What we collect
- Account details. Your email address, and your name if you share it when you sign in with Apple or Google. If you sign in with an email code, we store that email. We also create an internal account ID.
- Your food log. The meals you type, the voice you use to describe meals, the meal photos you take, the foods and amounts Elmo finds, and the corrections you make. Saved meals and your log history are kept with your account.
- Plan and body data. Your goal, pace, eating style and targets, and the body details you enter, such as height, weight and activity level.
- Apple Health data, only with your permission. Depending on what you allow, Elmo reads steps, activity, workouts, sleep, weight, body fat and food logged by other apps, and writes the meals and workouts you log in Elmo. If you choose to share period history, Elmo uses those dates only on your iPhone as context for weight changes.
- Subscription status. Whether your subscription or trial is active, provided by Apple. We never receive your payment card details.
- Crash reports and diagnostics. Technical details about app errors, such as the device model, app version and what failed. Crash reports are set up without screenshots or personal details.
- Product analytics. Events such as “meal logged” or “paywall opened”, linked to your account ID, so we can see which parts of Elmo work. These events do not contain your meal descriptions, photos, body measurements or health data.
How we use it
- To analyse your meals and work out calories and macros.
- To estimate your daily burn, build your plan and suggest or apply target changes, as you choose in your plan settings.
- To show your progress, fasting and trends, and to sync your account across reinstalls.
- To check your subscription and restore purchases.
- To answer support requests, fix bugs, prevent abuse and keep Elmo secure.
- To understand which features work and improve them. Meal-analysis records, including the meal text you entered, may be reviewed to fix accuracy and reliability problems.
We do not use your data for advertising, and Elmo shows no ads.
Who helps us run Elmo
We use a small number of service providers. Each one gets only the information it needs for its job and may use it only to provide that service to us.
- Cloud hosting and sign-in: stores your account and synced data and handles signing in.
- AI services: analyse the meal text and photos you submit to find foods, amounts and nutrition.
- A speech service: turns the voice you record for logging into text. Elmo keeps the text, not the recording.
- A public food database: answers food searches and barcode scans. Your phone sends it the search words or barcode, not your account details.
- Crash reporting: receives crash reports and diagnostics.
- Product analytics: receives the analytics events described above.
- Subscription processing: confirms purchases made through Apple and keeps your subscription status in step.
- Feedback board: if you open the feedback board from the app, it receives your account ID, email and display name so your posts and votes are linked to you.
We may also share information if the law requires it or to protect someone’s safety.
Apple Health data
Health data you share from Apple Health is used only to provide Elmo’s features, such as estimating your daily burn and showing your trends. It is never sold, never used for advertising or marketing, and never shared with data brokers. You can change what Elmo can read or write at any time in the Health app or in iPhone Settings.
No tracking across apps
Elmo does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, does not use an advertising identifier, and does not share your data with data brokers.
The website and waitlist
This website records a few anonymous events, such as a page view, a click on the App Store or waitlist button, and whether a waitlist sign-up worked. A random ID lasts only for your browser session. These events never include your email, meals or health information.
If you join the waitlist, we store your email address only to tell you about Elmo’s launch. It is not added to analytics. Email us to be removed.
How long we keep data, and deleting it
We keep your account data while your account is open. To delete it, open Elmo and go to Settings, then Delete account. This permanently erases your account, food log, meal photos, plans, saved meals and history from our servers and your phone. We keep only a minimal record that a deletion took place.
Data in Apple Health stays in Apple Health; manage or delete it in the Health app. Crash reports and analytics events held by our providers are kept for a limited time under their retention settings and contain no meal or health content. We may keep limited records if the law requires it, for example for tax.
Deleting your account does not cancel your subscription. Cancel it in iPhone Settings. Can’t open the app? Email konark@arktechllc.net from your account’s email address and we will delete it for you. See how to delete your account.
Your rights
You can ask to access, correct, delete or get a copy of your personal information. Many changes can be made in the app. For anything else, email konark@arktechllc.net. We may need to confirm the request comes from you. Depending on where you live, you may have extra rights, including complaining to your local data protection authority.
Children
Elmo is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has given us information, email konark@arktechllc.net and we will delete it.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit, meal photos are kept in private storage, access is limited to the people and systems that need it, and secret keys stay on our servers rather than in the app. No system is perfectly secure, but we work hard to protect your information.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also let you know in the app or by email.
Contact
Ark Tech LLC. Questions or privacy requests: konark@arktechllc.net.