Privacy Policy
MealStash does not collect any data. There is no account to create, no server we operate, and no analytics, advertising or tracking software of any kind in the app.
The short version
Your recipes, meal plans, grocery lists and notes live on your device. If you are signed in to iCloud, they also sync between your own devices through your own Apple Account. We never see them, because there is nowhere for them to go — MealStash has no backend.
What stays on your device
- Recipes, photos, notes and ratings. Stored locally. Private notes are excluded from anything you share unless you explicitly include them.
- Meal plans and grocery lists. Stored locally.
- Scanned recipe cards. Text recognition runs entirely on your device using Apple's Vision framework. No image is uploaded anywhere.
- Settings and preferences. Stored locally.
- Diagnostic reports. If MealStash crashes or freezes, it keeps a record on your device: the app version and build, your device model and iOS version, the steps the app took (as codes with times), and Apple's own crash, hang and exit reports for MealStash when iOS provides them. MealStash's own entries hold no recipes, names or invite codes; Apple's reports and error messages are included as iOS wrote them. You can read every line in Settings › Your Data › Diagnostic Reports. The app never sends it anywhere; it leaves your device only if you tap Share Report and choose where it goes. Delete Reports, or erasing the app's data, removes it.
iCloud sync
If your device is signed in to iCloud, MealStash syncs through your own Apple Account, so your other devices can pick your library up.
From version 1.3, your recipes are stored in your private iCloud database, and their text is stored there encrypted. Your meal plans, your grocery list and your purchase use your personal iCloud key-value storage, which also keeps a copy of your recipes for any of your devices still on MealStash 1.2 or earlier, for as long as that copy fits. Photos stay on the device they were added on. Earlier versions of MealStash keep every part of your library in that key-value storage.
All of it belongs to your Apple Account and is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. We have no access to any of it and no ability to read it.
Sign out of iCloud, or turn off iCloud for MealStash in Settings, and the app keeps working entirely offline.
Family Sharing
A Family Circle shares your shared recipes, the meal plan and the grocery list, with each member's display name, directly between the circle's devices over your local network, using Apple's MultipeerConnectivity. Every message is encrypted, and only devices the organizer admitted can read it. Each device's keys stay in its own Keychain. Nothing goes to a server, and we never see any of it — which is why MealStash can offer family sharing without asking anyone to create an account.
iOS will ask for local network permission the first time you create or join a Circle. Declining it leaves every other feature working; only nearby-device sync stops.
Importing a recipe from the web
When you paste a link, MealStash fetches that page directly from the website you chose so it can read the recipe. MealStash makes at most three requests: the page, its canonical address and its main photo, all at addresses that page names. We are not told which sites you visit, and the site receives an ordinary web request — the same one your browser would make. No information about you is attached.
Purchases
MealStash Premium is sold through Apple's In-App Purchase. Apple handles the payment and tells the app only whether an entitlement is active. We never see your name, payment method, or Apple Account details. See Apple's Privacy Policy for how Apple handles purchases.
What we do not do
| Analytics or usage tracking | None. No SDK, no events, and nothing is reported automatically. Crash records stay on your device (see Diagnostic reports). |
|---|---|
| Advertising | None, and no advertising identifiers are read. |
| Third-party code | None. MealStash ships with no third-party libraries. |
| Selling or sharing data | Never. We hold nothing unless you choose to send us something yourself, such as a diagnostic report. |
| Tracking across apps or websites | Never. |
Children
MealStash is rated 4+ and is safe for all ages. Because the app collects nothing, it collects nothing from children either.
Your data, your call
Everything is already in your hands. To remove your recipes, delete them in the app or delete the app. Settings › Your Data › Back Up, Restore or Erase can also erase everything MealStash holds on this device. To remove the iCloud copy, turn off iCloud for MealStash in the Settings app. If you have sent us a diagnostic report, email us and we will delete our copy.
Changes
If this policy ever changes, the updated version appears on this page with a new date, and material changes will be noted in the app's release notes.
Contact
Questions about privacy: JfDevIos@gmail.com