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Privacy Policy

Deutsche Fassung: Datenschutzerklärung

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

A data protection officer is not legally required and has not been appointed (micro enterprise).

Basic principle: local processing

MenuTome is a local-first desktop application without an account and without login. Recipes, photos, book projects and all content generated from them are processed and stored exclusively locally on the user's computer. This content is not collected, not transmitted, not stored and not accessed by the provider. The provider has no access to this data. This does not apply to content you send us yourself, for example by email or in a report about AI output (see "Reporting AI output").

AI features: local by default, cloud only on request

The AI features (e.g. structuring recipes, drafting texts) run by default via an AI model running locally on the computer (for example via Ollama); no content data leaves the computer in this case. No registration is required.

Optionally, the user can set up an external AI in the settings. To do so, the user enters the address of the service, the model name and their own access key. Which provider that is is decided solely by the user — MenuTome is not tied to any provider and does not provide its own cloud AI. Without these entries, no transmission takes place.

If an external AI is set up, the content to be processed (e.g. recipe texts or photos for text recognition) is transmitted directly from the user's computer to the service chosen by the user. This transmission takes place at the user's initiative and with their own access; the privacy policy of the chosen provider applies to it — that is where to check whether and for how long inputs are stored, whether they are used for training, and in which country they are processed. The provider of this app receives neither the content nor the key.

The access key is stored locally on the user's computer and is never shown in the interface. Where the operating system provides a key store, it is stored there in encrypted form.

What data the provider processes

Because MenuTome works without an account, the provider only processes personal data in these cases:

  • Visiting this website: server log data of the hosting provider (e.g. time, IP address, page requested) to the extent technically necessary to provide the service and keep it secure.
  • Licence/subscription (if concluded): upon activation, the licence key is transmitted together with a randomly generated short identifier of this installation to the licensing service provider in order to check the subscription (see below).
  • Contact by email: the details provided, to handle the enquiry.
  • Cancellation or withdrawal via the forms on this website: the details you enter in the form (see below).
  • Consent to an immediate start (if given): your licence key and details of your consent (times, tier, app and text version, language) are sent to our server, which retrieves the purchase data from Lemon Squeezy and sends you the legally required confirmation by email (see below).
  • Reporting AI output (if you send a report): your email and its content (see below).
  • Getting the app from the Microsoft Store: reviews and crash reports that Microsoft shows us in Partner Center (see below).

Legal bases: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract/licence), Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure operation).

Cancellation and withdrawal forms

On the "Cancel subscription" and "Withdrawal" pages you can declare your cancellation or withdrawal directly online. In doing so, we process the details you enter (name, email address, licence key/order number if given, type and time of the declaration, reason for cancellation if given) as well as the date and time of receipt. The purpose is to process your declaration and to issue the legally required confirmation of receipt (Sections 312k and 356a of the German Civil Code, BGB); the legal bases are Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligation). The declaration is stored on our server in Germany and confirmed to us and to you by email. How long we keep it is set out under "Retention period". The forms do not set cookies.

If you cancel via the form, we forward your cancellation to Lemon Squeezy so that the renewal of your subscription is ended. This happens automatically only if you choose "At the earliest possible date" and enter your licence key or order number in the form. Without this detail, our server does not contact Lemon Squeezy. With it, we transmit your email address to Lemon Squeezy in order to find your subscription in our Lemon Squeezy store, and we receive from there the details of the subscriptions held under that address (including subscription and order number, name, tier, status, end date and payment method details). To check the detail you entered, we also retrieve the licence keys of the order found and, if you entered an order identifier, the order details (including identifier, amount and status). The comparison takes place on our server; the detail you entered is not passed on to Lemon Squeezy. We use the tier you state in the form only to select the right subscription if there are several.

If your detail matches the subscription, we end the renewal and include the end date – to the extent Lemon Squeezy provides it – in your confirmation of receipt (Section 312k(4) of the German Civil Code, BGB). With your declaration we store the result of the forwarding and, if your detail matched, what kind of detail it was, the subscription number and the end date. We use the other details received from Lemon Squeezy only for this comparison and do not store them. If your detail does not match, we keep your email address and the time in our server's working memory for 24 hours; after three non-matching details within that time, our server no longer contacts Lemon Squeezy automatically for that address. This protects subscribers against third parties ending their subscription or learning anything about it. Without a matching detail, if you specified a future date, or if the automatic forwarding fails, we end the renewal manually in Lemon Squeezy's merchant dashboard. Lemon Squeezy is based in the USA (see "Payment processing and licence management"). The legal bases are Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligation). We base the check of your detail and the block after three non-matching details on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in protecting subscriptions against access by third parties).

Confirmation of your consent to an immediate start

If you expressly agree in the app that we may begin providing MenuTome Pro or Max before the withdrawal period ends, the app transmits the following to our server in Germany: your licence key, the tier, the times of your consent and of the start of provision, the app version, the version of the consent text and the language set in the app. Our server transmits the licence key to Lemon Squeezy (based in the USA, see "Payment processing and licence management") and receives from there the purchase data belonging to the key (email address, name, order number, purchase date, 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 licence 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; it is not stored. Your IP address is processed for technical reasons (server log data, see above) but is not stored together with your consent. The legal bases are Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligation to confirm). We base the retention of this information as proof of your consent on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in being able to prove or defend claims under the contract). How long we keep the information is set out under "Retention period".

