Privacy

Your meals are yours.

MealCam needs camera access to estimate bites and pace during an active meal. The current iOS implementation processes camera frames with Apple Vision on the device.

Camera → on-device detection → pace feedback

The live camera preview stays part of the active MealCam experience. The app’s current implementation states: “Video is never saved. Detection runs on-device.” It does not send camera video to a server for pace analysis.

What MealCam keeps

MealCam may store bounded meal-session summaries on your device, such as duration, estimated bites, average pause, and pace. Those summaries support in-app history and insights. They are not meal videos.

Your controls

• You choose whether to grant camera access.
• You can turn camera permission off in iOS Settings.
• You can end a meal session at any time.

Free photo tools

Roast My Meal, Rate My Fridge, Roast My Takeout, Rate My Meal Plan and Rate My Food Setup are separate from on-device MealCam. When you submit a photo, your browser resizes it and removes image metadata; when you type an order or meal plan, the text is sent as written. Either is sent through our servers to OpenAI for a generated card, including rough nutrition estimates that are not medical advice. We do not save the uploaded photo, typed text or card in our application. OpenAI may retain inputs and outputs for abuse monitoring under its API data controls; these requests disable response storage. Only upload photos you are comfortable sending for analysis, and avoid faces or private information.

Sharing is optional. Exported cards contain the generated card, not your photo or typed text. To show your progress, your last scores for these tools are kept only in your own browser (local storage) and are never sent to us; clearing site data removes them. We keep temporary usage counters to limit abuse, using a daily rotating hash of the connection address rather than a raw address. Server diagnostics contain operation codes, duration and a short-lived request ID, never photos or verdicts. Photo-tool analytics records fixed actions only after consent and excludes photos, typed text, filenames, scores and generated text.

MealCam in your browser

The web version of MealCam asks for your camera only after you choose Start a meal. Face and hand detection runs inside your browser, using detection files served from this website. Camera video is not recorded, saved, or sent to us or to anyone else. Bite counts and pauses stay in the page while it is open and are not stored; closing or reloading the page clears them. You can stop at any time with End meal or by closing the page, and you can remove camera permission in your browser settings. If you accepted analytics cookies, we record fixed actions such as “meal started” or “camera permission denied,” never bite counts, pauses, timings, or images.

Website cookies and analytics

Apart from the web version of MealCam above, this website does not need camera access. If you choose “Accept analytics cookies,” we use Google Analytics 4 and PostHog to understand website visits and actions such as navigation, article links, and App Store link clicks. Google receives browser and device information, page URLs and referrers, cookie identifiers, and approximate location derived from your connection. PostHog receives named actions and generic page categories, with an anonymous identifier kept in memory for the current page session. Article titles, article slugs, query strings, referrers, and form contents are removed from PostHog event properties. PostHog session recordings, automatic click capture, person profiles, console capture, and exception capture are disabled. Neither provider receives MealCam camera video or meal-session data.

Analytics stays off until you opt in. Advertising storage, ad personalization, and Google signals are disabled in our website integration. Google Analytics cookies are configured to expire after 60 days; your preference is saved in this browser for up to 180 days. Each provider’s project-level retention settings govern stored event data separately. PostHog does not use a persistent visitor identifier in this integration. Adding PostHog requires a new opt-in; an earlier Google-only choice is not treated as permission for PostHog.

The cookie notice appears on your first visit. If you close it or leave it unanswered, nothing is tracked and it does not interrupt later visits; your browser stores only a note that the notice was shown. You can decline or withdraw permission through “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any page. Withdrawing stops future tracking and clears this site’s Google Analytics cookies and resets the in-memory PostHog identity; it does not delete previously collected data. See how Google uses information from partner sites and PostHog’s privacy policy.

Buying a guide

Payments for guides are handled by Stripe and its Link service, which acts as the seller of record. Your card details, name, billing address and email address go to Stripe, not to this website, and this website keeps no customer account or purchase database. See Stripe’s privacy policy.

After you pay, this website sets one essential cookie, mc_guide_session, holding the Stripe checkout reference for 30 days so the download works in your browser, and a second one, mc_guide_new, for up to ten minutes so a completed purchase is counted once. They are not used for advertising. If you have accepted analytics cookies, we record that a guide checkout was started, completed or cancelled and that a download was clicked, without your name, email, payment details or checkout reference.

Questions

Use the support page for privacy questions before relying on MealCam for sensitive situations.