Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Frugal is operated by Frugal. You can reach us at huzisgreat@gmail.com about anything in this policy.

2. Information stored only on your device

The following is saved locally on your device and is never uploaded to us:

• Your shopping list, the prices you log ("price book"), recent searches and recently viewed products.
• Your settings, including the location you chose (city/postal code or GPS coordinates) and search radius.
• Whether you completed onboarding and accepted these terms.

You can erase all of it at any time in Settings → Delete all my data, or by uninstalling the app.

3. Information sent to third-party services to make features work

To show products, prices and stores, the app sends the minimum information needed directly to these services. We do not attach any identifier about you to these requests.

• Open Food Facts (Open Food Facts association, France): the barcode you scan or the words you search, to return product details and nutrition. openfoodfacts.org/privacy
• Open Prices (Open Food Facts): the product barcode, to return community-reported prices. prices.openfoodfacts.org
• Our server (Frugal): your approximate location, rounded to about 1 km, and your search radius, to look up nearby grocery stores in our store database. Map tiles are loaded from OpenFreeMap (Android and web), which receives the map area you view.
• Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Foundation): the Wikidata ID of a store chain (for example the one for "Walmart"), to download that chain's logo. No location or personal information is included. foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy
• Your device's geocoder (Google on Android, Apple on iOS): the city/postal code you type or your coordinates, to convert between addresses and map positions.
• Google Maps SDK (Android) / Apple Maps (iOS): used to display the map. Google or Apple may collect device and usage information under their own privacy policies. policies.google.com/privacy

These providers receive your IP address as part of any internet request. Their handling of data is governed by their own policies.

4. Features that use our server

Some features route through a small server we operate so that our API keys are not stored in the app:

• Store prices: the product name or barcode you search for, and your city (for example "Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada"), are sent through our server to a search data provider (Bright Data or SerpApi) to retrieve Google Shopping listings. Your precise location is never sent. Results for the same search are cached on our server for up to 6 hours and are not linked to you.
• Photo identification: when you take a photo in Photo mode, a reduced-size copy of the photo is sent through our server to Google's Gemini API to identify the product. We do not store the photo. Please don't photograph people or personal documents. Google processes the image under the Gemini API terms and may retain it for a limited period for abuse monitoring.
• Kroger prices (United States only): your approximate location (about 100 metres) and the product barcode are sent through our server to the official Kroger API to find nearby Kroger-family store prices.

Our server is hosted by Cloudflare. Like any web server it briefly processes your IP address to deliver the response and prevent abuse (rate limiting). We do not keep request logs containing your images, and we do not build profiles.

5. Permissions

• Camera: used only while the scanner is open, to read barcodes (processed on your device) and, if you choose Photo mode, to take a photo of a product.
• Location (while using the app): used to find stores and prices near you. It is optional — you can type a city or postal code instead. We never access location in the background.

6. What we don't do

• No user accounts, no advertising, no advertising IDs, no analytics or tracking SDKs.
• We do not sell or "share" personal information (as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act) and do not use it for targeted advertising.
• We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). The app is not directed to children.

7. Legal bases (EU/UK users)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on your consent (location and camera permissions, photo identification) and our legitimate interest in providing the features you request (product lookups). You can withdraw consent at any time by revoking permissions in your device settings.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live (including under Canada's PIPEDA, Quebec's Law 25, the GDPR/UK GDPR, and US state privacy laws), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or port your personal information, and to object to or restrict processing. Because we don't keep your data on our servers, most requests can be fulfilled instantly in the app via Settings → Delete all my data. For anything else, email huzisgreat@gmail.com. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority (in Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada).

9. International transfers

The third-party services above may process data in countries other than yours, including the United States and the European Union, which may have different data protection laws.

10. Security and retention

Data on your device is protected by your device's security. Requests to third parties are made over encrypted HTTPS connections. We retain no personal information on our servers beyond the moment needed to process a request.

11. Changes

If we change this policy materially, we'll update the effective date and ask you to review it in the app before continuing.

12. Contact

Frugal — huzisgreat@gmail.com. Our privacy contact is the person responsible for this policy.