This Privacy Policy explains how BeeRoot ("BeeRoot," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information when you use the BeeRoot mobile application and our website (collectively, the "Service").
BeeRoot helps you photograph food products and receive AI-assisted ingredient analysis personalized to safety profiles you create. Because the Service may involve health-related preferences, food images, and automated analysis, we describe our practices clearly below.
By using the Service, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.
1. Scope and data controller
BeeRoot is the controller of personal information processed through the Service, except where we act as a processor on behalf of another party (which is not the case for standard consumer use of BeeRoot today).
This policy applies to information collected through:
- The BeeRoot Android application
- Our website at beeroot.ai (including privacy, terms, and support pages)
- Support communications you send to us
It does not apply to third-party websites, app stores, or services that we do not control (such as Google Play or Google Sign-In), except as described regarding service providers we use to operate BeeRoot.
2. Information we collect
We collect information you provide, information generated when you use the Service, and limited technical information from your device.
2.1 Account and authentication information
- Email address
- Firebase authentication user ID
- Display name and profile photo URL (if provided or obtained via Google Sign-In)
- Sign-in method (email/password or Google)
- Authentication tokens used to verify requests to our backend
- Basic account activity timestamps (for example, last active time)
2.2 Safety profiles and sensitive preference data
You may provide information relevant to food safety personalization. Depending on your settings, this may include:
- Profile type (pregnant, kids, senior, or general)
- Profile name and display emoji
- Pregnancy trimester, if applicable
- For child profiles, the child's age or date of birth, used to tailor age-appropriate safety guidance
- Allergies (from our reference lists and/or custom entries)
- Dietary restrictions (catalog items and/or custom entries), including severity (Avoid or Caution) and enabled/disabled status
We treat allergy, restriction, and related profile data as sensitive in how we store and protect it, although you choose what to enter. When you scan food, we store a snapshot of the profile settings used for that scan.
2.3 Camera and image data
With your permission, BeeRoot accesses your device camera to photograph food labels, packaging, or prepared food. When you scan:
- The photo is transmitted securely to our servers for analysis
- We extract product and ingredient information from the image using automated and AI-based processing
- A copy of the scan image may be stored in private cloud storage linked to your account
BeeRoot currently uses camera-based scanning, not barcode scanning. If camera permission is denied, scanning features will not function.
2.4 Scan results and usage data
- Product names, ingredients, label warnings, and analysis output (Safe, Caution, or Avoid)
- Per-ingredient reasons, matched allergens, and matched restrictions
- Scan history, timestamps, and profile statistics (such as scan counts)
- Technical analysis metadata (for example, model version and confidence indicators) used for quality, debugging, and improvement
2.5 Device, diagnostic, and local data
- Crash and diagnostic data: via Firebase Crashlytics (crash reports and limited logs to improve stability)
- Local device storage: cached reference data and onboarding preferences stored on your device (Room database and Android DataStore)
- Network and security data: IP address, request metadata, and app/API interaction data processed by our infrastructure providers
We do not currently use Firebase Analytics in the BeeRoot Android app.
2.6 Information we do not collect
Based on the current BeeRoot app, we do not intentionally collect:
- Precise geolocation
- Contacts or address book contents
- Microphone recordings
- Payment card details directly (future purchases, if offered, are processed by Google Play)
3. How we use information
We use personal information to:
- Create and manage your account and authenticate you
- Provide scanning, ingredient analysis, and personalized safety results
- Store and display scan history
- Maintain and improve reference data, matching logic, and Service reliability
- Monitor, prevent, and address fraud, abuse, security issues, and technical problems
- Respond to support requests and legal obligations
- Develop new features and improve user experience
Allergies and restrictions used during scanning are resolved on our servers at scan time. Client requests cannot override or weaken those server-side checks.
4. Legal bases for processing (EEA, UK, and similar jurisdictions)
If you are in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, or a jurisdiction with similar requirements, we rely on the following legal bases:
- Contract: to provide the Service you request (account, scanning, profiles, history)
- Legitimate interests: to secure and improve the Service, prevent abuse, and support users (balanced against your rights)
- Consent: where required (for example, camera permission on your device, or optional communications where applicable)
- Legal obligation: where we must comply with applicable law
Where we process sensitive-related profile data you choose to provide, our legal basis is typically performance of the Service you request and, where required, your consent.
5. AI and automated analysis
BeeRoot uses automated processing, including Google Gemini AI models, to analyze food images and ingredient text. Outputs may influence Safe, Caution, or Avoid results shown to you.
- Your image and profile-derived safety context may be sent to Google's AI services for processing
- We apply additional automated keyword/synonym checks after AI analysis; these checks can escalate results to be more cautious, not less
- Automated outputs may be inaccurate or incomplete; they are informational only and not medical advice
We do not use automated processing to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects without human involvement. You should independently verify product labels and consult qualified professionals for health decisions.
