Privacy policy for MenuTome on Android
This policy applies to the MenuTome Android app, whether you installed it from Google Play or from menutome.com. It tells you what data is involved, who receives it and what rights you have. The website menutome.com and the Windows app have their own privacy policy.
Last updated: 7 October 2026
Controller
Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts Enrico Kaldasch & Pornvilai Kaldasch (a German civil-law partnership, “GbR”), represented by its partners Enrico Kaldasch and Pornvilai Kaldasch, Ackerstraße 19, 04910 Elsterwerda, Germany.
Email: info@menutome.de · Phone: +49 3533 1691692
The key points
MenuTome works without an account and without signing in. The app stores recipes, photos, books, your week plan, shopping list, notes and settings only on your phone. We do not receive this content.
The app contains no ads and no analytics, tracking or advertising services. It does not build a user profile and makes no automated decisions about you.
The app only connects to the internet in these cases: (1) to check your license key for Pro or Max with Lemon Squeezy, (2) when you request that we start providing Pro or Max immediately, (3) when you import a web page, and (4) only in the version from menutome.com, for the update notice. Without a license key and without importing a web page, the app installed from Google Play stays offline. Your phone's speech recognition and text-to-speech may make their own connections depending on your settings (see below).
What stays on your phone
Your content is kept in the app's protected storage on your phone, which other apps cannot access. MenuTome does not additionally encrypt this data. Only your license key is stored encrypted by the app; the key for this is held in the Android keystore of this device.
MenuTome does not include your data in the automatic Android backup. If you uninstall the app or clear its data in the Android settings, the data is removed from your phone. You can create your own backup under “Data and backup”; it does not contain your license key and is not encrypted.
Whatever you record in MenuTome about other people, for example photos of people or names in recipes, you process yourself. We have no access to it.
Photos and camera
You take photos with your phone's camera app or choose them in the Android photo picker. MenuTome does not request any camera, photo or storage permission for this and only receives the pictures you take or choose.
Before the app saves a photo that you take, choose or share with MenuTome, it removes the location data embedded in the picture and other capture details such as camera model and time taken. The image orientation and colour profile are kept. Photos from an imported backup or book file are taken over as they are in the file.
License for Pro and Max
You use Basic without a license key. If you enter a license key for MenuTome Pro or Max, the app transmits it directly to Lemon Squeezy, through which the licenses are issued and managed. On activation, it also sends a randomly generated short identifier of this installation; for later checks and when you remove the license, it sends the identifier that Lemon Squeezy assigned to this activation.
The app checks the license by itself at start-up and while you use it, but only goes online for this if the last successful check was more than six hours ago. It also checks when you open “Subscription & license” or check the license there manually. If you remove the license in the app, it signs this device out at Lemon Squeezy.
The purpose is to unlock your license and to check whether it is valid and on how many devices it is used. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract). Lemon Squeezy is based in the USA; the data is therefore transferred to the USA. This is based on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses (Art. 46 GDPR). Lemon Squeezy stores the activations for your license key.
Consent to an immediate start
After activation, you decide whether we start providing Pro or Max immediately or only after the withdrawal period has ended. If you expressly request that we start immediately, the app transmits the following to our server in Germany: your license key, the tier, the times of your consent and of the start, the app version, the version of the consent text and the language set in the app.
Our server transmits the license key to Lemon Squeezy (USA, see “License for Pro and Max”) and receives from there the purchase data for the key: email address, name, order number, purchase date and tier. We send the legally required confirmation to that email address (Section 312f of the German Civil Code, BGB); a copy goes to our mailbox. On our server we store a check value (hash) of the license key, not the key itself, the times mentioned and the time of receipt, the email address, order number, purchase date, tier, app and text version and the language. We use your name only to address you in the email and do not store it. If sending fails, the app tries again at start-up and during license checks, at most every ten minutes.
The legal bases are Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligation to confirm). We base the retention as proof of your consent on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is being able to prove or defend claims under the contract. For our server and for sending emails we use service providers in Germany, for the emails STRATO GmbH (Berlin). How long we keep the information is set out under “Retention period”.
Importing a web page
If you paste a link or share a link with MenuTome, the app only retrieves the page when you tap “Import webpage”. The request goes directly from your phone to the website; we receive nothing. The website operator receives the address of the page and the details listed under “What every internet connection involves”; the operator's own privacy policy applies. MenuTome processes the text of the page only on your phone.
What every internet connection involves
With every connection the app makes, the other side receives, for technical reasons, your IP address, the time, your phone's language and a technical identifier that Android sends along. This identifier may contain the Android version and the device model. The update notice (see below) instead sends only “MenuTome-Android” with the app's version number as its identifier. The app's connections to Lemon Squeezy and to our server are encrypted (HTTPS).
Sharing, exporting, printing and clipboard
When you share or export something, such as a book, a backup or your shopping list, MenuTome opens the Android share menu. You decide where the file or text goes; the terms of the app or service you choose apply. The same applies when printing to the print service you choose in Android.
Content that you share with MenuTome from other apps is kept by the app only on your phone until you review or discard it.
In the “From AI chat” flow, MenuTome sends nothing to an AI. At your request, the app copies a prompt to the clipboard and reads an answer from the clipboard when you tap “Paste”. Whatever you paste into an AI chat of your choice, you give to its provider yourself.
“Rate on Google” in a restaurant note opens Google Maps with the name of the restaurant. MenuTome passes on only this name; your own stars stay in MenuTome. Google also receives the details that every internet connection involves and may link the request to your Google account if you are signed in to Google Maps. Google's terms apply.
