Privacy Policy for DoughSaver

Effective Date: September 1, 2025 Owner/Operator: Benjamin Custo (“we”, “us”, “our”) Contact: info@thebarcodecrew.com

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use the DoughSaver mobile application (the “App”). By using the App, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

1. Information We Collect

We collect several types of information to provide and improve our App:

  • Personal and Account Information: When you create an account, we may collect personal information.

    • Email Sign-In: Your email address.

    • Third-Party Sign-In (Google): Your name, email address, and profile identifier as provided by Google.

    • Anonymous (Guest) Session: We do not collect personal information, but a unique anonymous user ID is created to save your data locally.

  • User-Generated Content: Information you voluntarily provide to the App, including:

    • Product information (barcodes, product names, prices).

    • Shop names and locations (city, street).

    • User-specific notes added to products or shops.

  • Location Data:

    • We may request your device's location (latitude and longitude) to automatically determine your country. This is used to set the correct currency and find relevant data.

    • Your manually selected country is stored to personalize your app experience.

  • Automatically Collected Data (via Third-Party Services):

    • Analytics & Performance: We use Firebase services (like Firestore, Cloud Functions) to store your data and operate the app. These services may collect standard usage logs, device identifiers, and performance data.

    • Advertising: We use Google Mobile Ads to display advertisements. Google may collect device information and advertising identifiers to show personalized ads, in accordance with their own privacy policy.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for the following purposes:

  • To Provide and Maintain the App: To authenticate you, save your price entries, manage your shopping lists, and allow you to participate in user groups.

  • To Personalize Your Experience: To show you country-specific information, such as currency symbols (e.g., €, $, CHF) and relevant city/shop data.

  • To Improve the App: As stated in our Terms of Use, we may use aggregated and anonymized data (e.g., average product prices) to improve our service and develop new features. This data does not personally identify you.

  • To Communicate With You: To respond to your support requests via our contact email.

  • To Provide Notifications: The app may use local notifications for features like "Days Until" counters.

  • To Support the App: To display advertisements via Google Mobile Ads, which helps keep the App free.

    • Feature Unlocking: Some advanced features (such as Product Actions, Shopping Tools, and Counters) are supported by advertisements. After an initial introductory period, these features may require you to view a rewarded advertisement to unlock them for a temporary period.

3. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We do not sell your personal data. We only share information as described below:

  • Firebase (Google): Your data (including User Content and account information) is stored and processed using Google's Firebase platform.

  • Google Sign-In: If you use Google Sign-In, we share and receive authentication data with Google.

  • Google Mobile Ads: We integrate Google's advertising service, which operates under its own privacy policy.

  • GeoNames: We send your device's latitude and longitude to the GeoNames service to determine your country code. This data is not linked to your personal account information.

  • Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court) in our governing jurisdiction (Switzerland).

4. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on secure Firebase servers. We take reasonable measures to protect your information, but no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data as described in our "Account Deletion" policy. Anonymized and aggregated data may be retained indefinitely for statistical purposes.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal information. You can manage most of your data directly within the App. For account deletion, please see the section below.

7. Children's Privacy

As stated in our Terms of Use, the App is not intended for children under the age of digital consent in their country (typically 13-16) without parental or guardian consent.

8. App Usage Limits & Fair Use

To ensure the stability of the App and prevent abuse of our free resources, the following limitations apply to all users:

  • Storage Limits: Each user is limited to creating a maximum of 12 shops per country. Each shop can contain a maximum of 40 items.

  • Group Participation: Shopping groups are designed for households and small circles. Each group is limited to a maximum of 7 members.

  • Group Data Integrity: To protect shared data, you cannot permanently delete items or shops created by other group members. You may only "hide" or "archive" them from your own view. Only the original creator or a group admin (in specific cases) can perform permanent deletions.

  • Location Settings: To conserve external API resources, you may only change your manual country setting up to 5 times per day.

  • Shopping List Templates: Users may save a maximum of 3 shopping list templates.

  • Invite Codes: Group invitation codes are valid for 24 hours from the time of generation for security purposes.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this website and updating the "Effective Date" at the top.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: info@thebarcodecrew.com

Account & Data Deletion

You have the right to delete your DoughSaver account and associated personal data at any time.

How to Delete Your Account We provide one method for you to request account deletion:

1. In-App Deletion (Recommended Method) This is the fastest and most direct way to delete your account.

  1. Open the DoughSaver app.

  2. Open the main menu (drawer).

  3. If you are in a Shopping Group: Go to "My Shopping Group" and tap "Leave Group". You must leave your group before you can delete your account.

  4. Go to "Account Settings".

  5. Tap on "Delete Account".

  6. Follow the on-screen prompts to confirm the deletion.

What Happens When You Delete Your Account As stated in our Terms of Use (Section 14), upon receiving and verifying your deletion request:

  • We will delete your personal data (such as your user account, email address, and name) from our live systems within a reasonable period.

  • This deletion is subject to any legal or regulatory obligations we may have to retain certain information.

  • Aggregated or anonymized contributions (e.g., a product price you submitted, which is no longer linked to you) may be retained as part of the app's historical dataset.

  • Please note that your personal data may remain in our secure backups and logs for a limited period before being permanently erased.