6. How we share information
We do not sell your personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
We share information only in these circumstances:
- Service providers / processors that help us operate BeeRoot, including Google Firebase, Google Cloud, and Google Gemini, under contractual confidentiality and security obligations
- Legal and safety reasons, if required by law or necessary to protect rights, safety, and security
- Business transfers, such as a merger, acquisition, or asset sale (with notice where required by law)
- With your direction or consent
For more information about Google's practices, see Google Privacy Policy and applicable Firebase/Google Cloud terms.
7. Retention and deletion
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements.
- Account and profile data is kept while your account is active
- Crash logs and operational logs are retained for limited periods according to provider settings and operational needs
7.1 What happens when you delete a scan
Deleting a scan removes it from your history immediately. For most profiles the scan and its image are then held for 30 days before being permanently erased from our systems. This short window exists so that an accidental deletion can be recovered on request.
Scans belonging to a child profile are an exception: they are permanently deleted straight away, with no waiting period and no record kept.
7.2 What happens when you delete a profile
Deleting a profile is immediate and cannot be undone. The profile, every scan belonging to it, and every associated scan image are permanently erased at once — there is no 30-day window and no way for us to restore them afterwards.
7.3 Anonymized safety records
When a scan belonging to an adult profile is permanently erased, we keep a small anonymized safety record of the analysis. It is identified only by an irreversible cryptographic hash of your account identifier, and contains the product name, scan type, the ingredients identified, the safety verdict, and which analysis model produced it. It does not contain your name, email, account identifier, images, or your allergy and dietary settings.
We keep these records so that we can investigate and correct safety errors in our analysis after the original scan is gone. We retain them for up to two years.
No anonymized record of any kind is created for scans belonging to a child profile. When a child's scan is deleted, nothing whatsoever is retained.
7.4 Billing records
Records of purchases and subscription transactions are retained to meet tax, accounting, and legal obligations. Because we are legally required to keep them, these records are not erased when you delete your account or exercise a deletion right, and they are not deleted on request.
7.5 Deleting your account
You may request deletion of your account and its data by emailing privacy@beeroot.ai. We may ask you to verify your identity before processing deletion requests. When we process the request, your profiles, scans, and scan images are erased as described above — including the immediate, unrecoverable deletion of any child profile data — and the anonymized safety records and billing records described in 7.3 and 7.4 are retained.
Deleting your account does not cancel a Google Play subscription. Google controls subscription billing, not BeeRoot. Cancel your subscription separately in the Google Play Store, or you may continue to be charged.
8. Security
We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards, including encrypted transport (HTTPS/TLS), authenticated API access, and access controls on cloud databases and storage.
No system is completely secure. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your device and account credentials.
9. Your privacy rights
Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or port certain personal information, and to withdraw consent where processing is consent-based.
9.1 All users
- Update profile/allergy/restriction data in the app
- Revoke camera permission in Android settings
- Request account/data deletion via privacy@beeroot.ai
9.2 EEA/UK users (GDPR)
You may have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. You may also request access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, or objection by contacting us. We will respond within 30 days of receiving a verified request, as required by the GDPR.
9.3 California users (CCPA/CPRA)
California residents may have the right to know categories of personal information collected, request deletion, request correction, and opt out of sale/sharing (we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined by California law).
To exercise rights, email privacy@beeroot.ai with "Privacy Request" in the subject line. We will respond within 45 days of receiving a verified request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising privacy rights.
9.4 Limits on erasure
When you exercise a deletion right, some information is retained because we are legally required or permitted to keep it:
- Billing and transaction records, retained to meet tax and accounting obligations (section 7.4)
- Anonymized safety records, which no longer identify you and are retained to investigate safety errors in our analysis (section 7.3) — never created for child profiles
Everything else associated with your account is erased as described in section 7.
10. Children's privacy
BeeRoot is intended for use by adults and parents/guardians managing family food safety. The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent.
Parents or guardians may create profiles related to children within their account. Children do not sign in and do not have accounts of their own; a child profile is a set of dietary settings managed entirely by the adult account holder.
Before a child profile can be created, we require the account holder to confirm that they are the child's parent or legal guardian and consent to the processing of that child's information. We record that this consent was given, the date and time it was given, and the version of the terms it was given under. A child profile cannot be created without it.
We also require account holders to confirm they are 18 or older when they create their BeeRoot account, and we record that confirmation in the same way.
For a child profile we store the profile name, an age or date of birth used to tailor safety guidance, and the allergy and dietary settings you enter. We apply stronger deletion rules to this data than to any other: a child's scans are erased permanently and immediately when deleted, with no retention window, and we never create an anonymized safety record from them (see section 7).
If you believe we collected information from a child in violation of this policy, contact us and we will take appropriate steps.
11. International data transfers
BeeRoot is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from other countries, your information may be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the U.S. and other countries where we or our service providers operate, which may have different data protection laws than your jurisdiction.
Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for international transfers (such as standard contractual clauses or equivalent mechanisms offered by service providers).
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice (such as in-app notice or email). Continued use after the effective date of changes constitutes acceptance unless applicable law requires otherwise.
13. Contact us
For privacy questions or requests:
- Email: privacy@beeroot.ai
- Support page: beeroot.ai/support