Hands-free cooking (microphone)
In cook mode you can control MenuTome with short commands such as “next”, “back”, “again” or “timer”. This only happens if you tap “Hands-free”. Beforehand, the app explains once what it needs the microphone for; Android then asks for permission. You can withdraw this permission at any time in the Android settings; MenuTome then works fully, just without voice commands.
The app only listens while “Hands-free” is switched on and cook mode is open on the screen. If you leave cook mode, switch to another app or lock your phone, MenuTome stops listening immediately; when you return, the app listens again as long as “Hands-free” is still switched on. While “Hands-free” is switched on, the microphone picks up everything said nearby, including other people's voices.
Speech is not recognised by MenuTome itself but by your phone's speech recognition. MenuTome uses on-device recognition if your phone offers it for the selected language (Android 12 and later). If it does not, the app first asks you whether it may use your phone's speech recognition service instead, for example from Google. This service may transmit audio to its provider; the provider's terms apply. MenuTome asks the service to work without an internet connection but cannot enforce this. Without your consent, the app does not listen this way. Cook mode shows which route is currently in use (“on this phone” or “via your phone's speech service”). The app remembers your decision on your phone and does not ask again. If you no longer want to use this route, leave “Hands-free” switched off or remove MenuTome's microphone permission in the Android settings.
MenuTome does not store any audio recording. The app only receives the recognised text from the speech recognition, compares it in memory with the command words and shows the most recently recognised words so you can check them; longer sentences do not trigger a command. The recognised text is not stored and is discarded as soon as you switch off “Hands-free” or leave cook mode. Neither audio nor recognised text is transmitted to us.
Read aloud
On request, MenuTome reads the current step aloud in cook mode, including the cooking tip; with “Hands-free” switched on, this happens automatically. To do so, the app passes the text to your phone's text-to-speech service. No permission is required for this. Whether the text-to-speech service uses an internet connection for this depends on the service and the voice selected in your Android settings; that provider's terms apply. Nothing is transmitted to us.
Timers, alarms and notifications
Timers in cook mode also go off when your phone is locked or you have left the app. To do this, MenuTome sets an alarm in your phone's system and, when the time is up, shows a notification with an alarm sound and vibration. The notification shows the recipe title and the timer and may also be visible on the lock screen.
On Android 13 and later, Android asks at your first timer whether MenuTome may send notifications. For the timer to ring exactly on time, you can also allow MenuTome under “Alarms & reminders” in the Android settings; without this permission the sound may be slightly delayed. You can change both at any time in the Android settings. Timers and notifications are created only on your device; nothing is transmitted.
Screen and motion sensor
In cook mode, MenuTome keeps the screen switched on. In the recipe overview, the app reads the motion sensor so that you can shake your phone to roll a random recipe. Both happen only on your phone; the sensor data is neither stored nor transmitted.
Update notice (only in the version from menutome.com)
The app installed from Google Play has no update check of its own; updates there come through Google Play.
The Android app that you download from menutome.com checks at start-up, at most once every 20 hours, whether a new version is available. To do so, it retrieves a small version file from our server menutome.com. It sends neither a license key nor any content; as its identifier it only sends “MenuTome-Android” with the app's version number. For technical reasons, our server receives your IP address and the time and stores this information in the server log data (see “Retention period”). If a new version is available, the app shows a notice with a button to the download page; nothing is installed without your action.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to inform you about bug fixes and security updates, because no store updates this version, and to operate our server securely.
Google Play
If you installed MenuTome from Google Play, Google processes data on the installation and updates of the app under its own terms and as a controller in its own right. For users in the European Economic Area, this is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.
If you have agreed in Android to share usage and diagnostics data with Google, Google may show us crash and error reports about MenuTome in the Play Console, for example with the device model and Android version. According to Google, it provides them to us without reference to you as a person. Where they nevertheless contain personal data, we use them only to fix errors; the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest is an error-free app.
Do you have to provide data?
No. MenuTome works in Basic without a license key and without an internet connection. You only need the license key for Pro or Max. If you do not request an immediate start, we unlock Pro or Max automatically once the withdrawal period has ended.
Retention period
Content on your phone stays there until you delete it or uninstall the app.
Server log data on our server (IP address, time, address requested, technical identifier) is deleted automatically, after 30 days at the latest.
We keep confirmations of your consent to an immediate start and the copies in our mailbox as proof for as long as claims under the contract can still be asserted, and delete them afterwards. The relevant periods are the right of withdrawal (at most twelve months and 14 days, Section 356(4) BGB) and the regular limitation period of three years from the end of the year in which the claim arises (Sections 195 and 199 BGB). Where a longer statutory retention obligation applies, we keep them until it expires.
We keep emails to us for as long as we need them for your request and beyond that only where statutory retention obligations apply.
How long Lemon Squeezy and Google store data is determined by them; their privacy policies provide information on this.
Your right to object
Where we process data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21(1) GDPR). We will then no longer process the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. To object, write to info@menutome.de.
Your rights
You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing and data portability. To exercise them, write to info@menutome.de. If you remove the license in the app, the activation of this device at Lemon Squeezy is ended.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The authority responsible for us is the Brandenburg State Commissioner for Data Protection and for the Right of Access to Files (LDA Brandenburg), Stahnsdorfer Damm 77, 14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany.
Legal notice
Information pursuant to Section 5 of the German Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (DDG)
Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts Enrico Kaldasch & Pornvilai Kaldasch (a German civil-law partnership, “GbR”)
Ackerstraße 19, 04910 Elsterwerda, Germany
Represented by
The partners Enrico Kaldasch and Pornvilai Kaldasch
Contact
Email: info@menutome.de
Phone: +49 3533 1691692
Business identification number
Wirtschafts-Identifikationsnummer (W-IdNr.) pursuant to Section 139c of the German Fiscal Code (AO): DE455892729