Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy for FoodBalance
Who and what this policy covers
This policy is for consumers in Washington State, under the My Health My
Data Act (RCW 19.373), and in Nevada, under NRS 603A.400 to 603A.550. It
covers the Android app FoodBalance — Calorie Tracker, application ID
com.gante.foodbalance, published by Gi-Gante s. r. o.; "we",
"us" and "our" mean Gi-Gante s. r. o. The
FoodBalance Privacy Policy describes every
data flow of the app in detail.
The diary, weight, profile, targets, the allergens you mark, the data the app reads from or writes to Health Connect, and the backup, CSV and PDF files you export or that automatic backup writes to a folder you choose stay on your phone or go only where you send them. The app does not send them to us, and we do not collect them.
The consumer health data we collect comes from Meal photo, which estimates a meal from a photo of it. The app sends such a photo only when you take or pick one for Meal photo, only after you agree on the consent sheet that it shows before the first photo, and only from a profile of age 18 or older. Recipe from photo and, with FoodBalance Pro, cloud label reading go through the same consent and the same processors, but a recipe or a nutrition label shows ingredients or a product rather than what you ate; the Privacy Policy describes them. It also describes contributions to Open Food Facts, which describe a product and carry nothing from Meal photo.
Consumer health data we collect, and why
- Meal photos and notes. The photo you take, or pick in the Android photo picker, reduced to at most 1,024 pixels on its long side and stripped of its metadata (EXIF), including any location; and the short note you may type to clarify it. We use them only to estimate the foods and portions in the photo for you. Our server passes them to the AI service provider that recognizes the photo on our behalf and keeps no copy of either.
- Meal estimates. What comes back for a photo: the foods seen in it, the estimated grams of each with a range, calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates per 100 g, how sure the estimate is, how each food looks cooked and whether oil or sauce is visible, and the size of the plate or bowl when one is visible. We use them only to show you the estimate: you check the portions, and nothing is written to the diary until you save it. Our server keeps each estimate for up to seven days, filed under a hashed form of your installation identifier, the photo's fingerprint, the app language and a hash of the note, so that the same photo sent again is answered at once and is not counted again.
- Records of your use of Meal photo. For the free version under a hashed form of your installation identifier, and with FoodBalance Pro under a one-way hash of the purchase token: the number of meal photos recognized that day and that month; the number of requests of the day, failed ones included; and, for the month, what the requests cost us, how many reached the AI service provider, the plan and whether a limit was reached. Each request also leaves one log entry with the time, the request path and a request identifier, and our own fields: the feature, the plan, the model used, the duration, the number of model tokens, the result code, whether the answer came from the cache and the first eight characters of the hashed installation identifier; the entry holds no photo, note, food name, IP address or request headers. We use these records for the daily and monthly limits of the free version and of Pro, for ceilings against misuse, to control costs and to run the server.
Where the data comes from
- From you, through the app: the photos and notes you choose to send.
- From the AI service provider that recognizes the photo on our behalf: the meal estimates, which it derives from your photo and note.
- From your requests: our server creates the records of use from the requests the app sends with a photo. Each request carries a random installation identifier that the app creates for our server, a one-time verification token and, with FoodBalance Pro, the purchase token that Google Play issued.
How the data is processed
Meal photo starts only when you tap Photo next to the search field while adding food. The app reduces the photo and removes its metadata on the phone, then sends it with your note to our server, which passes them to the AI service provider and returns the estimate to the app. Without a connection, you can save a meal photo for later: it waits on the phone and is sent once the phone is online.
Like any internet request, a photo request carries your IP address. It is used only to limit how many requests can come from one address, and to tell the country a photo is sent from, which our server compares with the list of countries where photo recognition is not offered; the server does not store it. The app has no location permission, and we do not set up a geofence around any place that provides health care services.
Your rights
Whether you live in Washington or in Nevada, you can:
- Confirm and access. Ask whether we collect, share or sell your consumer health data, get access to it, and get a list of the third parties and affiliates we have shared it with or sold it to, with a way to contact each. We have shared it with none and sold it to none.
- Delete. Ask us to delete your consumer health data.
- Withdraw consent and stop collection. In the app, turn off "Send photos for recognition" under Photo recognition on Profile → Data and database. The app then deletes the meal photos waiting to be sent, sends no further photo, and shows the consent sheet again before the next one. Withdrawing does not recall what was already sent. You can also write to us.
- Review and change. The app shows every estimate before anything is saved, and you change the portions there; saved entries stay on your phone, where you edit or delete them. The records on our server are not changed afterwards; they are deleted on the schedule below.
How to make a request
Write to foodbalance@gi-gante.com and say which of the rights above you are using and whether you live in Washington or in Nevada. You do not need an account. If we cannot authenticate a request with reasonable effort, we may ask you for more information.
We answer within 45 days of receiving a request. When it is reasonably necessary, we may extend this once by 45 more days; we then tell you so, with the reason, within the first 45 days.
What we can find, and when it is deleted
The records on our server carry no name, email address or phone number, and the AI service provider receives no identifier at all. For the free version, the records are filed under a hashed form of a random identifier that the app creates for our server and does not show on its screens. A request by email therefore cannot be matched to them, and our answer will say so. Erase all data on the Data and database screen, and uninstalling the app, delete that identifier from the phone; nothing new is then filed under it.
With FoodBalance Pro, the records of your use of Meal photo are filed under a one-way hash of the purchase token. If you add the order number of your purchase from your Google Play receipt to your request, we look up its purchase token in Google Play and delete the records that our server keeps under the hash of that token. The meal estimates in our server's cache cannot be found this way; they are deleted on the schedule below.
Whether or not you ask, the data is deleted on this schedule:
- meal photos and notes: our server keeps none; the AI service provider keeps them for 55 days;
- meal estimates: after up to seven days;
- daily records of use: within three days after their day (UTC) ends;
- monthly records of use: after the end of the following month;
- log entries: after at most seven days.
Appeals
If we refuse to act on a request, in whole or in part, you can appeal by replying to our answer or by writing to foodbalance@gi-gante.com with "Appeal" in the subject. We answer an appeal in writing within 45 days of receiving it, with what we did or did not do and why. If we deny your appeal, you can submit a complaint to the Washington State Attorney General or, in Nevada, contact the Nevada Attorney General.
Changes to this policy
Before FoodBalance collects another category of consumer health data, uses it for another purpose or shares it, we update this page at the same address with a new effective date, and the app asks for your consent again before the next photo.
Contact
FoodBalance is published by Gi-Gante s. r. o., a company established in the European Union.
Requests and questions about consumer health data: foodbalance@gi-gante.com
Everything else the app does with data: FoodBalance Privacy Policy