email, Organization, or account identifiers to OpenAI. Under OpenAI's API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train their models.
AI output can be wrong. Nutrition figures are estimates; always check ingredients if you have an allergy.
4. Organizations and What Staff Can See
If you joined through an Organization, its Owner and staff can see:
- Your name and email address
- When you joined and when you were last active
- Which staff member you're assigned to
- The nutrition plans they created for you
They cannot see:
- The meals you generate or save, or your chat messages
- Your shopping lists, pantry, or anything you add to a cart or buy
- Allergies, sensitivities, dislikes, or household profiles you set yourself
- Your activity in any other Organization
These limits are enforced in our systems, not just by policy. The Organization is a separate party from CartSense: how its staff use the information they can see is governed by their own practices and by our Terms, which require them not to enter clinical information and to tell you what they can see.
Leaving an Organization (from your account) or being removed by its Owner ends staff access immediately and removes any plan they assigned. Your account, meals, and lists stay with you. Sharing a meal never gives anyone access to your account or enrolls them in your Organization.
5. Grocery Shopping and Affiliate Links
5.1 Instacart
When you tap to shop, we send Instacart the ingredient names and quantities (and, for a recipe, its title, image, and steps) so it can build your cart. We do not send your name, email, or account information. Your order, payment, and delivery happen on Instacart under Instacart's privacy policy.
CartSense participates in Instacart's affiliate program. The link you tap includes an affiliate identifier and a non-identifying code for your Organization and your account (a one-way hash, not your email or user ID) so that a commission can be attributed. This does not change what you pay and does not give Instacart any additional information about you.
5.2 Cart records
Each time you build a cart, we record the items, quantities, the store you chose, and an estimated value. We use these to show you your lists and to show Organizations aggregate totals (for example, "members added $1,900 of groceries this month"). We do not know what you actually purchased unless a grocery service reports an attributed order to us in aggregate.
5.3 Kroger (where a direct integration is offered)
If you link a Kroger account, we store the access tokens Kroger issues, your selected store, and product data (prices, aisles, availability) for items we look up. We never see your Kroger password. To add items to your cart we send Kroger product IDs, quantities, and your token — nothing else about you. Unlinking removes the tokens.
6. Who Else We Share With
We share information only to run the Service:
- Google Firebase — sign-in and our database (Google Cloud, United States)
- OpenAI — meal generation, as described in Section 3
- Instacart and, where offered, Kroger — as described in Section 5
- Cloudinary — hosting of meal images, Organization logos, and uploaded plan photos
- Resend — sending email; receives your email address and the contents of the email (sign-in links, invitations). We do not send plan details or health-related information by email.
- Vercel — hosting of the website and application
- Your Organization — as described in Section 4
We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights or safety of users or the public, or as part of a merger or acquisition (in which case this policy continues to apply to your data).
We never sell your data, and we never share it with advertisers or data brokers.
7. Health-Related Information
CartSense is a wellness and meal-planning tool. It is not a medical device, not a medical records system, and not a HIPAA business associate.
Diet types, allergies, sensitivities, uploaded diet instructions, and coach-assigned nutrition plans are health-related information. We treat it as sensitive:
- Used solely to shape meal suggestions and grocery lists
- Encrypted in transit and at rest; access is limited to you, the staff described in Section 4, and CartSense personnel who need it to operate or support the Service
- Never sold, never used for advertising, never shared with your Organization beyond what Section 4 describes
- Not reviewed by medical professionals; consult your doctor for medical or dietary decisions
Consent. By entering health-related preferences, uploading diet instructions, or joining an Organization, you consent to our collecting and using that information as described here. You can withdraw consent at any time by removing the information, leaving the Organization, or deleting your account (Section 9).
Organizations. Gyms, trainers, dietitians, and coaches using CartSense agree not to enter diagnoses, medical history, or other clinical information, and to keep records covered by health-privacy law in their own systems.
State consumer-health-data laws. If you live in a state with a consumer health data law (for example Washington, Nevada, or Connecticut) or in California, you have additional rights over this information, including to access it, have it deleted, and withdraw consent. This section is our consumer health data privacy notice. Use Section 9 or contact us (Section 12) to exercise these rights.
8. Storage, Security, and Retention
- Data is stored on Google Cloud (Firebase) in the United States and encrypted in transit and at rest
- Access inside CartSense is limited to people who need it to operate or support the Service
- Sign-in links expire after one hour; sessions expire after 14 days of inactivity
- Access controls that limit what Organization staff can see are enforced by our database rules and servers
We keep your information while your account is active. When you delete your account:
- Your profile, preferences, saved meals, lists, plans, and Organization membership are deleted promptly
- Any linked grocery tokens are revoked
- Cart records and usage events are anonymized (your identifier is removed) and kept only as aggregate statistics
- Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis within 30 days
If you leave an Organization but keep your account, the Organization's copies of plans it wrote for you are archived on its side; your own account no longer carries them.
9. Your Choices and Rights
From your account you can, at any time:
- View and change your name, diet, allergies, sensitivities, dislikes, and household profiles
- Remove uploaded diet instructions
- Leave your Organization
- Unlink a grocery account
- Turn notifications off
- Delete your account and data
You can also ask us to provide a copy of your data, correct it, or delete it by emailing the address in Section 12. We respond within 30 days and will verify the request came from you. We will not treat you differently for exercising these rights.
Depending on where you live (including the EU/UK, California, and other U.S. states), you may have additional rights such as the right to know, to portability, to restrict processing, and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Contact us and we will help.
10. Children
CartSense is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Users between 13 and 18 need a parent or guardian's consent. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy as the Service changes. Material changes will be announced in the app or by email, and the "Last Updated" date will change. Continued use after a change means you accept it.