Reporting AI output

If you use the "Report AI output" button in the app (next to AI results and in the settings under "AI"), the app opens a prepared email to info@menutome.de in your email program. The app itself sends nothing; you decide whether to send the email and what it contains. Only the area of the app where the output was produced, the app version and whether the app comes from the Microsoft Store or from this website are filled in. You add the AI text, recipes or images only if you want to.

If you send the email, we process your email address, the name your email program sends with it, the content of your message including attachments, and the technical details in the email header (such as the time and the sending server). The purpose is to check the reported output, to reply to you and to remedy errors or inappropriate results of the AI features. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in detecting and remedying incorrect, offensive or infringing AI output); if your report concerns your subscription, also Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Your email reaches us via STRATO (see "Hosting of this website"); your email provider processes it during sending under its own terms. We do not pass reports on to Microsoft or other third parties. What we learn from a report for improving the app, we record without reference to you. How long we keep reports is set out under "Retention period".

Please do not send us licence keys, information about your health or data about other people that we do not need for the check.

Hosting of this website

This website is hosted by STRATO GmbH (Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin) in Germany. The host collects the technical access data mentioned above in so-called server log files. A data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR) is in place with the host. We also use STRATO to send this website's emails (confirmations of receipt, confirmation of consent) and to receive your emails to us.

Payment processing and licence management

The sale of the paid tiers ("Pro" and "Max") is carried out through Lemon Squeezy (Merchant of Record). The data required for payment (name, email, payment details, and for businesses the VAT ID) is transmitted directly to that service provider; as Merchant of Record, Lemon Squeezy is itself the seller and a controller in its own right — its privacy policy applies. The free "Basic" tier requires no registration and no payment data. To check the subscription, the app transmits the licence key and a randomly generated short identifier of this installation to Lemon Squeezy. Any transfer to a third country is safeguarded by standard contractual clauses (Art. 46 GDPR).

Getting the app from the Microsoft Store

If you get MenuTome for Windows from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft itself is responsible for your Microsoft account, for acquiring, downloading, installing and updating the app, for ratings and reviews in the Store and for the error and diagnostic data that Windows sends to Microsoft; for users in the European Economic Area this is Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, One Microsoft Place, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland. Microsoft's privacy statement applies. We do not pass any data about you to Microsoft, and Microsoft does not give us your email address.

In Microsoft's Partner Center we see:

  • Reviews with stars, title and text, the name shown in the Store, the country, the app version and the date. They are public in the Store anyway.
  • Aggregated figures on views, installations and use of the app, without reference to individual persons.
  • Crash reports with the date, app version, device type and model, Windows version and the technical sequence of the error. If the crash happened on a pre-release version of Windows, a memory dump may be included.

We use this information to fix errors, improve the app and reply to reviews. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in an error-free app and in maintaining our Store listing). If we reply to a review privately, Microsoft sends our reply to you by email; if you write back, we receive your message and your email address and handle them like any other email to us. We only download memory dumps if an error cannot be found otherwise; how long we keep them is set out under "Retention period". In the version from the Microsoft Store the built-in update check is switched off; updates come through the Microsoft Store there.

Update check

If the automatic update check is active, the version from this website checks whether a new version is available; it only downloads the update once you confirm it. The version information and the installation files are hosted on GitHub (GitHub, Inc., USA). For technical reasons, your IP address and possibly the installed version are transmitted to GitHub in the process. GitHub processes this access data under its own privacy statement and, according to its own information, bases transfers to the USA on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and on standard contractual clauses. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (security and currency of the software). The version from the Microsoft Store does not check by itself (see "Getting the app from the Microsoft Store").

Retention period

Server log data is automatically deleted by the host after a short time. Invoice and tax-relevant data from licence processing is retained for 10 years under Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code (AO). We keep declarations made via the forms (cancellation, withdrawal) and confirmations of consent to an immediate start as proof for as long as claims under the contract to which they relate can still be asserted, and delete them afterwards; this also applies to the copies in our email mailbox. 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 delete reports about AI output once they have been dealt with, at the latest six months after receipt, unless we need a particular report for longer to establish or defend legal claims. We delete memory dumps from Microsoft Store crash reports once the error has been fixed, at the latest after 90 days. Local app data belongs solely to the user and can be removed at any time by uninstalling or deleting it.

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. Contact: info@menutome.de.

Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection, as well as the right to withdraw any consent given. Contact: info@menutome.de. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The competent authority is in particular the Brandenburg State Commissioner for Data Protection and for the Right of Access to Files (LDA Brandenburg), Stahnsdorfer Damm 77, 14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany.

Responsibility for locally processed content

Where users process personal data of third parties with MenuTome (e.g. photos of people or texts taken from elsewhere), the user is themselves the controller within the meaning of Art. 4(7) GDPR. The provider is not involved in this and has no access. The same applies to the copyright permissibility of content taken from elsewhere in self-published books.

SSL/TLS encryption

For security reasons, this website uses SSL/TLS encryption. You can recognise an encrypted connection by "https://" in your browser's address bar.

Cookies and fonts

This website uses no cookies and no tracking, analytics or advertising services (Section 25 of the German TDDDG is therefore not engaged; no consent is required). Dismissing the beta notice is stored exclusively locally in your browser (localStorage) and is not transmitted to us. Fonts are loaded locally from this server; no connection to Google Fonts servers takes place.

Automated decision-making

Automated decision-making, including profiling (Art. 22 GDPR), does not take place.

This is the English version of our Datenschutzerklärung; both versions have the same content.